Building the Dream: Raise the Roof

Eeeek!

I’m deliriously happy about all the progress right now. Eddie has said he loves watching me be able to pick out different options and make decisions about the house because it’s “a different kind of happy.” It really is. It’s more like a soul-satisfied kind of feeling, knowing you are building your forever house and turning it into a home. So much is happening with the house, I’m having a hard time keeping up. I might have to start updating you more than once a week.

Most importantly, this week we got a crane and they started putting up the trusses for the roof.

Also, my mom decided to buy us a pool. Say what? And yes, please. Technically, she is buying her own pool and putting it in our yard so we can use it and maintain it for her. See, mom owns the land (2.4 acres) together with us and the next step after our house is complete will be to build a small cottage on the same property for her to downsize and be closer to the grand kids. She wants a pool for her own health benefit and for the kids to be able to use. Of course, we would love a pool too, but it would not have been in our budget right now.

After seeing the lawn all torn up and needing to be regraded and seeded and knowing we had to repave the driveway anyway, we all decided that now, while everything is already torn up and going through construction, would be the best time to add an in-ground pool to the property, rather than pay even more money to do all of that over again next year.   Since my mom’s cottage doesn’t exist yet and Eddie will be the one maintaining the pool anyway, the pool is going in our back yard and there will be a walkway that connects it to mom’s cottage eventually.

I’ve spent the last week getting quotes from different companies and visiting showrooms. We put down a deposit on a 14′ x 32′ salt water pool. We’re super excited and already wishing it was installed because it has been H-O-T.

We’ve been trying to spend as much time at the land as we can putting together our kitchen cabinets, but it has been so nasty hot that the kids can never last more than an hour or two out in the sun.

Right now my favorite, favorite (FAVORITE!!!) part of the house is the covered back porch. There’s one in the front too, but all of the living space is in the back of the house, and the back porch is bigger and it has a better view, so it is my favorite. Although, I love you too, front porch.

Much to the hubby’s chagrin, I insisted on the very last-minute change (We literally called the builder as they were framing the walls) of adding french doors from our master bedroom to the pool/back porch area. Eddy thought they were unnecessary and it was a little expensive, but I think we’ll really like having them and they will add a lot more natural light. They’ll also be practical when he comes in all filthy from doing yard work or when the kids are done in the pool-everyone can just go straight to the big tub in the master bath without dragging their yuckiness all over the rest of the house. 

We also ordered our refrigerator, washer, and dryer from hhgregg this week during their 4th of July sale and went back to Ikea because there was an issue with some of our other appliances being out of stock. The ones I chose originally have been out of stock since April and there is some sort of supply issue, so the staff didn’t know if they would ever come back in. We switched the oven and microwave to a different model. It was a little disappointing, but a pretty small hiccup in the scheme of things.

Once again, I think it’s fitting that the rooms that belong to our children were the first ones to start to get “a roof over their heads.”