A Demo

We have only been living in the house a couple months but we have already found an area to demo. Right off of the garage there is an area our builder calls an e-zone. Basically, it's a small desk area and in the model it seems like a great idea. In reality it's really just turned into a dumping ground. Take a look:

Yep, it's not pretty. It's a cluttered mess and I can't stand it. So we decided we are going to rip it out and replace it with a mini-mud room area. Allow me to show you our inspiration:

Anna White's Smiling Mud Room

House of Smith's entry-way

Small mud room- found on Ana White

These are the three inspirations we are working with to come up with our design. Let me share what we love about each one. From the top, Ana White's smiling mud room is lovely, very bright and open. What I loved most about this design was the curved dividers and openness which we need because there are light switches and sockets in the way. From the House of Smith design I really loved the mail slot idea with the metal boxes and the bead board, plus they took a space they hardly used and turned it into something useful which is the same plan we have. From the last design I just love how they utilized the small space. As you can see the space we are working isn't very big and I wanted to make sure that we utilize every inch.  Before we start we have to know what we are doing and Andy also need to wrap up work on the media console before we can start on another project. I have been working on a design right now, trying to measure and draw out (rather poorly) what we want. Hopefully, I can share something with you in a few days just as long as you promise not to laugh at my ridiculously poor drawing skills.

Building: Final Walk Through

Well our final walk through was yesterday and it went well. Basically we met with our contractor at the house and he walked us through the operation of all the things in the house (furnace, hot water heaters, etc.) along with some care instructions for the first year. We also looked for any trouble spots in the house to be fixed in the next week before we close. There weren't very many things to take care of, a lose floor tile, some spots that needed touched up with paint, one of the windows needs replaced, plus we need the right stove. We also were informed about problems to watch out for and what to do/who to call. I really can't believe that we move into our house next Tuesday, it's crazy. I can't wait to share pictures after we move in!

Kitchen is done!

Good news our appliances were delivered yesterday, check it out:

Bad news, our stove is not the right one. At least we think it isn't the right one. As we understand it the models change frequently so the model number doesn't match the one that we picked 6 months ago. However, the original stove we upgraded to was suppose to be a five burner but this one is only a four burner. According to our contractor even if the models changed we should get a model similar to the one we picked out, meaning a five burner, which he is working on for us (thank goodness he is so awesome). Although this is kind of a pain, it worked in our favor for the fridge because we got a really awesome fridge instead of the original model we were suppose to get. I suppose we can handle the trade off.

Oh and P.S. We move in less than 2 weeks! Woot!

Building: Getting close

With all the hub bub of the last week or so we haven't had much time to see the house and progress, but boy has there been some. Take a look:

Landscaping and driveway are done

Lighting in kitchen and breakfast nook

Foyer light

Master bath lights

Master bath tile/bathtub

Master bath shower tile

Kitchen floors

Master bath floors

Plus we also have flooring in the entryways, laundry room, and other bathrooms! Woot! We also have a date for the final walk thru which will be on December 19th. We should close within 10 days of that date, barring any major complications. I'm hoping there isn't anything major because we need to be out of our rental by the 31st of December. Yikes. Cross your fingers and toes for us folks, it's going to be close.

Building Progress: Holy cow!

So I kind of fell off the face of the Earth for the last week, bear with me please. It was one heck of a week last week. Work was a bit crazy for both Andy and I, we were dealing with some mix ups with the house, and we got the e-mail to get our closing documents submitted! I know, right? Before I dive into the nitty gritty, here is what you are here for:

Siding almost complete

Love our shutters, why we don't have siding near the top there is beyond me.

Our lovely cabinets.

Things are really coming along at the new place. It's amazing. It's also the reason we received an e-mail last week to get our closing documents submitted no later than today. I was a little stressed out about that. It isn't that I didn't know we were going to have to do that soon, it was more that we had three business days to obtain things, two of which we were going to be on vacation. You would think the fact that we had the days off would have helped but we had so much already planned that it didn't. On top of that we had some mix ups with our tile that we were trying to resolve. Apparently there is going to be tile around our tub in the master bathroom, which we were not informed of and never selected. Our design consultant had the same tile that we had in the shower around the tub and while I love that tile, I don't think that brown tile around a white tub would look quite right. We got that fixed as well but it was a bit stressful too.

Other than all that, things are well, we spent our vacation catching up with the family, cleaning, and trying to fit in a bit of relaxing. Hopefully I will have some project posts for you soon.

The Poll Results

Alright readers, our poll closed down a few days ago so here are the final results.

