Tractor #2 for Nicholas to be in awe of
Which way will he go next?
Daddy standing on top of the huge dirt mound
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Footings - AKA a maze for Nicholas
The footings were dug on Monday and finished up today, so of course we had to check this out. Nicholas loved running around in that area as he thought it was a maze made just for him. Several trees that needed to come down were knocked down and we are moving right along. As I'm writing this post, concrete is being poured into the footings, so Nicholas will have to find something else to play with.
I was so excited to see the quick progress that I wanted to do dirt angels in our good for building chert rock. It's a good thing the property is right down the road as I have a feeling we will be back and forth much more than normal.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
We have a hole in the ground!
All morning today, an excavator worked on digging our foundation. When all was said and done, the deepest part is right at 6 feet deep. We ended up having to reverse our floor plans because it turns out the land slopes down towards the East, so we need the garage to be on the West side of the house. This really didn't matter to us and may actually work out better this way. We are beyond excited to see work being done. We have also had record breaking heat and a bit of a drought. Obviously dry weather is good for building, but I hope we do get a little bit of rain soon as all the plants and trees are looking really rough.
On a side note, Nicholas is as funny and quirky as ever. Some of my favorite lines/quirks from the past few months are:
At this point Nicholas still takes good naps. He may resist at first but will usually sleep 2-3 hours most days. Recently, he has been getting out of bed after we put him down at night. He tiptoes out his room and then turns on all the lights in the nearby rooms. He is being stubburn about this, but I'm assuming as with all things this too shall pass before long. As far as the potty training saga goes, he will use the potty but never initiates it himself and still won't go #2. I decided to take a week off and devote the entire time to potty training. I don't know if this will be effective, but this is my last ditch effort to break him of the diaper habit.
Nicholas in awe of the BIG tractor!
Facing East - Lots of dirt, which was rather dusty due to the heat.
Facing North - this will be the front of the house
On a side note, Nicholas is as funny and quirky as ever. Some of my favorite lines/quirks from the past few months are:
- Never! - This sounds bad, but you can't get mad the way he says it. His voice gets real deep and we know he is just teasing when he says it.
- That's preposterous! - Not exactly sure where this came from, but busted out laughing the first time he said it.
- He has a hard time saying his "R's" and his "V's" sound like "B's"
- Whenever he eats a PB&J sandwich, he always pulls it apart and eats it. He doesn't do this with any other sandwich and it usually results in food all over his face
- He was playing with a pool toy and before I realized it he had chewed threw part of it and proceeded to blame it on the dog, who at the time was outside...
At this point Nicholas still takes good naps. He may resist at first but will usually sleep 2-3 hours most days. Recently, he has been getting out of bed after we put him down at night. He tiptoes out his room and then turns on all the lights in the nearby rooms. He is being stubburn about this, but I'm assuming as with all things this too shall pass before long. As far as the potty training saga goes, he will use the potty but never initiates it himself and still won't go #2. I decided to take a week off and devote the entire time to potty training. I don't know if this will be effective, but this is my last ditch effort to break him of the diaper habit.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Let the building process begin!
Woohoo!! We have learned the virtue of patience already with the building process and we haven't even broken ground yet. Here is an overview of the process it took to get where we are today...
Right after we got engaged, we came up with a 5 year plan to save as much as we possibly could in order to build our dream house. Over the years I spent MANY hours looking at house plans and designing one that works for us.
October - I finally got the plan to a state that I really liked and met with a few designers to make it official. We decided to go with Jennie Jones and she ended up making a few tweaks (love the screen porch she added off the master) to what I gave her, but kept the majority as is.
January - The official house plans were finalized. We also meet up with Jeff and Ginger Treglown. Ginger is also a Regions employee (which is how we were referred to them) and Jeff owns his own construction company. Thank goodness because we were HIGHLY impressed with them. Not only does he build gorgeous custom homes (we were in awe of their home the first time we met up), but he was reasonably priced and to top it off a good Christian who also builds homes on mission trips. We knew right away that we felt comfortable with them.
