Starting Next Week!!

We are SO excited to know that our build will start NEXT week!  Our SR texted a couple days ago and let us know that we are still on schedule to start next week, of course I have no idea if that means Monday (or Tuesday because of Presidents day?)... or it could even mean Saturday I suppose but hopefully earlier in the week than later.  With our new home being so far away from our current home we will rely pretty heavily on the photos our SR and PM will send to us from time to time.  Hopefully I will get some photos to share next week.

In the meantime, I did take my youngest sister to the nearby Milan model home to let her see what our home will be like.  So far she is the only person we have taken to see the model and so far no one for our family has gone to see our future home site just yet.  I will probably take my dad up with me once the house is up with the roof on and everything.  (And anyone else who expresses an interest in going I will gladly take to the model or the neighborhood as well.)

Every time I go to the model (or walk through a neighbor's almost ready to close home) I am always blown away by the size of it.  Its like I keep picturing it a certain way in my head and from looking at the plans on paper, or pictures I"ve taken or seen online but nothing really compares to being there and walking through it.  It makes me so excited every time I get to walk through one.  Last Saturday I literally left the model more excited than I've been during this whole process.  

I actually wanted to go to the model because I have been looking at the floor plans, trying to figure out how I will put the beds in the kids rooms.  The boys, unfortunately will still have to share a room for the time being.  They will be in the largest of the 3 kids bedrooms however, the window placement had me worried that there isn't really a good spot to put the two twin sized beds (and bunk beds are not options because that is one of the main reasons we need MORE space than what we currently have.  The bunk bed situation is just too hard to deal with when it comes to little boys making their beds and keeping their room clean).  Anyway, my sweet sister with tape measure in hand came and helped me measure out a twin sized mattress on the floor of the boys will-be room.  It actually will work perfectly to have a twin bed on each side of the window and I one of them will just have to have the small window off to the side.  Which my sister pointed out she had that set up as a child in the room she shared with our other sister and she actually loved having the window next to her and she could keep a drink there or a book to read or something, like a little shelf. Anyway, now it'll be a fight to see which brother gets the extra window. lol.  I am seriously so excited to get in there and start living... and start decorating!  ;)

We are coming from a tiny (very old) townhouse with one full bathroom and maybe about 1300-1400 square feet.  Our kitchen now is so tiny and there are very few cabinets, almost no counter top space, and the tiniest pantry ever.  Most of our food is kept on shelves in the basement and we have some little target cube shelf thing off to the side where we keep our microwave and as many other small appliances and bowls, etc. that we can keep on it.  It has been a struggle to downsize to this little space with our large family but it was a means to an end and allowed us to live in a nice area, my hometown actually and be close to family, most importantly my mom during these past couple of years.  It also helped us realize that we don't want to buy an older home with all the maintenance issues and with the high energy costs associated with old windows, doors, and poorly insulated walls.

This morning our SR sent over an addendum to our deposit schedule, saying that because they are starting construction they will no longer be able to collect money from us, so we no longer have the March deposit due on the 7th and all remaining money will be now due at settlement.  I had no idea this would be the case, so I just thought I'd put it on here in case someone down the road comes across the same thing.  Our community has actually been better than others I've seen as far as how much down payment they need to start construction, and maybe it has to do with the type of loan we are getting too but we really have had to put down very little money to get started.  Which is probably a big reason in why we've been able to go ahead with this process.  If we needed to put down a lot more money then it just wouldn't have been possible for us and we'd have to continue renting this horrible townhouse we live in now.

Anyway, next post will hopefully have photos of them starting our build next week!!  Fingers Crossed!!!