• 3 of you (or 30%)  voted before Thanksgiving
• 3 votes (30%) for the week of December 18-24
• 2 votes (20%) for the week of December 4-10
• 1 vote (10%) for the week of Thanksgiving November 20-26
• 1 vote (10%) for the week of December 11-17

So the majority of you think we will be in either before Thanksgiving or just before Christmas. While I hope that the Thanksgiving people are right I have a feeling it will be a little later. We are just going to have to wait and see.

Also Andy and I are working on revamping the blog a little bit. Keep an eye out and let me know what you think. 

Building Progress: Eeeeee!

I'm so excited! I went out to the house yesterday and saw this:

Check out that siding! Woot! I'm hoping they will be back to finish the front between today and tomorrow since the weather is going to be nice. Moving on to the inside:

 

Top picture: Master bedroom/Middle picture: Master bath/Bottom Picture: Foyer

We have drywall y'all! We have finally moved out of framing. I'm excited mostly because our contractor (many moons ago) told us that from drywall the house will take about 6 to 8 weeks to finish, leaning more towards 6. Given his determination and some discussion reassurance from some folks that live in the neighborhood we will be in before the end of the year. Let me get a wahoo!

P.S. Happy NaBloPoMo! Good luck to anyone attempting it, you are a better blogger than me.

The Pros and Cons of Building

We have found there are certain pros and cons to building with a company like M/I Homes (versus building on your own, or even just buying).

• Pro: Plot is included with the price of the house
• Con: Because plot is included it isn't very big.
• Pro: Models are available in many communities to see what the house will actually look like.
• Con: Because there are limited amount of layouts to choose from, many houses look the same.
• Pro:Wonderful community feeling.
• Con: Communities are limited to where they build so you are limited in the choice of where you live.
• Pro: Selections are limited and streamlined so it is easier and less stressful.
• Cons: Limited selections means you may not get exactly what you want.

I could go on and on but I won't. Obviously we could find pros and cons whichever way we went housing wise but we found that the pros of building with M/I outweighed every other option we had at the time. Given the fact that we could get a brand new house for the same price as one on the market. Not only would it be brand new, we could get exactly (or at least pretty close to what we wanted) and also get more time to save  for closing and all the stuff that you need when you move into a new place. 

How did you select your first house?

Building Progress: Slowly but surely.

It has been a slow week for progress on the house. We actually had a bit of a set back last Tuesday, someone broke into the new house and stripped the place of wire. Boo. Our contractor was really sweet, he had told us in an e-mail that only some of the wire was taken but we visited the site and all of it was gone. I think he didn't want us to worry, which was nice. Well that meant that the electrician had to re-wire the whole house, which is what was taking place last week. We did express to our contractor that we are a little nervous that we won't be done by the end of the year, but he assured us that it will be. Other than that little set back we have some other milestones:

If you can't see it, don't worry, I can barely see it too. I'll tell you for those of you as blind as I am, we have a front door, the cement has been poured for the front porch, the garage, and also in the basement. Not seen here but progress nonetheless, there is a furnace and some of the duct work! Woot! Not all that exciting but it's still something. Another picture for you before I sign off:

This is our beautiful park with downtown in the distant background. I love it! 

Building Progress: Interiors!

I have to break from our regularly scheduled blogging to bring you a progress report (I will post the Book Mobile Part 2 tomorrow). We have plumbing and electric going in! Woot woot! These shots are not as impressive as the exterior shots, I acknowledge that, but to Andy and me they are a thing of beauty!

Kitchen sink!

Hall bath!

Laundry Room!

Master bath tub!

Master bath shower!

So exciting, right? It is so much fun to walk through the house and see the changes daily. I'm fairly certain that we annoy the construction people what with our going around with our cameras taking pictures but oh well, I love being in our house!

Cast your vote!

Ok y'all, time for another poll. You have all seen recent developments with the house so I think it's time to place some bets on when we will be in the new house. Again I will give you a few weeks to choose from and the poll will be open until October 31. If you want to wager on an exact date leave a comment perhaps a gift card will come to the person that guesses closest to our move in date.

Building Progress: A lot can happen in a week!

