Monday, December 29, 2014

Saying goodbye to 2014

As wonderful as 2014 has been, it's almost time to say goodbye and welcome in 2015!  I hope that this will be the year that brings the excitement of building our dream home!  It's been pretty quiet on the homebuilding front as we have continued to save money and get our plans in order, but we are closer now than ever before!  As we celebrated Christmas at our little house on Yuma, I couldn't help but think (and hope!) about celebrating in our new home next year!
I pulled out our house plans last night and got excited all over again!  In the coming weeks we'll be choosing our builder and determining our timeline for breaking ground!
I've been spending some of my time off from work scouring the internet for the best places to buy furniture, light fixtures, and other things I'll need to pick out.  Some of my favorite places so far have been flash sale sites like Joss and Main, One King's Lane and Overstock.  Gotta find the deals!

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Summer is Here!

I know from following other bloggers that building a home takes a great deal of patience.  I haven't posted in a couple of months and really have very little to report.  We did finalize our plans with our architect.  He sent the plans as a PDF and we had them printed for next to nothing at a local print shop. We have three sets out with builders who are in the process of giving us bids.
Just yesterday we received one bid back.  It came in around $360,000.  A little more than we were hoping for, but I guess that's always the case, isn't it?  The bid was itemized by category, but I'd like to know from whom the bids came.  I feel like I need to be using some of my time off from work meeting with cabinet and floor people.  I want to make sure that as the other bids come in, we're comparing apples to apples.
We do have a trip planned to Atlanta next week, and I'm really looking forward to checking out the IKEA, Pottery Barn, and Restoration Hardware outlets there.  I love their fixtures but could never bring myself to paying full price or even catalogue sale price.
Hoping for more progress in the coming weeks!

Monday, April 7, 2014

Spring Break Fun on the Farm

Spring Break finally arrived, as did my beautiful buttercups!  They are all over our farm.  The funny thing is, when I decided on a name for my blog, I had no idea we had buttercups on our property.  I picked four HUGE bouquets for my daughter's birthday a couple of weeks ago, another bouquet for my mother-in-laws birthday and still have tons left!  I can't wait to live out there so I can enjoy them every day.   
I wanted to take some picture of our farm from different angles.  This is the little clump of trees that sit up close to the road.  This is looking from the front to the back of our original 5 acres.  The tree line at the back of the picture is the rear of our property.
This is looking back at our property from the right front corner next to the road.  To the right (not in the picture), is a new house on 5 acres.  It's a dead end street, so there is nothing beyond it.  This was one of the things that really attracted us to the property.  No worries about traffic!  The kids can ride their bikes without me having to worry (too much) about anything happening.
This picture is about 3/4 way back and looking at the additional 5 acres we bought.  Our two pieces of land kind of make an upside down L.  The garage/barn you see in the distance is on our additional piece of property.
More of my pretty buttercups.

Brady was happy to help me pick some flowers for Gia.
He was also happy to climb a few trees!
All work and no play makes Daryl a dull boy, (but I guess someone has to do it)!
One of the best things about coming to the farm?  The tractor and 4-wheeler!
This picture is the back of the second 5 acres.  This was a huge thicket of trees, bushes, and vines before Daryl started cleaning it up.  He's spent hours upon hours cleaning up this treeline.
Another beautiful weekend spent on our future homesite!  Makes me so thankful for the blessings I have received!

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Amicalola / Tranquility / Nantahala In Bowling Green

It was like Christmas morning when I opened my local newspaper and found the Home & Lifestyle magazine featuring a version of the house we will be building in the fall.  The unmistakable bathroom of the Amicalola is featured on the front cover.  There are several other photos on the inside featuring the kitchen and lodge room.  It is BEAUTIFUL and it is in Bowling Green!
The link to the on-line magazine is below:

March/April 2014 - Bowling Green Daily News: Bg Home And Lifestyle

There are now three versions that I know of that have been built in Bowling Green, and that makes me ONE HAPPY GIRL!  Can't wait to (hopefully) visit some of these homes before we build.

Stockpiling versus Meal Planning

There was a time when I had enough toothpaste, body wash, canned mushroom soup and frozen peas to last two years.  I got on the couponing craze and converted part of my garage to a make-shift pantry. I swore by it.  I told all of my friends it was the way to go.  I never got to the point where I could get $200 of groceries for a few pennies, but I did get a whole lot of nonperishable items for free or nearly free.  And then, we moved.  To a very small house.  That had no garage.  Which meant no stockpile.  Which meant bye-bye crazy couponing.  I don't even have a pantry here, just 10 kitchen cabinets and a lazy susan to hold all my crap.
I spent the first few months we lived here just trying to use up all my boxed and canned goods.  Ugh!  I don't even like Hamburger Helper; I only bought it because I thought it was a good deal.  This really changed the way I thought about grocery shopping.  If I'm spending money, even if it's 50 cents, on something I really don't want or like, then am I really saving money?
I challenged myself with continuing to save as much money on groceries as I could but by ONLY buying what we needed, which meant planning our meals each week.
After several months of meal planning, I can tell you that this works so much better for me, my family, and my pocketbook.
Here's how I do it:

