Like a kid in a candy shop!

David had been eyeing a tractor like this for awhile, a long while actually. We had a tractor but it wasn't very dependable -- sometimes it would start/sometimes it wouldn't ~~ sometimes the tires would be flat/sometimes they'd be fine -- you just really never knew! And it never failed that when he actually needed to the tractor, he'd have to fix something on it first.

So when he found a good deal on a used one, we just had to go check it out. I stayed in the car with the kids (our 2 plus one extra loud foster baby) and David checked it out... and smiled... and drooled... and sat on it... and talked and talked and then talked more to the guy who was selling it. :) It turned out that they actually had a lot in common {construction/building manly talk}. This man also had a dream workshop that I think David just had to check out too. :) Thankfully I was finally able to drag him away from that tractor & dream shop -- whew, I was beginning to wonder if we'd ever leave there! ha ha

So, to make a long story short --> we had some money saved up for it... and the guy accepted our offer the next day... so my husband now had his dream tractor! Actually the nice man even ended up delivering the tractor right to the new house for us (about an hour drive one way for him)! And our neighbor is nice enough to let this tractor live with our other tractor in his extra barn space. :)

So here's the big day when the tractor became part of our family... ha ha.

A few of my favorite random pictures...

I just wanted to post a few of my favorite pictures that we've taken so far down at the land...

:)

Hardi board siding is on!

This was something else that we sub'd out so it could get done quicker. It went really fast and was another big step for our little house. Our house was starting to look like a home now! :)

Funny story about this step --> The crew that did the siding were really nice but only the lead guy could speak english. The crew would come early, bring their radio with big speakers, hook them up to the extension cord in our master bedroom, open the windows and totally crank it up! I mean loud music, all in spanish. Anyways, that was kind of funny -- and the kids always laughed & danced when we'd go by for a visit. It didn't take them long to get our whole house done so maybe the music helped!

Anyway, fast forward to the 2nd weekend. It was a Saturday, which means that David is able to go down and work for the entire weekend (because he works a full-time job during the week and can only work an hour or two at most on the nights he's even able to go down to work on the house). So we all decide to go down and realize that the workers are there and they have invited their families (wives and kids) to an outdoor party at our new house. The had the music blasting; the bonfire going with a grill even!; beer flowing; and their kids are running around our big field playing soccer! :o

Our kids ran off to play soccer with the other kids and DH & I just sat there like "what in the world is going on?". I thought David would flip his lid, but he didn't (much to my surprise!). I figured that since we'd gotten there, the party would be over. Nope, it lasted HOURS! Into the night even! Crazy, huh?

Here are a few pictures of this stage... minus the party! ha ha

Windows are in!

Somehow I missed taking a lot of pictures of this exciting time -- but atleast I got one! This was in November 2007 and we had 2 extra (foster) kids who were getting ready to go back with their mom so maybe that, along with Thanksgiving, the camera girl (me) was temporarily busy. :)

We got a good deal on the windows from a small local company. Hopefully soon we'll add some decorative trim down the center of them... making each window look like it has 4 separate pieces (old style windows).

Getting the windows in was another BIG step for our house!

Plus we had winter coming so we were really pushing to get the house all closed in. The windows were the last step of this! Yay!

1st tour of the inside!

I'm a very visual person, I need to see something before it all makes sense to me. My husband is just the opposite (which has been great!). He can "see" something in his mind and it just automatically makes sense to him; I have to touch it or see it drawn on paper before I really "get it".

I was soooo happy once I could walk in the house for the first time. After looking at the house plan for what seemed like *forever*, it was neat to walk thru and see where everything was or would be... the walls; doors; windows; the views of each room; my bathtub (okay, I have a bubble bath addiction... so it's important! ha ha). Of course I was already envisioning where the furniture would be and how I'd decorate -- I am a girl after all! ;)

So here are a few pictures that I took of the inside. Of course I took tons of pictures -- but I'll only bore you with a few of them.

