More Awesome House Stuff!!

Man, our builders are just moving right along! I can hardly believe that we are almost done. And the best news? Our closing date just got bumped up to July 8th! Originally, we were closing July 21st, so that just pushed our packing mode into high gear! I have included some pics to check out. Enjoy!


 Our kitchen with the pendant lights Tim bought at Home Depot. These aren't ones that we picked out design-wise... but Tim had to put something on so that they can test electrical and pass inspection. I gotta tell ya, I think he did great and I love the way they look!! So for now, they are awesome with the black cabinets. :o)

Below, you can see the flooring they put in... A lot of the things you will see are just builder spec options. We chose not to upgrade most of our stuff because we didn't want the cost built into the loan. This house will be kinda like a blank slate for us to work on over the years as we can afford it. So no, in answer to your question - I dont love this flooring. But what can you do?  

Here are a couple shots of our separate tub & shower. We did upgrade for this, because that was something we didn't want to come in and do later. However, we did not upgrade the tile or anything like that... Someday we will pick the tile we want and do it ourselves. 

This picture below is taken from the master bedroom doorway, looking into our dining/living area. Kitchen on left and back door on the right. And you see you that window straight ahead? Yes, that's looking at my parents/sister's house. Neighbors!! Oh, and by the way - Josie feels right at home here already... might have something to do with our daily visits. 

And next we have a little closer look at the kitchen. On the left, will be our built in microwave/oven combo, and straight ahead will be our cooktop with vent, dishwasher and sink to the right on the bar. Love that I can clean my kitchen while entertaining and still see everything that's going on.  

And last but certainly not least, is a shot of our pantry which is across from the kitchen. A VERY friendly pantry size (although you can't tell with the doors closed) which I am in love with... same with the doors. 

Well, I hope you enjoyed our tour... Looking more like a home now! Hoping to see some carpet in the next day or two and I know we have countertops. So I'll get some pics of that up in the next couple days. I dont know why I'm excited for the carpet to go in... We're just going to go in and eventually rip it out to replace with hardwood. Oh well... crappy carpet for now? Who cares! I'm getting my own house finally! Woo!



820 Oatmeal - Update!

I know it's been forever since I've posted... I'm such a slacker! Things have been so hectic, but I'm ready now for them to settle down. Our house is moving right along - take a looksie below:

As you can see, we've got some brick and the contractor poured us a wide driveway! We specially requested this so that you dont get out of your car and step into the grass. Instead of matching up with the garage door, it goes to the edge of the house. I love that it leaves room in front of the house on the pavement to put a really pretty potted plant or something to dress it up. So happy The Hubster thought of it. :o)

And here you're looking at one of the most pleasant surprises ever to grace the building of a house: a surprise window in your bathroom!!! And not a teeny tiny one, but a giant one. So excited about this. I love the idea of a big window in the bathroom and the model we looked at didn't have it. Woo!

Here are the cabinets in our master bathroom and a tiny glimpse of the walk in closet. Did I mention that we're having such a great time with this??? Can't wait to get in there and start making it ours!

And our kitchen cabinets are going up!! I dont know if you can see in this pic, but above the bar, you can see my pendant lights. The Hubster put those in for me before they came in and drywalled. Love that handyman!!

And last but not least - the Santa Fe doors we chose for the interior. I was a little unsure about them at first, these were The Hubster's choice. But I gotta hand it to him, they look amazing in there! Woo!

House Update # 8 million

I was at the house today and realized that we are about to start seeing the inside of the house come together. There are stacks of drywall all over the place, which can only mean one thing right? They are about to put it up! We still don't have brick yet, but that should be coming soon too. So Tim's been out at the site working on some wiring that we want to add before they insulate and put the drywall up. He's wiring for our pendant lights on the bar, adding a couple electrical outlets in the house and garage, adding an exterior light in the back yard... stuff like that. I love my Handy Hubster. So here's what it looks like right now:

 

Isn't she so beautiful? We're just so excited to be in our own place, we can barely stand it!! So while Tim's mind is working overtime on what kind of stuff he wants to add before the drywall, guess what my mind is doing? Yep, you guessed it... I'm decorating. My house is totally being designed inside my head 24/7. Everything single thing I see is possible inspiration. When I'm surfing my favorite blogs, ALL their pictures, projects and home tours make my creative juices flow. I can't WAIT to get in there and make that house mine. Here are just a few of my favorites....And while you're at it, make sure you check out the blogs they came from. I promise, you WON'T be disappointed!!

