Posted on by Emily

Day 101

Greetings!

Well, the house isn’t done yet…or started for that matter.

We did, however, close on our construction loan.  Our plans have been submitted for our construction permit and we’re hoping to get the green light this coming week.

Though there’s not much to see just yet, we still make regular visits to the property to check on it and collect the footage from the trail camera.

After reviewing last week’s footage, it seems we aren’t the only ones eagerly awaiting construction to start:

Screen Shot 2020-01-26 at 2.02.36 PM

Hiiiii….

Screen Shot 2020-01-26 at 2.05.13 PMThis is the second time we have seen this truck.  If there’s a next time, I’ll be running their plates and sending them a note with the blog URL.

This is also the second time we’ve seen this little guy/gal:

Screen Shot 2020-01-26 at 2.02.05 PM

The first time we saw him/her, Josh had reviewed the footage before I did.  I asked him if there was anything noteworthy and our conversation went something like this:

J: “A few vehicles, a coyote, and a house cat.”

E: “A house cat?”

J: “Yeah, a house cat.”

E: “As opposed to what? A leopard? A lion? A bobcat? Isn’t it just a cat?”

J: “No, you can tell it’s a house cat.”

This went on for a while and we eventually determined that while I would categorize all domestic felines as “cats”, Josh grew up with farm cats that lived in the barn and did not come in the house so therefore just “cat” as a descriptor is a little too vague.

I am assuming this critter’s full figure is what led Josh to determine that it is clearly a “house cat”.

Hopefully by the time the house cat returns, construction will be underway!

P.S. This is not the first time the term “house cat” has come up in our marriage.  When shopping for shampoo to bathe our (house) cat, Bu, all the pet store had was “show cat” shampoo.  Josh rolled his eyes and exclaimed, “We don’t need “show cat” shampoo, we just need “house cat” shampoo!”.

 

Posted on by Emily

Day 83

Well, 2020 is off to a strong start!

Items of note:

  1. We close on our construction loan next week.
  2. Our septic permit has been approved.
  3. We should have everything together to apply for our building permit by the end of the week.

We drove out to the property this past weekend and Josh poured concrete markers for the property corners.  I helpfully supervised from the passenger seat of the truck and documented the process:

IMG-3228

Our new equine neighbors decided this was pretty interesting and came to the edge of their paddock to see what on earth we were doing:

IMG-3233They pretended to eat hay when I caught them checking us out.

IMG-3234After the second property corner was poured, they lost interest.

IMG-3246

I don’t typically go all the way to the property corners to take photos so it was neat to capture this angle from the front corner.  You can see a sliver of the easement road on the right where our driveway will start, our gorgeous, orange septic field fence to the left of that, and then finally, a little farther to the left is the location of our future house, as indicated by the giant green arrow.

I decided I really like this angle and I think I will make a point to take photos from this angle throughout the building process.

Let’s keep those permits coming so we can break ground soon!

Posted on by Emily · 2 Comments

Day 17

Now that it’s November, it is time to get serious. We are SO close to getting things rolling on the house build. This week, we met with the bank to get the construction loan process going, which is NOT for the faint of heart. To my knowledge, they will need at least the following to approve us for a loan:

  1. Paperwork detailing all of the money we have, have had, and will ever have
  2. 13 forms of identification
  3. How many pieces of lumber it will take to frame the house, +/- 5
  4. What color we intend to paint the dining room
  5. Our first born child as collateral (I suppose we’ll have to offer Bu, the cat, at this time.)

That is by no means a comprehensive list. It may take us longer to get all of that together than it will to build the house.

In other news, during our car ride design plan review session on the way to visit family this weekend, we solved the butler’s pantry dilemma. The section of the house with the powder bath, pantry, butler’s pantry, and broom closet just wasn’t feeling quite right. My sister and brother-in-law suggested we get rid of the broom closet and enlarge the butler’s pantry so it is more open and inviting. Eugene (sister) said with the revised layout, she would love to come and mix drinks in that space. I agreed, because after all craft cocktails are more important than cleaning supplies.

In closing, I’d like to share a photo that will not be making the cut for our holiday card from our attempted holiday card photoshoot at the property this afternoon. We were hoping to catch the 5 minutes of Fall foliage in Tennessee as well as the golden hour lighting. There weren’t many leaves left on the trees and the sun was especially blinding, but we did manage to get a few good ones for the holiday card.