December!

 

Good news to share as we move into December! We have a move-in date, in writing, for our new house. We are to get the keys on February 7, 2023. We are excited, but skeptical.

We sold our current house a week ago and are preparing to move out this weekend into a 2-bedroom apartment. It will be an adventure for sure. 

We'll have family Christmas at my daughter's house because the apartment is too small. We're taking a bare minimum of furniture. Primarily the office equipment and a bed. One of the positives is that I was a little concerned about transitioning from a 2613 sq ft home to an 1851 sq ft home. Now we'll be in a 1000 sq ft home in between so the new house will feel large when we get there! haha

November!

 

Now we're really on the downhill slide of 2022...

Progress on our house again. Yay! The drywall is up, taped, mudded, and textured. The back wall is up in our rear yard. We're expecting stucco any day now. The latest estimate is January 23rd for a finish date. We'll see. We've had a lot of "expected finish dates" this year.

I realized the other day that I bought a New Home ornament for Christmas, but we won't have a new home this year. Fortunately my daughter just moved into a new house so I'll pass it on to her.

Thankful for so much this year and planning to focus on that this month.

October

 

October! The month when our temps usually drop below 100... The month that I'm usually almost done with Christmas shopping... The month that we can finally open our windows at night...

Of course, as with every other month this year there's not much that's "usual". 

I'll start with good news. Our new house has been insulated, the roof tiles have been installed, and the drywall has been dropped off. Yay!

Our current home is still on the market. We've had three lookers since it went back on and two of them indicated they were interested, then nothing. While it is frustrating, we're not really worried because our house is scheduled to be completed January 10, 2023 (February 10th if the drywall isn't installed in the next week). 

We were going to move to an interim apartment, but we've cancelled that completely. We'll deal with it when the house actually sells. I have absolute faith that God knows (and knew all along) what's happening. I know He has a perfect plan for us and I'm trying to not get in the way of His plan! That's not to say that we don't have our moments, we do. But for the most part we feel a peace underlying all of the uncertainty.

Some of the Grands are in Soccer, so we're enjoying their games. The model railroad club has a huge event at the end of the month that we're looking forward to. The San Diego Padres are in the hunt for post-season play, which we're very excited about. And football season has begun. 

My plan for this October is to embrace and enjoy the unusual!

Christmas Time's a'Comin'

 Four months from today is Christmas Eve. I am so conflicted about the upcoming Christmas season. On the one hand I'm excited for the joy of the season. On the other my life is so topsy-turvey right now that I sometimes dive into anxiety.

We put our current house on the market at the end of May. We sold it at the end of June. The CASH buyer dropped out this past Sunday. That's right, 20 days into escrow, long after the inspection period, they just changed their mind. Ugh.

We had already contacted the utilities, canceled the pool service, signed a contract on an apartment, and paid for renter's insurance. Sigh.

Now we start all over. 

And to top it all off, it now looks like our new house may not be done until January 2023. Really big sigh.

What does this have to do with Christmas you may wonder?

I have grandkids already clamoring about what are we going to do for Family Christmas? Where will we be for Family Christmas? We are going to have Family Christmas, aren't we?

It gives me joy to know that they really enjoy that tradition. It gives me pause to think about how I'm going to pull it off. My tentative plan right now (other than praying for a miracle that we'll SOMEHOW be in our new home) is to have Family Christmas at one of my girls' homes. They can provide the location, but I'll still plan the event.

To that end I'm continuing on my usual path towards a stress-free holiday. I've been shopping, wrapping, and storing gifts. I'm completely finished with gifts for three Grands and two adult kids. I'm disappointed that I won't be decorating this year, but oh well, that's life.

My oldest granddaughter, Sunny was over the other day and, out of the blue, asked if she could plan the Family Christmas menu. I said of course! And she did. So I texted my daughters with the menu and their food assignments. They laughed. I'm thrilled that the 13 year old is showing that kind of interest! haha

Four months from today my Family Christmas will be behind me. Christmas Eve is typically hosted by my SIL. Christmas Day is typically just Dan and I. To be honest, I ususally start taking Christmas decor down on Christmas Day (surreptitiously, as it irritates Dan!) 

Maybe I'll be in my new home (probably not), maybe I'll be in a tiny apartment (probably) but either way I'll be with my family and that's the joy for me.

This year's gift stash

August

Wow, it's August. 

Two of my Grands started school today. Three of them start tomorrow. One starts in two weeks.

Our house saga is ongoing. The good news is that we sold our current house! The challenge is that we need to find a short-term rental to live in until the new house is done. The projected date for the new house is 11/9/2022. Yes, I put the year in. The way things have been going it's not a sure bet that it will be completed in 2022. I do have good news on the new house though. We have a frame walk through tomorrow morning. We're hoping that we will get more information about the timeline moving forward. 

