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Posted by on Aug 9, 2013 in Featured, Personal, The House | 2 comments

Moving Along

It’s been a busy week here with The Kid starting his new school while we tried to make progress on buying our new house and figure out what was going to happen with the lease on our current one.  In a refreshing change, things are actually going smoothly.  *knocks on wood*  We need to sign a bunch of forms for the bank and then they should order the appraisal.  Hopefully, that will get started next week.  We’ve been trying to get a hold of our rental company and/or the house owner all week to find out the status of our request to terminate our lease early.  I finally talked to the company yesterday and the owner said we can get out of it if/when they find someone else to rent it.  I’m not sure how likely that is, but at least he didn’t say No.  The rental company is going to work on getting it listed and we will do some advertising on our own.  We need to spend this weekend trying to de-clutter the house in case someone wants to look at it.  Since we didn’t plan to be here this long, we never fully unpacked.  There are still half emptied boxes everywhere and stuff everywhere.  I’m going to work on packing stuff we don’t need in the next month or so which will help a lot.

Monday morning after I took The Kid to school, I met our realtor and the inspector at the new house.  For whatever reason, I thought it would take 1-2 hours.  We ended up being there 3.5 hours.  My sister stopped by for most of it so she could see the house for the first time.  Fortunately, I came prepared with my camera and a tape measure.  The sellers had moved all their stuff out since the last time we were there, so I was able to see the house empty which was nice.  I also opened all the curtains which had mostly been closed when we were there before.  I took a bunch of new pictures and got measurements of several rooms.  I wanted to start working on a new closet design for this house so we’ll have somewhere to put our clothes again.  I still want to build custom cabinets for our closet, but it’s a good bit smaller than the one we were going to build which makes it a bit of a challenge.  I think I can make it work though especially if we take them to the 10′ ceiling.

Anyway, as expected, the inspection didn’t turn up much.  A nonworking door bell and smoke detector in the master bedroom along with a non-GFI outlet in the bonus room bath.  The sellers have agreed to fix those things which shouldn’t be a big deal to do.  Other than the appraisal, I believe all our contingencies have been met.

For now, here are a few more pictures of the exterior along with a couple sneak peeks of the inside.

Shook Hill Exterior

Shook Hill Exterior

Shook Hill Exterior

Shook Hill Exterior

Shook Hill Exterior

Shook Hill Exterior

Shook Hill Exterior

Shook Hill Exterior

Shook Hill Exterior

Shook Hill Exterior

Shook Hill Exterior

Shook Hill Exterior

Shook Hill Exterior

Shook Hill Exterior

Shook Hill Exterior

Shook Hill Exterior

Shook Hill Exterior

And here’s a quick look inside.  First, the Formal Dining Room.  This is where my piano will go.  It looks onto the front porch.  The door on the right goes to the Powder Room and the kitchen past that.

Dining Room

Across from the Dining Room is the Study.  The only thing missing from this room is a closet.

Study

Looking back at the Foyer from the Family Room.  The Master Bedroom and Laundry are just past the built-ins on the left.  The Study is to the left of the front door and the Dining Room is to the right.  The Kitchen is to the right of the Family Room.  The white square under the staircase is the central vac with Hide-A-Hose.  That’s not something I had on my wish list, but it’s a nice bonus.  There’s one on each floor and in the bonus room.  There’s also a connected dust pan under the kitchen cabinet to easily sweep up messes in there.

Family Room

This is standing in one of the Kitchen doorways looking back at the Family Room.  The door on the right goes to the Master Bedroom, Coat Closet and Laundry Room.  The Family Room looks onto the back porch.

Family Room

The Powder Room and Dining Rooms are thru the doorway to the left of the cabinets.  The Mud Room, Bonus Room and Garage are thru the door on the right.  I am standing by the door to the back porch.

Kitchen

This is the huge bonus room.  It’s around 32′ from the wall behind me to the door on the left which is attic access.  To the left of the stair case is a Full Bath.  The small door on the right is a walk-in closet.

Bonus Room

*Click Here to see the full photo gallery of our new house*

2 Comments

  1. I found your Blog early this year. I’ve been following you ever since. When my architect dropped out of sight after my 1st request for changes to his 1st draft of the 1st floor on April 28, I decided to take on the project myself. I’ve been using HD Pro. I think you’re using the same if not chief architect Premier. Well, I finally went out to bid on 8/2. Bids are do back 8/20. One of the builders is ICF, all the others stick built. I’ve been on the fence with ICF. So this morning I thought I’d revisit your blog and gain some insight since I knew you were going with ICF. I have been so busy doing my own 15 pages of drawings that I was not current with your progress. I started where I left off. I began reading the post on signing the contract with your builder. Then the loan appraisals. Wow. Thank you for all these posts. I have some things to think about before awarding the bids. I appreciate your efforts. We bought land on the lake already so I really don’t want to go house hunting. But a Mitchell Ginn floor plan is a very nice consolation prize. All the best to you. -Lisa

    • Hello! Yes, it’s been a long, frustrating road. Nothing, including this blog, is turning out the way I thought it would. I’ve always enjoyed reading blogs about people building their new homes, so I guess ours will be the other side of the story ;p I already have a long list of ideas and DIY plans for the new house and I plan to document them here instead.

      I have Home Designer Architectural. I’d love to have the Pro version, but can’t justify the price difference now. I am trying to draw an accurate model of our new house into it so I can use it for modifications and decorating ideas. We are hoping to get a copy of the actual blueprints at closing which would help immensely.

      Good Luck and Take Care,
      K. Hall

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