This beauty of a bedroom is from Rambling Renovators. There are some amazing projects going on over there so be sure you check it out. I do so love the wood work on the wall... Adds a whole new dimension to your decor. And even though it was the wood work that caught my eye... let's not dismiss the color scheme in here. It totally strikes my fancy. What do you think?

Have you been to House Tweaking yet? I must confess, this is the most favorite of all my favorite blogs. Dana has done AMAZING things with her house. You want to talk about inspiration... I would full on just copy every single thing she does, if I could. Make sure you check out her site, you won't regret it. This is a guest room that I totally fell in love with. What do you think?

And let's just be honest... who hasn't dreamed of a home office like this? I found this treasure at one of my daily stops: Honey We're Home. I'm fairly new to this blog, but it did not take long for it to become a regular. I love what she's done with this office. Be sure you check out more of her stuff, it's all incredible.



As you can see, I am getting very excited and antsy to decorate. I hope I can get into my home and turn it into exactly what I want... I will continue to search for inspiration. Do you have a favorite design blog?? Share with me! I'm always looking for more awesome blogs... there are so many out there!

820 Oatmeal

Yep, that's our new address. How exciting is that? Oatmeal Drive... so easy. :o) Anyway, this is a picture loaded post coming at ya, so be ready! We went out to the homesite yesterday and cruised around for about an hour. It was awesome, they've made some big progress over the past couple weeks and it's getting very exciting.

We'll kick it off with a picture of the front:

The front door:

Standing in the doorway to the garage from inside the house: (and of course, the Port O' John) 

Looking into the Den, great view of the neighbor's siding. Blegh. Guess we'll be planting something pretty with flowers there! 

And now here we are in the kitchen. You can see the bar that looks over into the dining/living room.  And you see that window there? Yep, that's Mom & Dad's house. Oh and right below that? See down in the bottom of the window frame? Yep, that's Josie. She's already made herself at home.

This is the dining room, and see where we have an opening for a door and a window? We chose this instead of a sliding glass door. Good choice? I think so... the door will have a window all the down like a french door. We liked it better than a slider. What do you think? 

Standing in the kitchen, looking into our living room (and master beyond that). Love our big picture window that looks out onto the backyard and greenbelt. Makes me happy. :o) 

Our view of the backyard/greenbelt from the back door. 

Here's our master bedroom, also with the big picture window that looks out into the backyard/greenbelt.  

That's pretty much the tour so far... I mean there are 2 other bedrooms, but they pretty much look the same as the rest, so ... We are getting very excited to move in. Not so excited about the rain you can see we've FINALLY been getting here in Austin. Of course, it's right when they are framing... Figures.

And just to add a little sugar to this post, how about a picture of my little Josie enjoying her time with me at work. I have been given permission to bring her here so that she has access to go outside and go potty rather than spending 12 hours in her crate at home. I can't tell you how happy this makes me. There are lots of dogs here at MHR that cruise around the ranch and she is the perfect addition to the farmhouse (our admin building). Here she is chillin on my desk while I do some typing. Cute right??

FRAMING!

The framing is going up on our house - so excited. It's all just moving right along! With the pace they are moving, it's hard to believe it will take until July to finish! I can't wait to get into a place that's just ours. Maybe purchasing new will end up not being the smartest thing we've ever done, but right now, I can't even care. I'm excited to have my house. :o)

Another House Update!

We officially have a foundation!

And of course, we have to mark our territory with our initials, which we did just inside the garage door on the left hand side, check it out:

Tim + Nikki :o)

I think they are going to start framing next week. Please keep your fingers crossed that everything gets done correctly! I dont want to stress about this for 2 months until we close... We're hoping for a drama free build. What are our chances??

