GIVEAWAY: Voodootown

March 15, 2013 By: Stephaniecomment

A few weeks ago I was asked to preview a new app and its accompanying stories. I was a little skeptical at first because I’m not usually so into the teen sci-fi scene. I’m not one to dress up and go to the midnight premiere of a new Twilight or Harry Potter movie, plus I’m getting kind of old, y’all. I’m a mom with three kids. What do I know about this stuff anymore?

Well, I downloaded the app and it was surprisingly easy and kind of cute, not super gothy and off-putting (to me as a pretty conservative mom) at all. I made a little doll and got to dress her up, chose the shape and color of her clothes and features, etc. It was almost like playing the Sims, my favorite computer game of all time. Don’t worry, there were still plenty of cool piercing options available and it would be easy to take your doll in the opposite direction of “cute.” I can totally see this app appealing to teenagers.

My favorite part, though, is that it is not only an interactive app, it helps promote literacy through eBooks. Keep reading to kind out more…

What’s a ghoul to do when she’s had enough of vamps and weres and the undead?

According to author Bruce Elgin and the fine folks at Grasshorse Studios, an award-winning animation firm, voodoo is the new vampire, and I agree. For about the same price it would cost you to order up a crap vampire movie in which the lead actors have both porcelain skin and porcelain emotions, you can own two episodes of the leagues more stimulating Voodootown series.

This brand new concept in young adult fiction is both unique and engaging. Our teen protagonists, troubled in the usual ways, try to fit in, make friends, and keep away from enemies, all the while shadowed by their stuffed familiars…voodoo dolls with special powers who settle human-world scores by night in the underground world of Voodootown.

The latest episode in the series, Episode 6, “Tattered,” is available this week for free download through Amazon. So don’t take our word for it, read for yourself.

We know you’ll be hooked, and like the stitches-and-seams super dolls that watch over the teen characters in Elgin’s engrossing serial, we’re here to help you out. Eight bloggers who have enjoyed a good young adult novel or two in their day, have gotten together to bring you a Voodootown Giveaway.

A Grand Prize winner will net a $50 Amazon gift card, which, obviously, they’d use to buy up every single Voodootown ebook BUT WHY DO THAT WHEN YOU COULD WIN THE WHOLE SHEBANG? Yes, in addition to the $50 Amazon gift card, the Grand Prize winner will get a free copy of each of the currently available ebooks, from “Episode 1, Schooled,” through the latest ebook, “Episode 6, Tattered.” The enormity of this generosity boggles the mind.

BUT THERE’S MORE.

The Grand Prize winner (there will be only one) will also get a limited edition Voodootown t-shirt.Clothes off our back, that’s how far we’d go for you, readers.

Eight otherrunners-up, one for each of the bloggers helping to promote this giveaway, willwin a copy of the very first Voodootown ebook, “Episode 1, Schooled,” as well as a limited edition Voodootownt-shirt.

Will wonders never cease? Actually they will. Enter today through Friday, March 22 when this promotion ends. You’ll have until midnight on March 22, when the Rafflecopter sign-up below will shut down. Winners will be announced later that day on Ninja Mom Blog.

Get on it, kids. You just need to leave a comment to enter,posting the name you’d want for your very own voodoo doll protector.The rest of the entry options are optional, but each will give you a greater chance to win.

Remember: The promotion ends in one week. Until then, here’s hoping no one sticks a pin in your voodoo doll.

Click to enter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Oh. My. Ga. Becky, Look at Her Book!

March 11, 2013 By: Stephanie4 Comments

It is SO big!

Remember last week when I (along with 36 other lovely ladies) announced the release of our new humor anthology, I Just want to Pee Alone??

If you follow me on Facebook, I know I haven’t shut up about it, I’m sorry. I’ll return to our regularly scheduled programming soon, m’kay?

Well, never underestimate the power of moms because in just 3 days, without a single book agent, a $0 promotion budget, and just some mad internet marketing skills THIS happened:

and then this happened

Holy. Crow.

We are officially #1 Best-Sellers in Amazon’s Parenting and Family Humor Category AND on iTunes in the entire Humor category.

And it’s all because of you. Obviously, we could have only become best-sellers if people bought the book, so we owe all of its success entirely to you.

You are amazing. And pretty. And have you lost weight? You are looking so svelte today.

THANK YOU from the bottom of our very full hearts.

If you haven’t secured your own copy yet just click on the “Buy My Book” tab over in my sidebar or click here to enter my giveaway.

I will try to shut up now.