The last two weekends and the week in between have been super busy. Two weekends ago, I had to work on Saturday and then Sunday was Andy's birthday. My parents also came down with the dogs on Sunday. They went on vacation this last week (lucky them) and we got to dog sit. They stayed with us Sunday and flew out Monday so we took them over to the house on Sunday and they saw this:

 Between the four dogs and work this last week zoomed right by, we got to stop at the house once during the week and saw this:

We arrived Friday night with lots of plans for the weekend. Andy's mom was in town so we took her and Andy's brother and sis-in-law over to the new house where we saw: 

The busy weekend flew right by and we got to Monday when my parents returned. We picked them up from the airport and drove to the house to get a picture and saw this progress: 

My parents were amazed at the progress that was made while they were gone, quiet honestly seeing it in picture form I'm pretty impressed myself. These pictures don't even show the inside progress, which is pretty amazing as well. I guess I'm going to have to start trekking into the house as well during my visits, I will have to remember my hard hat. 

Building: Progress report!

Alright, y'all, it's that time again. We have some major progress to report on the house. It's crazy what can happen in a week. Last weekend we had a basement with a first floor, it kind of looked like a stage, and now, well just see for yourself.

I mean really??? It's really starting to look like a house, I'm so excited but also kind of freaking out, I mean we are going to be home owners. Crazy.

Building: The Progress!

It's about time for some progress pictures. I haven't had much to show you, just some dirt and you don't want to see that but now there is something there! Yay!

 

 

Excavation!

The hole, one from the back and one from the front!

Footers from the back of the house!

Stuff to build the basement.

 

 Voila! A basement!

The basement, with the tar seal started! (I love that you can see our shadows in this one!)

Nearly fully sealed and the garage and front yard leveled out!

Well that's about all we've got, these have taken place over the last month or so. Our contractor e-mailed us today and told us our lumber is being delivered tomorrow and framing should start this weekend. Things have been moving a little slower than everyone thought they would, the brick layers were behind in their work which put us behind, but we are excited with the progress so far and can't wait to share more with you.

Poll!

After my little impatient rant yesterday I thought that maybe for some fun (and also to occupy my time) we could have a little poll dedicated to when you think they will break ground. I broke it up into weeks for the next month(ish) 1. Because I have no idea when they will break ground and 2. Any longer than a month(ish) and we will be into September and the idea that the house won't be started until September puts me on edge. I gave until the end of this month to vote so do it. For even more fun if you want to guess the actual day that they will break ground leave me a comment. Maybe there will be a prize.

(I'm)patiently waiting

Except I'm not patient and really neither is Andy. We barely made it 8 months before we moved in together, we were engaged before we got the ring, and we talked multiple times about eloping before the wedding (but feared death by family). We are not patient people. We can wait, just not very long. So it seems a tad silly to me that we are building a house. I mean really, us building a house? I can barely wait for paint to dry on my DIY projects and we decided to wait 6+ months for a house. I think we are crazy.

This is only coming up now because there is nothing coming up house wise. We have made our structural decisions, picked a lot, and chosen the interior aspects. The only thing left to do is wait. We have to wait for the permits to come through before we can meet with our contractor and discuss our build. We have to wait for the build to start and once it does we have to wait months for it to be finished. Once it is finished we have to wait for inspections to pass and do the paper work. It's a big waiting game. It was all so exciting (and still is the majority of the time)  because we were constantly picking and discussing and going to the design studio and the model. Now that the selections are made the glitter and sparkle has settled and we I realized that the majority of this build will be spent waiting. Boo.

I do believe that waiting for the permits will be the most boring part of waiting because there is nothing to see. We go to the home site a couple times a week and the most exciting part so far is that they have paved our road and put our street sign up (I'm not saying that is boring at all, in fact I cheered when both of these things happened). Our plot is still just a little piece of dirt. Once the permits go through and they can start building I have a feeling it will be more exciting because we can stop by every day and see the progress (did I mention we get our own hard hats to wear when we visit the construction site?). So I'm impatiently waiting for the government to give our contractor the go ahead so we can get this party started and I can do something other than twiddle my thumbs.

Until next time folks.

Thrifty Fun

Let us take a break from the building to discuss what happens after the building is done. We will have a house, a whole 2,100 square feet that will be ours. We can paint, we can buy furniture, we can settle down, we can decorate! I finally get to nest!!! YAY!!! For the last 4 years we have moved every year, we have lived in apartments and places that I can't do anything with and I haven't really bothered because who cares? It isn't mine. We haven't spent money on furniture, we haven't invested a lot into decorating because there either wasn't enough space or enough money or both. Our stuff is just a giant mismatch of what we had pre-marriage (most of which is decent furniture but it doesn't match) and gifts from our wedding (which is really nice but mostly kitchen stuff).Well now we will have the space but we have to be careful with the money part. I can't break the bank to do the projects I want to do. Therefore I have spent a lot of time on Pinterest searching for ideas and ways to decorate on a dime. Combine this with a crazy crafting urge and we get these:

The top picture is a monogram in a frame. All I did was buy a chipboard letter "T", an open frame, a piece of scrapbook paper, and some backing. I painted the "T" and glued the scrapbook paper on the backing. I still need to attach the "T" to the backing but I'm debating on which method to use to attach it. Best part, it was less than $20. Woot!

