The boys approve!

I've got TONS of pictures for today's blog.  The change on the house has been amazing in the past week.  As my last blog mentioned, the fast forward button is on.

Here is last Sunday:

 Here is this Sunday: 

Chris took the guys some coffee and Dunkin Donuts on Friday. It ended up being a chilly day and they really appreciated it.  We both stopped by at lunch to see the house and all the guys waved as we pulled up.  Chris is there at least twice a day so they know him well. :)

Since we actually have a house with walls (but nothing that can get messed up yet) we decided to take the boys with us to see the house.  They had so much fun!!  When we first let them off the leash they decided to run from in the house to the backyard over and over again.  However, you would think they would have used the screened porch opening.  Nope . . . they jumped through the windows like they were on an agility course.  I tried to get a picture but they were too quick for me.  I started taking a video and then they ran off up the stairs.  Cooper LOVED the stairs.  He went up and down and up and down and up and down.  We have already decided that we must purchase a baby gate to keep him off the stairs when we move in. 

Here is a video that I took. 
http://youtu.be/jDoKJGDv8wg

This week we made a big purchase! We bought the china cabinet for the dining room.  I have never been one that wanted a china cabinet but I really love it.  It is our favorite piece of furniture right now!  The great thing about this purchase is that we got it from a family that was moving and could not take it with them.  We got a good deal on it and it matches the table we bought a few weeks ago from another Craigslist hunt.  From that purchase we had the table and 6 regular chairs but no arm chairs.  This guy was selling the matching china cabinet, 4 arm chairs, another table, and two white chairs.  We didn't need it all but decided to buy it all since it was a good deal.  Now we have seating for 10 in the dining room.  I'm going to put the two white chairs in my office and we are selling the extra table.  So if you are looking for a nice dining room table (no chairs included) . . . Let me know!!

I think we have reached capacity for new things in the apartment right now. We are tripping over each other, furniture and chairs.  However, we spent most of Sunday looking at furniture, TVs and appliances.  We are going to try to get some black friday deals with some stores that will delay delivery until late January. 

Here are the pictures I mentioned at the beginning of the blog.

 

 

Cooper says, "Welcome to our house"

Here are the pictures of the front of the house. (Garage, Guest Bedrooms, Office, and Guest Bathroom)
Here is the Garage:

 Here is the Guest Bathroom (downstairs).

 Here is Guestbedroom 1.

 Here is Guestbedroom 2

 One of the reasons I fell in love with this floor plan . . . all the arches.  This is the front foyer as you walk in the door.

 The office which is immediately to your left when you walk in the front door.

Next is the Dining Room, Kitchen, Foyer, and Living Room. Most two story houses have a foyer on each floor.  Since our house is all first floor with the exception of the bonus room, we have two foyers downstairs due to how spread out the house is.  I felt like I needed to say that because saying the 2nd foyer sounds so hoity toity!  Here is the 2nd foyer. (that door is the coat closet) The window you see in the back is the office.  I took this picture while standing in the kitchen. 

The Dining Room.

The Living Room (view into the backyard)

Kitchen view with pass through to the dining room.

Here is the Master Bedroom. (view into the master while in the backyard)

 It doesn't look very nice but our sinks will be here. 

 Master Bedroom.

 Master Closet

 The tub and shower will be here. 

 It is hard to see but there is a room here for the linen closet and toilet closet. 

Let's go upstairs to the Bonus Room.  The boys loved this room! 

 The bonus room will have a full bathroom and walk in closet.  It will be the biggest room of all the bedrooms. 

 Chris making sure they didn't try to jump out of that window!

 Eddie loved this view.  I wonder if I will ever be able to keep him out of this room.

Last but not least . . . The backyard!

 Eddie was very curious about the neighbor's yard. 

 The screeened in porch!

Cooper and Eddie were so tired after the adventure to the new house. 

We hope to have a roof and all the electrical in the house by next week. 

Until next week!

The Fast Forward Button is ON!

The best way to describe what is happening right now is the title of this blog.  We have reached the time where day to day our lot is changing before our eyes to the point where it is amazing how much work is getting done on a daily basis.  You will be amazed at the changes from the last blog.