So we're busy getting ready to vacate this house for a 600 sf. one bedroom rental. It'll be tight quarters, especially since we have to set up Dan's office in the space. But on the positive side, it'll make what was to be a transition from a 2613 sf house to an 1851 sf house much easier. That 1851 sf will feel like a mansion after 600 sf. See, there's always a bright side!

Enjoy your August!

June

 

Hello June!

May was dedicated to getting my folks moved into their new apartment. It has been exhausting to say the least. Jessica and I worked on helping them choose what items were making the move with them. It was very hard. My mom had so many decor items it's ridiculous. Since it's hard for her to make any kind of decision now, this was doubly difficult. We unpacked all of their stuff at the new place and Jessica made labels for all the cabinets hoping it would help them get used to where everything is. 

Mom is fighting this move tooth and nail. And since part of her cognitive decline manifests itself in being mean, my dad is just exhausted. She's already fallen once, requiring the EMTs to come pick her up. I'm not sure how long they're going to last in the independent living apartment/hotel we found for them.

Once they were moved in my brother and I held a garage sale to get rid of the rest of their stuff. Now that's done he and my SIL will move into my folks house to be closer to them. 

I was foolishly hoping that this move would be a huge improvement for them, but I think I was being hopelessly naïve. It's only been two weeks, so maybe they will start to adjust.

I can't remember what I wrote about our new house in May and I'm too lazy to look back so... 

I think I told you our windows are in. The scaffolding is up around the structure which means they will lathe next. We're hoping to have our frame inspection by mid June. The next step would be stucco and then interior drywall. We're currently looking at mid September for move in. I'm kinda past the point of caring when we'll move in. It changes weekly. I'm more concerned about when to sell this house and how that works in the overall timeline.

The grands are on Summer Break. This will be the first year of no Grammy Summer Camp. Instead I'm planning Grammy's Field Trips on Wednesdays. Looking forward to fun with the kids!

The forecast is for a wet monsoon this year so I have my fingers crossed that we'll see some rain! We're heading into the 100s this week, maybe up to the 105 range. Here in the Phoenix area that is called warm. Hot starts at 110 degrees. Last year we had 22 days of 110+, so really we only had 22 hot days last summer! Haha

I hope to post more in June, but am not promising anything. Enjoy the first month of Summer!

I Didn't Realize This Would Be So Frustrating...

 As you know, we signed a contract to build a new home on 3/28/2021. We knew at the signing that the build would take 10-12 months. Two weeks later we received a letter saying it could take 14+ months due to supply chain issues, lack of workers, Covid, etc. In early March 2022 we received a tentative date of July 2022. 

Yesterday we stopped in to see if there was a more definitive date. We need to lock in our interest rate now because the rates went up recently and are expected to rise again in the next few weeks. We were surprised and a little disappointed to learn that our new projected completion date is 8/28/2022 or beyond. 

Not only are windows still the issue but now that China has locked down for a new Covid variant the lathe product (exterior styrofoam) used by our builder is not being shipped. No idea (and obviously no control) on when China will open the port again. {{Sigh}} 

We have no choice but to lock in our rate at this point. The Lender will lock for 120 days. Then we can extend it 30 more days at that time if needed. If you're keeping track that means September 2022. A full 18 months after we signed the contract.

At this point I'm not really concerned about when the house will be complete. It is what it is. But the interest rate component of it is worrisome.

Yesterday I felt a little down, but today all I can do is chuckle. It is completely out of my hands. I feel sorry for our sales associate Rob and his co-worker Shelly. They get a lot of flack from disappointed or even angry buyers. There's nothing they can do about it either. 

Does anyone have any contacts in the Chinese government so we can plead our case with them? Hahaha

Progress and a Tentative End Date

 

The tar paper and tile strips are on the roof. That's the progress. Hopefully electric and gas plumbing will be done in the next two weeks. Maybe the tiles will be distributed on the roof to settle. We'll see.

The tentative date news is, as expected, in the future. I'd say in the far future, but it's discouraging to label it that way. We talked to our sales associate this weekend and for the first time he kind of gave us a date by saying 'we hope to have it done in July'. I told him my birthday is August 10th and he said 'we'll try'. {{Sigh}} The encouraging thing is we kind of have an end date. The discouraging thing is, well, obvious.

Moving in the heat of summer is not something to look forward to.

HVAC

 

Last week HVAC was finally installed in our new house. Today marks exactly 11 months since we signed the contract for our home. At this point we're hoping for move in around June/July. Even though we knew this was going to be a long process, the reality of it has been kind of a shock. Still waiting on electric to go in. The roof tiles have been delivered and are sitting in our front yard. Other than that, it's still a waiting game!

More Progress!

 

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!

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.

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!?

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.

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...

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.