Goodbye Woods

The housing market is looking up and with that comes new construction.  We've enjoyed living in the woods back here with only a few houses, but it seems that those days are over.  They've cleared the lot directly in front of our house.   We'll have new neighbors soon.

 Now we can see through the trees to the other street.  And I haven't seen any deer lately.  Another downside to the new construction:  my dog barks CONSTANTLY at the workers.  Don't worry, it'll only last for the next four months?!

Tree House

Here's a little project that I forgot to blog about: our treehouse!  Drew has been wanting to build one for Andrew in our awesome tree for quite some time.  He and his brother started it when they were here on the 23rd.  They got the supports finished.

 Then on the day after Christmas, Dad helped Drew with the floor, framing, and the walls.  They got a lot accomplished in a day!

 Once the floor and the walls were up, we let Andrew go outside and take a look at it.  He was amazed! He LOVES it! 

The next day, Drew finished up the siding on the walls, put the roof on, and built the railings for the porch.  (You can see the rails stacked up in the second picture (above). I just realized when I sat down to do this post that I don't have a recent picture of it.  My bad.  And that's all we've done so far.  Then Drew had his surgery, so the final touches will have to come later.  

Still to do:  cut out windows, attach a tube slide off of the left side, attach swings to the underside of the porch, build zip line, and stain it.    So, lots to be done, but at least for now, it's functional.  The neighborhood kids think it's a big hit too.  Andrew likes to get up there and shoot his toy bow and arrow across the yard.  Fun times.  I'll be sure to do a final/finished product post when we're 100% done, but don't hold your breath....we're busy having a baby next week! :)

DIY Project and Road Trip for Mommy

Last week my parents got to come to down for a nice long visit.  They came to watch Andrew while I went on a trip.  Dad's off days allowed him to come a little early.  They were here for 10 days and it was great.  
Dad and I had planned on doing a little home improvement project before I left on Thursday, so we headed to Lowe's on Monday and got our supplies ready.  
*backstory* We bought our front loader washer and dryer in Hawaii.  Our hookups were in the garage and there was a ledge, so we didn't need the pedestals that they sell separately.  Well, in our new house, we have a real live laundry room sans the ledge, so I've been in need of a little height under there!  My protruding belly makes is more and more difficult to bend over.**

I decided that I wanted Dad to build some instead of buying them 1) building them would be way cheaper than buying 2 at $250 each! and 2) I wanted to be able to slide my laundry baskets underneath.  And being the great Dad that he is, he happily obliged.  

We built it and had it painted before I left.

FYI they make these great paint sparkles to add to your paint.  They made the paint job look just like the shimmery paint on my washer and dryer.

 When I got home on Monday, Dad already had them in place!

 I'm a big fan!  No more bending over for me!

Now you're probably asking about my trip.  Well, I flew to Orlando to meet Drew at a Real Estate Conference.  We took a class on Creative Financing.  It was very helpful and we met lots of interesting people, some were even from Pensacola!  We're ready to expand our portfolio....looking for our next investment property.  (By the way...we have a Real Estate business on the side, but that's a totally different post)  To get the general idea, you can visit our website, which is always under construction:  Liberty Coast Investments.  And as always, if you need to buy or sell a home, let us know! :)

And since the conference was in Orlando, there had to be a little Disney in there somewhere.  We attended Night of Joy at the Magic Kingdom on Friday night.  Night of Joy is a 2 night Christian concert event and it was Ah-Mazing!  Friday night featured:  Need to Breathe, Disciple, Red, Fracesca Battestelli, Brandon Heath, Chris Tomlin, and Casting Crowns.   It was so great to see so many people praising Jesus in front of the castle!  On Saturday night our conference lasted until 9 pm so we didn't make it to see Mercy Me and Third Day (and many others).  

*It was raining so I didn't take my camera with me to MK*  Alas, there are no pictures.  

It was a great weekend.  It was nice to spend some alone time with Drew even though we were "working."  We stayed at Disney's Boardwalk and had a nice, quiet breakfast at Sunrise on Friday morning at the bakery.  Good times!  I'm looking forward to seeing Drew again next week when he comes home for a quick couple of days.  

Virtual Tour

Well, the PODS have been delivered and we have heard an official close time.  Tomorrow afternoon, the house will officially be ours!  I spoke with the builders today and they informed me that a virtual tour of our house in online.  I thought I'd share...


VIRTUAL TOUR


You may now book your reservations at The Ladner B&B!  We can't wait to see you.  :)

SOD!

We heard the sod was coming soon.  We heard right!  There were 16 pallets in the front yard alone!

 They had already started on the back yard.

 Then the next day, the front yard looked like a real yard!

We should be closing soon!

All In A Day's Work

I've been so behind on the blog lately (I'll explain later) that I'm just going to do one large "house update" post.  


When we went by to check on the house on Friday morning 9/30, the pool looked like this:

As you know, we left that afternoon to go to MS.  We got a call Friday night saying that the liner had been installed and they had started filling the pool.  (I dread when that water bill comes!)  So we didn't get to see the pool until we got back.  Drew sent me a couple of pictures on Monday, 10/3:

When I got home on Wednesday, 10/5, the concrete had been poured!

Thursday, 10/6, we had our preliminary walk through.  We heard rumors that we will close on Friday, 10/14.  Yippee.  They told us that the sod would be put down today, and sure enough they had gotten started.  We pulled up and saw this: (16 palettes of sod for the front yard alone!)

They started in the back:

It's starting to look like a real yard!!  On our way out we met an 18 wheeler flat bed full of more palettes of sod headed for the house.  Not much longer now!!