February - This is when we were waiting to hear back on bids for the construction of the home. We actually contacted three or four different vendors and was disappointed at the lack of response from all but Jeff. We thought contractors would be jumping at the chance and quick to respond, but that shows how much I know. During this time we also went through the process of contacting various banks in the area regarding construction loans. Way back when, we figured we would owner build and act as general contractor as it is an obvious way to save some money. Well it turns out that since the housing bust a few years ago, NO banks are willing to do owner builder construction loans. Not only that, but the whole construction loan product is VERY confusing and can vary widely depending on what bank you talk to. We also had the land surveyed and then deeded over to us.
March - After receiving our bid back from Jeff and going over our different options (how much to finish/what types of finishes, etc), we signed a contract with him. At this point we had narrowed down our banks to BBVA and Regions as they were one of the few that had a "Construction-to-Perm" loan that only required one set of closing costs as opposed to two. We did the initial paperwork with both, but decided to go with Regions as they allowed us to lock in our permanent interest rate at the beginning and with elections coming in November who knows what might happen to rates. During this time we were able to get an address set up (keep in mind a "Moody" address).
April - this month was spent basically waiting. We had filed all of our paperwork needed for the construction loan and for builders risk insurance. We ran into a bit of a hiccup when there was a lack of comparables in the area based off our house plans and property. Luckily we knew this would probably be an issue and the appraisal came in not TOO much lower than our estimated cost to build. However, it did mean we would have to put even more than the 25% down payment that was required.
May - Finally everything was approved and we have a set closing date on the construction loan of May 9. When we arrived at the lawyers office, it was obvious that things were not as they should be. Long story short, Regions had not discovered until then that the property deeded to us was actually part of the collateral under Mimi and Pop's HELOC. More paperwork to release our section of the property was underway and took about a week to complete. May 17 we were able to actually close and sign our lives away document after document. Following that, Jeff started the process of getting our building permits. He was able to get the sewer, but not the actual building permit.
June - Our property seems to be in no-man's-land. There were no issues getting our Moody mailing address set up through St. Clair County. We were under the impression that our land was in an unincorporated part of St. Clair County, therefore not in Leeds or Moody. Well, it turned out that the property is considered to be in Leeds, which in turn caused delays getting the building permit. The Leeds commission told us that there would be delays and we would not be able to get a permit for various reasons:
Today we found out that Jeff has the building permit in hand. Hallelujah!! Jeff also met with the excavator at the property, so we are finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. I completely realize that this is just the beginning, but am thrilled to finally be where we are. I am going to attempt to document the building process here, so years later I can remind myself how all the effort and stress was so worth our dream house!
Right after we got engaged, we came up with a 5 year plan to save as much as we possibly could in order to build our dream house. Over the years I spent MANY hours looking at house plans and designing one that works for us.
October - I finally got the plan to a state that I really liked and met with a few designers to make it official. We decided to go with Jennie Jones and she ended up making a few tweaks (love the screen porch she added off the master) to what I gave her, but kept the majority as is.
January - The official house plans were finalized. We also meet up with Jeff and Ginger Treglown. Ginger is also a Regions employee (which is how we were referred to them) and Jeff owns his own construction company. Thank goodness because we were HIGHLY impressed with them. Not only does he build gorgeous custom homes (we were in awe of their home the first time we met up), but he was reasonably priced and to top it off a good Christian who also builds homes on mission trips. We knew right away that we felt comfortable with them.
February - This is when we were waiting to hear back on bids for the construction of the home. We actually contacted three or four different vendors and was disappointed at the lack of response from all but Jeff. We thought contractors would be jumping at the chance and quick to respond, but that shows how much I know. During this time we also went through the process of contacting various banks in the area regarding construction loans. Way back when, we figured we would owner build and act as general contractor as it is an obvious way to save some money. Well it turns out that since the housing bust a few years ago, NO banks are willing to do owner builder construction loans. Not only that, but the whole construction loan product is VERY confusing and can vary widely depending on what bank you talk to. We also had the land surveyed and then deeded over to us.
March - After receiving our bid back from Jeff and going over our different options (how much to finish/what types of finishes, etc), we signed a contract with him. At this point we had narrowed down our banks to BBVA and Regions as they were one of the few that had a "Construction-to-Perm" loan that only required one set of closing costs as opposed to two. We did the initial paperwork with both, but decided to go with Regions as they allowed us to lock in our permanent interest rate at the beginning and with elections coming in November who knows what might happen to rates. During this time we were able to get an address set up (keep in mind a "Moody" address).
