We have a roof!
As you can see our roof trusses were dropped. When we drove by on Friday, there they were! We'll drive by again on Tuesday to see if they've been installed. We're excited!
10.21.2021
10.03.2021
We've Been Framed!
On Friday, 10/1 we drove by our house HOPING to find that the framework lumber for our house had been dropped... it had! We were so excited. I texted photos to our kids, posted photos on Instagram and we celebrated.
We did not expect the framers to work on Saturday, so we decided we wouldn't come back out until Monday (when we were hoping to see the exterior frame up at least). Saturday morning while we were at the Mall with Sunny, Katie called and asked "which house is yours?" We told her and she said "it's been framed!" We finished up at the Mall and drove over to see for ourselves. Sure enough, the exterior frame was up and the framers were working on the interior. Oh my gosh! Six months and four days after signing our contract we had a frame! More texts to kids, more photos on Instagram.
We couldn't get out and walk on it since they were working so we drove back out yesterday evening to walk on it. Remember, we haven't been in a model nor seen our floor plan built. I was most eager to walk though and imagine the rooms.
This morning we returned with our floor plan, laser measure and tape measure to check things out. It's like a dream. We'll go back tomorrow to see if the interior framing is complete. Then we'll start hoping for the roof trusses to be dropped.
As I said the other day, the big hold ups right now are HVAC, Windows, Electric, and of course, Cabinets. Fingers crossed that those bottlenecks will ease in the weeks ahead.
In the meantime, we're thrilled to be framed.
9.29.2021
Six Months and Counting...
We signed the contract on our new home six months ago yesterday. Although I knew how long it was going to take to build the house, knowing and experiencing are two very different things!
No photos in this post because there's nothing to show that I haven't already shared. There is a little good news... they are framing the houses on our street so we're hoping they'll get to ours soon. As we drive through the community twice a week it appears that the current holdups are electric, windows, stucco, and of course the ubiquitous cabinets. The cabinets are literally sitting on ships in California ports. So close, yet... Appliances are on back order too. Our builder is handling that by providing loaners just so people can move into their homes.
A lender Dan does appraisals for is one of the preferred lenders for this builder. I've been able to accompany him on two appraisals there and I've enjoyed seeing what others are choosing for finishes in their homes. Of course it's not all fun and games when I accompany him. I have to work! My job is to take the required photos for the appraisal. Street view, Front of house, both front sides of house, garage, each room in the house, back of house, both back sides of house, and back view if there is one. Real tough job, right!?
9.20.2021
Still Waiting...
We're still waiting for our new home to be framed. We know this is going to be a looong drawn out process so we celebrate each and every little sign of progress.
The latest signs of progress are that the ends of the post tension rods were trimmed on the foundation. After that the name of each room was written on the slab. Yay! Of course I took pictures. Haha.
We had a phone meeting with the hardscape landscape designer. He told us our house is scheduled for frame inspection on 12/29. I actually laughed. Then he said "of course, that could change". I didn't have the heart to say what I was thinking "yep, it could be moved back further".
We did talk to our sales associate a week ago and he said it's possible (fingers crossed) that our lumber could be dropped in the next week or two. We'll see.
In the meantime, Dan's received two appraisal orders for our community. It's exciting to see the progress on some of the other houses.
I keep busy decluttering our stuff. Packing what's not essential for life in this house. And dreaming about what our house may look like... Someday.
9.11.2021
9.01.2021
8.03.2021
We Have a Foundation!
Four months, three days after signing a contract to build a new home, we finally have a foundation! There is no point in getting in a rush over the house building process these days. The builder literally will not, and can not give us a timeline for our house.
In late March when we signed we were given a range of 8-10 months. Two weeks later it was revised to 12-14+ months. We were given the option of backing out at that point, but chose to hang in there. We're not in a hurry.
