The good news

is that National Grid should be out next week to finally install power to the lot!!!!!! The bad news is that our house is now being set on September 11th because rain has delayed settings of other houses and they're about a week behind (the setting team, that is). I'm not too upset - our house is finished and on it's way. We've waited this long... honestly what's another week? Besides - September 11th is my parents' wedding anniversary - maybe it'll be a good omen for us :)

Well, we have

a well! and a basement floor! Last week our basement floor was poured and our well was dug! Here are a few pics!

We had it drilled by Fenlong Well Drilling out of a neighboring town. Darrell thought it was pretty clever that their name is on the well cap. Pretty good advertising! Fenlong came on Thursday last week in the pouring rain and completed our well in 3 hours!! I'm not sure if that's a good time or not since I don't know much about how long it takes to drill a well, but that sounded like some sort of record to me! It is 94ft deep, after 40 ft they hit bedrock (so after that we didn't have to pay for well casing!) and we are pumping at 30 gallons/minute! We have plenty of water and he said we are likely to NEVER have any problems with running out! It is in the front yard, and not very pretty to look at, so we will be covering it with one of those giant fake rocks that they sell at Lowes and planting some flowers around it!

We also had our basement floor poured on Friday, and the supporting walls for our breakfast nook were also poured. We couldn't pour the floor after the house is set (which is what usually happens so the floor is protected from the elements during drying) but because of where our basement windows are it wouldn't be possible for the truck to access it - so we poured this past week! We made sure we had a good stretch of sunny weather so the floor will dry nicely. If it rained we'd have little dimples all over the concrete.. we definitely didn't want that!

Here are a few pics of the newly poured floor, the new supporting walls for the breakfast nook (the bump out at the back of the house) and the stairs makeshift ladder we have that will be replaced by stairs going from the basement to the outside!

Our house is set to be delivered sometime this week and set on September 3rd!! We've contacted G&I and they say we're still on schedule so hopefully there will be some big updates over the next 2 weeks!

In the meantime Darrell and I are thinking more about finishes in the house - paint colors, hardware for cabinets, etc. My classroom is also coming along really nicely this year! It's been nice having extra time to get in and get things set up. I plan on doing a post on that once it's officially done and I can take some pictures of it! It's been a lot of work this year but I absolutely love how it's coming together (which is fantastic since I spend more time at school then I do at home during year).

Thanks for stopping by!

This past Monday

started out horribly. I misread the date on my dentist appointment card and drove 90 minutes for my appointment that wasn't until Wednesday... yup... it was pretty marvelous. To salvage the trip I figured I'd stop by School Daze to grab a few things for my classroom, and Michael's Craft Store to see if they had anything on sale that my kids (students) could use. It was 8:30 in the morning... School Daze didn't open until 10 and Michaels, 9. I wasn't sticking around to wait so I grabbed a coffee at Dunkin' and headed to school (which was on my way home) to get some things done in my room.

I was in a miserable mood...
I turned the radio on and started repainting a few of the bookshelves in my classroom. Then I remembered that I had to call the NYS Education Dept. to check on the status of my Professional Teaching Certificates. I'd applied for them at the beginning of June. When you graduate college and take your certification exams, if you pass the exams and complete your college coursework for the education major, you apply for your initial certifications. You hold these until you get 3 full years of teaching experience under your belt, and a Masters degree in the field of education. After four years of subbing, 1 full year of teaching, and having completed my masters, I applied. I sent in all of the necessary paperwork and waited. 2 of my certifications expire on August 31st, so when the middle of August arrived I was a bit nervous at how long the process seemed to be taking. Thankfully a friend of mine gave me a number at the state to call that would be able to answer my questions about when my Professional Certs would be given.

This brings me to Betty - the nicest NYSEdDept worker I've ever met. I asked her if she could look into my account and see where my paperwork might be in the process of approval. While waiting for her computer to load we got to talking. Her computer was taking forever and she began to complain that it must be Monday because this, as well as the rest of her day, is taking forever. I chuckled, and asked her if I could share a small story. She obliged - and I told her about my morning. Her response: Well, honey - I'm going to make your day a hell of a lot brighter - I'm looking into your paperwork, everything looks good, I've just approved all of your professional certifications.

I could have cried! I thanked her, hung up the phone, and back flipped down the school hallway. (Not really) I called Darrell and my Mom and told them the great news.

I am now an official Professional NYS Certified Teacher and I couldn't be happier!!