April - this month was spent basically waiting. We had filed all of our paperwork needed for the construction loan and for builders risk insurance. We ran into a bit of a hiccup when there was a lack of comparables in the area based off our house plans and property. Luckily we knew this would probably be an issue and the appraisal came in not TOO much lower than our estimated cost to build. However, it did mean we would have to put even more than the 25% down payment that was required.
May - Finally everything was approved and we have a set closing date on the construction loan of May 9. When we arrived at the lawyers office, it was obvious that things were not as they should be. Long story short, Regions had not discovered until then that the property deeded to us was actually part of the collateral under Mimi and Pop's HELOC. More paperwork to release our section of the property was underway and took about a week to complete. May 17 we were able to actually close and sign our lives away document after document. Following that, Jeff started the process of getting our building permits. He was able to get the sewer, but not the actual building permit.
June - Our property seems to be in no-man's-land. There were no issues getting our Moody mailing address set up through St. Clair County. We were under the impression that our land was in an unincorporated part of St. Clair County, therefore not in Leeds or Moody. Well, it turned out that the property is considered to be in Leeds, which in turn caused delays getting the building permit. The Leeds commission told us that there would be delays and we would not be able to get a permit for various reasons:
- They would have to wait and present our "case" in front of the planning board meeting which only meets once a month
- The property had to be at least 3 acres as it is considered to be Agricultural property (even though cows haven't been on the property in YEARS) and our section was 2.86 - we were a measly 0.14 acres off COME ON! So we would need to get another survey done.
- Our other option is to request to be deannexed, which they estimated to take 3 months or more.
Today we found out that Jeff has the building permit in hand. Hallelujah!! Jeff also met with the excavator at the property, so we are finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. I completely realize that this is just the beginning, but am thrilled to finally be where we are. I am going to attempt to document the building process here, so years later I can remind myself how all the effort and stress was so worth our dream house!
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Birthday Palooza 2012
Due to crazy schedules this year, Nicholas was able to celebrate his birthday for about three weeks straight. It's still hard to believe that my baby boy is three years old.
We started with a birthday celebration with the Davenports and Moseleys. He of course had a blast playing with the balloons and everyone was in awe of Mimi's Lighting McQueen cake creation. Truly impressive!
The Thursday before his birthday was his last day at Mother's Day Out for the year. That week they had their year-end program with the kids singing and dancing. You would think that as much as Nicholas loves to sing and dance that he would be all about this, but he simply sat with a blank stare most of the time beside his teacher Mrs. Virginia. He teared up a little at the beginning, which was a step up from the Christmas program, so maybe by the time next year's programs roll around he will be ready to fully participate. Thanks to Mrs. Virginia for making his first year at MDO a special one!
One of my favorites of that night was the "roar" off between Nicholas and Emma using one of his birthday presents - A Dinosaur Pet. It was too funny!
Saturday we drove over to New Orleans for the night to visit with our friend Mumbles. He was throwing a surprise birthday/engagement party for his girlfriend. Special shout out to Mumbles - congrats on getting engaged and we look forward to next summer's wedding festivities!
Since we weren't hosting one big birthday bash for Nicholas, we wanted to do something special on his actual birthday. So we decided to take the day off and head over to the Georgia Aquarium. Gabe and I had been several years ago and knew he would go crazy over it. He loved most everything except the volume of the Dolphin Tales show (it was rather loud so he kept his hands over the ears the entire time but got the biggest kick out of seeing the dolphins jump out of the water).
Finally, when it was all said and done we felt he needed to blow out a candle on his actual birthday, so we got these tiny cupcakes. He has had a great birthday-palooza and thanks to everyone for celebrating with us and all of his birthday gifts! We are so blessed to have such thoughtful and caring family and friends.
And last but not least, we FINALLY closed on our construction loan!!! There has not been any work done yet as our builder is out of town this week and they still have to get all the building permits, but we hope to see some dirt moving soon. After five years of saving and planning, we are so ready to see some progress. I hope to have updates on this topic soon!
We started with a birthday celebration with the Davenports and Moseleys. He of course had a blast playing with the balloons and everyone was in awe of Mimi's Lighting McQueen cake creation. Truly impressive!
