SylvanTrails New Home

We’re in our new home!  We’ve been here since March and it felt like home the first night we moved in.  It suits us to a “T”!

We did have one minor issue where the tankless water heater in the boys’ bathroom didn’t work, and it took a month or so to sort that out, but things are going great!

It is NICE being so close to everything.  We have gone from eating out 4 or more times a week to less than 2.   I buy gas about every 10 days or so.

We do have ticks and chiggers and blackberry brambles to deal with…yes, blackberry brambles can be a problem if they grow EVERYWHERE!  LOL!

Of course, there are still things to do to finish making the house completely a home…we need to finish hanging pictures, I need to fix the curtains in the bathrooms (they are too long), various other things like that.  But, we’re here for the long haul, so we’ve got the time.

All of the dreaming and deciding things and laying out floor plans and ordering things and delays and financing and it comes down to this…WE’RE MOVING NEXT MONTH! EEEK!!

The house is in place. The roof is on, the porch is on, the painting is in process, the electrical is in process, the heat pump is in place, the water is in process…everything is in the final stages…and WE’RE MOVING NEXT MONTH!

It’s really going to happen!

Lots of packing has been done…but there is still a LOT to do. We have a PackRat (mobile storage unit) on our old house that we’re loading with boxes. Once we’re ready to move, we’ll call the company and get them to move it to the new place. Still not sure if we’re going to move the furniture ourselves or hire someone…both have their advantages and disadvantages.

So, we got numbers from everyone and figured out that, yes, we can do this thing.

This past weekend, we went and visited a display home from the company we are going with and had a few questions answered.  We know what color cabinets we want.  We also found out that we really don’t want pocket doors.  We had them in our original floor plan…going from the “office” to the master bedroom, but the first company we talked to couldn’t do them, so we changed to french doors.  Well, this company CAN do them, and had them on the display home.  However, they have a tendency to fall off their tracks easily (they did it at least once while we were there), and…with two kids, that’s just not an option.  I’d love to have them, because of the space saving, but not if they are going to be more trouble than they are worth.

Yesterday, we met my FIL at the bank and…the new property is now OURS!!  Now, we are working with our contractor to start on the permitting process.  We are also waiting for plans from the manufacturer to come back, so we can start getting the financing on our new house…and pay off the old house so we can give it to FIL.

Dates on things have slipped a little (don’t they always?), and we’ll probably be moving in over Christmas, not celebrating there.  Ah, well.

We saw our contractor earlier this week and he gave us (mostly) final numbers. Enough to go “gulp!”, but about what we expected. We have done some upgrades to the basics of the house…things like the “craneboard” siding in a color WE want (vinyl siding with foam underneath…adds to the durability of the siding and to the insulation on the house), forever-lasting “wood” for the porch stairs (I think to the whole porch, but don’t quote me on that), the heaters and the tub we want…things like that.

When our house is done, it will be EnergyStar qualified. So, perhaps better interest rates and perhaps tax breaks and perhaps lower energy bills.

We figured out how to solve the “where is the front door” problem we were having…we’re going to have covered porches off the front and back of the house, instead of just the front. It might limit where the house can go some, but I think we’ll like it better, in the long run.

Next step is to talk to FIL and get final numbers on the property swap, work on that, and work on getting the loan(s?). Hubby will start on that tonight.

We still aren’t in a super-hurry, we can always delay if we need to, but my worries about delay would be that interest rates might go up more than they already have and that, depending on when we start, we might finish in the middle of the winter…I have no desire to move in the middle of an ice storm.

Hubby was debating about trying to get a second quote, but I think we’ve got a good one…I know the base price on the house is reasonable and everything the contractor has added on is reasonable and stuff *we’ve* asked to have added.

Hopefully, soon, we’ll be proceeding…yikes…woohoo!

Theoretically, we’ll be moved well before Christmas…probably even before Thanksgiving!  Woohoo!  (eek!)