The bottom picture is some embroidery hoops and fabric. I just stretched the fabric over the hoops and closed. Super easy, like less than 5 minutes and super cheap (less than $15). Once I'm done cutting the fabric I'm going to group it on the wall. The best part is that I can use any fabric and easily change this to work in any room.

I found variables of both these projects on Pinterest and just made them my own. There are many more projects I want to try out and I can't wait.

Building: Choosing the lot

Once our floor plan and structure options were selected we had to pick a lot. This seems like it would be easy. Ha. Yeah. Okay. We were not decisive in this matter. The problem is that the lot was such an important part to us. We wanted to have a nice yard for the dogs, we didn't want to have too wonky of a yard, we wanted to be in a good position on the street, and most importantly Andy wanted the majority of the house to face east (Why? Ask him). So we took a look at our little lot plot map and we talked and thought.

We thought how about an edge plot with no neighbors behind us. Sounds great right? Well Andy went and took a look and we realized that the lot is on a decline and not going to be of much use to us without a deck. On to another lot. The second lot we picked was irregular, which required a little extra fee but the back yard was going to be bigger. Again we went to take a look and found that an extra 3 feet of yard isn't worth the fee. Back to the plot map. We ended up selecting the second lot from the corner that is "normal" sized. We would have went with the corner lot but we have dogs and they bark at passersby and we aren't allowed to have a privacy fence. So we went with the second one in, which I actually like quite a lot (ha ha ha, get it?).

Next time, our interiors. 

Building: Choosing the home plan and floor plan.

I have already talked about how we fell into building but I wanted to discuss it a little more in detail. When we started we out we had several options to chose from as far as home plans went and all were within the price range we were comfortable with, so how did we choose? Well the great thing about our builder is that there are a lot of model homes to look at and they also build a few houses to sell later which we could also view. First we had to make sure that the houses we were interested in were available in the community we were interested in because different communities offer different homes to choose from. The community aspect was a very easy selection; it was simply a matter of elimination. We didn't want Columbus City Schools (that knocked out 2), we only wanted to spend X amount of dollars on our home (that took it down to 7 to choose from), we didn't want to live south of I 70 (which took out 3), and I needed to be able to commute to work easily regardless of the branch I was working in, this last qualifier left 2 communities to pick from, one was in the 270 loop and one was not. We chose the community that was out of the loop. See, easy peasy.

When we selected the community our selling agent (from here on out called P) let us know which plans were available in that community, then took us to see the homes. That day we saw the Rosemary, the Camellia, and the Sage. On paper we liked the Sage or the Lavender the best, but I am here to tell you that if you ever consider building see the house in action before making the commitment. We both loved the Rosemary straight off, the Camellia was way too narrow feeling for us and the Sage's plan felt too choppy in action. Based on our reaction to the Camellia and the Sage, P said that we wouldn't like the Lavender and didn't take us to see it. Basically it came down to a feeling and we felt the Rosemary would work best for us.

Once the home was chosen and the contracts signed you have 14 days to make any wanted structural changes to the plan. With every home plan there are structural options, from simple things like a pantry to big things like a bonus room. It's pretty strange, but we had basically no qualms about adding a 4th bedroom and bonus room, an island, and an extra window over the kitchen sink. The only two things we were really stuck on was a deluxe master bath and a basement. We ended up opting in on both of those options mostly for the resale value it would add and that was that. The really scary thing is that we totally agreed on everything (I know, right? Has that ever happened in the history of home building).

Next time: Choosing a lot, corner or no corner that is the question.

Not homeless

Hi all! Hope your 4th of July weekend was as epic as mine was! Got to catch up with some friends, see my awesome family and had an overall great weekend! Andy and I used the long weekend to think about our whole housing situation and ended up coming to the conclusion that we are going to have to stay in our current house. We e-mailed several apartments about short-term leases and the shortest lease we found was 6 months, we are even more hindered by our fur babies. Pets + short-term lease= No bueno. Doing the math and using December as our estimated completion date, a 6 month lease plus all the deposits and pet rent was pretty close in price as going month to month at our current house and being able to get out when we need. First major hurdle in the building process is taken care of! Now if only that was the only obstacle, but I have a feeling that it is not.