The hold-ups in the construction industry are many, and they change week to week. Right now the major delays are in HVAC, windows, cabinets. And of course, workers. In Arizona the federal unemployment benefit expired in early July. The hope was that workers would start returning by 7/10. I don't know if they have or not, but I hope so. Of course, the shortages today are different from the shortages last March. Then they were having trouble getting paint, medicine cabinets, and insulation.
The up-side to the length of the building process is that each day that goes by our current home rises in value. So does our new home. See, there really is a bright side to everything!
I read a devotional a few weeks ago that encouraged praying for what we desire. Even though God already knows our heart's desires (as well as our needs, our hurts, our joys, everything about us), the devotional said we should share them with Him in prayer. This is not something I'm in the habit of doing. I'm good at praying for others, but rarely pray for myself. So, I decided to take that to heart and start praying specifically about the house.
The best, best case scenario would be to move in November/December. My hope is to move in by the end of January. The reality is it will probably be in April/May. I'm preparing myself for June.
But for today, I'm so excited to have a foundation.
8.01.2021
August!
Yes, it's August, but in my mind it might as well be September or October. All of my grandkids return to school this week. Two of them start back tomorrow, the other three on Wednesday. Once kids go to school my thoughts turn to Fall! I have Fall Fever so bad and it's not helped by the fact that home decor stores, grocery stores and Sam's Club/Costco have Fall merchandise on the floor.
To be fair, August is a month that we kind of want to rush through in Arizona. It's usually HOT and humid. At least humid to us. This year though, it's warm (under 110 degrees) and humid. Very humid. We've actually been getting some rain this year which is awesome!
I've been anticipating August and am so glad it's here! Starting Wednesday, I will not have any children doing school at my house for the first time since 3/13/20. I told Dan the first two weeks I plan to watch all of the Hallmark Christmas movies I taped last Christmas and cross stitch. I will do a little housework, but it will definitely be limited.
So officially it's the last month of Summer, enjoy!
7.31.2021
I Miss You... Hope All is Well
Do you ever sit down to blog and realize "I haven't read a post by ... in a while"? I did that today. Three of my favorite bloggers came to mind and I looked at my blog roll to see when they last posted. One was in December 2020 and the other two last posted nine monts ago!
So first off, shame on me for not noticing sooner. And second, none of them have attached email addresses so I can check on them. I hope they're ok.
Bloggers drop off on a regular basis. I have to admit there are less than 10 bloggers between my two blogs that I actually contact outside of Blogger. And that's generally only to exchange Christmas cards.
Blogging relationships are so special. They can feel so deep when you connect with someone in your same stage of life, or someone who enjoys the same hobby (cross-stitch) or someone with the same obsession (ALL THINGS CHRISTMAS!!!) or especially someone who shares your faith journey.
These relationships enrich my life. But... they're online. That means they can drop from my life in an instant. Real life relationships fade, but that's just it. They fade. They don't generally end in the blink of an eye, or in my examples, in the blink of several months.
So to the bloggers I'm missing I want to say, I enjoyed reading your posts. I enjoyed getting to know you in even a small way. I miss you.
And to those of you still posting, I love reading your posts. I look forward each (well, it used to be each, now it's a couple times a week) morning to see what you've been doing, to be inspired by you, to feel the warmth of our blog relationship. I love getting to know you. I hope we stay connected.
7.19.2021
A Little Progress...
A little bit of progress on our new house - the plumbing is in! We're hoping the slab will be poured by the end of this week (fingers crossed).
You may notice the cloudy sky in this photo. We've had a real Monsoon this year. Cloudy for parts of every day and a bit of rain here and there. Also our normal high this time of year is 107 degrees and we've been below that for several days and the 10-day forecast actually has some 90s in it!
In the meantime I'm continuing to declutter. This weekend we made trips to the dump, Goodwill, and storage. I just have a feeling that I'm still keeping too much stuff for our much smaller house...
6.07.2021
From Ten Percent to Thirty Percent
Back in January when I was thinking about 2021 and the goals, plans, wishes and dreams I have for the year I wrote that I wanted to declutter my home by 10%. My motivation was that with my daughter's family moving out I came to realize that there was still too much stuff in my house.