Here is the house 8 days ago:  (all dirt and no concrete)

Chris and I had an impromptu lunch date on Halloween. How fitting was it that was the day they were pouring the concrete.  Here is what we saw when we stopped by 6 days ago: (CONCRETE!!)

Chris drives by the house everyday and on Friday he noticed that all of the wood had been delivered and put in the "front yard".  As we drove up yesterday, I squealed at the wood that was in the air.  We went vertical!  It's framing time.

The left and right walls were up and the back wall was about to be put up.  It was as if the Flinestones work whistle went off and they all ran away.

I did learn one thing about the men working on our house.  It must be hard work because this was laying all over the lot.   Would it be a conflict of interest if I showed up with a 12 pack of Energy Drinks for them to tell them Thank You?!?!

Here are some more pics from our November 4th visit.  (The wood)

 The Dining Room View!

 The Garage View

 The guest bedroom view

 The concrete had the specifics and layout drawn on it.

Chris drove by today to find a completely different lot.  (Check this out!)

I'm amazed at all the work in 8 days and don't know what I will see when I go for my next visit this weekend. 

In other news, Chris and I found our two barstools for the kitchen island.  We have a table height island in the kitchen so we were looking for 24 inch stools without a back.  This will allow us to put them under the island when they are not being used.  We were also looking for saddle style stools.  We got these stools for $15 a piece.

 

We are pretty excited about a few other furniture purchases that will hopefully happen sometime this week.  I'll update you about those in the next blog.

We are so excited but so overwhelmed with all the progress. 

Plumbing for my Birthday!

I'm exhausted from a great day celebrating my 36th birthday!  I'm going to make this blog as short and sweet as I can possibly make it .  We have had a lot happen this week.  Not only have I turned a year older, we found our rocking chairs for the front porch.  Woo Hoo! 

We had been pricing them at Lowe's and other places and knew how much we would have to spend if we bought them brand new.  We thought about the fact that most rocking chairs never get used because they are considered a front porch decoration.  We knew we could find someone who wanted to sell them and we could catch a deal.  Chris found these two chairs on Craigslist this week.  We saved $100 by buying them on Craigslist.  While I wanted black to match the shutters, we can easily paint these black.  Right now they are sitting on our porch in the APT waiting for their new home. 

We went to the lot today for our weekly visit.  I get to visit the lot weekly but Chris goes after work everyday to take a picture and then tell me what the latest is in our progress.  When we arrived, I was excited to see our new sign.  I've been waiting for this new sign!  It details the lot, plan, and our new address. 

Here is the front view that you are use to seeing in the blog.  The biggest difference this week is that all of the plumbing is set up in the lot. That big white pole is the drain pipe that will go to the upstairs bathroom. 

Here is the front porch where those rocking chairs are going to go.  All it needs is some concrete!

Here is a picture of the plumbing for the master bath, downstairs guest bath and laundry room. 

Here is the plumbing for the kitchen. I failed to get the picture with the plumbing to the fridge in the picture.  The plumbing you see is for the kitchen sink. 

Here is the back yard view for this week.

Since it is my birthday, I'm only thinking about the good news for the week.
1) We are officially 3 months into the 6 month build.  We are half way there!
2) As soon as the plumbing is inspected, they will start pouring the concrete slab.  (Which means I expect to walk on (or seeing) concrete next Sunday and not dirt.)
3) We walked through other houses and floor plans today and we are still in love with our floor plan.  It is perfect for us!

And that my friends is how Amy does Short and Sweet!

Until next time. . .

Apartment Blues

The entire family is over living in this tiny little apartment.  On one hand . . . It's hard to believe we have been in this APT for 2 months but also very depressing that we have 4 more months to go.  I think my biggest issue is the clutter.  I do not do well with clutter and I'm living in it right now.  We are living in a two bedroom apartment but only have one bedroom to use.  The second bedroom is currently a storage room and we have another storage unit that is filled right now.  My friend Kratzer made me feel a little better a few days ago when she told me that anytime I feel like I have it bad, think of her.  She is living in a smaller square footage with husband, dog Jasmine, and her newborn baby.  That was all I needed to realize that yes Amy - - You could have it worse.  :)

We went to look at the lot yesterday and they got some work done since Friday. 

