Josh had the weekend off from school between class sessions, so naturally I encouraged him to kick back, relax, and work on the site and grading plans for the property.

We each spent a good part of the day yesterday and today working on the plans. As he was calculating how many cubic yards of dirt will need to be “rearranged” to level out a spot for the house, I was working through all of the redlines on the house design.

I had made a first pass with the redlining and then had asked Josh to go through the plans and make notes as well. A few hours into working on the changes and updates, as I was going cross-eyed trying to double-check the window and door schedules, I flipped to the reflected ceiling plan and saw this note from Josh…

I had a good laugh over this.

A curved dash line meant to indicate how lighting is switched and linked does indeed look like the path of a bee.

Thank you, Joshua, for a) being a landscape architect so you can draw site plans, for b) being a good sport and working on the plans on your break from class, and for c) always knowing when I need a good laugh.

October 21, 2019

Here is Josh red-lining the house plans for me at approximately 8:37PM because I’ve looked at them 1,297 times and need a fresh set of eyes on them:

Yesterday, I spent much of the day trying to finish up our house plans to submit to the county for the various permits we will need. Josh was at a group meeting for school, so this was the first chance he had to review this round of plans. Oh yes, while we embark on this journey to build a house, Josh is getting his MBA and we both work full-time. Fun!

October 19, 2019

Today, we packed a picnic lunch and drove out to the property as official owners. I have a feeling this will become a Saturday ritual for the next year or so, or at least until there is a working kitchen on site, which, from the looks of things, will be a minute.

We also brought along the house plans and flags so we could stake off the outline of the house in its approximate position. We learned a few things during this exercise:

1. These orange flags don’t show up very well.
2. It’s really difficult to place the flags in a straight line and square without the proper equipment.
3. I am bossy.
4. 9 acres is a lot of acres.
5. We will need a tractor.

Here is Josh, placing flags with abandon:

October 18, 2019

This afternoon, we closed on our property in Primm Springs. We are now the proud owners of just over 9 acres of lovely rolling pasture. It hasn’t quite sunk in yet, except for the big ding to the bank account.

It has been quite a journey to find this piece of land. And, there was no pressure of course, because it was only for our forever home. We searched for nearly 18 months to find just the spot. There were many weekends spent driving around checking out listings or trying to stumble upon a for-sale-by-owner deal. (We found one, but the owner never called us back. Great strategy for trying to sell something.) We would diligently research listings on google-earth and the county GIS only to find that the property was a) entirely wooded, b) basically a cliff, and/or c) configured in such a way that one must build a tall, skinny house on a 5 acre lot.

Thankfully, we stuck it out and eventually the right property came along. So, here we are, ready to build our forever home!