Dreams: I Just Want To Pee Alone

March 8, 2013 By: Stephanie4 Comments

When we become mothers something happens inside of us that makes us put our children above anything else.

We love them so fiercely that we just want to do everything within our power to give them anything and everything they could ever need or want.

And that is great.

But what about what WE want?

What I want…

What I always wanted…

is to write.

For real.

Blogging is a fun hobby and it has given me amazing connections and wonderful friendships, but when I was a little girl I didn’t dream about blogging (mostly because no one even had the internet yet.)

I used to dream about writing. Real books. I wanted to be Judy Blume.

My friends Lauren, Nicki and I would make up our own characters and spend HOURS writing short stories in these notebooks. Then we would trade them amongst ourselves and read each other’s stories. Our character’s names were Brianna (that was me), Taylor, and Jordan. We wrote about their friendships, their first kisses, and their trips to the mall, then swapped the notebooks and did it again.

It was the original Words With Friends.

Last year, when my last baby started to get a little more independent and my oldest started school, I made a conscious decision.

It was Me time.

I decided that every day I was going to do at least one thing to get myself closer to my dream.

So between diapers and laundry and Mom N Me meetings I started networking.

I started reaching out to bigger bloggers who were more successful and they were so nice. Anna from My Life and Kids took me under her wing and allowed me to guest post on her blog. She introduced me into an amazing network of women. Leslie from The Bearded Iris became my blogging big sister and taught me how to increase my social media following and even published a piece for me on In The Powder Room. (And guess what? It became their second most popular piece in all of 2012!)

I joined the SITS girls and I started participating in their events. I even won a trip to Bloggy Boot Camp from them, so I will be going to my first ever blog conference this year!

I sent resumes to local newspapers, I wrote manuscripts, and I submitted query letters to publishers and agents, never really expecting anything to happen.

But it did.

IT DID.

An editor of a local women’s magazine offered me a freelance job and I have had 4 articles published so far, with more already in “the queue.”

Real articles in a real magazine that you can get on local newsstands. Real articles that came with real (albeit small) paychecks.

Then I got contacted by a real publisher. And they wanted MY book.

To be honest, I had forgotten I had even submitted that manuscript because I truly was doing so much work trying to get a real writing career off the ground. I couldn’t remember what I had done 2 or three months ago. (It takes a long time to hear back.)

After a lot of research and some negotiating I signed a contract.

My first children’s book will be released in 2014. A REAL book. Just like Judy Blume.

Then I got another offer.

One of those bigger bloggers in the network of women I have grown to love was looking for submissions for a new book. It was going to be an anthology of humor essays written by women on the topic of motherhood and it was being complied by Jen of People I Want to Punch in the Throat, the woman who proved just a few short months ago that a blogger could top Amazon’s best-seller list and stay there. (Her holiday book is STILL i n the Top 10 in Parenting & Family Humor. It’s a holiday book. It’s currently March. She is, like, REALLY good.)

Guess what?

My essay was accepted and the book is here!

Not only is it here, it is amazing.

I’m not just saying that because I am in it.

How could any mom not love a book with a title like this?

Yes, the book is called I Just want to Pee Alone .

Although my particular essay is fairly harmless as long as you can handle a poop story (what mom can’t?), I must warn you that this book is rated R for adult content and some foul language.

It’s also HILARIOUS.

And moving.

We’re covering everything from potty training to dealing with the death of a loved one.

My favorite contribution is from Meredith of Mom of the Year. You will laugh, cry, and be forever touched by her honesty.

The book reminds me of a mash-up of Steel Magnolias and the movie Bridesmaids.

I’m really not just saying that. Without even trying (since today is the day we all agreed to start our big online push) we got to the Top 10 on the Amazon Best-Sellers list in Parenting and Family humor this week. We are also the #1 Hot New Release in our category. Numero Uno! See? Plus we hot #1 in our category (Parenting and Family Humor) and #2 on iTunes in the Humor category!!

That’s right, it’s available RIGHT NOW on Amazon and Kindle. Just click here.

It’s also available on iTunes here.

What are you waiting for?

Oh, you want me to give you one?

Ok, fine.

Of course I’m giving away a free copy to a Binkies and Briefcases reader!

