And 2 years later...

Sunday, June 27th


First, I must say Happy Anniversary (one day early) to my amazing partner-in-crime of two years!!! I heart you no matter how goofy you think I am!


Oooo, enough with that mushy crap! We have been a busy couple of people this week. We want to thank Joel Wingard of ProMark Home Designs in Nashville for the amazing job he has done designing our home. He finished up on Thursday, and we officially have the plans! We made an appointment with Pickle for this Thursday to go see some homes. Lou (the banker) wanted to meet with us again, so we ran down to T-town on Friday for the meeting. Thinking we could kill two birds with one stone, we touched base with Indy to let him know we were going to be in the area with finished plans and wanted to get them to him for a bid. What do you know?! We ran into him at the bank AGAIN! Pretty sure he planted a homing device somewhere on Noel's vehicle. It worked out, though, because we didn't have to fiddle with chasing him down after our meeting with Lou. What does the bidding process entail you might ask. I posed this question to Indy, and he said, 'Give me the plans, and I'll give you a cost.' Well, (queue the Ace Ventura voice in my head) alrighty then. We have a sneaking suspicion that this process will be a little different with Pickle and Fishy.


We love Lou! Noel said he loves ACB because he feels like he could just waltz in there and shoot the shit anytime (I was going to clean that up and say 'shoot the crap' but I envision a shotgun and poo splattered everywhere! Yuck!). Actually, everyone there is so welcoming. People come to shake your hand when you enter and wave when you leave. Back to Lou, he had gone down to see our land. Impressive for a banker. Long story short, we hung out with Lou for about an hour and a half. Ridiculous, I know. He discussed long-term financing options with us, expected monthly mortgage note (based on a guess-timated cost-to-build), down-payment, and closing (two closings -- one for the construction loan and one for the mortgage). Lou discussed using the equity in our land as a percentage of our down-payment. It's sounds great and all, but on further thought (on Friday afternoon, of course), neither Noel nor I could reason what this means. Who the heck knows! Just a reason for me to pay Lou a visit on Monday. I think Noel got a little bummed because he asked Lou if he could buy a lawnmower with the construction loan money. Lou said no. Ha! Not sure what Noel thinks he's going to mow anytime soon. Guess he wants to make sure the dirt is nice and fluffy. What is the next step? Ordering an appraisal of the land (with the future house on it) and selecting a contractor, so we started the appraisal process.


After Lou and Indy, we headed down to Lynchvegas, and Noel got a brilliant idea while sweating on the top of our hill. Now, I have mentioned that trees are going to have to come down. (Tear, crinkling chin, tear.) We have several healthy poplars, oaks, and hickories that can serve another purpose. Why not have it logged? Our future driveway is a former logging road anyway. Noel contacted the logging company in Shelbyville who logged it ten years ago and is meeting with them at the land on Wednesday. I realize this sounds counter-intuitive to the 'green' movement we are promoting but not really. The trees will be repurposed, not just cut down for us to build a house.


On a much lighter note, for months we have been racking our brains to come up with a road name for our driveway. We have Googled street names, spouted off outrageous possibilities and still haven't quite settled on anything. The other night while I was cooking dinner Noel found a website that listed all of the street names in one Virginia county...and proceeded to read off EVERY name to me. I just can't for the life of me understand why Noel hasn't jumped on any of my suggestions: Noel's Knoll, Hannah Hill, or SoxyPaws Lane. Any ideas out there? 


Agenda this week: celebrating two years of wedded bliss, building permit and Lou meeting on Monday; logger meeting on Wednesday; Pickle meeting on Thursday; big glass of wine meeting my lips on Saturday.