Well, here we are, days away from our “March” start date, and we are really close to hitting that mark. It is truly incredible how slow-moving some parts of this process can be, but we are trying to stay the course and follow the steps required to turn this house into our dream home.
We received our appraisal of our total finished property (new house with the land). Now that we have that, we can get the loan process officially going as the bank will have a valuation of the house to use as a goal. When you have a property and a house plan that is unlike anything else in the county, it is difficult to find a “comparable” to use to determine the value (and thus the amount of money the bank is willing to loan you). Regardless, the appraisal is done and looks to be favorable for us, so we are hopeful we will be able to get the financing we need to make this dream a reality.
I won’t lie. It is incredibly scary that this is actually looking like it is going to happen. Often times, it is more fun to daydream and say “someday” than to actually dive in and go for it. When you think about attaching real money to this project, it gets a little overwhelming. Many days, I walk around our current, 2000 square foot home, and I think, “I can be happy here forever.” Sure, there are things about this house that I wish I could change. We have three bedrooms (two of which are quite small), and soon to be six people living here. It is time for us to make a change, but a part of me just wants to keep things exactly how they are.
Not a week goes by that Luke doesn’t meet someone at the property to discuss something. I will admit, it feels a little like he has a second wife. He is gone a lot during the little time we have together as a family. We haven’t had a real date in a really long time. Every spare minute and soon-to-be every spare cent will be thrown into this project. I have to commend him, however…again, for all the time he has taken to research different ideas and track down the people who can help us. Doing this “yourself” is not easy….but we are thankful for the Internet, YouTube, Google, and a few special people who keep helping us along the way.
A demo plan has been hashed out with our main carpenter. He is ready to go ahead and pull this house apart, and I think we are ready to let him! I think that will be a real “oh shit” moment when we no longer see a house standing on the property. We are far past the point of no return — we might as well go all the way now.
Last night, Luke asked me if we were crazy for taking on so much at once (new baby, new house, sell old house). I mean, honestly, we might be crazy, but I am one who thinks if things are going to be crazy and chaotic anyway, and any of those three — bringing home a new baby, building a house, and selling a house — would be very chaotic in and of themselves, we might as well go for it all at once and disrupt our lives one time instead of three. We will no doubt continue to test our patience, our love, and our positive thinking, but I think it is going to pay off for us in the end.
While we wait for the action to really begin, we have enjoyed going out to the property and letting the girls play and explore. We are so excited to give them the gift of growing up out there. Let the memories begin.