Just enter using the Rafflecopter. This giveaway is open to US residents only. Ages 18 and up. The winner will be selected at random on Saturday, March 16, 2013.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Check out all of the lovely ladies squeezed in between the pages with me:
People I Want to Punch in the Throat

Insane in the Mom Brain

The Divine Secrets of a Domestic Diva

Baby Sideburns

Rants From Mommyland

You Know it Happens at Your House Too

The Underachiever’s Guide to Being a Domestic Goddess

My Life and Kids

Bad Parenting Moments

Let Me Start By Saying

Binkies and Briefcases

The Fordeville Diaries

Cloudy, With a Chance of Wine

Confessions of a Cornfed Girl

I Love Them Most When They’re Sleeping

Random Handprints

RachRiot

You’re My Favorite Today

Funny is Family

My Real Life

Parenting

March 5, 2013 By: Stephanie39 Comments

Last Wednesday I got the call. Again.

My kindergartener was in the office. Again.

This time he had pulled down his pants, shouted, “Feast your eyes!” (a lovely expression he picked up from the Disney movie Brave) and exposed himself to the entire class.

Twice.

We have been here before. In preschool, it was for smearing feces on the reading rug. In Sunday school it was for refusing to sit in a timeout chair and instead of stripping off his clothes and rolling around under the tables.

In the office, he looks so small as he sits and hangs his tiny head.

“Mommy, I did something bad again.”

His voice is barely a whisper and there are tears in his eyes.

We go to speak to an administrator and she explains what happened. I purse my lips and concentrate on making my facial expression match what I think she wants to see from me.

I am asked what the consequences will be at home.

We take away all media and his favorite train, the one Santa brought, for the remainder of the week. He also makes a card for his teacher and writes “I’m sorry” in large, scratchy letters over a smiley face. He gets no dessert and he understands the consequences are because of his actions.

Later he cries so hard that his whole body shakes.

“Do you still love me?”

He asks me this every time.

My answer is always the same.

“I will always love you. I didn’t like your behavior today.”

“Because I was bad?”

“What you did was bad.”

But son, you are not bad.

You are broken.

I will never stop trying, but I am learning that I cannot fix it.

However, understanding the behavior does not excuse it. That is what my mother says. So we offer structure and consequences. And forgiveness and grace.

We have been to fourteen specialists trying to find the answer, but they do not have it. They have words like “Reactive Attachment Disorder,” labels to put on top of other labels, and assurances that these behaviors are typical in children who had a difficult start in life. There is no one with a more difficult start than you. My dear child, born to a homeless mother who could not provide, fed things your body could not process, and a ward of the state for your first year.

We had family sessions recorded so that videos of our parent/child interactions can be analyzed by teams of experts and they said we are doing this right.

We sent you to therapy and you graduated because your progress had been amazing.

Yet you continue to relapse and break my heart.

And so we take you back.

You do things you know are against the rules and you cannot stop yourself, even though you know they are wrong.

Although I hate this, it is the most beautiful quality about you because in your vulnerability and repeated sins I see God.

I know that, while I must punish your behavior, I can never fault you for it.

It is the same nature that we all have.

And when my job as your mother is so hard that it brings me to my knees to ask God what more I can possibly do, I feel a gentle nudge and a knowing smile that asks me, “Is this not what your Father does for you?”

So I will continue to set the rules and expect you to follow them, knowing that you won’t. I will consequence and forgive and allow you to come to me telling me things I would truly rather not hear.

I am not a perfect parent, but I have one, and so do you, and He told me we are going to be okay.

Building the Dream: Final Plans

February 13, 2013 By: Stephanie3 Comments

We are coming to the home stretch! (And by that I mean the end of the beginning and finally being able to get started.) We received our final house plans from the builder yesterday. It would have been much sooner, but I held that up because I had a bunch of last minute changes. “Hey, can we move the laundry room over here and get a bigger pantry….” Mike, our builder, is the PERFECT contractor for me. He is amazing at taking the ideas in my head and putting them on paper and he is super patient with me about making changes.

Our plans are based on the Donald Gardner plan for the Michaelson house, but we wanted to make quite a few changes. We changed the roof line, extended the study, the bathroom on the left, and the back bedroom, changed the location and sizes of a lot of closets and a few other things. We purchased the original plans here and Mike made the changes once we owned the rights to the plans.

The bank says everything looks good and we should be ready to go with them as early as next week. Our storm water plan revision has been submitted and as long as that gets approved we can FINALLY get our building permit!!!! (It only took a year.)

We will still be waiting on the weather for another month or so, but hopefully in 4-6 weeks (or maybe sooner, depending on the winter weather) we will be breaking ground!!

Yay!

P.S. You can click the images twice to enlarge.

