Two bids, one gate, and a cop (the excitement never ends)

My, my! What a difference a week makes! We have been some busy bees and have still had time to chill out (ugh, sweat profusely rather) in the North Carolina mountains. Last Friday morning, we met with Pickle, finally, and spent about two hours with him looking at three houses and listening to him answer phone call after phone call. Two of the three houses we looked at were complete so we had to judge the final product, which is helpful to give you an idea of how the home looks after a bit of settling. We only saw one home in process and that was only at my request. It was a rather unique home to say the least, and the design work would certainly not appeal to the masses. It was being built for the owners alone and not for resale. Anyway, touring the homes was not the exciting part of the morning, not by a long shot. As Pickle was taking Noel and I back to our car, he witnessed a domestic dispute/assault in progress at the neighborhood Chili's, whipped his truck in there, and flew to the rescue. I'm not making this up people. He jumped out of his truck to break up the fight between the man and woman, and only after they left separately did he call the authorities. We, then, had to wait for a police officer to come speak with us only to tell Pickle that jumping out of his truck to break up the fight was probably not the smartest thing to do. All we wanted to do was leave for our mini-vacay. Anyway, we gave him our plans for a bid, and now we wait.

Freedom from Murfreesboro! We headed to Chattanooga later that day to check out the concrete countertop/sink store, Set In Stone, and to chow down on some really delicious burritos at MoJo Burrito (we HIGHLY recommend this place!!). We had no idea how beautiful concrete could be. Set In Stone customizes sinks, countertops, bathtubs, and planters for the individual based on specifications. The big kicker with concrete, though, is that it has to be resealed periodically because it scratches (about every 5 years). The concrete dude, Warren, mentioned that the newer sealers on the market now are light-years ahead of the sealers from a couple of years ago. We are considering concrete countertops and sinks in our master bathroom. That decision will come later.

We were able to get some more home ideas while in North Carolina, considering that homes in the Lonesome Valley subdivision in Cashiers, NC, were the inspiration for the exterior of our home. (Check out the link in our 'Links we have used' in the right margin.) Although we passed right by this subdivision on our excursion, we did not drive through it because it was getting dark and we were hours from the nearest hotel (another story for another day). We did, however, venture toward the town of Black Mountain, which had lots of new beautiful mountain style homes. We took mental notes of exterior color combinations: from creme and sage to blue and grey. 

We also got two bids in from Fishy and Indy. We have Fishy's bid in hand. Noel is going to pick up Indy's bid hopefully today. Fishy's bid is lower than we expected, but it is a turn-key home. We want more say-so in the building process than a turn-key home offers. Word to the Wise: the bidding process takes approximately 3 weeks.

Yesterday, Noel and Dad ventured to Tractor Supply to pick up a gate for our fence that we haven't worked on in months. Then, rolled up their sleeves for the twenty or so minutes it took to install it. Now, we have a nice new blue gate to keep out those unruly cows. One day we'll get the rest of the fence finished, but we're waiting on cooler weather.

Noel and I get asked quite frequently how we developed the idea for our home: numerous hours spent on the Internet, in bookstores, and driving around looking at house plans, home exteriors, home features, material types, etc. We have so many home design and home plan magazines. When we have nothing to do, we'll go to home stores like Ferguson, Lowe's, and Home Depot just to get ideas. We'll stare are stuff that isn't even important at the moment like appliances, countertops, faucets, ceiling fans, etc. When you are building a home, you start noticing things that you would not normally pay attention to. For instance, we were at a restaurant the other day and were admiring the ceiling fans and the faucets and tile in the restrooms. Sounds boring, but we love it!

Wanted: Two big blocks of ice while we wait

As many of you know, the Sun has taken residence right outside our stratosphere, and we are cooking like bacon down here. Snap, crackle, and pop! (Oh, wait, that's Rice Crispies...) Anyway, because of the heat, we haven't done much on the house planning front. We truly cannot do much anyway without a bid from a contractor. Just to refresh, Indy and Fishy have our plans; we are waiting on bids from them. I truly wish I had asked how long the bidding process usually takes. Naive us thought it would only take a day or two. Pickle gets our plans a week from today when we go tour some homes he has built.

Last night, Noel and I mulled over the plans for about an hour (...in our air conditioned dining room with cocktails in hand) discussing windows and reworking the kitchen. It is such an important thing to sit down as a couple (only as a couple with no one else involved) and really discuss what you like and dislike about your house plans. See, you have to lay it all out on the table. Be honest with suggestions. Be honest if you really like or dislike your spouse's suggestions. It's team work, my friend.

As I mentioned, this has been a pretty unproductive week; thus, this blog is rather brief. I wanted to give an update no matter how abbreviated, for Noel and I start seven days straight today and are then heading off to the mountains for five days. Bring on higher altitudes and hopefully cooler temps! However, I do have one last thing. In the never-ending-ness of the building process, Noel was researching countertop materials one day and happened upon concrete countertops. A couple of manufacturers exist in Chattanooga, and we thought we would pay them a visit on our trek east. Check out the websites on "Links we have used." The countertops are beautiful, and they even custom make sinks. Too cool! The one concern that is typically associated with concrete countertops (that previous research has revealed) is that they need to be resealed on a regular basis because they are porous thus can stain easily. We'll just have to ask the experts.

