Hoopla

A few weeks ago a new piece of land came for sale at a reasonable price. Since this short sale is anything from short, I started looking into the possibilities of building with gusto. I called a bunch of builders, and even found one that told us we could get the house we wanted for only slightly above budget. We met with Blue Pine Homes, and started the process of finalizing floor plans to get an accurate quote. I made some small revisions to a plan they sent us, and planned out my whole kitchen with the cool 3D kitchen planner from Ikea. I spent hours on Pinterest dreaming of all the amazing things I could put into this house. Our house is very nice, but it just isn't the style I would pick if I can build from scratch. At one point we were pressured by our real estate agent to decide whether we were building for sure, so someone else could claim Michie Lane. As we didn't have all the details, we couldn't make that decision, and I had a few very stressful days. We were able to hold off the agent, and past Monday we met with the builder to finalize finishes and get a more concrete price. This is when the builder dropped the bomb. When he had originally quoted us the price, he had actually quoted it on the original layout of the floorplan. It was a 1700 square feet home (on main level). Well, the actual floor plan he sent us, was 1900 square feet. Obviously it will cost more to build a bigger house. To make the story short, building was going to cost an additional $50,000 above our already higher price. I was disappointed. But at the same time I was glad. Glad to have a nice house to fall back on. Glad to know I won't have to move again. Glad that I could use some of our money on changing this house to better reflect my style. Glad that I can now plant a vegetable garden this summer. My sister Wendy has been posting pictures of her awesome garden progress, so when she sent yet another picture today, I decided to head outside and start tackling the weeds. I don't know when the last time is that my flower beds had any attention. It must be a long time! The dirt is all compacted, and weeds well established. Using a shovel and a little rake I started one foot at a time. After 2 hours of hard work, there's not much to show for it, but I'm happy with the progress anyways.

After all the weeds are gone, we'll have to bring in some more top soil and miracle grow, but at least there is a defined area to plant my veggies in.