Scripture for Every Wall

Last weekend we had the opportunity to do something we had been looking forward to since we started our house. While looking for house plans on Pinterest, I saw a post where a family had written scripture on the studs of their house before the drywall was put up. I thought that was one of the greatest things I had seen in a while and I knew I wanted to do it when we got to that point with our house. Funny side note, when we were checking out builders on Facebook, our builder had something similar to this on his page. He was very gracious in helping us pull this off. He made sure a crew came out that week to clean up the site, so that everything would look great.

 

A large part of Jake and I wanting to stay in Statesboro is our church family. We are richly blessed by the people who continue to pour in to our spiritual lives. Our small group consist of some of the most amazing families, and we knew we wanted to incorporate them into this idea. We decided to have our small group meet out at the new house this past Sunday, and we asked they come armed with Sharpies and some verses. They turned out in a big way with some pretty touching verses. We also wanted to include some other people who are meaningful to our lives such as coworkers, ladies from my Bible study, and some sweet friends. We are lucky to have so many wonderful people in our lives. Enjoy all the great pics!

 

It was great getting to see what our smallest helpers placed.

 



 

He promised he only marked on wood!

 

Sweet Chandler Grace!

 



 

 One of my closest friends from back home, even sent a few scriptures for us to place. I love knowing I have something so special as this in our home.



Jake and I placed a special verse for each child in their doorway. Mollie must have thought this was super important, since she felt the need to underline it.

Our friend Krista was kind enough to place this in our bedroom. This particular verse was read at our wedding. I owe her one for saving me from a MASSIVE hand cramp!

This is Jake's favorite verse. It was also the motto for the unit during his first deployment in Iraq.

 



 

 

Our sweet neighbor Kate couldn't make it out, but she shared one of her favorite verses with us.

 

 

 

Grammy even sent along some well wishes for our new home!

 

 

Jake took almost a whole week of leave after he came back from MO, which was needed by everyone. We took advantage of his time off (and some free babysitting from my sweet friend Robin) to purchase ALL of the light fixtures and appliances for the house. I have to say with all that help, I still love him!



You're Trying Me Here

Some much has been going on at our lot, that I've not had any time to update!

 

This isn't even the current state, we now have a roof!

 

So much has been happening over the last few weeks, where do I even begin? The framing was started about 2 weeks ago, and went pretty fast. I few hiccups included, a wall that did not get framed up, wrong windows in the kitchen, missing window in the kid's bath, and our living room not being vaulted. These all seem like major things, and in the moment to me they were, but everything was fixed pretty painlessly. I caught the windows in the kitchen just in time, as they had already been delivered. I could tell instantly from looking at them that they were too large. We plan to have a built in banquette in our kitchen, and the windows that were sent would have went down too far to accommodate that. Thankfully, a quick call to our builder fixed the situation. 

 

About this time our builder had to let me down. He was unable to find a tub to fit the narrow space we had planned for it to go. I won't lie. I was upset. Some people are not tub people, I get it. But I'm a tub person. Don't feel good? Take a bath. Need to relax? Take a bath. Feel great? Take a bath! Instead of the bathtub he gave us a larger vanity, a linen closet, a bigger window in our bathroom, and a bigger shower. The shower. Ugh, it will be the death of me. I decided to go with 2 shower heads. A regular one to the left and a rain head in the middle. It will be a nice shower, but it stands a chance of going over budget. Our builder suggested an all glass enclosure. They look amazing, admit it you've seen them on Pinterest! Then he dropped the bomb. Choosing glass over a metal enclosure would be significantly more. Like maybe $1,000. Break my heart! Does he not realize I still have to furnish this house when he is done? 

 

During this same conversation, I had to make decisions on where all our outlets were going to be placed, to include cable and telephone. Does anyone even put in a phone line any more? I did one just in case in our kitchen. Better safe than sorry. I did get him to put an outlet in my pantry. Planning to have enough shelf space to place large appliances and you never have enough outlets, let's be honest. Along with the outlets, we talked light fixtures and the dreaded B word. BUDGET. We are allotted $1400 for ALL of our light fixtures. When he quoted this to us months ago I thought wow that is so much. It will be a breeze to do our entire house with that budget. Then he tells you all the places you need something electrical in the ceiling. Flood lights, ceiling fans, outdoor lighting, exhaust fans, etc.., the list goes on and on. In LED lighting alone I picked up 9 2-pack boxes of the LED version of can lights. Thanks Lowes for the military discount! I basically got a box for free with the discount. I'm thinking at this point we see how much of our lighting we can purchase on our own and roll our lighting budget over to cover the shower door. We'll see how that goes!

