We're so torn - like a T-shirt in a cat fight

Geez, can you believe this chilly 85 degree weather we're having? Where's my parka? Can I get some hot chocolate over here? Anyone seen my flint stone?! Only kidding (or J/K....that's how the cool kids are saying it these days). We were finally able to walk on our land without the threat of heat stroke. Of course, this didn't deter the microscopic ticks that seem to latch to our jeans anytime we walk around the hill. Listen, Granny, we bought the land, you can keep your stinkin' ticks!


Now, what have we been up to? We got to spend bank time with Lou on Friday and set up an account at that bank so we can get a discount on our closing costs. Hey, people, every little bit counts. The bank has everything in order and ready, and they are just waiting on us to choose a contractor. And we, of course, are still waiting on the contractors.


As I mentioned earlier, Indy just gave us a number - no itemized, formal bid. After speaking with Lou, we discovered that the bank is going to need something more than a number. Lou, being the A-type banker that he is (and we love him for it), spoke with Indy to elaborate on the requirement. If we choose Indy, we need this to guide our budget. We need to know how much money we can spend in each area of the home. The bank also needs the price points and paperwork from the utilities and electrical departments in Moore County; thus, Lou is saving us from doing the legwork and is obtaining this information himself. Bottom line: Get a good banker like Lou...on second thought...just get Lou!


We met with Pickle yesterday. He went over the breakdown of his bid in detail. We discussed pricing of materials and labor. (By the way, I seriously believe that the labor costs are as much as the cost of materials. Ridiculous! If we thought we could and it wouldn't take a decade, we'd build this thing ourselves. However, you cannot get a construction loan if you build it yourself. Again, ridiculous!) Pickle is extremely organized and thorough. He puts us at ease, for we feel that he worries about the details so we don't have to. He likes to keep us informed.


We are so torn between Pickle and Indy! We feel that Pickle is organized and easy to work with, but Indy has awesome subcontractors (probably better than Pickle's) and is right down the road in Tullahoma. Pickle is easy to talk to, period. Indy is easy to talk to in person but not so much on the phone. Alas, we wait on the breakdown from Indy and the final number from Pickle. Decisions, decisions!

The devil is in the egg...err...I mean the details

First, I would like to give a big shout out to my two biggest blog fans, my granny and my mother-in-law!! Granny prints off every blog post and is compiling a blog folder (for our kids, she says), and Rosa Lee, being the avid blog reader that she is, never misses an opportunity to call or message us with words of encouragement. With that said, I do thoroughly enjoy all of my blog readers!

Okay, enough of that. What has been going on since August 3rd? Noel met with Drew and Eugene, the electrical engineer and his compadre (respectively), a couple of Tuesdays ago. An electrical engineer has to sketch out a drawing of our electrical line plans in order to get a price for us. To our surprise it is going to be a bit cheaper than we thought it would be. Awesome news! So we can put a check mark beside that step.

Our land is scheduled to be logged sometime in September, may be earlier if Jolley Brothers can get around to it. I spoke with them the other day and they mentioned that we needed to mark the trees that we didn't want logged, so Noel and I trucked it down to Lynchvegas late one afternoon to do just that (and, yes, it was still every bit of 95 degrees at 7pm when we were tromping through the woods). And, we loved every sweltering minute of it!

Our biggest story of the week is the meeting with Pickle. The day prior to our meeting he asked us to go to the cabinetmaker and get a bid for our cabinets. Well, of course, Noel was at work, and I had to work in Tullahoma that afternoon. The cabinetmaker is in Shelbyville (on the way to Tullahoma) so I made an impromptu meeting with Henry's Cabinets and stopped by on my way to work. Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. We have seen lots of Henry's work in several houses we have visited. Henry can make some mean cabinets. We are still waiting on the bid from Henry's (even though it was suppose to be in our inboxes on Monday). Luckily, Henry supplies cabinets for both Pickle and Indy houses. Pickle met with us at our townhouse for about an hour the next day to go over everything else. Because of the domestic dispute at our last meeting, he was not able to discuss materials, appliances, plumbing and lighting fixtures, flooring, and all the extras with us. In order to get the most accurate bid possible, he needed to know this information. You know that a lot of stuff goes into a house but you just don't realize all the details until you are forced to pay attention to them, and I'm sure we haven't even scratched the surface of details. It's amazing and overwhelming all at the same time.

We hope to start breaking ground in October!! You might be thinking that we've got to finish that fence or we're going to have cattle standing in our living room. Well, you're right, we do. What are you waiting for?! Roll up those sleeves and get over here!

Wanted: A contractor with a working cellphone

Stupid cell phones! That's all we can say. First, Pickle's phone now Indy's phone. Coincidence or typical contractor excuse..."my phone's been messing up all day." Anyway, Noel has been put through the ringer trying to get the bid from Indy. He tried last Wednesday when he put up the gate. He tried the next day (after contacting Indy on Wednesday night to tell him that he was coming down to Tullahoma to get the bid on Thursday), going down to Tullahoma before heading to work. Noel went down to T-town, called Indy, left a message, had lunch, waited, then saw Indy driving through town talking on his phone. Had he returned Noel's call? Silly people, of course not. Turns out Indy's phone was turning off when he folded it up and put it in his pocket. He heard Noel's message but said he then forgot to call him back. Once again, I ask. If you were expecting someone to call/meet up with you, why, oh why, would you not check your voicemail or return a call. Nevertheless, we finally got the bid from Indy (late Saturday night out of his mailbox), which turned out to be a bit higher than Fishy's bid. Indy, however, is not as detailed with his bids. He gives you a number based on the highest amount the house could cost-to-build. We fully expect that if you use Indy to come in under that bid. Follow me here. You see, the cost-to-build, considering strictly materials and subcontractors, should essentially be the same or very similar among all three contractors. Indy has the lowest commission of the three contractors. Fishy has given us a significantly lower bid for his turn-key house. We expect Pickle's bid to come in right around Fishy's. With those two being very detailed in the bids, they are probably closer to the correct cost. Since their commissions are much higher for Fishy and Pickle (15-20% and 12.5%, respectively, compared to Indy's 9%), we would expect the final price to be lower. I can just hear my mom in the back of my head saying, "That's what you get for thinking." Ha! I hope I am right, though. 

Today Noel met with the electrical engineer, Drew. Drew is going to draw up and quote a couple of different options for the electrical lines. We have to add this into our budget. It's amazing all of the different little things to consider that add up: running electrical lines, carving out a driveway, getting a water tap installed, building a fence. Cha-ching! Cha-ching! Cha-ching! Be prepared. Even though these are expected expenses, there will be many more (well, hopefully not too many more) unforseen expenses.

Waiting on Pickle's bid. Queue Jeopardy theme music... 

Check out our poll on the right. We'd love to know what you think. On a side note, Indy got a new and operational cellphone from Verizon yesterday. We are very grateful.

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!