Holy Drywall, Batman!!

So, since the last time we saw the house (and the plumbing was nearly finished), the crews have been hard at work doing the following:

• finishing up the plumbing
• electrical, including a few things we added (outlets in the soffits for Christmas lights, 220 outlet in the garage, some extra outlets in closets and master bath, as well as the laundry room....)
• Insulation
• Septic system is in and finished!
• and yes, we have DRYWALL!!!

All in the last 2 weeks. The drywall guy will be back today to tape and mud, etc.

The monkeys didn't want to go: MiniMe whined "it's too far to drive" (it is two hours from our current house, after all). We promised to bring the portable DVD player, and our latest Netflix loaner - The Bridge to Terabithia (awesome movie, btw). When I plugged the car adapter into the car, after we were on the road..... it blew the fuse. My wonderful and handsome hubby stopped at a hardware store for more fuses - and they strangely didn't have the one we needed. So we drove onward, and the monkeys surprised us by being happy anyway. (they aren't used to movies in the car, so we worried that the promise, and then reneging of such a special treat, would cause anarchy - not so!!)

In the end, they had so much fun walking through the house (and picking their bedrooms, lol), that even after an hour, they didn't want to leave!!

Our real estate agent (who is wonderful, btw - anyone in P-town need one?) wanted to see the house too, so we had him meet us there.

The house looks great, aside from the requisite dust and mess of drywalling!!!

My bathroom:
Living room:
Master bedroom:
secondary bedrooms:
Handsome Buffalo in the garage:


And here's our ginormous garage, in all it's glory - well, MOST, anyway - I forgot my camera (yes, I know, how dumb is that???), and my phone only records 10 seconds of video.

Yes, folks, this is a 1200 square foot garage. That's bigger than the whole house we are living in now. Insane? Well, it was the cheapest thing we added, actually! And we certainly won't need anything bigger......ever.

Snake in the Grass - and an UPDATE.

We were cleaning up our backyard - pulling grass out of the flowerbeds, trimming bushes, yanking out the bamboo creeping over from the neighbor's yard....

And we saw a garden snake - so cute, quite long. It tried to get away, and we backed off, then it got into strike position. We let MiniMe and LittleBit stand with us where they could see it, but stay far enough back not to threaten it. Had a nice little talk about snakes, and snake safety. Timing's just right - we may have LOTS of snakes to deal with in the new place.

SPEAKING of the new place, here are more pictures!!!

Here's my new tub!!




Front of the house - ready for stucco, and the roof is finished!!!


Bay window in the dining room - I forgot to take a picture of the cool door leading to the porch - as a builder incentive, we were able to get the kind with the blinds built in - between the panes of glass.


Here's where the kitchen sink will be. I also saw the drawings of the kitchen layout, sent over by the cabinet guy - my kitchen is going to be so big, I won't be able to fill it! Big change from the overcrowded mess we have now!



I love my fireplace. It will be great for stockings, and will really make a statement in the family room!!


The house is coming along so quickly, we may be able to move in much sooner than anticipated!! ANd it's so well-built, we may never leave!!!! If anyone is planning on moving to Ptown, let me know, I'll gladly introduce you to my builder!

I LOVE MY BATHTUB - and I haven't even used it yet!

I can't wait to use my bathtub. I ordered it Friday. It will take about 4 weeks to make it, and then I have to wait until my house is built, to actually use it, LOL. The company that makes it will hold it for up to 6 months, before shipping. My house should be done by the beginning of August, and my builder has promised me two-weeks lead-time, to notify the tub company (to ship it to his plumber for installation).

This is not just any tub. I have ordered a Sanijet. If you've stayed in luxury hotels, like the Mandarin Oriental, Ritz Carlton, and various others, you may already know about Sanijet. They are the ONLY PIPELESS whirlpool baths on the market. Why pipeless? Well, if you are a germ freak, like me, you already know that most whirlpool baths (water, or airjet, it's the same issue) CANNOT ever be totally clean. Mold grows in those pipes. Even if you clean them all the time. even if you run bleach through them.

Having been a germ freak forever, I have never enjoyed jacuzzis, whirlpool baths, etc. And I am very tall (and not too skinny anymore), so I don't enjoy your average tub/shower combo. My sweet hubby was surprised to learn I would actually LOVE to take baths - if only there was a bathtub that could be kept clean (and still have the jets, so I could use it for arthritis therapy).

My sister V told me about Sanijet. She is doing a house remodel, and hoping to put one in the new bathroom. I was skeptical, until I visited their site, and saw their Pipeless technology in action. Be sure to watch the videos. They are priceless.

So sweet wonderful Hubby of mine, told me I could order whatever I wanted. He specifically said NOT to get the cheapest (but please not the most expensive, either), because he wanted it to really be a bath I would love. He wants me to sleep at night (which is hard, when your legs hurt so badly), and to have the bath be my Oasis - my break from the stresses of the world, noise of children, etc. Plus, he knows that a long hot soak before bed is the best thing for arthritis pain relief.

Hubby is a WISE MAN. He knows a Happy Mommy makes a Happy Home. He spoils me a little rotten. I had to make him SWEAR he will tell me "NO" when I start asking for new furniture, for our beautiful new house!

His reply? "No".

We have a CONTRACT

We signed a contract a couple weeks ago. Those "similar floor plans" I mentioned earlier? Well, I decided to contact the builder, just for grins, to see what a new build would cost. I wanted to have some negotiating room, if I ended up putting an offer on one of those houses.

Turns out, the cost to build is less than these sellers are asking for a resale! We took the stock plan, and customized it: bigger kitchen, large covered patio, larger garage, third bathroom on the main floor, separate laundry room (instead of the washer and dryer in a hall closet - the large laundry closet is now an over-sized coat closet), and slightly larger master bath, to accommodate a special-order tub I want (More in another post).

So we found a lot (These are not building tracts - you have to find a lot somewhere, then hire a builder to put a house on it. Suits us fine - then we aren't living in cookie-cutter land!), and signed a contract with the builder. He negotiated the lot price, for what we were willing to pay for it, and added it as a line item to our house contract (with no markup on land). We cut out a few things we could do later (namely solid-surface counter tops), in favor of keeping things we want NOW (you can't change the size of a kitchen after it's built, unless you REALLY like throwing money away).

We're so excited! 2400 square feet, all on one level. 4bed/3ba/4car garage. On a full acre. And still less than what the re-sale house would have cost.

The best part? We have not had to compromise ANYTHING on our "needs" list. It has seperate living and family rooms, etc....

Our builder closed on the lot last week, and is ready to break ground! I'll be down there in a couple of weeks, to register MiniMe for school. I promise to take pictures of the progress!

So, we're hosting Thanksgiving this year. And you're all invited.