Why, yes, a kitchen designer would be delightful

Talk about a stroke of luck. A year or so ago a couple from Atlanta bought the house next to my parents in Lynchburg. Evidently, it is their vacation home. Personally, I would have opted for a cozy bungalow in Maine or a craftsman in Oregon, but different strokes for different folks. Why am I telling you this? It has recently been brought to our attention that their lady neighbor, Lynda, is a kitchen designer from Atlanta! Hello! She offered to go over our kitchen design with us. Never would we have ever spoken with a kitchen designer under any other circumstances but so glad we did. I met Lynda on Friday for the first time. She's so bubbly and has an amazing British accent (although 'British' is not the appropriate term because she's actually from Zambia, Africa). Anyway, we spent an hour and a half together reworking the kitchen and making it more 'chef friendly.' She brought up points that we never considered: put the tall appliances together for more continuous counter space, drawers in a kitchen are much more functional than cabinets (which cause you to have to get down on your hands and knees), keep countertops clear of clutter by concealing small appliances (toaster oven, blender, etc.) in functional cabinets, and keep the trash close to the sink. She is a wealth of kitchen knowledge and is so willing to help us!


On another note, we made an appointment with Pickle in the morning on July 23rd. Noel and I cannot figure out why he was so eager to speak with us early on and now he is coy. Has he decided that he doesn't want to build for us? Who knows. Even though things aren't looking good for him, we are following through a bid.


We touched base with Indy, too, to see if we needed to discuss materials with him. He was actually talkative on the phone. Go Indy!! When giving a bid, he gives the highest possible bid according to the most expensive materials, so we'll be happy in the end when we are under budget. There are quite a few materials we are using that will save us money: no granite countertops (yeah, we just don't like them), bamboo flooring (instead of oak...because we're tree-huggers), and fiber-cement siding (because brick would stand out like a sore thumb on that hill). 


Luckily, this week was not crammed with house stuff but there's never a dull moment in the house building world.

That phone on your hip, use it!

Sunday, July 4th


Building permit: check! Meeting with logger dude and picking Lou's brain: check, check! Meeting with Pickle: no check...


Let me preface this by saying that if you are a contractor and you are difficult to contact or meet in the planning stages, then you lose credibility and respect quickly. Just like Fishy, Pickle was so easy to contact when we first met him. Heck, he even called at least once a week for a while 'just to check in.' Three weeks ago I called Pickle to set up a meeting to walk through a few of his contracted houses. He was in Texas for a couple of weeks training. Okay, we understand. We wait. After he returns, we get back in touch with him and set up a day to meet. I call him the day of the meeting in the morning (9:30am), left a message, only to be called back that afternoon (2:06pm) while I am in a meeting with Fishy (more on that in a minute) and cannot answer, so I call Pickle back 15 minutes later (2:21pm) and leave a message. Note -- we were suppose to meet him sometime after 4:30pm but no idea where. Do you know when he returned my call? ...8:15pm...seriously?! Saying that his phone didn't show any missed calls (that's fine, I understand, cellphones suck at times) but realized that he had voicemail messages. Why, if you knew you were meeting someone at 4:30pm, you would wait until 8:15pm to check your messages is beyond me. I have emailed him four dates that Noel and I are available over the next two weeks, so we'll try again at some later date. Okay, I'm off my soapbox now.


On a much better note, I met with Fishy on Thursday to give him our plans for a bid. (Noel was at work and couldn't make it.) Fishy's communication skills greatly improved that day. (Sounds like something from How the Grinch Stole Christmas...'and his heart grew three sizes that day.' Rest in peace Dr. Suess.) He promptly returned my call to set up a meeting time and place, and he was early to our meeting. Watch out! He went through the plans, and we discussed materials. I wish I could upload the plans to this blog, but I am either severely blog-challenged or it's just not possible. The main focal point in the house is a big fireplace in the living room. Noel and I had discussed using real vs. faux stone, so I asked Fishy about the cost difference. Real stone is about triple the price of faux. Jaw drop! Faux it is, then! We, however, are going to get a second opinion from a mason we know. Fishy said it'll probably take a couple of weeks for him to finish a bid. 


Noel met with the logger dude from Jolley Brothers Logging in Shelbyville (with an A+ BBB rating, AWESOME!) on Tuesday, who showed some interest in a few trees on our hill. He said he might not be able to get to them by September, when we'd like to start building, but we'll just play it by ear. The Jolley logger dude told Noel that we could cut down the trees, borrow his trailer, and haul them to the lumber yard ourselves. That way we would not have to take a 50/50 profit split with him. (Hysterical laughter...) Thanks but no thanks!


We are getting a jump start on appliances. A very large bundle of joy arrived for us today from Home Depot, our deep freezer!! We knew we'd need a place for Jelly and Bean, the two Black Angus steers currently fattening up in my parents' field. It's an upright, 13.2 cubic ft, auto-defrosting, Energy star, GE freezer. I almost squealed when the Home Depot boys delivered it! That's how you know you're getting old, when a deep freezer excites you. Can you pass the A-1, please?