We are going with our friend.  He’s given us a tentative quote (will give us a final quote hopefully next week), that is within our budget…just barely, but within it.  But, that includes *everything*, the house, the driveway, any work on the well and septic, sealing the crawlspace, all the permits, etc.

Our friend is happy with the modular company he’s chosen.  Their prices are reasonable, and they can do some of the custom stuff we want, like the built-in 6′ tub, the water heaters we want, they’ll do the insulation the way we need it for the sealed crawlspace.  And, when all is said and done, we’re going to have a LOT of insulation…because the house will already come with EnergyStar rated insulation, then we add the CraneBoard siding that has it’s own insulation.

We are in all probability not going to get the little strip of land next to our property to put the driveway on…the neighbors have sold the whole lot to someone else, and they close about the same time we move in.  Ah, well…that’s the bad news…the good news is that the new neighbors will be putting a horse farm in.  Woohoo!  Pretty horses to oggle without having to clean up after them!  LOL!

We also contemplated looking at getting the property behind us…but it’s worth more than we can even think of affording right now.  Ah, well…

We’re still playing a bit with exactly where to put the house.  Hubby and FIL had one idea, but there isn’t a whole lot of wiggle-room there, and when hubby realized that they were orienting the house completely wrong, he’s thinking that, if it stays where it is, we won’t be able to put in a back deck.  We need to decide if that is important or not…and if it isn’t, then we will contemplate removing the door in the living-room, because we won’t need it.  If a deck is important, then we may need to contemplate putting the house elsewhere…like, maybe, right behind the current house or something… dunno, yet.

Still a half-a-gazillion things to figure out with this…like, do we get cable installed or not, which phone company do we use (do we have a choice?), if we move the house, do we just use the driveway that is there, or go ahead and put a new one in?  etc…all sorts of questions, including ones we haven’t even thought of to have answers for, yet.

But, it is coming along, and we do have a rough time-frame for moving…yikes!  It is becoming a reality!

On Friday, we went and talked to the bank to see how much mortgage we could afford, to try to get an idea of what the properties are worth, and to try to get an idea of just how complicated this property transfer is going to be.

When all is said and done, the bank said we could work the trade out however we wanted to, as long as the mortgages on the properties are paid off. We were able to get an idea of what our property is worth, but FIL’s was a bit more complicated (nothing comparable has sold around it recently), and we discovered that with our credit rating, we could afford as much house as we wanted to afford.

Oh, we never did get the information from the realtor about what our house was worth.  Ah, well, we got the info from the bank, so all is good.

So, hubby has set up an appointment with the modular dealer we are going with and we are meeting with them this coming Friday to see what we need to do to work on getting a final work-up of for the house and get the ball rolling on getting the house built. Yay! EEP!

The next few months are going to be crazy, hectic, fun, as we get the properties arranged, the new mortgage(s) in place, the lot set up for the house, the house put in, and us moved into the house. Lots of work ahead.

But, it will be worth it in the end to have our dream house, built closer to everything, and built to our specifications.

Oh, and this weekend is also our anniversary, so hubby and I are going to do… something… we still aren’t sure exactly what. But, we’ll be heading off to do that after we meet with the modular dealer.

We have finally received enough estimates to have a good idea of what the house is going to cost to build. Now we are waiting to hear from a realtor about what both of the properties are currently worth. Once we get that information we can have a better idea of how much loans are going to be and whether we can afford it this year or if we are going to have to wait.

Oh, and hubby had some more fun with the floor plans, trying to make the kitchen more “efficient”, and possibly adding a built in front porch. They didn’t work as well and I think we’re mostly back to the flipped floor plan, with maybe some minor tweaks.

We are slowly starting to discuss interior decoration. I am bringing it up now because, since we are getting a brand new house, we can get the fixtures and stuff to “go” with the decoration, instead of working the decoration to “go” with the interior. Hubby’s comment was that, if we like the decoration as it is now, why change…so, I think we are mostly going with what we have in our current house, with some minor modifications.