After months and months

and months of trying (actually it was only 10 days!!) we have SOLD OUR HOUSE!!! We put it on the market 10 days ago and without the help of a realtor it sold! We received an offer yesterday, countered it today and she accepted! We are selling it to a nice woman who is a single mother to a 6 year old. She's currently going through a divorce and living with her parents - which she said she's happy to do until we are able to move in early November(hopefully). We are coming in at $3,000 under our asking price, which we're pretty happy with since we didn't expect to get our asking price anyway!

She was the first person to contact us about looking at the house and she was the first showing we had. She brought her entire family (brother, sister-in-law, sister and brother-in-law, mother and father). It was quite a parade we had going down the hallway as they all filed in and out of each room. She'd been looking for a while, she'd said, and as far as we were concerned, our house seemed like the perfect fit for her and her daughter. She liked the house and wanted to talk with her parents more about it (they're helping her pay for it) and said she'd get back to us in a few days. In the meantime we showed the house to 2 other couples, and tried like hell to keep it spotless... well... as spotless as you can be with a 5 month old puppy running around...

Over the weekend she called us and asked if she could bring a home inspector by - we, of course, agreed. We knew she must be interested, to be paying for a home inspection. The home inspector found minimal things wrong with the house (everything we had already discussed with her previously). She called us later that night with an offer. We decided to counter her offer, she called her parents to share with them our offer, and within an hour of us giving her our counter, she called us back and accepted! We had already contacted a lawyer to discuss what paper work there would be to do, etc. So now we have a meeting set up next week to draw up the necessary paperwork and get the ball rolling!

Everything is moving so fast lately. Thankfully it's moving fast in a good way and things seem to be going really well for us! (now that I've probably just jinxed us!) The house is being delivered next week and set on the foundation on September 3rd. We are soooo excited! The well is set to be dug tomorrow and on Friday our basement floor is being poured. Busy, busy, busy!

Tonight we celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary and it was nice being able to catch up with each other and talk about all of the exciting things that are/will be happening. We are so blessed and so extremely excited for this home that we will be able to spend the rest of our lives in. Thankfully, between Darrell working and me getting back in to school to set up my classroom and start curriculum mapping, the time is flying by. I think November will be here before we know it!

"It's a Jeep thing"

is definitely a quote I live by. Since my mom got her first Jeep when I was in college (maybe at the end of high school?? I can't remember...) I've been in love. The fact that they're American made (mostly) and played such an iconic role in our nation's history during war times has had me sold from the beginning. (The 4 wheel drive doesn't hurt either). Well my very first Jeep - a 2007 Liberty finally bit the dust and had to be laid to rest (traded in) for, shockingly, another Jeep Liberty!

She's a 2012 and 'Wild Cherry Red'. I've decided she has to be a girl because she's so sassy (being red and all). I got her on July 24th, one of my best friend's birthdays. She's fabulous. I always thought my next Jeep would be black just because I like the way they look, but we got a better deal on the red one - less than 5,000 miles on her!! So red it is, and I really love it!

Side story: My friend Matthew - who's birthday it was- sent me a message that day:

M: "I lost my wallet... on my birthday"
Me: "I got a new car... on your birthday..."
M: "Just had to cancel my cards and now I'm going to have to order a new license and ss card"
Me: "Well.. I guess 29 can only go up from here?"
M: "I hope so... mesh shorts are my undoing..."
Me: "Enemy #1 of fashion AND wallets..."

Thankfully we share the same sense of humor and he wasn't upset with my gloating lol.

Another perk of the new Jeep - Serius XM Radio that I got a free subscription to. I absolutely love it since none of the stations up here really play any of the music I listen to - folk and indie.

2013 must be the year of new things - car, house, dog. I can't wait to see what else is in store for us :)

Our first

but definitely not last setback was delivered to us about 2 weeks ago. Our house, that was set to be delivered the week of August 12th, has been pushed back to September 3rd. Not the worst thing that could happen to us since our contractor needed more time to work on the foundation anyway, but it definitely makes me nervous to think that the attached garage might not be finished in time. If we get pushed back any farther we run the risk of having to build it in the snow or wait until the Spring - neither of which we want to do.

We have also had some issues in working with National Grid. Dealing with them has been more stressful than the fact that our home delivery was pushed back almost a month...

Some background: we had the foundation dug and put in a few weeks ago...

Here are a few shots of the foundation being dug:

Here are some shots of the walls after they were poured:

This is a picture from the front right corner of the house, with my back to the road. The section that juts out of the basement will be a set of stairs leading to the outside.