 

This will be our new shower

 

While looking at lighting, we also discussed what  I planned to do in an opening we closed up in the kitchen. After looking over Pinterest for the last 5 years or so, I knew exactly what I wanted. I wanted to continue lower cabinets all the way around with the granite countertops and then have some great pipe and stained wood open shelving. He looked impressed with my choice and said the open shelving would be great and fairly inexpensive. But then he became DreamKiller. He had to go mentioning things like extra cost in cabinets, and would we have enough granite left over on our slab to  cover that area? He then reassured me that we would work out it down the road. I mean he is screening in our back porch, did a gas insert, and told me today that we could do some brick work on the columns in the front of the house, so I guess it's reasonable that I have to pitch in a little here and there. But I can't lie, I really dislike spending money. On the other hand, do I want to spend all this money to move into a home that we just built with things I already want o change? I think not.

 

The kiddos and I have made it our Friday afternoon tradition to try and go out and look around, so today we set out as soon as I picked them up. Glad we did! They were getting ready to place our hot water heater, and they were placing it in the wrong spot. This is oddly one of those things that Jake and I were pretty set on. We wanted to place it in the garage instead of the attic space, because honestly it scares me to think of something that large full of water straddling two rooms of my house. They were going to place it on the wall between our closet and the laundry room. All I could see was it flooding our attic and everything that would have to be replaced. Our builder did warn me that by placing it in the garage it could take longer to get hot water, but that seems like a small price to pay in comparison to what could happen if it was in the attic. It will take up a small amount of space in a corner of our garage, but we can live with that.

 

The following are some pics I recently took. Be on the look out, as we about to do something amazing in our home before they hang drywall!

 

 

Looking into the pantry and entry from the garage

 

Laundry room and master closet 

 



Master Bedroom



The kiddos bathroom and the window we

decided to put in.

 

 



 

 

 

Living room looking into the kitchen

 

So much is happening, that I feel like something new is there every time I go. It's a good thing that things are moving along. All I see now is $$$ everywhere I look! Maybe I will send Jake for the next few weeks while my blood pressure lowers. Yeah, like that would happen.

 

A week from now Jake will be back home and we could not be more excited. We definitely love him that much!

 

 

 

 

You Are Really Trying Me Here...

 

It's been a while since I have updated on how our house is going, but big things are happening at our lot! Nothing happened for what seemed like forever, and then in a span of about 2 weeks we had a slab poured.

 

 I can't deny that I didn't have a moment where I questioned all the plumbing. I had to rethink about our plans and if pipes were suppose to be there or not. Thankfully, they were all in the correct place. I had to go out on Monday night and discuss window and door placements and sizes with our builder. I had that all figured out for the most part, so that wasn't that bad. We did discuss screening in our back patio, and we will be able to fit that in our budget. I was really hoping for a nice place to drink my coffee in the morning away from all the gnats. I went ahead and made the big decision in regards to a fireplace. We decided to go with one, because I felt it was worth it. My Dad is providing us with a large piece of cedar for our mantle and we are doing shiplap around it with some tile work. We are going to use what is left of the cedar to do some shelving beside the fireplace. I also decided on our front door configuration. Our plans call for a double front door, which I love, but can't afford! The builder helped me decide to go with sidelights around the door to give a good amount of light in our entry. I also decided to go with a cathedral ceiling in the living room. When in the planning process, I guess Jake and I decided not to do that, but when our builder asked and said we could afford it, I just said sure! I think it will look great and give a good focal point to our living room when it is all said and done. Lots of decisions had to be made in one night. I was exhausted when I finally left our meeting.