I loved walking through the lot to figure out where I was in the house based on the floorplan. 

This is the view from the back of the lot.  My Daddy is standing in our bedroom and Barbara is standing in the laundry room. 

Here are the trees that they are saving for us in the backyard. 

We are hoping to show you pictures next weekend where the slab has been poured by the end of the week.  Pray for no rain!!! :)

Until next time   . . .

House Update

It's been a few weeks so I haven't had a chance to update everyone on how the lot is coming along and the latest on our shopping. 

We stopped by the lot last Tuesday before we left for New Orleans.  Here is what we saw. 

We got a message while we were out of town from Kelvin that they were sending out soil samples and getting the lot ready for plumbing.  He also mentioned that we were not far from concrete being poured.  Everyone tells you that as soon as the concrete gets poured the building takes off. 

Chris has gone by the lot 3 times this week and here are some pictures. 

MONDAY - Who knew we would be so excited to go from trees to a pile of dirt!

 

WEDNESDAY - We went to flat dirt.  If you haven't built a house yet, you don't understand the excitement and probably think we are crazy.  Everyone who has built told me they got excited over all the small changes because those changes over time mean you are closer to your completed home.

 

 

THURSDAY - Here is where you really think I am crazy because you probably don't see the changes from the picture above.  :) There is change . . . I promise. 

 

Chris and I are headed over to the lot together on Sunday.  It will be our weekly ritual to see the progress and see the progress on our neighbors houses as well.  I'm sure we'll have more pictures then. 

 

We've done a bit a shopping since my last blog.  We bought a dining room table which is in 5 pieces (not including the chairs) in our hall and kitchen right now.  I'll try to find a picture of it (its another Craig's List find).  It is beautiful!

 

 

 

Chris went to an estate sale the day before our wedding and bought 5 beer signs for the man cave.  Here are 4 of them.  The other one is a lighted sign that is in our storage unit right now.  I'll take a picture of it later. 

 

Here are some things we bought while we were on vacation! 

 

 

You may remember that my office will be a classy BAMA theme.  I bought this picture at Bamaland in Tuscaloosa.  Ignore the corner protectors and plastic.  I will get it framed in a black frame to match the furniture in the office. I love it!!

 

We found this in a shop on Decatur Street in New Orleans.  We loved it and thought it would go well in the Dining Room. It will also always remind us of our honeymoon! :)

 

This picture is sideways but I'm too lazy to edit it right now.   This is a trivet that we found in another shop in New Orleans.  I prefer trivets over hot pads so this will go well in our NEW kitchen.  I can't wait to use it. 

No man cave is right without a Bourbon Street sign! 

 

 

 

We interrupt building this house for a Wedding!

As many of you know, Chris and I got engaged over the summer while we were on vacation.  We pretty quickly after engagement decided we wanted to do a destination wedding.  We decided that to ensure our family and friends would be able to attend we would wait a year.  Well . . . we decided we couldn't wait that long.   We got our marriage certificate on August 3rd and let me tell you that was an experience.  We had to apply for the marriage certificate at the Coroner's office.  That is just a cruel joke.  It was so awkward!!  We didn't know back in August when we would get married but decided we would get married some time before the house was complete.  During the months of August and September, we secretly planned a small wedding with our family and a few friends. 

The planning is part hot mess story and part boring story.  I won't bore you with it in this blog.  On October 6, on the beach at Kingston Plantation, Chris and I tied the knot.  It's pretty amazing how something that was suppose to be us exchanging our vows on the beach and then heading home turned into a full fledged wedding!  Thanks to our family we had two amazing condos on the beach,  flowers, lots of photographers, wonderful food, a beautiful cake, and an awesome day after the wedding brunch.  Chris and I were so happy with how it turned out and it was such fun to surprise everyone! 

Most people who have shotgun weddings do so because they are pregnant.  Don't worry . . . that is not the case here. . . we are one of the small percentage of shotgun weddings that don't have a bun in the oven. 