The Thursday before his birthday was his last day at Mother's Day Out for the year. That week they had their year-end program with the kids singing and dancing. You would think that as much as Nicholas loves to sing and dance that he would be all about this, but he simply sat with a blank stare most of the time beside his teacher Mrs. Virginia. He teared up a little at the beginning, which was a step up from the Christmas program, so maybe by the time next year's programs roll around he will be ready to fully participate. Thanks to Mrs. Virginia for making his first year at MDO a special one!
Then that Friday we headed to Mobile to visit with Gigi and Pawpaw. That night we had birthday celebration #2 that included family from the Thompson and Allenbach side.
Saturday we drove over to New Orleans for the night to visit with our friend Mumbles. He was throwing a surprise birthday/engagement party for his girlfriend. Special shout out to Mumbles - congrats on getting engaged and we look forward to next summer's wedding festivities!
Since we weren't hosting one big birthday bash for Nicholas, we wanted to do something special on his actual birthday. So we decided to take the day off and head over to the Georgia Aquarium. Gabe and I had been several years ago and knew he would go crazy over it. He loved most everything except the volume of the Dolphin Tales show (it was rather loud so he kept his hands over the ears the entire time but got the biggest kick out of seeing the dolphins jump out of the water).
Finally, when it was all said and done we felt he needed to blow out a candle on his actual birthday, so we got these tiny cupcakes. He has had a great birthday-palooza and thanks to everyone for celebrating with us and all of his birthday gifts! We are so blessed to have such thoughtful and caring family and friends.
And last but not least, we FINALLY closed on our construction loan!!! There has not been any work done yet as our builder is out of town this week and they still have to get all the building permits, but we hope to see some dirt moving soon. After five years of saving and planning, we are so ready to see some progress. I hope to have updates on this topic soon!
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Many Updates Needed
I have not been good about keeping up with this blog, so here is my attempt to play a bit of catch up...
Nicholas is just as crazy and funny as ever. He constantly amazes me with some of the things that come out of his mouth. Recently you will hear him say...
"Guess what?" (and of course you HAVE to say What?) "Sea turtles are one hundred and sixty dollars." which in real life means "Sea turtles live to be one hundred and fifty years old." He got this line from Finding Nemo and just loves asking people "Guess what?"
We think he might be cutting another tooth because recently he has been very moody (more so that the norm), will randomly suck on his fingers during the day (which he hasn't done in a LONG time) and even made a comment about his ear hurting. It has been about a year since he last cut a tooth, so hopefully this explains these occurrences.
We had a great Easter weekend filled with gorgeous weather, Easter egg hunting and of course dying eggs.
The downfall of him being in a big bed is that he attacked his Easter basket before we knew about it.
Speaking of Alabama, I have to share a project that I just finished for some close friends. My inspiration came from this wreath on Etsy and of course my love for Pinterest. I think it turned out super cute and hopefully our friends will like it as well.
For anyone interested it's a foam wreath wrapped in yarn. I cut out squares of white felt and houndstooth material and then wrapped the yarn back around for an argyle effect. For the letter, I purchased a wooden letter from Michael's a modge podged scrapbook houndstooth paper on it. Very doable and MUCH cheaper than what you can buy online!!!
Finally as far as the home building process goes, we have signed with a builder and are waiting to finish up some final details of the construction loan process. Hopefully (fingers crossed) we can start everything in May and be in by the end of the year. This will definitely be an interesting process to go through, but we are definitely looking forward to the end result.
Nicholas is just as crazy and funny as ever. He constantly amazes me with some of the things that come out of his mouth. Recently you will hear him say...
"Guess what?" (and of course you HAVE to say What?) "Sea turtles are one hundred and sixty dollars." which in real life means "Sea turtles live to be one hundred and fifty years old." He got this line from Finding Nemo and just loves asking people "Guess what?"
We think he might be cutting another tooth because recently he has been very moody (more so that the norm), will randomly suck on his fingers during the day (which he hasn't done in a LONG time) and even made a comment about his ear hurting. It has been about a year since he last cut a tooth, so hopefully this explains these occurrences.
We had a great Easter weekend filled with gorgeous weather, Easter egg hunting and of course dying eggs.
The downfall of him being in a big bed is that he attacked his Easter basket before we knew about it.
Lots of concentration getting those stickers on there.
All done!
This weekend was the annual A-Day game, so daddy drove Nicholas and Pop to T-town for the day. Luckily they had gorgeous weather and even ran into Big Al, which was a big hit for Nicholas.