These pennies almost made me have my first anxiety attack. Let me give some back story. My parents placed a penny with the year that they built their house in between the rocks on their front steps. I always thought that was the neatest thing and a great way to look back and know what year the house was built. So, when our builder called to say they would be pouring our slab the next day I told him that I wanted to do something similar. He said they would start pouring about 10 the next morning and that it would dry pretty quickly in this south GA heat. On my way to work the next morning I was sure to drop 3 shiny 2016 pennies into the permit box on our lot. I sent a text to our builder saying where I left them. As soon as I left work at 12:30, I went straight there to see where they had been placed. They had not laid them yet, but I told them I wanted one in the entrance to the garage, one by the door going into the house from the garage, and one near the front door. THAT IS NOT WHERE THEY ENDED UP! Some how we now have 17 PENNIES, sporadically placed in our garage, front porch, and back porch. I feel like they wanted to get a little fancy, as they are often set in groups of 3 with 2 heads up, and one heads down.  We have one row of 3 front and center on our front porch. I wanted to get a little upset at first, but then I laughed pretty hard. I can only blame myself for not staying to make sure they went where I wanted them to go, and honestly they make a good conversation starter and I can already guarantee we have gained $0.17 in equity to our house! It's unique, but so are we.

You might have noticed that I have said "I" a lot in terms of the decisions being made and there is good reason for that. Jake came home on a Tuesday before school started here and told me that he had to be in Missouri the next Monday for almost 8 weeks. So yeah, I'm basically building this house alone. He probably wasn't going to have a lot of opinions any way, but this has guaranteed that I'm getting everything I want in this house for the next few weeks. He's really trying me, but I still love him that much!

We Have a Contract

Jake and I had set a deadline of July 1st to pick our builder. We had been waiting for one last builder to get a quote to us. We were already pretty sure of who we wanted, but we found it best to get a few quotes before we made any final decisions. I'm pleased to announce that Claxton Builders will be building our home! Jake and I really enjoyed Les when we sat down with him to discuss plans and specifics. He is very down to earth and most importantly he'll tell me to get off Pinterest, because I can't afford everything on our budget!

Since we now have a contract and an estimated date for closing, we took our next steps in the loan application process.   I will be honest in that I was fairly upset with Jake last week over an unanswered email that will result in a little more leg work for us both. In my moment of anger, I was reminded of something my pastor's wife had once said to me. It's not 3 little words, but four. It's not I love you, but I love you anyway!! I'm sure we will both make each other angry at some point in this process, so we might have to say those 4 words a few times.

I Don't Love You That Much

At the beginning of January, Jake came to me asking about our next duty station. This left me with a lot of mixed emotions. In the 12 years we have been married, the only life I have known is Army life. Moves typically go like this: 1st year, move somewhere new and spend the next 12 months thinking how this place will never be as great as the last and how much you miss your friends from your last duty station. 2nd year, think how much you love where you live and the people you are with, life could seriously not get any better! 3rd year, "Why are all my friends leaving!!" , " Can we move now?".

But this place has been different. We LOVE Statesboro! A large part of that is our church family. We have really felt like God placed us here for a reason, and Southbridge Community Church is a large part of that. So, when Jake asked me where I wanted to go, I said I didn't want to go anywhere! Unfortunately, that's not how the Army works. Jake called branch (Lingo for place that basically controls your life), and was given a few overseas choices. I DID NOT want to do an overseas move again. Basically, it's a game of seeing how much of your stuff you can get rid of here, so you can buy it again when your get to your new duty station. I told him to ask about the possibility of Fort Stewart. The guy laughed at him and was like dream on. So we waited, and we waited some more, and then we waited a few more weeks. Finally, he called back and there was a spot open for him at Fort Stewart!! We were all excited, but now what?

We knew that we wanted to stay in Bulloch County and have Jake commute, but where in Bulloch County? The more we discussed it, the more we felt like we really wanted to be in Brooklet. Same feel with a smaller middle and high school. A little more like the town we grew up in.

Now we had to find a house. Brooklet can be a difficult place to find a home, especially one that fits our needs. We knew we wanted 4 bedrooms, at least 2 bathrooms, and 2000 sq. feet all for around $200,000. That seems like it would be easy! It's not! Most things that resemble that list move fairly quickly in Brooklet. And we knew we had to have something going around the time that our current lease ends in October. We both had every real estate app on our phone and we were searching daily. It was looking like we were never going to find something.

One Sunday while out in the Jeep we came across a new subdivision called High Cotton.

