Why Our House is Different

From time to time I search the web for blogs like mine, about people building their own house. Let me tell you, there are plenty! I've bookmarked so many of them. However, more and more I've noticed that we are in a different situation than they are. They basically took a piece of paper and drew exactly what they wanted, where they wanted. From wall structures, to designs of rooms, picking where the bathrooms go, how big their laundry room is, where they want bay windows. They picked their architect, builder, electrician. They went to a huge warehouse to choose from millions of options for counter tops, cabinet shades and material, bathroom tiles, fixtures for every light possible.

You can imagine how different it may be for us... or maybe you can't. So that's where I'll pause and explain these differences:

First and foremost, yes, we "chose" our builder, but really, we chose the community we liked, and then from there we had to go with what builder would fit into our budget. Our builder had the best base price which included things STANDARD like granite in the kitchen, hardwood floors on main level (excluding the study, however we finished that off with hardwood too). The builder who owns the development had a higher base price which did not included granite and hardwood as standards; everything was an upgrade. So therein lay our choice. Plus, we really loved the layout of the builder we went with, so it all worked out beautifully!

Before I move on to the second point, I looked back through my posts and realized I never explained further the above situation about our builders. So, another pause while I walk you through that. There were a couple of new-construction communities where we wanted to be (which was close to my parents and closer to the city). There were plenty of options if we wanted to go further out in Maryland but we chose not to go that far. The second community we saw, the one we chose, is owned by a large builder which sold a number of properties to our builder, the smaller, less expensive one (for now at least; their base prices have risen about $8k since we signed...). So, that's how that all happened. Now, back to how our story is slightly different from others.

Secondly, as I've talked about before, we had two choices for granite that fit into our price tier; certain types of cabinets, tiles, faucets and fixtures. We walked into a room in the model home that had all of the options laid out for house. But it's not like we went into this huge warehouse and had an endless amount of options and it was up to us to figure out what looked good. For us, that was probably a blessing since the smaller amount of choices we had was overwhelming for us anyways!! I think the biggest difference is that we didn't choose where the walls were put, where windows were installed (Except in the basement, we chose where they would and wouldn't be). There were two layouts we could choose from, with only one difference, really. One had 3 bedrooms upstairs with a loft, and the one we chose had four bedrooms, no loft upstairs. The loft was super cool, but in the end we knew we wanted that fourth bedroom, and we would have plenty of space to play if not in that loft. The other options were to put a bathroom off one of the bedrooms, and then a couple different layouts for the master bathroom (tub or no tub, where the vanities would go, etc.). But that's it in terms of changing the layout of the home.

I wanted to clear that up, as we are definitely going through a different, probably less stressful, process than other people are! But it's great to be able to learn from others about questions they needed to ask, what they had to look out for in terms of inspections and builders. We are all sharing in this fun journey together, getting to a common goal: our dream, forever home :)

I cannot wait to see it this weekend and share photos. We're hoping all of the siding will be up and drywall in! It will be two weeks though, which is a long time in building days, so we'll see where we are!!! I'd post photos, but I want to keep them in order, so before I post any updated ones, I need to get those darn pre-drywall pictures up!!

"It will be different when...."

People often believe that things in their life will be different when... they move into a new apartment, get a gym membership, buy that new shirt, settle down with that special someone, get married, buy a house, have a baby... it's always WHEN that happens, THIS will happen.

I've started to think the same when I think of moving into our new house. There's a difference between thinking that things will be different, and MAKING them different. What sparked this post was me thinking to myself after seeing this blog post from 312 Beauty about changing morning habits and drinking more tea and beverages that are antioxidant-filled instead of coffee for 4 hours a day. Let me draw out for what went through my head when I read that: "I'm going to start drinking this kind of thing when we move into the house." And the next thought that went through my head was "why can't you just do this now?!?"

I've never really been that kind of person to think that just because big changes come, I or my life will be different (without me trying at all). For instance, I never said to myself before I got engaged, or before I got married that things would change in my relationship just because we were beginning this chapter of our lives. I was happy with the way things were, and I knew if things changed, they would only get better because we were getting closer... WE were making the change ourselves. The only thing I knew would be different was that we were finally moving in together after being together for 5 years, and it was a true fact that things would be different WHEN we moved in together. It's wasn't some fantasy thought in my mind. It would change things for the better.

Anyways, I digress. I've started doing all this "fantasy" thinking a lot more lately in terms of what my life, what our life, will be like when we move into the house. I know it will be different in ways... how can they not be!? We're finally in a place where we'll be for more than a year, we'll have space we won't know what to do with for a few years, we'll have the opportunity, space and time to become the most organized people you'll ever meet, and the space to have a well-stocked kitchen to get us through a month-long snow storm. Yes, all that will change, but what's not to say I can't change some of that now while we're still in the apartment. I guess part of me is trying to just coast on through with the way things are right now in our apartment lifestyle which is absolutely amazing, and then let things change on their own time. We've done a great job keeping a healthy lifestyle (with our own cheat days that perhaps happen a bit too often for our own good), and that's only going to get better with easier access to grocery stores, amazing produce shops, and much more. We'll have more space downstairs to actually set up a nice yoga area/workout room, set up the Kinect again and get some use out of it. I can't wait to see what kinds of changes will occur because we MAKE them happen, not because we're sitting around waiting for them to happen just because we have this new house.

