NaBloPoMo Revisted

I tried to do NaBloPoMo last year and failed so I really thought that this year I would just continue to blog as usual which is about 2-3 times per week. However, the more I think about it the more I think maybe I should challenge myself to write every day for a month. I have a lot of projects that I would like to get done and this could help met be accountable for it. It would also make me feel accomplished to write every day for a month. However, I have one worry, when I hit my NaBloPoMo wall last year I became really frustrated with blogging and didn't want to do it anymore. This caused my posts to become more and more spaced out (well that and working two jobs but I'd like to think I could do anything if I had the motivation and drive) and eventually I had a 3 months gap in posting which I would like to avoid ever happening again. Regardless, I'm torn, to NaBloPoMo or to not NaBloPoMo that is the question? Any fellow bloggers participating in NaBloPoMo this year?

P.S. I am already two days in, which is a positive.

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?

The Big One

This is a post I have been debating about writing for a while, but I have decided that it shouldn't matter to me what other people think. I want to preface this by saying I am not writing this with the intention of offending anyone, it's simply something that is happening in my life and marriage and affects only myself and my husband, no one else, therefore I would appreciate it if negative comments were kept out of the blogosphere.

The longer that Andy and I are married the more the subject of kids pops up, not only between us but also from family and friends. Usually it's just a general talk, a vague notion of the future that has yet to be determined. It is something that I always assumed would happen eventually, as did Andy. All throughout our relationship kids were an abstract thought to be talked about at some point in the future. When we got married that abstract thought turned into a discussion of when, which resulted in "Lets wait 6 months" and when 6 months came about it was "Let's wait a 6 more months" so on and so forth. Until very recently, in which a new question came to light "Should we have kids?"

 Yes, I know, it's kind of shocking, but let me explain. We love kids, we have an adorable nephew that we love to death and another nephew on the way that I am sure we will love just as much. I work with kids practically every day and I love it. We are questioning if we should have kids because to have children (which is probably the most responsibility a person can take on) without really thinking about it seems irresponsible and also because we really enjoy our life right now just the way it is. We live comfortably, we get to travel, go out, and generally do the things we enjoy doing without much interference. I'm sure that it seems selfish, but I am being honest. Our relationship is great and we are not sure we want the general trials and tribulations that having kids brings into a marriage. We realize that for some, kids are wonderful and a blessing but that doesn't mean it is necessary for all couples to have them. I think ultimately it is up to the couple and no one else. I'm sure parents, grandparents, friends, aunts, uncles, cousins, and even the guy on the street have an opinion on this but it all comes down to the couple and for us, we aren't sure.

I can't speak for Andy but I always thought I would have children, always. When I was younger and even at the start of my relationship with Andy, I wanted four kids. Then gradually over time, things changed. I met the man of my dreams, I graduated college, I found a career that I love and while these things happened my idea of how life should go changed. I never question what are society views to be the normal life moments. I always assumed that I would graduate high school, go to college, meet a guy, get married, buy a house and have kids. I never thought I would have an alternate path, primarily because I thought there was no alternate path. However in the last few months that has changed. Andy and I have realized that our lives are our own to do with as we wish and if our wish isn't to have children then that is fine, if it is then that's fine too.

Who knows what the future will bring for us, we may have children, we may not, we may adopt, we may foster, we may not, the fact of the matter is that we haven't decided yet and there is nothing wrong with that.

Building: The Interiors

Yay interiors! The interior selections is the most exciting part of building. It's really the one way to make our house our own. About a week and a half after we signed our contracts and made our structural selections, we had our meeting with our designer to make all of our interior selections. Yes you read right ALL. Our appointment was scheduled for 3 and a half hours to give you an indication. Andy and I headed to the design center around 11 AM sat down with our designer, H to discuss all our selections.

The first portion of our meeting we reviewed the selections we had made so far. We had made some general selections in our initial meetings, like to have tile in the master bath and kitchen but not any actual color selections. After reviewing those items we headed over to the exterior portion of the selections to choose our siding and shutter color. I have to say this was probably the most difficult decisions because it can't be changed easily, light fixtures and hardware easy peasy, siding=not so much.What made it a tad easier was the fact that quite a few houses in our future community is some shade of tan. While tan is lovely and I liked some of the selections in that shade range, Andy and I decided to be different and choose from the shades of grey and one shade of green/gray since not nearly as many houses are this color. We ended up with a platinum grey which looks almost white* and midnight blue shutters (which will also be the color of our front door). After that we went over to front and interior doors, from there we choose door fixtures, after that cupboards,  then counters, then flooring, then tile, then trim and paint.