So the foundation is done and curing - that's good. We also had to install a sub pump - also a good thing, to ensure that our basement won't flood.
We've been waiting on National Grid to install power at the site for FOUR (4) WEEKS. That's an entiiiiiiiiire month!! And because we don't have power to the site yet our sub pump can't work on it's own so that leaves Darrell going to the site on a nightly basis - sometimes a twice a day, turning a generator on that we are using to run the pump and waiting for any water that might be there, to drain...

It's been fantastic...

Here's how it all played out-

We contacted NG about installing power - they had an inspector come out to determine where we would tap into the power line across the road and where our pole would go. They wanted to put it on the edge of our parcel so that it would be between 2 lots - ours and the one next to us that we don't own - in case anyone should ever buy it (if it's ever up for sale) and want power as well. This plan would save them from having to run power to another pole - instead they would be able to run a line from the pole that we would share with them.
In order to do this we would have to get permission from our neighbor directly across the road from us as well as permission from the neighbor diagonally across the road from us. The neighbor directly across the road had no issue with signing an easement for the power line. The neighbor diagonally across the road would have to lose a tall tree on their property in order for the line to be put in and they refused.

We weren't upset with their decision at all - we didn't like the initial plan NG had come up with anyway.

So we contacted NG and let them know that only one of the neighbors would be willing to sign the easement and therefore the plan had to be rethought. New Plan! We are now running the power to a pole directly on our lot that would not be as easily accessible to someone should they move in next to us (which will not be happening and probably never will happen...). You think that a change like this wouldn't be so complicated.. now instead of getting easements from 3 people- the 2 neighbors as well as ourselves, they only need 2 easements - from the neighbor directly across from us who's already agreed to sign, and us...

This is where the stress comes in. NG was supposed to mail us the easement forms to be signed. They gave us a date.. that date came and went so Darrell called them. They claimed they were mailed out the day before he had called and were already on their way to us and should be there within the week. We wait... and wait... no papers... Darrell calls again... the woman he's been in contact with there blows him off. He calls again and speaks with her superior who informs us she had never gotten around to mailing the paperwork but that it is in the mail now and we should have it within the week... we wait.. and wait... no papers. Darrell calls again and leaves a message. No response. He calls again and leaves another message... It's apparent she's started screening her calls. He calls a third time and someone else answers the phone as the woman is at lunch. He looks into the status of our account and mentions that the paperwork had just been sent over to another office for some sort of approval and needs to come back from that office before they can mail it out... (are you annoyed yet, because I sure as hell was!!!!!!!!!!)
Meanwhile Darrell is going to the lot on a daily basis to hook the pump up to the generator, buying gas for the generator, waiting for the pump to empty, etc.

Anyway, we finally got the paperwork, had ours signed and notarized and are just waiting on our neighbor to get hers signed and notarized (which will hopefully happen Monday) so we can mail them back to NG and hopefully get someone out here to install some power within the next 20 years. We have had the panel box ready and waiting since the inspector first came out... about a million years ago when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

So thankfully our NG ordeal is almost over(I hope) and I'm sure this won't be the last hick-up we encounter on this joyous journey. Honestly it really is. No sarcasm intended. The light at the end of the tunnel- our marvelous new house - is in sight and only a few months off!

In closing, Thank You woman at NG who couldn't be bothered to do the job you're paid to do. I wish my profession was that forgiving!

Part 3: I don't know about you

but this part 1, 2, 3 business is already getting a bit redundant.

Anywho! If you're anything like me, then this is the post you've been waiting for!
The glorious house plans! Well.. not the official ones of course - but these are the plans that we found online that we took to G&I and had modified to become a modular home!

We both wanted a country style home with a large front porch, 4 bedrooms, an open floor plan, and no wasted space. A lot of the country style homes we found online included a formal living room and that was at the top of both of our lists of things we did NOT want. We wanted to make sure that every square inch of our new home would not only be usable.. but would BE USED. We wanted 4 bedrooms as we plan on having at least 2 children, and maintain a guest room for when family/friends come to visit.

We only had to make a few structural changes to the house - flipping the stair case around and the angle of the entry door, moving the master bedroom door, deleting the bump-out window on the second floor, completely abandoning the tub in the master bath for a large walk-in shower, and expanding the house by 2 feet all to fit a double oven in the kitchen :-D .

