Woohoo!  DH and I just ordered the Big Enchilada plans and we don't even have land to build on yet!  Considering that our house up north hasn't sold yet (it is showing today, however) and we don't know where we'll build said house, it seems a bit preemptive, but I don't care.  At this point, we want to plan and daydream a little... sure it'll be a while before we do anything.   As DH said this morning while we were sitting here talking about it, "This country's going a little nuts.  I gotta be a rebel and set an example by living in something way smaller than a 3000 sq. ft. home!"  (Did I mention that we're getting real sick of renting real fast?)    

You know it's almost summer HG. You could just go camping until winter. Lots of great lakes around to camp at.

That's true!  I wouldn't mind too much, and the kids would be OK with it, but DH might  miss his creature comforts. 

Saw a really pretty 40 acres today for sale.  Very secluded.  Creek nearby.  Has an old single-wide mobile that looks quite liveable on it, and a nice horse barn, and not much else.  Have no idea what they want for it, but hoping to get a showing next Tuesday.  Anyone know what it costs to have a mobile home hauled off?  Anyone had any luck with selling them cheap or giving them away on the condition that the person taking it has to pay for the move?  My thought is that we could live in it while building and then get rid of it.  But shoot, I'm getting ahead of myself again.   I don't even know what they want for the place.

yahoo!  got the plans in the mail today.  Just ordered Saturday morning and here they are.  Unfortunately the land I saw Saturday evening is under contract already.  doggone it

Rats!  I was hoping you had something. 

More importantly, it's never too early to start planning.  Now that our closing date is rapidly approaching (tomorrow, but I already know that's not going to be when it actually is! lol), I'm feeling like we're not even ready to start! 

I'm sure we'll be the same way, Erin.  When we got the plans yesterday, I wanted to sit down and read everything, but was bone tired from scrubbing the house top to bottom yesterday (nesting syndrome setting in, I suppose?)  I'm ready and not ready.  Wish like anything the house up north would hurry up and sell!

Quick glance at this topic this morning made me think it was titled, "Taunting Chickens Before They Hatch". 

Probably not a good idea... hmm

You know, Glenn... they have old folk glasses that will help with the little bitty letters nowdays!

Young whippersnapper.  Respect your elders.   

I have lots of those glasses - my computer almost wrote gasses...gotta get this thing under control.

Well, according to some of Sassy's posts, you probably have some of those, too.

Moi...

I read the entire packet of house plans last night, even all the drawings and labels... no wonder I was having weird dreams about building foundations. 

As long as you don't find yourself sleep walking with a shovel in the backyard some night....

Might be a good way to get some work done, though.

"Boy we got that done fast!"

That property sounded nice, HG - ours was in escrow when we went to check on it but then when they checked, it had just gone off, that day...  so we ended up getting it.  The right one will come along at the right time.     So, drawing out your rooms yet on the Big Enchilada?

Erin, how exciting to just about have the property signed over to you!  Hadn't heard from you for awhile, was wondering how things were going.  Keep us posted!

According to the contract that just showed up yesterday(!), the new closing date is May 16th.  Woohoo!  The end is in sight! 

Congrats Erin... hope it all goes through as planned this time with no hitches!  How are things with your husband's work situation going?

Yesterday we got a book on house framing in the mail and DH came home and suddenly went gung-ho on the whole building idea.  My husband often will go days without saying much, but heaven help you if he's in a "talking" mood.  As soon as I got kids to bed (at he started in about building a house.  Now, keep in mind, this has been my dream as long as I can remember, but in particular the past two years.  I was tired, having contractions, and trying to relax for a change, and he was chattering nonstop about how we could do this and that, etc.  He had all of John's plans spread out all over the table (what I did with them the day we got them) and was trying to read the plans without first looking at the other information included, and therefore driving me nuts with questions about stuff he wasn't sure of on the plans!  He kept going, like the energizer bunny, until well after midnight... maybe this is the male version of "nesting"?  He was still talking when I fell asleep!    It's comical to see him in one of those moods...he was like a little kid who just got a new model airplane kit.  At least he's getting excited over the idea. 

Sounds like he's having fun now. 

We can help if he needs any clarifications too. 

Weird... I made a sunglasses smiley when I tried to write the kids' bedtime... I meant 8 o'clock...

He is having fun, babbling about solar and wind power like a man possessed.   

Quote from: Homegrown Tomatoes on May 04, 2008, 12:34:00 PM
Congrats Erin... hope it all goes through as planned this time with no hitches!  How are things with your husband's work situation going?

Oh, the same.  90% of the time he's just fine, they aren't bothering him, we plug along just like always.  But the other 10% he's unhappy.  Needing a raise.  Feeling run over.  Waiting to get @#$%^ed at for something beyond his control...
He has several standing job offers in the area, so the plan is to stick it out with this place until we get our house built.  (That way we have easier access to heavy equipment.  )

On our front:
We've been pushed back a few more days.  Farm Credit can't move as fast as the 16th so we'll close on the 21st instead. 
And it's funny that we were worried about over paying.  We finally agreed on $400 an acre.  The assessment just came back at $250! 
Good from the standpoint of taxes, bad from the standpoint of our 65% LTV loan with Farm Credit.  (We have to come up with an additional $1600 before close!  *sigh*)

It's worth it though, right?  lol

Whew, sounds stressful... hope everything works out for you guys, though.  And I hope your husband's job stays pleasant and on an even keel until you can get a house liveable on the site! 

DH and I are going nuts in this rental.  I've been bellyaching to the landlords for more than two weeks now because our shower head was leaking like crazy.  They told me they'd fix it two weeks ago, which of course, they didn't.  Anyway, as the leak progressed, silicon caulking that was put over nasty, moldy old grout in the shower has begun to peel off in strips.  Apparently it wasn't the first time they've had this problem.  In the last week, the water has begun to seep through the damaged grout into our closet.  It now smells like a dirty gym sock  , and of course is doing permanent damage to the home, but they STILL haven't come out to fix it.  We're shutting off the water at the main because when we had the first flood right after we moved in, they told the plumber to do the cheapest possible fix, so he replaced the manifold system with a thing that only has one shut-off valve.  So, if we need to flush the toilet, run a load of laundry, or get a drink, we have to go turn on the main momentarily and then shut it off when we're done so we don't ruin all our stuff that's in the closet of the bedroom... we moved all DH's boxes of books out of the way of the flood, but if we were to leave the water on long enough, it would eventually get there.  We are just praying with all we've got that someone would buy our cute little house in Wisconsin so that we could get out of this poorly constructed, over-priced behemoth.