That was January. In March, my son and his daughter moved in with us. Yeah. Once more I rushed around cramming my belongings into wherever I could fit them to make room for Zach and Skye. As usual, my goal was for them to feel at home in the space they're occupying.
That's the prologue to this post. Now on to the actual story. Dan and I have been discussing for years what the next phase of our lives should look like. We knew we wanted to downsize (our home is 2600+ sq ft and I'm tired of cleaning it), but with the housing market so hot we felt it was a poor choice to downsize in sq footage only to upsize in the mortgage payment. Then we visited a Fulton Homes community in our area. The included options were so amazing we started to seriously consider buying a new build. We had our Realtor come out to look at our house and after learning we could pretty much sell it "as is" and make a lot of money for a down payment, decided to move forward. (Side note: my husband Dan is a real estate appraiser. He'd been telling me the same thing our Realtor Nick told me. But you know how it is, I had to hear is from another source to believe it! haha)
Nick warned us that the community we were looking at had put a hold on releasing lots but I wanted to go and talk to them anyway. We went on a Sunday afternoon in late March. When we walked into the Sales Office the Sales Associate asked what floor plan we were interested in and then told us there are lots available. We were stunned. Apparently he had come in that morning to find that five lots had been released for sale. Long story short, we signed a contract for a new home on March 28.
It will take up to 14 months to build the home because of the supply shortages. Fine with me. I have a house to live in that is rising in value each day that I'm here. Although I have to admit, I am so excited to move into a smaller home that it's a little hard to grasp how long it will take.
You may have figured out by now why my original plan to declutter by 10% has risen to 30%. Dan told me that the new house is 33% smaller than our current home.
Oh yeah, and I have no idea what our new floor plan actually looks or feels like because there are no models of it within 40 miles of where we live. So I'm trying to downsize my belongings based on a floor plan map and a virtual tour of the home.
We picked out our structural options in early April and visited the Design Center last week to choose our flooring, paint, cabinets, etc. Our dirt lot is still a dirt lot. We've been told they might "start" it tomorrow (which means laying the boards to mark the foundation). Hey, a start is a start, right?!
I'm hopeful that the supply chain issues will start to improve, but I also know that realistically I may not be in my new home until Spring 2022. And that works for me.
This is our dirt. The houses in the background are the next street over.
6.02.2021
5.26.2021
5.19.2021
5.05.2021
4.28.2021
4.21.2021
4.09.2021
4.07.2021
4.02.2021
3.24.2021
3.19.2021
3.17.2021
3.12.2021
3.10.2021
3.05.2021
3.03.2021
2.26.2021
2.24.2021
2.19.2021
2.17.2021
2.10.2021
2.05.2021
2.03.2021
2.01.2021
1.29.2021
1.27.2021
1.22.2021
1.20.2021
1.15.2021
1.13.2021
1.09.2021
1.06.2021
1.04.2021
Ten Percent
A new year has begun. Time to set new goals, deadlines, and tasks.
I would like to declare enthusiastically that I have decided to declutter my house by 50%.
Or maybe I could state with confidence that I'm going to pare down my belongings by 25%.
But the reality is that I'm going to (fingers crossed) set a goal of shoveling 10% of stuff out of my house in 2021.
You would think that after the three extra people that lived here in 2020, along with their belongings moved out that I would feel as if my house is empty and roomy. Just the opposite has occurred. I feel like my house just has too much stuff in it.
So I'm starting with the really hard stuff. Books and crafts. In January I hope to reduce my library by 10%. I'm also hoping to reduce my craft supplies, primarily cross-stitch patterns, by 10%.
Will I be successful? Who knows. But I'll give it my best try. I know the day is coming in the next five - ten years when we will be ready to downsize. When that day arrives I don't want to have to face the daunting task of deciding what will move with us and what has to go. So I want to get an early start on it.
And I'm going to get right on it... tomorrow.
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