The Waiting Begins.

The waiting begins.

Since we last met there has been more paper work then anything else.

We were got the house loan pre-approval with no problems. Then we started signing the first wave of papers. The WB-11 Residential Offer to Purchase, the Construction Agreement and the Description of Materials and Specs. After that we started writing checks to who ever wanted them, all were put in escrow.

Then we waited a couple days for those same papers to be signed by Kevin of Ambiance Homes. Monday we got the word that all was good. WHOO HOO!

Now HE has all sorts of paper work for the city, surveyors and other people will tramp around the lot and in a 10ish days they start to dig The Hole, which is called the excavation, by the builder (they are so exact)!

We were told that we will know a couple days ahead of time in case we want to come watch. OF COURSE - WITH A CAMERA!! It's looking like around Feb 5th will be National Excavation Day.

Everything else has to be decided on within thirty days so Kevin can order materials and so forth. So Sunday we went appliance, "window" shopping.

After scouring Consumer Reports and looking at many opinion websites we went to Sears to look at Kenmore's and picked out what we wanted. One of the things we (OK, "I") wanted was a side by side refrigerator. Columbus softens their water so upon tasting said water and going YUCK, I wanted something that had filtered water. A side-by-side was the ticket.

HOWEVER - there are always tradeoffs. You get less space in a side-by-side but DJ said that was a good thing. After all, 80% of our space is used up with Barbeque sauce , Ketchup, and 50 assorted other condiments (Did you know that Worcestershire Sauce is basically anchovy ketchup). No real food is actually in our refrigerator. Perhaps smaller is better.

One thing I was warned about was a person where I work had a house built and had a Side-by-side installed. All was good for a month. Until, her husband spilled something and it dripped all over. No problem right?

WELL - she opened up the door and went to pull out the trays. OH OH!, the door was against a wall and could not open any farther, yet, the trays could not come out because they would hit the door. OH MY!!.

We both laughed at the story and as the story teller exited my cube (I'm not a free range human, I'm cubed) I QUICKLY got out my floor plans.

As you can see I don’t THINK I we have a problem.


So now we wait for Excavation.e

In the meantime we decided to upgrade to a Rheem furnace. The default furnace sees to be Goodman's and as we were looking into "stuff" we found that Goodman's basically suck! For $500 more we can get a much much better heater.

Some other things we wish we would have done. Take note. Take photos our your current house when it is having a good day. Down the road you will want those photos. This is the best one so far.

I'm sure Marcia from Century 21 Tri-County Real Estate would be rolling over in her grave . . . . . . if she was dead, but she is alive and well so we don’t know what she is doing.

At least any buyers will know that the house as not been on the market for 8 months! That is the nature preserve back there in the back yard. Anyone? Anyone? Only $214,900! In the City of Madison, on a Nature Preserve with major shopping five blocks away and schools near by!

So we're a little in limbo. We have to decide on the inside stuff like flooring, cabinets and trying to coordinate colors with everything. DJ turned to the HG forum and got the answers.

Here was her question.

Our builder needs us to pick out our cabinets, carpeting, flooring ideas soon. We will have an open floor plan with cathedral ceilings in the living/dining/kitchen area. My question is do you go light or darker with colors?

I've noticed that a lot of newer houses have white trim. But we were thinking we would have wood color trim. Our kitchen cabinets will be maple--a light color, but not TOO light.

Is there any sort of rule of thumb as far as color schemes in an open floor plan with high ceilings. I am totally lost on how to coordinate everything. I appreciate any advice....HELP where do I start??

And the main answer was.

"I think your wood trim should match any hardwood flooring you'll be putting in. Flooring choices is where I'd start. First. Coordinate your tile and carpeting with the hardwood. Next I'd choose the kitchen cabinets/bath cabinets and countertops. Then I'd concentrate on the finishes of the door handles, faucets, cabinet hardware. Paint would be last on the list... After furniture/fabric choices. This is hard to do sometimes because builders want your paint colors NOW. This is the reason you see 'builder beige's lot in new construction .It's easier to paint it all neutral until you have your home set up.

Don't you just love the internet??

So that is where we stand.

Until next time
Rod and DJ - cheers