The picture below is standing in the living room looking at the stairs. The door beside the stairs is a closet; and to the far right, that door is the office.

The pic below is taken from the living room looking into the kitchen. The door to the left is the back door (in the mudroom) and all the windows on the right side are in the master bedroom.

The picture below was taken from the dining area looking into the living room... the stairs again... and the front door is there on the right.

The pic below is of the "man cave"... atleast until the workshop is built. Then this will be renamed to "media room". ha ha :)

The picture below is looking out the master bedroom window. The hay bale actually marks the spot where Davids workshop will be. We have 4 windows in the master bedroom (I love natural light~) and each view is awesome!


This was a fun stage because me & the kids could finally go down to the house and clean the floors. The kids loved sweeping and I ran the shop-vac. And since I'm not familiar with *any* helpful building techniques (such as reading a tape measure or hammering nails), this gave me something to help David with.

Roofing!

We decided early on to go with a silver metal roof to try and get the look of a true old farmhouse with an old tin roof. We were very lucky to be referred to a guy who is very experienced with metal roofing installation. Funny thing though... after talking to the roofer, we figured out that to he is a very distant cousin of mine on my moms side! How funny is that?! His great-great-grandfather was a brother to my great-great-grandfather. He said he would've given us the "family discount" but that he usually charges more for that -- I nicely declined. lol :)

Anyways, getting back on the topic... here are some pics of the roof after it was completed and the house was wrapped ~ I think the roof just really makes the house look beautiful, just a perfect fit for the land. David wanted a different type of metal roof but I thought it looked a little too industrial for the look I had envisioned. We compromised on my look ;) and it didn't take them long to put it on.

The back side of the house has a covered porch. We plan on screening it in -- I can't wait to sit out there at night with a warm blanket to read a book or just kick back and look at the stars.

The framing crew gets started!

The framing of the house got started and was done within days... really, it was super duper fast. There were 10 guys working on our little house -- nails flying; wood flying; and then they were done!

The one thing that we did regret is using finger-jointed lumber to frame the downstairs. It looks *horrible*. Parts were split, missing or almost moldy looking. We wished that we had choosen regular lumber -- and my husband actually thought of tearing down the whole first floor and having it redone! The framer talked him out of it but our lesson was learned --> go with your gut instinct! We wouldn't advise anyone to use the finger-jointed lumber. My husband actually spent a lot of time going back and replacing some of the worst lumber.

Here are some pics I took during framing... this was Day one, looking at the first floor from the side a little.




and the next day... the second floor is starting to go up. Me & the kids got there just in time to see them lifting up Coles window wall -- he was so excited! Then we watched them lift up Katelyns window wall too. It doesn't take much to amuse us! ha ha

Here's the long wall, the part sticking out is in the master bath.

Here's the back of the house... only part of the 2nd floor is up so far. This was all done in ONE day! Crazy!

and the next day... this is a view from the other side of the house. You can see the front/side porch pretty good here. The 2 smaller windows upstairs is in the "man cave". ;)

And here's the back of the house... the back porch roof is going up.

and here's a random picture that I took off out the backdoor. It's looking back off to the left, into the big field where the hay had just been rolled. ;)

The foundation goes up!

It's Sept 2007 -- The footers have been poured and the foundation built. It really does go soooo quickly once everything gets started! Here are some of the pics that I took in the past week or so...

Then they added the rebar to make it strong...

Here is the concrete getting poured into the footers...

This picture below reminds me of the old Pac-Man game! lol

And of course I had to add some personalization! ;)

We're ready for the foundation building to begin!
And the split faced blocks we're using have been delivered and are ready to go! :)

And all those blocks turned into this...

Well, they were done with the foundation within 2 days ~ and today (9/27/07) we had the wood delivered for the framer & his crew to begin work tomorrow! He was going to get started today... but of course it decided to rain all day -- which is good though, we needed it badly. Our last hay cutting was only about 1/3 of what it usually is. So, in the morning more fun shall begin! :)

Water line in!