The Bachelorette: Lord of the Rings Edition

February 12, 2013 By: Stephanie17 Comments

Please excuse me while I geek out for a minute. It’s not my fault. My husband is obsessed with all things Lord of the Rings. He read the books, he has nerdy t-shirts mapping out the journey across Middle Earth, he asked for the Blu-Ray trilogy for Christmas. (And like an idiot I bought it because it was the Amazon Deal of the Day) You get the idea.

A few weeks ago we let my son watch it for the first time and he declared that Arwen (Liv Tyler) was his girlfriend. It was adorable. Because he’s 5. It’s not that cute when you’re 30. Trust me.

Anyway…because my mind needed something less boring to do than watch LOTR for the 8 millionth time, I decided to play my own version of the Bachelorette with the men of the movie.

Who is truly marriage material?

source

Frodo Baggins…no rose for you.

Sorry dude. You’re pretty annoying. It’s not cool to be constantly playing a damsel in distress when you are carrying a testosterone card. Like, seriously.

source

Gimli…no rose for you.

You’re really cranky and you need to shave. And you are way too stubborn. You seem like the kind of guy who would come home 5 hours late after being at the pub all evening while I took care of our 7 little dwarf children and mope because your dinner was cold. P.S. your finger nails are grody.

source

Gandalf..what am I, Anna Nicole Smith? (Too soon?) He’s not invited to my rose ceremony. He’s old enough to be my great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather. Besides, Harry Potter needs you more than I do.

source

Aragorn…Ok, you can have a rose, but you’re probably not making it to the finale. You’re the broody Johnny Depp of Middle Earth. You’re hot and all, but you seem like way too much work for me. Worrying about how to get you to fulfill your potential, building your self-confidence, and making sure you do in fact save the world in spite of yourself. Nah. Also, you are taken. It’s kind of a douchey thing to do to be on my dating show when another chick already gave up immorality just to hang out with you.

It’s down to the finale. Who will get the final rose? (Do they even get a rose on the Bachelorette? I don’t have any idea. I don’t actually watch that show.)

The Runner Up

source

Legolas…swoon. If I was an available elfish maiden I would quiver for you. (Get it? Archery. I slay myself. Ha! I did it again.) Also, you have the word “lego” in your name and my son thinks that’s pretty cool. But, alas, you are just too much of a risk taker and you make everything a competition. In the end, I just can’t deal with that. I need more stability.

so the final rose goes to…..

source

Samwise Gangee! Yeah, that’s right. I picked a hobbit. I might not be a huge Lord of the Rings fan, but Sam is my favorite literary character of all time. He’s a perfect unsung hero. He’s got a strong work ethic, he’s selfless, and he’s fiercely loyal. Them’s the qualities that a good husband make.

FREE b Positive eBook

February 4, 2013 By: Stephaniecomment

I’ve been keeping a secret from you. A really fun one. No more secrets, though. Today I can finally tell you…

I partnered with the b Positive Project, Anna from My Life and Kids and 17 other bloggers to create a free eBook that I think you’re going to love.

The b Positive Project is a t-shirt and apparel company that creates comfy clothes and tries to inspire people to have a positive mindset and do good things for others.

From wrinkles, to depression – from parenting with humor to inspiring our husbands *wink* – this eBook might make you think. It might make you cry. It will definitely make you laugh out loud.

Be sure to use the coupon code in the book to receive 10% off your purchase at the b Positive Project. That same coupon code will help kids with cancer –for every purchase made using the discount code, they will be giving one b positive t-shirt to a child with cancer.

We’re also sharing 50 Ways to b Positive. Yes – punching someone in the face is included… so is praying.

You can to get your FREE copy of the eBook right now!

Living With In-Laws: 10 Things I Love

January 31, 2013 By: Stephanie4 Comments

For the past 2 months, we have been living with my in-laws while we prepare to build our new home on the land we purchased last year. Of course, there were some adjustments at first, particularly for the kids. Our son, who is adopted and has some attachment issues, really struggles with any sort of transition and he was thrown off-kilter for a while. I don’t think they are huge fans of our “just keep the clean laundry in baskets” method. My poor husband is now commuting about 2 hours each way for work. It definitely has its pitfalls, but it also has its perks and that’s what I’d like to talk about today.

Living with in-laws

10 Things I Love About Living With My In-Laws

1. Companionship. My sweet mother-in-law is disabled and home during the day. Before we were living here I would worry about her being lonely and, although I was constantly surrounded by children, it was easy for me to feel lonely too. Now we each have someone with whom we can hold an adult conversation and a partner for household chores during the day.

