what's been going on...

Besides the running around, making decisions and phone calls, waiting is a big part of buying a home!!

And it's kind of annoying!

So right now we are doing some more waiting. All of our estimates and house/garage plans are at the bank and have also been sent to the appraiser. Hopefully that jazz will be completed early next week. This has to be done before our mortgage officially goes through.

By the looks of things it will be settled by the end of next week and on Saturday we will be headed back to Miramichi to finalize everything for the house, including all of our options like ceramic tile, countertops, etc. Once we do that and the order is put in with the builder it's three months of waiting!! ACK!! But at least it's exciting.

We are shooting to be in the house sometime in September. We can't wait!


Fingers crossed that everything goes through smoothly!!





In other news....I'm trying to lose those 15 pounds that I left creep back on after I was successful at losing them before the wedding!! Here's to another summer of dieting!! Worth it though right??

Hope everyone is enjoying the sun!

feeling the need....to create

Feeling the need....

to shop...

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Ta-Da!! We picked a house!!

This is the house plan we have chosen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went back & forth all week long. One minute loving one house, and the other minute loving the other house. It was a pretty tough decision.

I think the main reason why we were having such a hard time was because we got to walk through one house as is, but the other house was just a plan on a piece of paper. Their model home was pretty different from the plan that we liked, so it made it tougher for us to visualize what the house would look like.

Friday we got the price of the second home, and found out that they were not willing to build us a garage. We do want a garage and did not want to hire someone else seperately for that, so that really turned us off from that builder.

Yesterday, we went back to the miramichi to meet with the company we have chosen, and the more time we spent with them, the more we realized that this was the company for us. We talked over everything, options, upgrades, etc, etc. Everything is not finalized yet, the company has to fax some things up to the bank, as does the company who we are buying land from (did I mention we found a piece of land to build on?) and then once that goes through we will be heading back down to meet with the company, give them our deposit and pick out some final things like countertops, etc.

We also changed the style of the floor plan in the kitchen. We don't like how it comes out at an angle in the hallway, so we cut that part out and it will come out straight, and we also added the kitchen island. It's going to be hot stuff!

We are so crazy excited!!!!!!

Some of the options we got so far are crown moulding on the cabinets in the kitchen, pantry with pull out drawers, angle island with raised nook (that is big enough for four stools). Garden doors in the dining room. A corner tub & corner shower, a light fixture in the living room, and some extra phone/cable jacks, and 6 basement windows instead of the orginal 3.

We also upgraded our cabinets from their standard 'fancy country design' to sleek shaker style cabinets in a maple w/ a light blonde stain (and he didn't even charge us! woohoo!!). Jamie was really egging on him to give us some sort of deal, and he knew I really didn't like their standard cabinets, so he gave in, lol. I mean their standard cabinets are nice, but they are not our style at all.

Oh! And I probably mentioned this all before but we also upgraded our flooring. Instead of going with their cushion floor/floating floor package we are buying our own hardwood floors and having them installed everywhere except the foyer and bathroom.

They will also be building us a two car garage with a 16' garage door, two windows and a second entrance door.

Man it's going to look SLEEK!!!!!

I hope everything goes through quickly so we can head down and finalize everything so that it is done, ordered and we can be living in our new house by October at the latest!!!

I wish I could show more pictures of it, but this is all we have for now! We will all have to visualize together! LOL!

All in all we feel a lot better going with this company. They seem like a better company to deal with, and we are getting a lot more bang to our buck.

Now we are even more confused!!!!

We went to look at model homes yesterday as we are trying to decide what company to go with to build our home.

There are pro's and con's to both companies, and the prices run about the same. We have no idea what to do now!!


Company #1
Photos of the model home (not like the house plan we want) can be viewed here.... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2083&id=511982182&ref=mf

Remember that we are getting hardwoods throughout except for the entrance and the bathroom.

This one has the house plan that we LOVE. Great deal on a garage, will paint the entire house in our choice colors and has laundry access on the main floor. Also has a nice island in the kitchen.

A few cons...
-crown moulding, brushed silver hardware, hinges & knobs are all optional, not standard. And for a whirlpool tub it's 650$ extra.

Company #2
Photos of the model home that is almost exactly like the one that we want, they just changed the dining room in this one.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2086&id=511982182&ref=mf

We also like this kitchen style with the cabinets shown, but we do not like the island. We would rather the island from the other house.

A few pro's/con's...

-the interior comes painted white only
-laundry will have to be located in the basement
-crown moulding, brushed silver hardware/hinges/knobs all standard.
-whirlpool tub is also standard.
-not that big of a closet in the master bedroom.
-possible 4000$ rebate (they are having a promotion until May 14th, we are waiting to see if they will extend that deal).
_________________


We will be in touch with both companies tomorrow to get some final quotes, and maybe do some wheelin' & dealin' and then we really have to buckle down and make a decison. Most likely we will be heading back down there just to look at different options and stuff.

ACK! Help someone! LOL! We need advice!

Got wood?

Jamie got some flooring samples today. Even though we are 99% sure we are getting the Bird's Eye Maple in the Espresso color. Isn't it YUMMY??

I can just picture the floors in our new house covered in all of that yumminess.

I can't wait!

Speaking of houses.....Saturday we are off to look at some model homes!!! So excited. We are just shopping around at different companies right now, not sure what one we will go with yet. We have been looking at tons of plans. So many pros and cons to each.



This one here is our favorite right now. The picture makes it look pretty tiny, but it's actually not. We are also getting a full basement and a two car garage. The only con is that it is only one bathroom---but we could change the plans up a bit an add an ensuite, which would be nice.

I love that it is 3 bedroom, and open concept. Plus lots of windows because I like a lot of light!

In other news...Jamie and I have been working pretty heavily this week!! I worked 12 1/2 hours yesterday and another 10 1/2 today. Jamie worked 8 hours yesterday, came home for one hour, then got called back in 17 hours!!! Crazy stuff!! The weekend can't get here fast enough!!