Pool Progress

9/27/11

9/29 (It rained on the 28th, so no update)- Pouring the concrete floor

Dig, Baby, Dig!

They have started on the pool!  In just under an hour, the back yard looked like this:

 Boy, am I glad we're doing this while the yard is already a mess.  I can't imagine doing it once we had sod and sprinklers.  What a mess!

 This is a random picture I took of the fence a few days ago. (clearly BEFORE the dig)

"They say"it will only take them 10 days to finish the pool.  We'll see!  Stay tuned for daily updates on the pool progress...

Our Surprise

A few posts back, I told you that we "might" have a surprise to share.  Well it's official now, WE'RE GETTING A POOL!  We were waiting for the appraisal to come back to see if it was high enough to include the pool in the mortgage....and it was!  

Mr. Manning met me at the house and marked off the future spot of our pool.  (That's it outlined in orange)

 The fence guys came out and set the posts.  They'll be back tomorrow to fence in 3/4 of the yard, leaving a space for all the heavy equipment to get through.  

 Here's the view from the back porch.  It's a little hard to see the outline, but you get the idea.

They'll be back next Monday to start digging!  Getting the pool will delay us TWO MORE WEEKS getting into the house, but we figure it's worth it!  I just hope it stays warm enough for us to enjoy it at least once or twice before winter!

The Inside is Finished!

After being away for the weekend, we had to go take a look at the house.  With things being so close to completion, you can image how antsy we are.  We got there to find the cleaning lady inside, which means...aside from some last minute touch up paint and trim work, the inside of the house is FINISHED!  Woo Hoo!  Here's a sneak peek: (Yes, I know it's a lot of beige!  I may end up painting an accent wall or two...or not!  I'll just have to accent with a little color.)

Standing in the corner of the dining room looking at the foyer and into the living room/kitchen.

Play room

Half bath in what would have been the closet.  I thought a potty for little ones would be a much better idea!

Andrew's room

another angle

Office/guest room #2/future nursery (No, I'm not pregnant)

Master bedroom (I failed to get a shot of the master bath because the cleaning lady was in there.)

I did get a shot of Andrew's/the guest bath

Apparently, I was in such awe of my kitchen cabinet doors that I didn't get a picture of them either.  Oh well...next time!  :)

Wood Floor...check!

Well, we went by the house yesterday and they had poured the concrete for the porches and driveway! (Well...most of it)  On our way out, we passed the concrete truck to finish the job)  Since we got there at concrete pouring time, we signed our name to a small corner in the back porch to leave our permanent mark on the place!   Also, the hot water heater, dishwasher, and utility sink had all been added since our last visit.  

Today, we went to check on the progress.  (What?  It's moving so fast lately, that we don't want to miss anything.)  The tile has been grouted in all rooms and the hardwood was installed.  You can't get the full effect from the cell phone pic, but trust me...it's GORGEOUS!  Drew and I were kind of wishing we had enough money to put the wood all the way in the living room too.  But then again, we like having carpet under our feet.  Speaking of carpet...we passed the guys delivering it on our way out.

They were going to finish the carpet today.  So all that's left is: cabinet doors, the columns outside, one door frame upstairs, a little touch up paint, and a good cleaning!  Woo Hoo!  Oh and they forgot to wire our flood lights on the back of the house, so that has to be done too.  You'd think we'd be ready to close at the beginning of next week, BUT...we're waiting to see if we're getting a surprise...more details later!

We Have Granite!

We've finally seen a break in the rain today!  Hooray!  We did however have several tornado warnings last night and even a few this morning, but this afternoon there have been a few patches of sun!  We took that opportunity to show Mom and Dad the house.  (The only other time they saw it, ironically, it was coming a flood!  So they hadn't seen the inside.)  I go all the time, but had a new nice surprises as well!  Everything is locked up so we had to break in get creative in order to get in.  The first thing I noticed...I have GRANITE!! 

 The kitchen tile is laid, but not grouted.  

Here's a better look at the tile.

 The correct bathroom cabinets are in, as well as tile and countertops. (Master)

 Andrew's bathroom

 The front looks the same, except they added the hanging light on the front porch.  

 Due to all the rain, we had some of our dirt in the yard end up in the street.  But luckily, we had no other damage. 

 Now, if the ground will hurry up and dry out, we can get the driveway poured! Not much longer now...woo hoo!

Progress!

After dropping Andrew off at school, Drew and I had to meet the fence guy at the house.  We were surprised by the progress that had been made in a day!  Our garage door is now up!

 They also cleaned up the rest of the back yard (there were a couple of trees they didn't get out of the way) and did all the leveling.  They graded the driveway, getting ready for concrete!

 I walked inside to find all the light fixtures in place....and my CABINETS!!!  Here's the dining room fixture. 

 Foyer light

 My KITCHEN!!! (Minus the granite countertops and cabinet doors of course)

 Oh, I can't wait to start baking in here!!!

Living room

 Master bath

 Aperture doesn't have the photo stitch option, so you'll just have to imagine the next two photos stitched together all panoramically perfect!  (back yard)

 The rest of the back yard

 View of backyard from the back corner of the property. 

Things are coming right along!  Each time I see the house I get more and more excited.  We also met one of the owners of the company today.  He came out to check on the property.  (Super nice guy!  Just one more reason to love Timberland Contractors!)  He seems to think that everything will be right on schedule.  The fence guy should be able to start on Friday (fingers crossed)!  There should be lots of updates in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!