2. Weekends. Unfortunately, my husband now has crazy long work hours and is usually gone 14 or more hours each day. However, since he is commuting so far, his employer graciously allowed him to work longer days 4 days a week, and be “off” on Fridays. He still frequently needs to be in conference calls and approve timesheets or do other administrative type tasks on Friday, but he is HOME 3 days a week now.

3. Time to take care of myself. Since we have been here I have started seeing a chiropractor 3x a week, which I have needed to do for years but couldn’t because we couldn’t afford to hire a babysitter that many times a week in addition to the added healthcare costs. Now my back feels better, which means I’m in a better mood, able to sleep better, and exercise more. I’m more motivated to eat right and have gone down 2 pant sizes.

4. Being close to my family too. My family also lives in this area, so my parents and sister have been available when they aren’t working to help with the kids or attend special events. For example, my sister went in my place to “lunch with your child” at my son’s kindergarten class. He thought it was awesome to be surprised with a visit from Aunt Charlotte and I didn’t need to worry about taking my nursing baby out in 20-degree weather in the middle of nap time.

5. Having my son in school. I know not everyone will agree with this decision, but it doesn’t matter. We were forced to stop cyber schooling when we moved in with my in-laws because the cyber school we were using didn’t have jurisdiction in this state. We had to enroll him in the local public school so that he could continue receiving services for his special needs. He really looks forward to school every day and, if I’m being 100% honest, I am really enjoying having a bit of a breather. He has been a very high-maintenance child (14 different specialists within the past 3 years) and we are learning that it is better for our family dynamic if I can just be a mom instead of mom and teacher.

6. Reconnecting with old friends. I have a few close friends from high school and college who are now stay-at-home moms in this area. We have been able to get together much more frequently than we do when I am living over an hour away.

7. Sharing old traditions with our kids. There is something special about driving every day past the church where you got married and being able to point it out to your children, or having them use the same tiny spoons at dinnertime that your husband used as a child. “This was your daddy’s favorite blanket too,” brings a level of comfort to a hard transition that just wouldn’t be there if we were on our own and renting a temporary apartment.

8. Saving money. Duh. We have to talk about it. That’s the main reason for most inter-generational living these days. It’s a plus.

9. Making memories. I lived with my grandmother for several years, so I know first hand that the memories my children are making are priceless.

10. It’s only temporary. It’s probably keeping us all a little more sane to know that come summer we will all be living in our own houses once again. 🙂

Want to read about our home building process? Check out these posts!

How to Budget for Building Your Own Home

10 Things I’m Glad We Did While Building a New Home

Stitch Fix: online personal shoppers

January 29, 2013 By: Stephaniecomment

My Facebook friend Heather recently started a blog and one of her very first posts was about joining Stitch Fix.

I’d never heard of it before, but it sounded almost too good to be true. Do you know how much of a pain in the you-know-what it is to go shopping for clothes with three little kids? Dressing. room. disaster. They wait until you’re totally undressed to say something like, “Mommy, I really have to go potty. Oh wait, it’s too late. Oops, I think I got it on that $85 shirt you wanted to try on (just to see how it looked, them try to find something cheaper at Target). Oh, and the baby just spit up and now she’s playing in it. Oh, and my other sister took the lid off her sippy cup and poured it on the rest of the clothes…” So then you are hopping around in your underwear blotting expensive clothes with baby wipes while they all start screaming and you have to abandon your hopes of buying anything for yourself to go to the kid’s store and get a replacement outfit for the kid who just had an accident.

Nightmare.

Stitch Fix is a new company that is like an online personal shopper. You sign up and fill out a style profile and use Pinterest to give them an idea of your personal style, then for $20 they send you a box of 5 items, clothes or accessories, selected based on your personal style.

If you keep any of the items then the $20 is applied towards your order. If you don’t want to keep them you send them back, and they have free shipping both ways.

I’m on the wait list right now, but I will definitely let you know how it goes. I’ve lost some weight and want to invest in better clothes (fewer pieces, but better quality) this time around as I re-build my wardrobe. Their clothes seem to be at a higher price point than I would normally pay, but I like how the fee gets applied to the order if you keep something.

$20 is cheaper than a babysitter, which I would definitely need to get before attempting to go shopping, and somehow I feel better about the idea of a $55 sweater if I only have to pay $35 more towards my order. Plus I get to try things on a home and mix and match with my own clothes.

