Lot 9, meet the kids!

We finally brought the kids out to explore the lot.
They followed dad from the front to the back.



We even took a walk around the walking/biking path.

They were so excited which, of course, makes us even more excited! They are looking forward to being able to 'help' build their own house.

Phase 1 has begun!

We officially own the lot!



The closing was today. The whole process was rather simple. The players in today’s meeting were our lender, Karrie, and the land owner/ real-estate attorney, Russ Holesinger, and the two of us, of course. Holesinger is kind of a big, well-established name in these parts. The land we’re building on used to part of Holesinger Farms. Russ is a successful attorney in town. We found out pretty early in the process that Russ is not only the owner and acting attorney, but he will also be our neighbor as he and his wife will be building on lot 10! To make things even sweeter, Russ brought cookies!


We signed some papers and wrote a check, (ate cookies), and wha-bam! We have a piece of land to call our own. We are not going to begin the building process until after we pay off the lot, so we have a "lot" of motivation to keep saving and living as frugally as possible. We have to digress to something completely off topic for a moment, but this will be relevant in the long run! We have a slight obsession with a local business called Freezer’s.


Freezer’s is the town ice cream shop and they have a rotating soft serve ice cream flavor schedule which changes every 2-3 days. Each month they put out a calendar of the flavors which we promptly acquire and adhere to our fridge. We’ve basically tried every flavor at this point! Because Freezer’s is located along the bike path, we’ll often ride with the kids up to have some ice cream (justifying that we’re simply working off the calories we ingest by biking instead of driving). Let me get to the point. Freezer’s is attached to a sub shop called Cousin’s, of which we are also fond. When Russ came to the meeting today, he brought cookies from Cousin’s Subs. As he offered us cookies, he mentioned that he owned Cousin’s. Of course, we had to inquire…did he own Freezer’s as well? YES! So, not only are we going to be neighbors with a highly respected member of the community, but we are going to live next door to the OWNER OF FREEZER'S! How cool is that? (So cool it's Freezing! Ha!)


Back to the lot…we’ve grouped our plans in phases and Phase One is the purchasing of the lot and the subsequent paying the lot off. Phase 2 includes saving enough for a hefty down payment on the construction and the actual building as well as the fence. Phase 3 is finishing the basement. Phase 4 is the in-ground pool. The phase definitions and time-frames are flexible, but we’ve definitely taken the first major step in building the Henderson Homestead.

A splash of color and some reassurance!

We are wizards with the paint application! Here are some renderings of what we'd like the exterior to look like as well as our planned basement layout... and the remainder of this posting would be specifically for Vicki.


Please notice the two....TWO bedrooms and full bath located in the basement which will be finished shortly after we move in if not before. In fact, please don't just see the drawing as two bedrooms, but as an open invitation to all family members near or far!

Purchase Update and House Plans!

We went into the bank this week and made all the arrangements for the closing which will occur on July 13th…less than two weeks away! We’ve visited the lot many times. Yukon has officially peed on the parcel. The kids will get their first look-see in just a couple more weeks. The house across the street from us is all finished. The home owners worked a deal with Darwin to host an open house for potential lot buyers and builders. Their house looks great! We are now sold on the idea of a built in sprinkler system and we met our future neighbors. They have twin 10 year old girls and a part-time 11 year old boy. They seemed like really nice people. Wade something and his wife…we have some time to learn names. We didn’t happen to meet the people building the house two lots down from ours, but we’ve certainly walked all over their property seeing the progress and coming up with ideas for our own house placement and design. Speaking of house design, we’ve found one that works for us. We wrangled with house large or small we wanted the house to be and had to debate whether we wanted a large house and a large wait for all the extras like finishing the basement , the pool, and the jet ski/boat….or do we want a moderate house and the those extras in a more immediate time frame. We decided moderation would serve us better in the long run and found a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath ranch with a 3 car garage.





The red arrows indicate areas where we plan on making some minor changes, but we like the overall layout. We’ve looked at so many house plans. Settling on one is a big step and a big relief. We’re definitely going to nix the French country looking exterior shutters and décor and we’ve found some similar exteriors that we prefer, but overall, this is the general idea. Now, imagine a white privacy fence in the back surrounding a large patio and rectangular pool, and you’ll see into our future! Maybe a less distant future should include the lot closing, the paying-off of the lot, the saving-up for a down payment on a construction loan, and the selling of our lil’ shack.