We both loved the area. Jake looked at me and was like, "let's just build a house here". After I stopped laughing, I looked at him and said," No way, I don't love you that much". A bit harsh, maybe. But building a house is STRESSFUL! I watched my parents do it 15 years ago, and I'm amazed they stayed married after that. Can two people ever agree on that much? 

Well, after a few weeks of it becoming more and more apparent that we were never going to find exactly what we wanted I agreed to consider building.

We knew that we would want to use a VA loan and that we wanted to use the USAA home buying program as we would get money back at closing for using one of their preferred real estate agents. Lucky for us, the agent here in Statesboro is actually someone I know because her girls go to the same school as our kids. Our next step was pre-approval for our loan. I put this off for at least 2 weeks. I knew  that once I actually did it, in some ways there would be no going back. The process itself was actually pretty easy. Now we had to pick a lot and place $500 in earnest money down so no one else could claim it. Off to pick our lot!

( This is not our actual lot, but similar as we are at the very end of a cul-de-sac,  but closer to the front of the subdivision)

Jake and I drove out and picked a gorgeous  .75 acre lot in the first cul-de-sac off the main road of the subdivision. A pasture behind the house to watch deer and a great street for the kids to ride bikes and play with friends. 

Our next step was to meet with the builder of the neighborhood to talk floorplan and budget. Unfortunately, that builder didn't have anything that met our needs and that was realistic to our budget. Ugh, this was probably, " What have we done!!" , moment number one. Don't worry there will be others!! From checking Zillow and talking with the first builder we found out that there were two other builders building there. Enter me becoming a Facebook stalker. Listen, we have all done it at some point, so no judging! 

I noticed that one of the real estate agents that I follow on Facebook posted a house that was being built in High Cotton. So, I start reading some of the comments to see what people were saying. Well, I noticed that a woman had commented and said if it was builder #2's  house it was going to be great because he was building her house in High Cotton. Naturally, I went to her Facebook page to see what kind of neighbor she would be. Crazy enough, her husband is active duty too! Living this far away it's not very common to have another military family in your neighborhood. Fast forward to that weekend. Jake and I were driving in the neighborhood checking out the progress on the houses being built. I noticed a car at the house I thought might be the woman I had Facebook stalked, so naturally I walked up and asked about her house and builder. She had lots of great things to say about her builder, and her house looked fabulous. I went back to our agent asked her to set a meeting with the other builders.

We met with builder # 2 first. He is the type of builder who said show me the plans you like and let's go from there. The first plan we liked had almost 2200 sq. feet and cost analysis for it was out of our price range with the finishes we wanted. We then went to a smaller plan that still had the room we felt we needed. Builder # 2 felt that he could do what we wanted in our price range and said he would get back to us in a week with a more precise price. 

The next week we met with builder #3 for the neighborhood. We had mixed feelings about this meeting. We had heard varying  things about the quality of his homes, but we did like the floorplan for the house he was currently building in the subdivision. The meeting went well and he seemed open to the floorplan we had previously narrowed it down to. He seemed like he would be a little more prone to want us to stretch our budget. He encouraged us to list EVERYTHING we wanted. And while that sounds great in theory, it quickly adds up to something you can't afford.

The next day we met with builder #2 again for our breakdown on cost. It was in our budget and he was giving us money toward closing cost! Overall, we were very pleased with what he was offering for that price.

Now we wait. We wait for the other builders quote. I honestly don't think he will come in at a better price. And we really like builder #2. He seems like he will keep us on budget and still try to give us what we want.  We have set a date of Friday, July 1st to pick a builder. Jake and I are currently having a debate on if we want a fireplace, what kind of appliances we want and we can afford in our appliance budget, and searching architectual  salvage yards for a set of French doors for our den and a screen door for the walk in pantry. Ugh, decisions,decisions, decisions. At least I can rest in knowing that we are where He wants us to be. When it is in His place, it always works out. Deaton dream home 2016 or bust!

https://mobile.houseplans.com/plan/2000-square-feet-4-bedrooms-2-bathroom-european-house-plans-2-garage-30380

This is a link to the plan we have chosen. We are making a few changes to include making the dining room a den and having a built in bench area in the breakfast room. 

P.S.

As of right now, I still love him that much!