Avoiding all the waif-like high school girls in the dressing room whining about their “fat” popping out of a size 00 waistband doesn’t hurt either.

If you think you might be interested in trying it out, you can use my link.

And you can follow along with my “How to Not Be a Frumpy Mom” board on Pinterest.

Five Things to Consider About Building A Custom Home

January 23, 2013 By: Stephaniecomment

I hope that by spring these Building the Dream posts will be filled with lots of fun pictures of construction!

We are so fortunate to be able to build our forever house while our children are young and they will remember growing up there.

I’m thrilled beyond belief to be able to customize our house and hand pick everything from the flooring to the cabinet colors, etc. ….eventually.

When I tell people we are in the process of building on a few empty acres of land they almost always say the same thing, “That is awesome! We hope to be able to do that one day too.” (Unless they already have, then they tend to launch into their own horror stories.)

Since it seems to be such a popular dream and we are in the middle of the process right now, I thought I’d share some of what I’ve learned so far.

1. You will need an engineer. I happened to be married to a civil engineer. THANK GOD I had the foresight to do that years ago. Seriously. If you do not have your own personal P.E. who can sign and seal your plans, then add an additional $25-30,000 to your budget for the services of the one you will need to hire. I’m not kidding. Our local government required that our plans be signed and sealed by a licensed professional engineer, so this is not the kind of thing that most homeowners can do themselves.

2. Erosion and sediment control, sewer, and storm water are all different things. They all need their own plans and you cannot even apply for a building permit until you have all of these things and they are approved. We currently have invested over $10,000 in application fees alone for these kinds of plans, plus the sewer hook-ups, some tree removal, etc. These fees usually come out of pocket because the bank wants to be sure you can build on the lot before they will give you a construction loan. Like I said, since my husband is a professional engineer, we didn’t have to hire one, but if you do your fees can easily be triple what ours have been.

3. Pad the budget. As you can see from the way this list is taking shape, it’s very, very expensive. No matter what you do, DO NOT go out and look at model houses in developments that are in your budget and expect a private builder to be able to give you a similar house for that amount of money. You will pay more for a custom-build because a private builder doesn’t have the ability to place huge bulk orders (Those model homes will only let you chose between 4 of 5 different types of cabinets or flooring because they already have huge bulk orders for the material.) Plus, you have to pay extra for the land, which is included in your home sale when you buy in a development. I would recommend having at least $50,000 available to be dedicated to permits and fees on top of your budget for the actual house.

4. Pad the time estimate, too. Double the time frame you had in mind. You might want to quadrupole it. It has been 1 year and three months since we first time we saw our land and knew it was meant for us. Although we have been working consistently the entire time and making progress every day, we still don’t even have the building permits yet. Approvals for land development plans can (and do) take months at each step. We are in the final phases of permitting. Our fingers are crossed that we can be in our new home by September of this year. That will be almost exactly 2 years since we found our land. I’m tapping my foot and impatiently waiting.

5. The finance methods have changed recently. We know several families that built homes in the 90’s when you could get an interest-free construction loan and defer payments until the new house was built and make it all contingent on the sale of your current home. There is very little chance of doing any of that right now. Even though we both have excellent credit scores and we had a very large sum of cash in the bank thanks to an early inheritance, we were told we needed to sell the house we were living in and find temporary housing with family before we could even qualify for a construction loan. They won’t give you a loan if you already have a mortgage, regardless of whether or not it looks like you can afford it. Construction loans have an interest rate that is about double the regular mortgage rate right now. I don’t really love talking about the financial aspect and this is the part that makes me squirmy. You should also know that many banks don’t even write construction loans any more because of the crash in the housing market a few years ago.

No matter what, don’t get discouraged. This is actually a great time to build because many great builders have space in their schedules and mortgage rates are unbelievably low.

I can’t wait to take you through the more fun parts as we go along!

You can see my inspiration boards if you follow me on Pinterest if you are interested.

UPDATE: Our house is finished! You can see it by clicking on my Our Home tab. If you are interested in building a custom home of your own, you might also want to check out:

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GIVEAWAY: Voodootown

Oh. My. Ga. Becky, Look at Her Book!

Dreams: I Just Want To Pee Alone

Parenting

Building the Dream: Final Plans

The Bachelorette: Lord of the Rings Edition

FREE b Positive eBook

Living With In-Laws: 10 Things I Love

10 Things I Love About Living With My In-Laws

Stitch Fix: online personal shoppers

Five Things to Consider About Building A Custom Home

Binkies and Briefcases with Stephanie Giese

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