My grandmother died on Christmas Eve 2006. She was a big part of all of our lives. Even when things were difficult for my brother and me because of…life… she was there. She took us places on vacations. She gave me my love for reading and for Science Fiction. She provided the nest egg that helped us buy the house we are in now, purchased our bed, the dining room table, and the futon that my older son is now using for his bed. Her legacy has left us enough to help with the new house. She did a LOT for the whole family.

When she died, she was cremated. She had wanted to be donated to science, but because of how she died there was too much infection for them to be able to deal with it.

The original plan for her ashes was to purchase a spot at the columbarium at our church. However, here it is, a year and a half later and it hasn’t happened. My mother just isn’t ready to let her go that way. (She’s currently staying in our pastor’s office, holding long, interesting conversations with John Wesley. )

All of that is background to:

Hubby and I have been staying up *way* too late this week, no particular reasons, it’s just happening. The other night, as I’m up past midnight, finally in bed, and trying to get to sleep, I was kept up longer with a fit of inspiration.

There is a climbing rose that she liked (I can’t remember the name of it, but Mother has two of them in her front yard). There is another rose she liked, and I’ll talk to Mother to see about non-rose plants she liked. Anyway, it popped into my head…build her a specific section in the garden that I’m already mentally planning.

I don’t know exactly what it will look like. I know it will have the roses (and, therefore, a climbing trellis). I know that I would like to ask a friend who creates slate art work to do something for her. Beyond that…I don’t know. Maybe a fountain (if so, it will have to have dragons), maybe a reading bench, maybe a bird feeder…maybe a combination of the above.

I do know what I want the marker for the area to say. I want it to have her name, her birth and death dates, and to say “Thank you for everything”.

In addition to my family being local (I have mentioned that my mother keeps the kids while we work), my hubby’s dad is also local. He also owns several pieces of property in the area, including a couple of pieces that are convenient to our work and the things we like to do…and that are, conveniently enough, available to be developed.

Also, as we’ve discussed the vague possibility of moving, my FIL commented that he’d like to make an offer on our property if we decide to sell it.

So, hubby comes up with a brilliant idea…why don’t we talk to my FIL about getting our dream home built on one of the available properties and then we work out a trade…he gets our house and land, and we get his!

Hubby talks to his dad, and he is agreeable to working something out. Also, the two pieces of property that are available are on the same road, so we do some research and figure out which one suits our needs the best and, again, FIL is agreeable to that.

Next up…figuring out exactly what our dream home is…

Hubby started a new job in January. With his old job, we were driving into work as a family, I’d drop him off at his office, my two boys at my mother’s (she takes care of them while we work), and then go to work myself. In all, it would take me about 50 minutes to get to work, my hubby’s commute was about 25…and we’d get to spend the time hanging out as a family, discussing whatever needed to be discussed.

Now, we’re driving separate cars, BOTH of our commutes are in the 30-40 minute time-frame, and, in general, it’s not as much fun. Also, in general, currently we are at least 10 minutes, usually 20 or more, from everything…shopping, church, family, tae kwon do, life.

Our current house is a nice house. It is just under 2000 sq.ft., an open floor plan ranch, with nice, big rooms for everyone. It is smack dab in the middle of 4 1/2 acres of land and is, in general, a pretty nice house. It does have a couple of drawbacks…the closet space leaves more to be desired than you would think from looking at it and there is no attic. None. Zilch, zip, nada…not even any way to access the area between the ceiling and the roof. But, all in all, it is a NICE house and I originally didn’t want to move.

However, with the new job, we realize just how far from everything we want to do we are. Now, for some people, that may not be a problem. But, for us, it is. I LIKE coming home at a decent hour and fixing home-cooked dinners. I like coming home and relaxing…heck, I like coming home at a decent hour, period. So, I told my husband that, if we needed to move, it would have to be into a very special house.

Originally, I had the thought of moving to a particular neighborhood, one that would put me within biking distance of my work and my mother’s house and my husband a lot closer to his work than he his now. But, after thinking on it for a while, we realized that we wouldn’t like living in town because we are used to the quiet of the country where we live. So, we kind of put the moving idea on the back burner, until….