And then there was plumbing.

Moving  right along!!



House Update!

This morning we had our first meeting with James, the project manager for the build on our house. It was short and sweet; we discussed the plans moving forward. But the exciting part, is that after our meeting we drove over to our site. And our form boards were up! I'm so excited that there is actual progress being made! Even though, okay - it does look like a heap of dirt. But it's the most beautiful dirt I've ever seen!!

Check it out and stay tuned for more! Foundation should be coming this week or next!

Isn't my house so pretty??

The Hubster checking things out. It's fun going over there when the builders are working because Tim can speak Spanish and he's already made friends with several of the guys. Definitely helps. :o)

**SIGH** ... that's my future residence. Notice the greenbelt in the back? SO GREAT! :o)

And if you can tell, on the left of our "house" is another foundation where they have put the pipes in. That's my parent's lot! And the next one over is a house that's about a week and a half ahead of my parents' house and it's already framed and got a roof. And yes... we're all very close. So close in fact, that we need to live right next door. :o) Have a great day!

Lot Sold!

I think we're "officially" buying this home now... I mean, supposedly it was official before - but they've cashed our check and put a sold sign out. That's good right? You think it's safe to call it "ours" yet? I'm pretty excited about our lot. It's small, yes. And too close to the house next door? Of course... BUT it backs up to a greenbelt! And that makes it all worthwhile. Not going to lie, that was the biggest selling point of this house. That's always been a huge plus for Tim and I and we loved finding one. Check out a few shots of our lot below. These are the "before" shots. :o) ...to be followed by pics of the building process! So excited!

We were out at the development yesterday trying to pick out which brick color we liked... Which BTW, we've already done once! We spent many, many hours trying to decide which brick color we liked, only to hear later that they had discontinued that one. (Obviously... I mean why wouldn't they have discontinued the one we FINALLY decided on??) So, yesterday, it was back to the development to decide AGAIN. Here are a couple pics of houses that we liked. *Correction* - BRICK we liked. One of these houses was so unattractive on the front, I couldn't even tell whether I liked the brick! But Tim had better vision than me and he liked the color, so I'm trying to see past the obvious. :o) Anyway, check these out:

Feedback is always appreciated!!

Keep in mind the colors are hard to portray in the pictures... but I liked the different browns in this one.

Haha, this one looks the same doesn't it? Well it actually is a different shade than the one above.

And this one (the ugly one...) actually has almost a greyish tint to the brick which Tim really liked.... So let us know which one you like! We're still shopping and I'll let you know which one we decide on. Tonight we might head up to a different development that has more options to see.



Our 1st Home

Most of you know, TSS and I have been married 6 years and have never owned a home. Hopefully, that's all about to change. We found a cute little new community in a location that works well for us and have finally been approved with the lender. Yesterday, we went to their studio where most normal people go in and pick out lots of upgrades and stuff. Well, Tim and I are not "normal" people and we qualified for this house just on one income. This is just a safeguard for us, because even though we dont like to worry about me someday relapsing into another bout with cancer or Crohn's, it is a reality for us that this unfortunately is always a possibility. So we try to live a lifestyle that can be maintained on one income. We dont succeed very often. But the one thing we CAN do is make sure we get a house payment at least, that Tim could continue to pay if, heaven forbid, the worst should ever happen.

Anyway, sorry - that paragraph sorta took on a life of its own in a kind of depressing manner! So the point is, since TSS and I are not normal, we didn't have very much money tied into our loan for upgrades. While most people go in and usually put in 15K - 20K in upgrades... we are sticking with 7k. Let me tell you how difficult that is. But, we look at it as a project opportunity. I will be blog stalking over the next months and probably even years in an effort to come up with fun and cost effective ways to improve our modest little home. :o)

The building should start around the beginning of May and hopefully we'll be moving in sometime in July. I have created a new label for posts that have to do with our new house, so if that's all you want to read about... be sure to check back under our "Home" tab! I have included a picture of our floorplan below. I do so hope you'll come visit! And be on the lookout for lots more "Home" posts as our building starts and progresses. So exciting!