The local water company finally came out and hooked us up to the city water system. That was the most expensive stake that we've ever bought! $1200 for a piece of wood to mark where we wanted the meter box to go! lol

Anyways, David had a guy with a backhoe come in and dig us out a trench from the road all the way up towards the house. Luckily, the soil was really good and not rocky like we thought it might be --> which would have greatly increased our costs. Then David hooked up the meter and laid the hose out. Now the footer & foundation guys will have some aqua to help them out. :)



and then... it works!!! :)

Below is my very poor attempt to draw in where our house will sit...

Septic tank in!

Okay, okay... so I got a little excited over having a gravel truck come. This was our first official "worker" to the field.


Next, we had the tank guys deliver the pump & septic tank. The kids got a kick out of the truck leaning backwards. It took about 10 minutes to set up and they were done!

And here's my honey attempting to help get everything set right. Viola! Now we have a septic system -- and we passed the inspection. The first inspection of many I'm afraid.

**What was so great about the septic system was that we got the septic tank & pump for FREE. Yeah, free --> can't get better than that huh? Another family had built a home that they considered a 3 bedroom -- but codes considered it a 6 bedroom because they had added extra closets in 3 of the rooms so they had to dig up this septic system and replace it with a much larger one to handle those 6 bedrooms. They just wanted us to take it out of their backyard.

We did have to pay to have a tank company to pick them up and deliver it to our field; and we paid our septic installer to get it all working... but it still saved us over $1,000 for not having to buy them. It was a pain in the rump trying to get everyone on the same schedule for pickup, delivery and install (add in crazy rainy days too!) but it wasn't too bad. Now, that's a good deal folks! You just can't get cheaper than free. ;)

Looking out for deals!

We still had to wait awhile after we'd found "the" plan we loved. We were actually in the middle of doing a total renovation of the house we were living in (DH's old bachelor pad! lol). David (AKA: "DH") totally gutted that house room by room (with us living there; we're still coughing up dust! blah!) but the money we'd make off this house after we sold it would enable us to pay off our land so we forged ahead. As usual, it ended up looking amazing in the end. I honestly miss it, not the neighborhood, but we put so much love into that house... I confess, I have this bad attachment to stuff (houses & cars especially!).

Anyways, so while we were busy with the renovation -- we still kept our eyes out for good deals for our new-house-to-be-one-day (follow that??). My husband is a good deal finder, I'm learning pretty well from him. Every bit of money saved on one thing helped us be able to afford something else!

One of the main reasons why we decided to build our own house was to control the money aspect of it. Everything is so expensive now-a-days and it would be hard to build what we wanted being a one income family using a contractor. Plus, we knew we could build it cheaper and still use the best guys to do certain aspects of it that we wanted to sub out --> ending up with a lessor mortgage and a nice house with all the upgrades that we wanted. :)

Being the bargain hunters that we are (I didn't nickname my hubby "cheep cheep" for nothing... and I don't really mean a bird!), I thought I'd share some of the good deals that we've found so far. ;) Granted, some things have been just pure luck or someone-knowing-someone kinda deal too. Either way, our garage is *full* of house stuff now and every penny saved could be used on something else.

Kohler drop-in tub for master bath -- regular price is over $700 -- we got it on Ebay for $51.00 brand new, never used, still in the org box, plus $220 to have it shipped to us -- still saving us around $500!!

David found a nice, brand new in the box kitchen sink faucet at a yard sale for $20 -- we later found out it retails at Lowes/Home Depot for over $400! The man having the yard sale worked for the faucet company and didn't need it. David also talked him into a bathroom faucet for $5! Even if we don't use these, we can sell them for a small profit.

Awesome rug for the master bedroom at Lowe's -- regular $350 -- on clearance for $109!! (It's beautiful too!) The sales lady there gave me a deal on the smaller version of the same rug for $20 for me to put in the master bath (I think it was marked regular $49).

