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.

A wall here, a window there

Oh, I think it is so incredibly awesome how architects design houses! We got the first ROUGH draft from the architect on Monday, and we've been scrutinizing every little detail since. I'm going to wait until we have the final plans to post them on here (that is if I can figure out how to even do it then). I know I've mentioned this before but when looking at house plans, you have to think about how you really live. You know, you watch these shows on HGTV and always see people looking for houses conducive to entertaining. Seriously? I mean, seriously? We're not talking scenes from The Great Gatsby here. How much do these people really entertain?! We want a house that we can actually live in, a home for us. Priorities: BIG kitchen with a deep sink (we cuss incessantly washing dishes in the sink here), spa tub in the master, open floor plan, and lots of windows...oh, yeah, and a room for Larry. (Larry, I hope you're laughing hysterically right now.)


After mulling over the ROUGH draft, the architect, Joel, wanted to meet with us in Lynchburg so he could better design the house around the landscape; so we drove down there for a little pow-wow. Joel thought that there would be just one main direction on which to focus. He seemed surprised that we have a 360-degree view, which I suppose makes his job a bit easier. Noel and I discussed what we would like to see changed on the current house plans. Luckily, Joel likes to give options...and we like multiple choice! So it's back to the drawing board for him as we anxiously await the next round of ideas. I'm sure that even if we think we have designed the perfect house, there will be things that we wish we would have done differently. That's just expected. Nevertheless, we'll enjoy the ride.


On another note, we spent last Saturday stringing barb wire with the 'rents. Several scratches and a few ticks (got to love the country) later that part is done. Onto the woods!

Oh no, Nemo

On Sunday afternoon, we met with the third and possibly final contractor that we are going to interview -- 'Fishy.' I have to admit when Fishy finally did meet up with us, he was a pretty nice guy. He was definitely the only interviewee to show up in khakis rather than jeans, but Noel thinks that just because it was Sunday. Now Dummies says during the interview process, the contractor should be the one doing the most talking since he is the one being interviewed. It could be that I just talk a lot, but this dude didn't offer much. As a matter of fact, the only contractor to do more talking than me was 'Indy.' We always focus on several key subjects: green building experience, warranty, workers' comp insurance, years of experience, and contractors' cut, just to name a few. He had minimal experience with eco-design and green building by his own admittance, offers a one-year warranty, carries the insurance, has been in the work his whole life, and takes a 15-20% cut. Now, I guess I do things and just don't realize my actions; but when this guy told us his cut (the highest of any other contractor), Noel said I promptly responded, "Welp, thanks for coming!" Nevertheless, he provided a boat-load of references that we need to call.


Noel and Dad finished up the barb wire section of the fence on Monday. Yes, now there are different sections. From the previous pictures, you can see that so far we have been working in a field with the fence. We are approaching the much dreaded wooded section. Noel and Dad pondered the logistics of fencing through the woods: the wicked root system in the hill, the inability to get a tractor in the woods on the steep embankment to dig post-holes, and the cons of using trees as posts. (We so lurve our trees!) They in all their genius have decided electric fencing will work just fine! We don't need stretcher posts (only T-posts....NO MORE TAMPING!!), and we should now be able to speed up this process. Watch out fence because we're both off this weekend!