Making Progress

Okay, I think I left you with an update saying we were closing last Friday. Well we did. Then came the work!!!!!

Here is the before shot.......

Justin started to tear off the shingles.......

While I packed.....

and packed



After five days of rushing around to get out this is what we have so far......



 Our poor house, its not even a house any more. It is nerve racking to see it come down so fast but I can't wait to start adding the new stuff!!!!

If All Goes Well..............

It looks like we (may) close our construction loan this Friday. If all goes well our contractor hopes to get started Monday the 25th. He will start by demolishing the carport and since our hot water heater is located there we have to get out ASAP. Yep you heard right. We will have a week (maybe two) to completely move out of our house. Justin has decided we are going to live across the road in our little bitty camper (for 6 months). Whew we have a long way to go.......Fun Times!!!!!

P.S.
We will be getting rid of our appliances. So in case you know someone who needs a slightly used refrigerator, oven/cooktop, microwave, toaster oven and dishwasher we will sell them all at a discounted rate.  :)

Change of Plans, House Plans that is..........

I realize I have not fully updated my blogger friends. The construction project Justin and I are about to jump into has changed slightly........

We are no longer officially building a house. We have decided to remodel and add on to the one we are already in. Now I say we aren't "officially building" because we are not starting from scratch. However we are changing our house by such extreme it mine as well be a "new" house.

We are completely taking off the carport, breeze way and utility room. We are replacing it with a garage, a mud room (for Justin's tools, remote control cars and many pairs of muddy work boots to live) and there will be a bonus room above the garage (that will be finished later). The wall between our two tinny living rooms will come down to show case a larger more roomy living room. The doorway between the kitchen and the living room will be widened to give that more "open" feel.  A breakfast nook and a pantry will be added to the kitchen. The room off the back of the house will be a bedroom. The current extra bedroom will be the new laundry room (finally a laundry room that I don't have to go outside to get to). A screen room and a deck will be added to the back of the house. Last but defiantly not least.......A master suite will be added to the right side of the house (looking at it from the road). We will have a master bedroom, his and her walk in closets, tile shower, garden tub and his and her sinks.

Oh I forgot to mention, ALL of that awful paneling will be replaced by sheet rock!!!

I know I know, you are all wondering if this is really what I want. I have wondered that too. However when we were "building" a "new" house we could not get over the overwhelming urge to breath into a paper sack. Now we feel much more at piece. Its not that we didn't have enough down payment. Between our savings and the value of our land we had well over the 20% down payment that is suggested. The problem lays with the appraisal.

See we could get a construction loan for whatever we needed. However mortgage companies will only roll 80% of the appraisal value into a mortgage. So if it appraises for too much less than what it costs to build then you may have to come up with more than what was expected. In our case 80% of the appraisal value plus our savings was exactly what our contractor "said" it would cost. That's good right? Yea if nothing happens to raise the price and we all know it never costs what they say it will. That would of left us with an additional loan for the difference. We just aren't prepared to take that risk, not in this economy anyway.

That's enough of that..........I hope to post the "before" pics soon.

New Form of Punishment......Who Needs Jail?

I  believe we should begin to force criminals to deal with banks, mortgage companies, appraisers, insurance companies, property lines and deeds as punishment for their crimes. It would definitely scare them straight!!! I have found myself asking "why does this have to be ever so difficult"? It seems like every one waits on everyone before doing anything.

I have  been assigned the job of dealing with financing and all of the the headaches that go with it. I have been tyring to get our insurance set up for our construction. However they are waiting on the closing date from the bank. The bank is waiting on the deed to our property.  We can't give them the deed until the attorneys do their part and we file it in the judge of probate office.  The attorneys can't do their thing until we get the them property description. We can't give them the description until everyone in the family has read it and is in agreement. Its a never ending circle. Somebody pinch me. This has to be a nightmare. :)

Justin Bishop & A Baby ???

Friday night Justin and I went to Long Star for dinner and I must say more dollar signs does not necessarily = a good meal. Any how we then visited with family we haven't seen in I don't know how many years.


Saturday we drove all of the way to Phoenix City Alabama to pick up a little piece of furniture I have been in search of. My parents gave me a practically new couch last year. I finally hunted down its matching love seat only to find out it had been discontinued. So even though we do not yet have one dern place to put it, we ordered one of the last Durapella Mocha Collection love seats Ashley Home furniture made. It took us two hours to get there and two hours to get back. I was sincerely hoping to detour through Opelika's Tiger Town for a little unnecessary shopping. Thank goodness (insert sarcasm)  my "on task" husband pointed out how it was completely out of the way and a waste of time. So you guessed it.......we came straight home.  Its a good thing too because it would have been a tragedy to delay the inevitable argument of where "the stupid thing" would go.

Sunday was a lazy day (for the most part). It was Justin and my turn to keep the nursery. Justin was so good with baby Luke. He sat and rocked him for a good while. Luke looked so comfortable and if I've said before I'll say it again........Justin D Bishop sure does look sexy with a baby on his hip......just sayin :)

After church I laced up my shape ups and went for a quick run (and when I say "quick run" I really mean run about two steps, gasp for air and then walk the rest of the way). Its amazing how incredibly out of shape I am because my legs and butt are so sore I wasn't sure if I could make it up the stairs to my office this morning. I guess that is what happens when ya allow your leg muscles to slowly morph into limp spaghetti noodles.

PS
If the title of this blog entry was misleading and you read it looking for a wonderful announcement (and was disappointed) Welcome to my world....Oh and I am not sorry because it made you read it......lol  :)

Long Time No See

I know I know I have not posted in like a month but if you knew how busy I have been you would understand.

This past weekend was busy but fun. Saturday Alabama Power had a family fun day for their employees and their employees' families. So Justin, Doug, Jonell and I decided we'd go. Also since it was a kid oriented event, we piled my niece and nephew up and took them as well. It was alot of fun and most importantly it was completely FREE.

Hunter was more comfortable with the smaller more "safe" rides.

Britney enjoyed ridding the swings. She even convinced her uncle Justin to ride them. This was a complete surprise to me considering that this is the same man who screamed like a girl and hid his head in my lap in the quite calm boat ride at Alabama Adventure.

There has got to be at least four feet of leg hanging from the bottom of that swing. I'm surprised he didn't come back with a numb.

Later the kids decided they wanted to go "rock climbing"

Brit did pretty good. She almost made it to the top.

I was surprised by Hunter. He climbed that rock with ease and almost made it as far as his sister.

I think he liked the ride down better then the climb up.

 I even rode a few rides. This experience really reminded me of my age. I use to be able to jump on any ride, any roller coaster with out even blinking. This time I got on a relatively simple ride (one Hunter wasn't even afraid of) and I swore I felt I was the color of Papa Smurf by the time that dern thing put me down.

What is a girl to do about this whole getting older thing? I mean really?