Our honeymoon was a bit unconventional as well.  We had already planned a trip back in Feb/March to New Orleans and Baton Rouge with some of our close friends for the LSU/USC game.  We spent 4 days in Kingston Plantation.  We were able to make a quick stop in Tuscaloosa on the way to New Orleans for 2 days.  We then spent two days in Baton Rouge.  All of this was with some of our closest friends. :)

Here are a few pics: 

Margate Tower - Where we stayed for 4 days.

 

 

 

Lots of Progress

Chris and I had such a busy Saturday. I'm still tired from all we got accomplished!  The morning started while I was taking the dogs out for their morning walk.  I'm an early bird so I was up before Chris.  I checked out the neighborhood garage sale while out on my walk.  I have to admit I had high expectations because we watched a show about Yard Sales on Friday night where people were selling good things. I was not impressed.  It could have been the collection of NSYNC dolls or the overpriced ugly nik naks! I went home to get some coffee brewing and was surprised that Chris woke up at about 7:30 (this is very early for him on a Saturday morning).  We both walked back over to the yard sale.   The closest thing we saw to wanting was an overpriced dart board for the man cave.  Oh well . . .better luck next time!

We later decided that we wanted to go furniture shopping.  We started that adventure at Homegoods.  It was my first visit.  OMG!  I loved it there.  We got some good ideas and disagreed on a hideous rug (Chris thought it was awesome)!  We will definitely be going back there.  http://www.homegoods.com/

The night before I had read a post on Craigslist about a sale in Mount Pleasant. The best way to describe this place would be a warehouse full of unwanted items.  If you buy something online or in a catalog and then send it back to the company, they sell it to companies like this.  We specificallly went there for a TV mount for the screened in porch ($15) but also got our built in trash can unit ($20) for the kitchen. We got good deals here and will definitely keep an eye on their website. http://tidelandstrading.com/

 

We also went to our first Estate sale on Saturday.  We didn't find anything we liked and we blame that on our timing.  We didn't get there until late morning on Saturday and the sale started on Friday at noon.  While we didn't have success there, if we try that again we will go when it first opens. 

 

 

 

We spent some time at Stuckey Furniture. I believe that went a little like this . . . I saw something I liked and looked at the pricetag and then said, "Damn!" I especially liked a gong they had at the front of the store.  How cool would that be to put that in the foyer and then everyone gong when they walk in the house!  It can be yours for only $740!!

 

Chris has been telling me about this mattress made by Serta and we decided to go to the mattress store to see it.  It was very comfortable but the sales person was clueless on the pricing and really frustrated us both.  We left there and went to Relax the Back.  My Dad had recommended we go there to look at mattresses.  This store is awesome and we found the mattress we want for our bedroom.  Now we just need to find the money to pay for it because it is going to be expensive! Here is the mattress from Relax the Back (not a Serta). 

After walking away feeling like we had gotten a lot accomplished with finding our future mattress, we headed to a place called Next to New.  It is an upscale furniture consignment store.  They had good stuff but nothing we need for the house so that was let down since we were hoping to score a deal there.  My Dad also suggested we head to Restore (Habitat for Humanity).  We arrived and they literally closed the doors in our face since it was closing time.  I had been wanting to go to Stein Mart so we quickly headed over there and I got a great idea for my office while in there.   My office will be a Bama themed room.  I'm trying to keep it as classy as possible. (think black desk and book cases  . . . red and black rug . . . houndstooth chairs with black magazine rack and then crimson/red curtains).  I found a decorative ceramic or fiberglass or some kind of material Elephant that will go perfectly with my theme!  I'll buy him after closing and call him Al!

 

We left Stein Mart and headed to our lot which was not far away from where we were in Mount Pleasant.  We turned the corner and saw . . .

 

 

. . . Tree movement!  YAY! 

 

Here is Chris after he realized Kelvin was able to remove the sweetgum tree that was half on our property and half not on our property. 

 

 

While we were at our lot, I found out that someone I went to high school with will be my neighbor.  What a small world it is! 

 

We left the lot and headed to another Craigslist pick up for another rug. 

 

 

 

My Dad also bought us a rug while he was in NC last week so that make 3 rugs that we have for the house. 

 

Here are three pictures.  The first one is from Saturday, then a Monday picture and lastly the most recent picture that Chris took today.