The process was relatively simple, the designer just walked you through all the choices you had to make showing you the different options you had with each area. It made it really easy because M/I has different levels for everything, in our house level 1 was standard so if you wanted something greater than that you had to pay more. We got a deal with some things like level 2 cupboards and stainless steel appliances, which were an upgrade promotion they were running when we signed. The fact that each upgrade ups the total price of the house really made us think about what was important to us and what we didn't really care as much about. I found that having limited selections set up in levels really made the process easy and we were done pretty quickly (Only 2 and a half hours instead of 3). I would explain our final selections but I don't have pictures to do them justice so I'll just post the one I have.

Obviously it's hard to envision it when you have no clue what the house looks like but I promise you that I think we did a fabulous job and it will look fantastic once it is done. I promise at some point I will get some more detailed pictures up here and explain exactly what each thing is in boring minutiae detail (like when I run out of stories to tell you about building). Maybe I'll even let Andy post about that, because honestly I think he is more excited about the selections than I am.

Hope I didn't bore you too much folks. Until next time...

*We now are reconsidering this color because we have finally seen a house with this siding and it looks dirty white and it's kind of blinding. Instead we are leaning towards a Cape Cod Grey which is darker. The midnight blue shutters will remain. Thoughts/opinions anyone?

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.

Thank you, Eugenia*

There are a million things in my life that I can't control. I can't control the weather, I can't control other people or their actions, I can't control a lot of things, but I can control me. I can control my actions, my words, my attitude. Things aren't positive for us, the punches keep coming, between car accidents, cars breaking down, money being stolen out of our account, and our rental company trying to screw us, things don't feel great. Andy, my perfectly positive cheerleader of a husband has even been brought down by our circumstances lately. Usually I would be right there with him, usually I would cry, yell and be down.  However, last night driving home I just had a moment, a moment where I realized that I can't control or change all of that. What I can control is my attitude about all the things happening to us right now. I have to be positive, I have to be encouraging, I have to be strong because if I am not, I think the overwhelming hurt of what is happening would crush me. So this time I will be the cheerleader, I will be positive, I will adopt the mantra that everything will get better because it will. I have to believe that God has a plan for us, I have to believe that with each other my husband and I can get through anything because that is the only thing I have control over. My attitude may not be able to change our circumstances but it can help us get through it together.

*There is a book I read when hard times hit, it's by Yevgenia  Ginzburg a Russian Gulag survivor, her book "Journey into the Whirlwind" tells about her years of imprisonment and her battle to survive. To read about a human beings absolute determination to live always inspires me and reminds me that my life is just not that hard. One of my favorite quotes from her book is as follows, "I intended to survive. Just to spite them."

Ch-ch-ch-choices

I left off telling you my dear readers that Andy and I have decided to move, but I didn't tell you where. Before, when the move was off in the distant future Mr. Tal and I had created a list of places we would like to move. Most of these choices on our list were based on very different factors, it was a really odd list. There were some cohesive elements we looked for in every place we considered, great selection of all around activities (parks, sports teams, museums etc.), easy access to day/weekend trips, cost of living similar to where we are currently living, and of course if we could both find work there. There are a million places that offer all those things so we looked for places that offered something different for us. Do you wanna see the list? Okay, here goes.

Here it is in no particular order (all images courtesy of google search):

Where: The Pacific Northwest

Reason it made the list: It's just absolutly beautiful, has everything nature-wise mountains, forests, oceans, all of which are really important to Andy.

Where: Columbus, OH

Reason it made the list: Family, family, family, is a huge reason for this one. We wouldn't be too far from my family and Andy's immediate family is in the area.

Where: Raleigh, NC

Reasons it made the list: UNC has an amazing graduate program in both History and Library Sciences, added bonus is that it isn't too far from the ocean or the mountains.

Where: Orlando, FL

Reasons it made the list: It's Mickey mouse land, what's not to love? Okay, in all seriousness, I love Orlando and a few of our good friends live in Florida now so we would know some people.

So those are our choices, anyone living in any of these places care to weigh in with some pros and cons? It won't change the immediate decision but it might help us out in our future endeavors. Oh, you thought you were going to get an answer today? What's the fun in that?