Snow dayssssssss standstill

Snowmageddon2015 halted the progress we were making on the house.  It hit February 17 and left 10+ inches, some of which is still lingering.  My attempt to meet with plumbing, lighting, and appliance reps was pretty unsuccessful since many businesses were closed for several days.  I tried  to make good use of my time looking at fixtures on the internet.  I've known for months that choosing the lighting would likely be the death of me.  How in the world does one choose light fixtures for an undecorated room that doesn't exist in a house that hasn't been built?  AND how do you do that and stay within a budget?  The first light fixture (yes, I said fixture as in singular) was more than 1/2 of my entire lighting budget.  It did come from Restoration Hardware though.  I quickly established the fact that if I am to stay in budget, I'm going to have to find some major deals!

Let's start with these two little pretties.  They are made by Minka Lavery.  The large one, measuring 35.5" H x 30" W x 30" D, was on sale for $194.95.  MSRP is $899!  Can you say deal?  It will hang in our master bedroom.  The smaller one will hang in the hallway between our master closet and master bathroom.  It was $129.95.  MSRP is $389.95!!  I LOVE them!!  Wayfair

**Update on the mini chandelier.  Due to the changes we made in the master bath, I no longer have a place for this.  (Insert sad face.)

This little cutie will go in the playroom (unless I find a better deal elsewhere).  It's currently NOT on sale but still just $99 at World Market.  Four Sided Pendant Lantern

Searching for a hanging fixture for a boy's room that has an 11 foot ceiling is a little more challenging than I thought!  I found this one that is just the right combination of industrial and traditional and should grow with him (he's 8 now).  It measures 11"Hx20"Wx20"D and was $54 including tax.  Mudhut Fixture from Target

These are for the kitchen.  The globe pendant (3 of them) will hang above the kitchen island.  The are actually quite large at 12" wide.  I love their simplicity!  Globe Pendant from Lowe's are currently $118.  Hoping for a sale soon!

The fixture on the right is the Jeremiah Thornton Aged Bronze Chandelier.   I purchased it from Amazon for the breakfast area and if I told you what I paid for it, you's swear I was lying.  So until I receive it and can confirm that it is perfect, you'll just have to guess how much it was.  (It retails for $492!!)

**Update on the Jeremiah chandelier.  It came in packaged beautifully and from what I can tell, is in perfect condition.  It was $79.00 on Amazon.

 

This is the knock-off of the Restoration Hardware fixture I'm in love with for the great room.  Problem is, the biggest knock-off I can find under $1,000 is 32".  I need at least a 40".  Still hoping something will turn up on the internet in my budget!

I've picked out this fixture from Overstock for the dining room.  It's a great price, but I'm hoping I will eventually find it cheaper.  Cavalier 9-light from Overstock

I've found that there are times I run across a fixture that I just love but have no idea where I would put it.  Maybe the laundry room?  Everyone needs a little bling in the laundry room!  It's $174.59 right now on Overstock.  It's 11"Hx18"W, not including the rod.  I just LOVE it!!  Dark Brown Crystal Chandelier

And the most recent purchase, the foyer light manufactured by World Imports and purchased from Amazon for $135.

January has now come and gone, but before it left, we made progress!  We chose a builder, signed a contract, and chose our building spot.  

January 30

This picture is taken from the front of the property looking directly back where our house will sit. 

A little closer to where the house will sit.  You can actually see some of the flags in this picture.

Standing on the right side of the property looking toward our barn.

Taken from the back right corner of the property.

This sign makes me smile.  

Taken from where the corner of our driveway will be.  

I have been following home builds on Gardenweb for over two years.  I think I know now why everyone posts pictures like this:

Pushed out on February 3, poured footers on the February 4, and delivered block on February 5.

We are blessed that there are several houses similar to ours going up in our area.  This is one of them.  Not the best picture of the house.  We were actually picking out roof colors. 

Here is another home similar to ours.  Where the first was a bit smaller, this one is much larger.  We love the colors of it and will likely do something very similar.  

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!

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!

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!

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.  : - )