Paperwork for the Bank

We are finalizing the paperwork for the bank and should be ready to give them what they need by Wednesday. We called PP&L to request a work order for new service. We are requesting to have the power in by August. We got our septic design back from Lenny and I delivered it to the sewage enforcer in our area on Friday. We filled out the paperwork for the septic permit and our next step is getting the builders permit so that we can break ground in a month. We talked to the excavator and he is ready when we are. Tomorrow we are meeting with Keven to finalize the bank paperwork. We talked to the neighbor to ask if we could put our mailbox beside theirs. All neighbors are great and friendly, which is a relief. Once we get the paperwork to the bank we should be able to settle within 3-4 weeks, depending on the appraisal process. I talked to a realtor friend and she seems to think the appraisal amount that we need is not going to be hard to get at all. It is all happening rather fast now, before we know it we will be breaking ground.

On the current homefront I started painting the front porch, Bill has been working on the soufet outside around the house. Elijah's bedroom is primed, painted, and ceiling is textured, the next step is sanding the floor down and getting ready to be stained. Hopefully we can get him moved into this room by the weekend.

House blueprint

We finally completed the final blueprint. It is all drawn out and ready to go to the bank for the appraisal. I have decided on a small pantry so that I can have a larger coat/linen closet off of the laundry room. I think this will prove to be a wise choice for us, since we can always put some food in there if we need to.

We are now in the process of picking out flooring types. There are so many different hardwood floors out there, it is hard to choose. We have to make sure the hardwood floor that we pick looks good with the cabinets we have chosen and the wood ceiling that we will be putting in the vaulted living room ceiling. We are going to go with pergo in the kids rooms (since it is tougher and will take more of a beating), we have decided on bamboo wood floor in our master bedroom, we just now have to decide what to do in the main living space, living room/dining room and kitchen. I would like to do tile in the bathrooms, and mud/laundry room. Most likely will be doing pergo in the coat closet. Bill meets with Keven again on Wednesday to go over more budget items to make sure we are staying within the budget and getting all of the costs worked up.

Today is our anniversary so tonight we plan to celebrate by going out for dinner after work. We have been married for three years and have been dating for 14 years. It keeps getting better with every passing year. We are lucky to have found eachother.

Septic Designer

We met with Lenny, our septic designer last night. We laid off the area for the septic and discussed how it will work and where we will need pumps etc. We were told that due to our soil quality and perk test results, we will not need a sandmound, and that we can lay an at level system in, which will save us thousands and thousands of dollars. We are so excited to hear of this news. So far everything is still going smoothly. We should have our septic design by early next week. We will be meeting with the consultant again next week to get all of the paperwork finalized for the bank, so that we have what we need for settlement.

Final blueprints - Our dream house will be similiar to this

Our blueprints are just about finalized now. We are building a raised ranch house similar to the one attached, the stone will likely be added later, as will the extended deck and gazebo. We will only have a deck over the main section of the house to start. Our land is on a sloped lot similar to this with trees surrounding it as well. Our house plan has three bedrooms, two bathrooms (one of which is our master bathroom), dining area, kitchen with an island, living room, huge basement, two car garage, deck, patio, mud/laundry room, huge coat closet, and nice size pantry. I have convinced Bill to make a spot for a doulble oven, I think this is going to be something wonderful that we will really appreciate after it is done. It is so exciting, but so hard to try to think of everything that is important and not forget anything major, all while staying within our budget. Everything is coming along good though, we will meet again next week to discuss final pricing budget, and draw up our contract to submit to the bank. We also will be meeting with the septic designer tonight.

On the current homefront, we finished drywall coating #2, now we have another coat to do, frame closet in, sand, prime, paint and flooring. Our hope is for Elijah's room to be finished by early next week. That is one less thing to do at our current house before we can put it on the market.

Hannah on the land for our dream house

Our Dream House

We are in the process of building our dream house. Tomorrow we have two appointments, one with the building consultant and the other with the septic designer. We will be going over the final blue prints for the house. Once we submit the blue print to the bank, we will then have to wait for the appraisal. Once the appraisal is complete, we will be able to settle 2 weeks after that point. We are hoping to settle by June 15th, 2007. From the point of settlement we have 6 months to build our house. We are super excited and finally ready to make the move from our fixer upper old house to a new and improved roomy new house.

In the mean time, we have lots of things to do around our current house to get it ready to go on the market. We are almost finished remodeling Elijah's bedroom, then off to Hannah's. Over the next 6-7 months, we are going to be the busiest we ever have been in our lives, but by December, we should be relaxing in our new home.