Gotta have game-day gear on
The background always looks fake when they take these pictures
Someone had a little too much fun and conked out on the walk to the car.
Speaking of Alabama, I have to share a project that I just finished for some close friends. My inspiration came from this wreath on Etsy and of course my love for Pinterest. I think it turned out super cute and hopefully our friends will like it as well.
Finally as far as the home building process goes, we have signed with a builder and are waiting to finish up some final details of the construction loan process. Hopefully (fingers crossed) we can start everything in May and be in by the end of the year. This will definitely be an interesting process to go through, but we are definitely looking forward to the end result.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Working at the car wash!
With our extremely mild winter and probably very short spring, the pollen has already attacked our cars. Luckily daddy had a little helper today to wash the cars. It's amazing how quickly things go from this...
Nicholas LOVES playing outside, so we are going to take advantage of the time we have now before the mosquitoes take over.
To this...
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Updates
Nicholas was rather funny this week. He was coloring a Valentine's Card he received from Gigi and Pawpaw and all of a sudden he says "Oh good coloring Nicholas!" Then after dinner he had rice krispy treat for dessert. I don't think he's ever had these before because this was the first time I've ever made them. He picked it up and ate a few bites but wasn't fond of how sticky it was, so he took it upon himself to fix the issue so he could finish his treat.
Our favorite Nicholas vocab recently was when we went to dinner last weekend with some of Gabe's extended family and it was at a local Mexican restaurant called Guadalajara. Well, we kept asking Nicholas where we were eating and he finally said at "Holla Water." It is too funny! His responses to conversation have been a hoot too. He recently will respond with "What you say?" even though he clearly knows what we are talking about.
Just last week, was Nicholas' first time to blame someone else for something he did. We were up at Mimi and Pop's house for dinner. Nicholas had been playing with Meagan and Abby but the girls had since come into the living room where we were all talking. A little bit later, Nicholas walks in with a piece broken off a cup he was playing with. We asked what happened and Nicholas responds, "Abby broke it." Of course we knew she didn't because she was sitting in the room with us. I really tried not to laugh, but it was rather unexpected to hear him blame someone else.
As an update on the big boy bed, Nicholas has been a champ sleeping through the night with no issues and has not gotten up at all after getting in his bed. That has been such a relief and we even said the other night that it almost seems like he sleeps better in his bed versus the crib.
We have had a few more successes last week with potty training, but I'm still not optimistic of that being complete for many more months.
Today our friend Zac surveyed the land for us. One step down, about 4,587 more to go... We are set to receive our first bid from a contractor tomorrow. We are praying that he will give us good news so that we can have the dream become a reality.
Finally, Gabe had a major change at work this past week. He is still at Regions, but now in a completely different department and building. I'm so proud and happy for him and this new position. All the hard work he has put in the last 9 years is paying off for him.
Our favorite Nicholas vocab recently was when we went to dinner last weekend with some of Gabe's extended family and it was at a local Mexican restaurant called Guadalajara. Well, we kept asking Nicholas where we were eating and he finally said at "Holla Water." It is too funny! His responses to conversation have been a hoot too. He recently will respond with "What you say?" even though he clearly knows what we are talking about.
Just last week, was Nicholas' first time to blame someone else for something he did. We were up at Mimi and Pop's house for dinner. Nicholas had been playing with Meagan and Abby but the girls had since come into the living room where we were all talking. A little bit later, Nicholas walks in with a piece broken off a cup he was playing with. We asked what happened and Nicholas responds, "Abby broke it." Of course we knew she didn't because she was sitting in the room with us. I really tried not to laugh, but it was rather unexpected to hear him blame someone else.
As an update on the big boy bed, Nicholas has been a champ sleeping through the night with no issues and has not gotten up at all after getting in his bed. That has been such a relief and we even said the other night that it almost seems like he sleeps better in his bed versus the crib.
We have had a few more successes last week with potty training, but I'm still not optimistic of that being complete for many more months.
Today our friend Zac surveyed the land for us. One step down, about 4,587 more to go... We are set to receive our first bid from a contractor tomorrow. We are praying that he will give us good news so that we can have the dream become a reality.
Finally, Gabe had a major change at work this past week. He is still at Regions, but now in a completely different department and building. I'm so proud and happy for him and this new position. All the hard work he has put in the last 9 years is paying off for him.
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