We aren't having G&I install the garage (we'll be taking care of that on our own), and they won't be installing the wrap around porch from the photo either. To save on cost we will be completing a front porch (not wrap around) that extends the entire front of the house, and putting on a back deck/patio next summer (2014 if all goes according to plan). This year, once the house is set on the foundation, we will be starting on the garage/mudroom so that the washer and dryer can be moved up from the basement.

When all is said and done we will be moving from a 1040 sq ft home, into a marvelous, open floor plan home that is over 3,000 sq ft. (we don't have an exact sq footage at this point as we haven't decided how we will be using the basement just yet). The fact that we designed so much of it ourselves, and picked out every single feature is soooo exciting to me. I can't wait to see it all come together!! I mean, it's easy to pick out things - looking at swatches of carpet, and samples of cupboard doors, but to see it all come together in real scale will be amazing. Especially the kitchen.. :)

Part 2: So Darrell

decided that among his many hobbies and interests he wanted to also become a lumberjack. Since picking the lot, we knew we'd have a lot of work cut out for us. Honestly, anywhere we had chosen to build on the lot would have required a lot of work - the ennntiiirrrre parcel is wooded...

To save some money we decided to do the work ourselves. Darrell's parents agreed to help us (his brother and his fiance came up some, too!) and also enlisted the help of their friend Joel - whom after this logging experience, I've named "Joel, Strongest Man in the World." He literally pushed a tree over... with his bare hands!! I have it on video if you don't believe me!

Within 2 weekends we had almost 130 trees on the ground.

Darrell in his lumberjacking (new word) gear.

Here's a view of some of the carnage. I did have remorse for the trees that fell.. but we only intend to cut down those that were necessary for the house to be set on the lot, no more than need be.
It was absolutely amazing to watch the trees fall. Some of them were so large you could feel the ground vibrate when they hit. Joel, the Strongest Man in the World, used to run his own tree service so he would start to saw down one, notch out a few others, then cut down one that would fall and take out the 3-4 that were notched and leaning. It was really amazing to watch. I took some video of the trees falling and if I ever figure out how to upload them here, I will.

Now, once they were on the ground, Darrell was in his element. You see, we decided to buy a saw mill- a portable one.
Here he is cutting his first log!

We're hoping to use the wood that he mills to build the attached garage we're putting on the house and to make some odds and ends for camp. Darrell's pretty proud of it (the mill and his lumber) and I'm pretty proud of him :)

Part 1: The beginning,

since that's where you usually start these stories isn't it? In this case I'll have to backtrack a ton just a bit. So hunker down, grab a drink, use the bathroom, this might take a while...

I guess our story starts (our house story that is) a few years ago when we both agreed we were tired of living in town. Darrell wanted land and I wanted to get away from our neighbors. We looked for a looooong time until we came upon a parcel that seemed too good to be true. We jumped at the chance and soon became owners of 42.6 wooded acres on the outskirts of town on a road primarily frequented by Amish. Yes, Amish..

We had the land, next came the house. This is where the fun (or so I thought) started. We first had to decide if we were going to build a stick built house or modular - I was pushing for modular because they take less time IMO. We scoured online plans, discussed the look we were going for - the absolute must haves, square footage, etc. We were also looking into different builders near us (and by near us I mean within a 200 mile radius because nothing is technically near us...) We ended up going with G&I homes located out of Brewerton, down near where Darrell's brother lives.

Back to the lot:
The man we bought it from had already installed 2 driveways on the lot - one on either end of the 42.6 acres to entice people to buy it... we ended up using the driveway near the north end of the property near the large spruce tree farm that was planted on that end.

They're magnificent.
Here's the driveway we decided to use.

For a while I was taking pruning shears and trimming the trees and thick plants that were starting to overtake it so that we could at least walk down to the site without having to use a machete. We've made it a bit a wider and longer since then, when construction on the lot officially started!

Who knew I could be so excited over a driveway??!? The day the foundation contractor installed it I made Darrell drive up and down it with me in his truck a few times so I could get a feel for how it would be to drive this everyday, coming and going from our new home. (With room to turn around by the house since I can't back out of it to save my life). It was amazing, all 350 feet of it!

In the meantime we were busy officially deciding on house plans and fixtures and finishes and adjustments to house plans and fixtures and finishes....

Picking everything out really was the most fun I've had with this entire process - everything else has just been a LOT of waiting. Depending on other contractors and people has been a pain in the ass hassle as well.

Anywho! I think that's enough for this post.
Thanks for dropping by :)