The Inside Scoop

 This past week we went down to see the house and approve some things like lighting and placement of electrical and structural things. We got into town late but stopped by the house anyway 'cause who can wait a whole night to see you very own house!? not us... well I could- after Jimmy told me that there was a 'Huge rat' on the side of the house I had to enter through... I opted to wait till morning.

 We met up with Johnny (our contractor) and Mark (our real estate guy and Jim's other Southern crush). We talked about the plans and the schedule. We caught some potential problems like the light over the extended island in the wrong place, a light fixture where the shower head should be, data components that were placed on the wrong side of the fire place a couple cracked windows and placement of the deck steps... see there to the right... that's where the deck will go!

Photo credit goes to Nick

 The kids were in tow this trip since it was so last min and it was a weekday, making finding sitters difficult. They were initially interested in the house... but soon they were antsy on a construction site. Camera to the rescue! They photographed all  the things they saw around them. Like  the masons mixing mortar for the brick they were laying while we were there. (I have the whole process, kind of like a flip-book if you are interested in how they do it)

 Then Claire took over and as you can see she is clearly a Havener-product taking pics of her toes at this important moment in her life. (closed-toed to save her tiny piggies from falling bricks and exposed nails)
She also photographed her future playhouse entrance in the crawlspace so we could begin the planning.   :)

 Jimmy did some planning of his own measuring out the space in the bonus room for his HUGE TV... and ensuring the surround sound was wired correctly

Here are some over-all pics of the house. 

From the upstairs hallway outside my delightful laundry room overlooking the kitchen. The sunroom entrance is  to the left.

 

A closeup of the kitchen.. that's my island in the middle and my kids already hungry and running around in it. See that closet to the right? That's the pantry! 

 

This is the view from the top of the stairs. Below you see into the Guest bathroom (it has a tub already!) and to the right you can see the fireplace and the messed up wiring they are going to fix. to the left (out of the picture) is the front door and the dining room and study.

and here are the stairs with the study to the right and the dining through the butler's pantry on the left. 

 

 All three of the 'master minds' surveying the lay of the land and discussing the landscaping/irrigation.

We are super excited to delve deeper into this process and see some sheet rock go up. But first the brick gets finished and screw-ups get fixed. Then insulation and county inspection. Then drywall and the race to the finish.

House Update

 It has windows! and see that... that's the brick and concrete for the driveway! 

And this is my backyard from what we assume is the great room windows. We are an estimated 8 ft. off the ground from the backdoor to the yard... meaning a raised deck off the sunroom. 

We head down there this week to check out the progress for ourselves so expect excessive pictures in the next update of the INSIDE!!

Also and a complete aside and absolutely unrelated- I had a moment of 'I wish you hadn't telled me that' this morning. It made me miss my family something fierce.

Raising the Roof

My house kinda looks like a house now... how cool is that?

I have not packed anything and am in complete denial about actually having to move everything I own...
Also I am freaked out about other people driving my stuffs and unloading it on the other end.. any advice from others who have already done this?

Walls

And then there were walls on our absolutely terrifying adventure. 

Ok, only like one wall and it's for the garage, but as Claire said 'Look at that brick mommy!' Look at that brick indeed. :)

Hey- I Live There

Large machinery has appeared on the scene of our soon-to-be home!
 This week I will be packing up things in the kitchen that we haven't used in the last two weeks.
 And I'll be cleaning out under beds.

Breaking Ground

 Soon to be the home of the Iovino's!

To the right side of the last picture you can see the side of our neighbor and Jimmy's man-crush Jeff's house. The man crush is mutual bizarrely enough.  They are already working out aerating schedules and seeding parties and the contract for C and their son Dylans' wedding.

Wanna see the kitchen in the Charlotte house?

 

Above is the model so you can see the layout; the pantry and stacked microwave and wall oven are to the left.

mine is slightly different as we extended the island toward where they have a table (since our table will be in that gorgeous sunroom!) We'll have bookshelves on the sides of the island. (I guess I'll have to find some cook books to take up that space) 

 Below are my our choices for cabinets, counter tops and back-splash.

Something bright and airy... and it only took us 2 hours to come to these choices. This was the hardest room to choose because they just didn't have the counter tops that I had in my head at the design center when we went... But that's behind us now.. almost.

We break ground as soon as the per-appraisal is completed in about 2 weeks. :D
Then it's 4.5 months or so till we move and you can come visit!

Moving South

Some of you know and some of you had no way of knowing that we are moving down south. Jim's company has an office down there and we have considered this move for almost a year before requesting it this past fall. Once the wheels started moving it seems like this tiny idea picked up speed rather quickly. And now we are barreling headlong into this great adventure.
We have decided to build a home, because you can build it for the same price you can buy it used- why inherit others problems when you can create problems of your own?
We have a plot of land - something I never had on my list of life accomplishments but it's a pretty good one to add and then cross off.

They will build it in 5 months- making moving day sometime around early to mid August. Next week we will spend 4-6+ hrs picking out all the finishes (door knobs, tile for bathrooms, light fixtures, flooring, windows....) We plan to then spend the next 2 weeks in couples therapy.
When it's all said and done it will look something like this





So stay tuned for all the adventures and inevitable mishaps as we journey into home building.

Pretty Much It

Nick is cutting teeth, and has a head cold to end all head colds that doesn't allow him to breath at night so he's opted to just stay up... all night. :( I haven't been able to cross anything off my list for almost a week now for some unexplainable reason. Not even the kind where you do the thing and then add it and cross it off all in one step. :( I miss my mommy- intensely lately and August can't come fast enough cause I could also use a big hug from my daddy.
But even after laying all that whining out there, I'm not really feeling defeated or down, just tired- mentally, physically and emotionally.
If I can catch some winks today I think I'll lock myself in the bathroom and force myself to stay there till it's sparkling. And then reward myself with a fresh-out-of-the-oven (all-by-itself) chocolate chip cookie. :)

Tweet, Tweet....

Today was the day to have twitter......

I think there is a bird in my walls.

There is definitely a bird in my dryer vent and he's not happy to be in there.

Would it be horrible to turn the dryer on? Would it just kill the bird and stink everything to high heaven?

Maintenance 'might' make it out 'sometime today'?! Did I mention there is a BIRD IN my dryer vent!?!

Dear bird- I can hear you and you are going the WRONG WAY! Fly toward the light....

Claire is yelling at the bird to 'stop making that creepy noise' - that really forlorn sounding song that calls to your friends to 'get you the heck out of here!!' I wish you had better friends.

OMG now there is definitely more than one bird. Dear bird friends she wanted you to help her out, not join her for a crazy dryer vent party.

The squirrels are now wise to the distress of my birds. They are hanging out under the vent making noise and freaking the birds out. Ugh.

The guys came- and they said "those are some BIG birds" apparently they can fly in and out no problem though. I plan to run my dryer all day and night from now on till they decide it's not a good idea to nest in my dryer vent!

Yet another thing done half-assed by the people who remodeled my kitchen. I need to replace my dryer vent with one those stinking birds can't get into.

Thankfully no nest, cause if they build a nest and lay eggs it's against the law to have them removed and we just have to live with them till they hatch and fly the coupe. (it's a $10,000 fine to disturb them)

No birds. YAY! Now who will replace this dryer vent. Ugh!