So the moral of the story? Don't wait for the big changes to come from milestones in your life, make the changes happen yourself now. In the end, the question really is: why wait? Just do.

60 Days Notice Given!

I know, I'm way behind on posting about our pre-drywall meeting from a couple weeks ago. I will do that next week, but basically all went well. We're looking at an April 11 walk-through and we're hoping to close on April 17th or 18th.

Here's a tip:
If you can, try to close after the 15th of the month. That way, your first mortgage payment won't be due until the following month. Aka, our first mortgage won't be due until June, and that was a huge plus for us, knowing how much we'll be paying out of pocket for things. Namely, our early termination fee at our apartment. We gave the official letter of Notice of Vacancy for April 19th. So... fingers, toes, eyes crossed that all moves all smoothly until then!

We're also getting ready to lock in our mortgage rate today or tomorrow. So crazy it's all moving so fast! We Love it!

My DIY Valentine's Day Plans

Do you struggle when it comes to Valentine's Day and figuring out what to do and/or get for your husband? Are you not into Valentine's Day at all? The saying goes that "every day should be like Valentine's Day." Yes, it's true, you should always want to spoil your significant other, and shower them with nothing but love, hugs, kisses and presents. Love should come in constant, small reminders throughout the day. Mr. K is great at reminding me how much he loves me every day in small ways (sometimes he might not know it). But, if you are one of those who does like to take advantage of Valentine's Day as yet another celebration of your love for one another, but don't necessarily know how or what to do, I've thought of a couple things.

When we first started dating, Valentine's Day was a bigger deal for us. Mr. K took me to a Disney on Ice performance, we went out to a nice dinner even when I was sick one year (probably because we felt like it was what we should do since it was Valentine's Day. Ok, and maybe he probably thought we had to because I liked the day). But the last couple years, I have approached Valentine's Day as a DIY opportunity for a sweet, personal and unique gift. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I am in no way a very creative person, so my DIY projects tend to look more like a 10 year old did it. However, Mr. K seems to love them nonetheless. His little chuckle and funny smile make it known that it was a cute gesture. Coupon books are always fun. Last year was a somewhat off-year for us around this time, so I can't quite remember what we did. One year I made a shoe box (covered in pink and red paper) full of romantic night things: candles, wine glasses, a nice bottle of red wine, chocolates and other fun, more personal things between him and me. Last night I found the perfect card, which I can reveal after he gets in on Friday (it has to do with me loving him more than being right ;) Perfect for any woman, I know). And with that card, I'm not quite sure yet what there will be. But I do know that I'll be planning dinner and I plan to make it a special one. See, he's on a cruise this week for a bachelor party, so this chick is flying solo, getting ample time to prep for dinner after I pick him up at the airport on Friday. It excites me knowing I can (try) to create something delicious for him since he cooks the majority of the time for us. You can imagine my panic when I realized he'd be gone for a whole (work) week and I'd have to fend for myself for dinner. But that's another story.

Anyways, so far I've got some sort of red/pink drink on the menu - I bought Cran-Rasberry drink this weekend at the store so I'm hoping to tie that in, with maybe some pink lemonade mix we have at home. Of course there will be red wine too, that's a given. Then I'm thinking some sort of red velvet dessert. If I'm daring enough, homemade chocolate-covered strawberries might be on the menu too, we'll see how that works out. Apps and entree will be decided soon. I'm looking at articles for healthy and romantic meals for Valentine's Day. And putting in our own favorite twists, too.

Overall, I want this menu to scream, "I tried!!" haha. No, more than that, I want this menu to say, "I love you. Thanks for doing so much for me all the time, here is my contribution to the dinner table!"

If a nice homemade meal and alone time isn't all you want to do, here are a few fun gifts I've seen:
Every guy loves bacon. Check out these homemade bacon roses for your man. Seriously, I'd say these are a given way to say "I love you." However, I don't necessarily like the idea of drilling holes in my muffin pan, so I might have to find another way to do it. I don't think the wedding gift-bearer of our baking tools will be too thrilled if I say, "Hey, thanks for giving us these really nice, expensive baking dishes. I'm going to go ahead and drill holes in them for the sake of a really awesome Valentine's Day gift." No, definitely not doing that.

Here's an easy one: a heart-shaped pizza!! This requires no drill bit, wrench, saw or other tools only found in your garage work bench. Just some love, pepperoni, pizza dough cut in triangles, and wine (not optional on Valentine's Day).

If you have any fun, creative ideas that you plan on doing for your boyfriend, fiance, husband or significant other, pass it along! Also, check out my Pinterest boards for other Gift Ideas, Holiday Ideas and fun Sweets and drinks I've thought about for Friday.

More on our house coming this week!