Interior doors (3 panel style) at Lowe's -- we upgraded to solid core for FREE using their special promotion AND saved 10% off our entire order!

We saved $300 with our footer guy... just because he was behind schedule and we decided to wait on him (only b/c he's the *best* around). :)

And we saved another $300 with our foundation/block guys... just because we paid with cash! I guess cash is king! lol

David found a septic tank for free -- not used! (very important, lol). Someone had built a house that he called a 3 bedroom... but b/c he'd put in closets in 3 other extra rooms the codes department said it was a 6 bedroom. He had to take the smaller septic tank out of the ground and buy a bigger one (what a pain huh?). He gave it to us for FREE, but we did have to pay $200 to get it moved and set at our land.

We ordered our kitchen cabinets last year (ugh... they've been in my living room at our rental house since LAST March!) because Lowe's was running an awesome deal. We ended up with some free upgrades (saving several hundred dollars) PLUS they had a promotion were for every $1,000 you spent, you'd get back a $100 Lowes gift card. I think we ended up with over $1,000 in gift cards between all the kitchen/bathroom purchases we made. See! It all adds up! :)

David found a 12x24 ft wood building that someone wanted to get rid of. IIRC, he paid to have it moved to our land. I don't know how much he saved... but I'm sure it was atleast several hundred dollars easily. And it's come in handy having a shed there for storage -- I tried to talk him into turning it into a chicken coop... but it's "no" for now. He did say he'd give it up after his workshop is built for a homeschool room if we're able to homeschool next year. That'd work!

We bartered free interior stair parts for David to do some audio/video work at the guys house. He figured we got about $600 in parts in exchange for about 2 hours of his working, the guy had all the parts in his garage and just wanted rid of them. ;)

We often shop the clearance aisles at Lowes, you never know what you'll find. Actually we go to Lowe's so much that David knows one of the managers now. He said he'd work with us on getting our appliances. We love Lowe's! We got all of our old appliances from them too and they were just really good to work with, I think we saved 10% last time which isn't a lot but it does cover taxes! ;)

Due to the economy too, we've saved just by paying cash. I think we've saved money on getting a crew to insulate (itchy, itchy!) and hang drywall (it took them 2 days versus taking DH wayyyy longer by himself!). So, paying cash has helped too.

On to house plan searching...

So, now we had our dream land. Next, we spent over a year looking for the "perfect" home that we wanted to build. My husband has quite a bit of knowledge in different areas of building so he decided to be our contractor, and either do a lot of the work himself or help the subs if at all possible. So we needed to keep that in mind while figuring costs, plans & timeframes.

We actually picked out 3 plans before finding the house plan that we ended up building. The first two were a little too subdivision looking for our hay field (our land was a cow pasture!); and the third house plan soon grew to over 3,000 square foot --> wayyy out of our means, unless we wanted to be "house poor" as Dave Ramsey says, and that what was the point of building it if it would be a bigger form of stress? ;)

One day I was looking thru the "Southern Living Magazine" and saw this perfect little cottage plan. I didn't think he would like it... but I bookmarked the page to show him anyways. To my surprise --> he liked it! He had actually already seen it and liked it then too! :) Woohoo! We finally had a plan that was just what we were looking for -- Perfect look; great character & charm hard to find in "new" houses; do-able square footage; the layout needed some tweaking but that was it! Yayyyy!!!

Here's the plan we decided on ~

And in the meantime, we went to the land (about 40 minutes outside of the city) and we'd ride ATV's, have bonfires, meet our neighbors and ride on our tractor.

Our son C was 4 and little K was barely one year old!

Our neighbor up the road let us keep our tractor there. We loved our 1st tractor -- even if it broke down more than it ran! ha ha

Even I rode the tractor and loved it! Talk about a city mouse/country mouse though!