Land Clearing Time

Well its time for us to start clearing the land! After finding out that we have 15 more feet on the side of the property its just that much more for us to clear! yuck! Just kidding! We are actually super excited about this revelation! Since we are fencing off the whole property and adding a gate up front I have been super worried about looking out of the windows on the sides of the house and seeing... fence. Ew. Nope, not anymore we get to have actual plants and such now! Everything with a pink flag around it is set to be removed... this is a total of 20 trees. Todd told us that this was going to cost us anywhere from $12,000 to $2,000 and we needed to keep our fingers crossed. Who knew that cutting down trees was so expensive!? Not only do they need to cut down these trees but they need to grind and remove the stumps as well... needless to say we will be selling firewood for the next few years to make some of this money back! haha! Kinda joking... kinda not...

Again, dont worry we will be more than compensating down the road with new plants, trees, flowers, and other misc landscaping. Thanks to my father I learned a lot over the years and cant wait to hit up the local growers and get to planting! I also have plans for a garden... my lovely garden box that The Hubs made for me when we first started dating is sadly sitting empty in the garage. :( 

Back to what I was saying, we did get quite a few quotes for the land clearing and all I can say is thankfully we did not hit the 12k mark! Woo! Mini celebration! 

With a construction mortgage you have to come out of pocket on about 25% of what you would like to get a loan on... this can include: Land clearing, Contractors fees, Architect fees, Survey Fees, Sewage survey, and so on and so forth. Just posting this so that if you decide to build on your own land... you should just know that the land itself probably isnt down payment enough for a bank anymore. Ew and more Ew to this one. Sucks that we have to come out of pocket this much before hand but glad we are prepared. 

On a lighter note! I dropped off the final check to Jason our Architect yesterday! Do you know what this means?! Do you?! THIS MEANS WE GET TO FILE FOR OUR BUILDING PERMITS! <insert happy dance> 

Yes Ladies and Gents, if all goes as planned we will be breaking ground very soon! This puts a swarm of little butterflies in my stomach! This isnt like your normal cookie cutter builders special house that you found in some neighborhood... this is our dream! This is excitement kept me from tearing my neighbors head off with my bare hands after he took a leaf blower to his "yard" and covered my white dog in dirt and leaves while he was peeing. Let me be clear that the word yard is used very loosely... he  has a busted driveway and stupid oak trees. The landlord cut all the branches off before we moved in so we wouldnt have to deal with his leaves... but thankfully he blew them all into our yard! They just drove away so I'm about to bust out the blower myself and give them back to my very giving neighbor. If I knew where his hose hook up was I'd use that and wash my little white dog with his water too! 

6 more months. 6 more months. 6 more months. 

I think the dogs will soon join us in this chant too... they are hating being in this house... 

well dont look at them right now... you couldnt tell. 

Have I mentioned yet how much this oven sucks? I'm sure that my baby chicken that I am cooking right now will take a good 2 1/2 hours... waaaay more than its used to. grr. time to go baste it again.... talk to you soon! 

MOVING!

Tonights joyous episode will go through the in's and out's of how to pack like you have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder :) Swear not making fun of anyone because I am an admitted control freak and once thought that I liked to be super organized but it got a little out of hand!

Here we have our wonderful 26 foot Uhaul we rented tonight! Not sure if we needed one this big but hey it was the same price as the smaller one and we just might be able to fit everything in it at once!

Got all my cleaning supplies packed up and ready to go first trip over to the rental. Sure it may look clean but you never can be too sure, this will make easy storage under the sink and a quick grab to the new home too! 

Yup this house we are moving out of is about 3700sq ft but having all these boxes out in the living room for days is just irritating and doesnt look so clean... so here we have jam packed a spare bedroom closest to the garage. You may notice the pink and blue tags on top of 90% of the boxes and this would be the contents of each box. Too much? Possibly. But keep in mind we will be moving to the new house in less than a year. I packed each box knowing that I was either going to use this stuff or it could sit together for a few months and I make due with what I have used. Yes I bubble wrapped my mermaid statue. Dont judge me! :) 

Okay. So I admit it I dont always make the wisest box content choices, but they sure are interesting. No you are not seeing things... this box is lopsided, has a metal horn sticking out, and contains one of many of my animal heads inside. I havent even taken down or wrapped my huge Eagle head and wings hanging above my bed. Crap. The bed. It's 12:30 at night and I have just put up my swollen feet and we havent even taken apart our king size bed. :( The Hubs....is sleeping. 

Note to self on this one: when Target has a clothes hanger on wheels on sale for $8 it will look like this.  Not wise, go for the $40 one next time I think this is precariously perched on the Christmas boxes stacked behind it. Yes, it does have wheels but they forgot to say: "Will only roll when filled with infant clothing."

This Gem of a photo is something I am super excited about. My older sister taught me that if you use garbage bags and rubberbands you will have makeshift garment bags! Hold the phone, I am not waisting garbage bags... I'm not sure if any of you have used the forceflex bags lately but every time I pull the bag out these jerks have been ripped. I filled a bag with pillows and it ripped! PILLOWS! 

Bye bye small walk-in closet! They are excited for the new house and a bigger closet.... I havent told them yet that they must go to a smaller closet for a few months. :(