  • Each Saturday or Sunday, I look at by calendar and decide which nights I will be home early enough to cook dinner.  Usually, that's two night.  So I plan two meals that will also provide us with some leftovers to either eat another night or take for my lunch at school.  
  • Next, I plan my meals.  I used to spend hours scouring cookbooks (and loved it), but what I love better than that is finding recipes on Pinterest or other's Blogs and I ALWAYS pay attention to the reviews.  (One thing to note is that when buying large quantities of items that will spoil quickly, like potatoes, I try to choose recipes that enable me to use the whole bag, rather than just a few to cook with, for example, a roast.)
  • Then, I make my grocery list, only putting things on the list that I know I will use THAT week.  

A couple of other things to note about Meal Planning:

  • I rarely buy anything at Sam's Club anymore.  I always end up purchasing things I hadn't intended on purchasing.  However, one thing I ALWAYS buy there is the Daily Chef brand canned chicken.  I love having it on hand and it saves so much time on a busy night.  
  • I now live in town so I have the time to shop at multiple stores.  
  • I LOVE Aldi.  It's my first stop so I try to get as much there as I can.  You can't beat their fresh fruits and vegetables!
  • I'll choose Wal-Mart over Kroger any day.  Unless you've got coupons for everything you're buying and the coupons can be doubled, Kroger will not save you that much money.  
  • I'll not only choose Wal-Mart, but I'll choose Wal-Mart BRAND any day.  
I'll try to post some of my favorite recipes soon.  Again, I borrow and steal from lots of sites.  My cookbooks are just shelf-fillers now.  : - )

Thursday, February 6, 2014

And so it begins

Another snow day here in BG means time for me to blog about the latest update to our house plans.  I've looked at hundreds of house plans and I've never found one that I didn't want to change at least 10 things.
There are many versions of the Amicalola, Tranquility, and Nantahala house plan but still not just one that I fell in love with.  When we met with our architect this week, we requested the following changes:

  • Enlarge kid's bedrooms to at leaset 12 x 12.  
  • Enlarge den (hearth room) by 2'
  • Square off the back left corner of the house (this is where the kid's bedrooms are) and reconfigure space to include a walk-in closet in each bedroom and a bathroom for each bedroom.
  • Move stairs to hallway leading to kid's bedrooms.
  • Remove closet and exterior door from mudroom and add built-ins.  
  • In lodge room, incorporate exterior doors leading to patio.  
  • Move door to study to hallway (across from master bedroom).  
  • Square off the front right corner (this is where the master closet is located).  This adds quite a bit more space to the master area, but some of it isn't really usable space.  We want all of the walk-in and the master bath reconfigured to make the best use of the space.  
  • Make the second laundry area (off the master bath) into an office area with access from the hallway with a pocket door.
  • Remove the middle of three windows in the master.  This will allow for more flexibility with furniture placement.  
  • Remove the exterior door from the master bedroom.  

 

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Dream Home

Here are some outside photos I found on the web.  Since they are screenshots, the URL should be displayed in each picture.  

I love the colors on this house.  I'm really leaning toward doing the windows in a charcoal color and think the blue exterior would really look nice.  Notice how the posts on the porch are painted or stained a dark color.  I think I might have done the same with the shutters.  

Another color scheme option and a rare garage view.



Another color scheme and straight lines on the roof.
 I really like this look of brick, shake and stone, and I love the windows!
 Another view.  I think the dark shutters and windows blend nicely with the front porch posts.
 This is a unique look with the board and batten.
 This look is more in keeping with the original design.
 Another one using board and batten.
Still very undecided but so nice to see the different options.

Big Plans for 2014

We've now been in our transitional home for one year and three months.  Our plan when we started this  endeavor was to begin building at the two year mark, so what does that mean?  It means we're ready to start making some decisions and meeting with our architect and builder.  So, I've taken full advantage of the holiday season and a few unexpected snow days to scour the internet for pictures and ideas.
It seems our house plan by Garrell and Associates is quite popular and goes by several different names including: Tranquility, Amicalola, and Nantahala.  I've found dozens of variations to the plan, which is great since there is no way we can afford to build the home with all of the windows, trusses, stone, and shake the plan calls for.
I've also been using houzz.com to get lots of ideas.  I found that the best way to organize all of my ideas I found on Houzz, Pinterest and the web was to take screen shots using my iPad and put them into albums.  I'm sure this will be a big time saver when we begin meeting with contractors.
I also found several variations of the floor plan.  I like certain parts of several plans and ended up enlarging them and literally cutting and pasting them into one plan.
I'm really looking forward to meeting with our architect to get some more ideas on how we can make the best use of our space.  We will meet with him in a few weeks when he finishes up with my brother in law and sister in law, who are also getting ready to build.
Ironically enough, on the lot next to where they will be building, a version of our home is currently under construction.  How lucky could we be?  While the home being built will be about twice the size of ours (it has a full basement), it will be neat to see what materials they use.
Until next time. . .