So fresh and so green green.

We ventured down to Lynchvegas on Sunday with the intention of replanting blackberry bushes that currently sit on the house site....and that didn't happen. Turns out you need to replant plants when they are dormant (not in the middle of their fruiting season), who knew?! Listen, I fault my hectic undergraduate schedule for never being able to take 'vegetable gardening,' the one elective class I wanted so badly to take at Middle and never got a chance. Nevertheless, we decided to just go up to the land and ponder a little. So we stood there, looked up and around, and stared and stared and stared some more. You see, we just love our trees, I mean really love them, but we realize that we must say our 'good-byes' to some of them to make our home a reality. Heartbreaking, really. So, the decision of which ones to wave bye to is no fun. We've even already talked about what to replant after construction is complete. In all our pondering, we were amazed at how different the land looks in the summer, so much more green and lush. Compare these pictures to those posted in March. Crazy! However, we won't be sorry to get rid of the poison ivy. Noel is cussing it/scratching it/lathering it with HC cream as we speak.

House site is to the right of the car. We will bid farewell to that clump of tall beauties.

The future front yard. To say there's a lot of work to do would be an understatement.

Driving down our driveway. Love it!

Soxy welcomes a new home that hopefully won't have a bully cat who taunts him through the window at night.

We are waiting on the final plans from Joel and plan on meeting with 'Indy,' the second contractor we interviewed, some time this week to admire his past craftsmanship. Also, we are constantly researching something whether it's windows, flooring, siding, water heaters, anything and everything. We can't seem to drive past a Lowe's or Home Depot without stopping. It's quite hysterical, though, because we take the same route through each store....first we admire the grills, then move on to the faucets, then down the 'dented' items isle, then we open every oven and refrigerator in the store, then we stare at countertops, and (if we aren't worn out) we flop our heads back to gawk at lighting fixtures and fans. Then, we proudly leave without spending a penny and probably with a brochure of some kind in hand. My point is that we have been researching siding materials online and like fiber cement siding (that Hardie board stuff). It is incredibly eco-friendly and extremely durable. According to askethebuilder.com (highly recommend this website because this guy is a genius), there are 80 to 90-year old homes with this type of siding, and it is still holding up! Amazingly, it is also cheaper than wood siding. I've added two links to two different fiber cement siding manufacturers' websites in the left margin. 

Enjoy the process.

In the words of Charlie Brown, "Good grief!" That's how we feel about this past month (long story), which in part explains the blogging hiatus, but the home stuff is going great! Four meetings and numerous preliminary plans later, we are still in the designing stages with Joel. Meetings have been going very smoothly, I might add. Joel's stoner attitude keeps us from feeling pressured. (Yes, you read the sentence correctly.) Seems his favorite phrase is, "That's cool." Truly, the man is a genius, though, and will be well worth the money. We have nailed down the interior design plan. The exterior is a cake-walk compared to the interior. We have printed off, torn out, and copied numerous pictures of housing exteriors from the Internet and magazines. As far as exteriors go, we are wanting something rustic (think the mountains of North Carolina) and sort of craftsman-like (envision Oregon). Slap those two together and.....voila!


Building a home is a(n) ______ experience. (Many adjectives could fill in this blank....both positive and negative...mostly positive, though.) Most importantly, Noel and I are learning how to better communicate even if sometimes our 'communicating' is simply practicing restraint from pinching the other's head off. We are learning that we each have to compromise. We are becoming a stronger team. Give me a 'W!' And we are taking this at our own pace. Often times it's said that the devil is in the details. I equate building a house to planning a wedding. You can fret over every tiny detail, or you can focus on the parts that are REALLY important to you and deal with the details as they come. Now the perfectionist in me cringes when I say that details aren't important, they are...just not right now. We are not so naive to believe that our 'final' floorplan is really our 'final' floorplan. Construction opens a whole new can of worms. Earlier this year, I read in a book a statement that forever changed my thinking: Enjoy the process. So simple yet so profound.


As we get further into this process, it will become even more important to remember that this doesn't have to be a big stress bucket. We should have completed plans by the beginning of June. We just have to decide when to start erecting this thing. (OMG! Did she just say erecting?! Why, yes, I did.) According to the contractors we've interviewed, most have guess-timated a construction timeframe of about 5 months, weather-permitting, of course. Just another decision in a long list of many. We'll keep you posted, and hopefully no more hiatuses. So sit back and enjoy the process.