Basement

As we mentioned a few days ago, the walls of our basement have been poured. Of course we had to go out and check it out.

Still not real exciting to the average person, but to us it makes it seem so real. That's going to be OUR house!!!

Goodbye Old House

We had our last day in the old house yesterday. We finished cleaning, got the last few things out of there, and said our final goodbyes. It's pretty bittersweet - on one hand we really loved living in the city and we really loved our adorable little house (OK, I loved our adorable little house). But we keep thinking about how fabulous the new house will be and that makes it all OK.

Jason will officially close on the house tomorrow (I already pre-signed since I'll be in Winnipeg tomorrow), and that will be that!

Goodbye cute house...

Moving Fun!!

Let's blow this pop stand

So Saturday came and went and we're completely moved out of the old house. Yay!!. A big 'Thank You' to everyone that helped. What is usually a pain in the ass turned out to be nothing more than good exercise due to all the hard work shared by all of our friends. We truly appreciate it. Now comes the fun of getting settled in at our new, temporary housing at Tom & Pat's. Day 1 didn't go so well as Maggie's collar broke and she got out for about an hour. Willie bit my friend from work, probably gave him rabies. Then while Willie and Annie were walking around looking for Maggie, they both stepped in dog shit which Willie so kindly tracked all over the back seat of Darrin & Chrissy's new car. 1 day down, 119 to go. Shoot....me. Or the dogs. Whichever.

Lesson #1

The first lesson in building a new home is to choose a location that your mom drives by on a daily basis as she's coming home from work. This tends to cause the mother to stop and check things out, then report back. Very convenient if you don't live close to the build site, as we don't.

Thanks mom.

So yesterday she reports the forms are up and today she reports they're filled with concrete. I never thought I'd be so excited for concrete. Not sure how long it must cure before they can proceed, but we now have a basement in less than a week's time. Excellent.

By the way, we're racing my sister & brother-in-law as they are building a home with TR Hughes, right up the road. So far, we're winning.

Preview

Here is a sketch drawing of our house and floorplan. The total square footage is about 2100 sq/ft.

Getting You Up to Speed

OK, where to begin...We started the home search process in the second week of January by falling in love with a McBride & Sons floor plan. After dealing with their sales representative for several weeks, we decided to walk away. Essentially, he was playing a fun game of bait & switch, only it wasn't fun! Every minor change we wanted to make came at a price (usually a significant one).

On to plan B. Next we looked at TR Hughes homes, which are very nice, but we didn't find a floor plan that we liked as much as the one at McBride. Back to the drawing board.

Enter Lucas Homes. We LOVE them! Disclaimer: we are only in the early stages, so future blogs may reflect a change of opinion, but we don't expect that to happen. We get a real mom & pop feel from them since they are a relatively small builder. We have made many changes to our floor plan and added oodles of options, and they have worked with us for everything without nickel & diming us like the other guys. So far, so good.

We put a firm contract on a home with Lucas Homes on April 21st, after having our current house on the market about a month. We were very lucky and got a contract on our home about a week later! We are closing on May 29th, and therefore are moving in with my very lucky parents this weekend. OK, maybe we're the lucky ones because they are taking us (& our 2 furry kiddos) in for the summer/fall. Right now we are on schedule for the house to be completed around October.

Here is our very first house picture - expect many, many more to come as the weeks/months go on (hopefully more exciting than a mound of dirt). They broke ground this past Sunday, May 20th. The fun begins!!



-ACLAY

Our First Post

Welcome to our blog! We want to keep everyone informed on what's going on with us. Currently our focus is on building our home, so if that doesn't interest you, tune out now.