Rayli's 2nd Birthday

This past weekend we helped Rayli celebrate her 2nd birthday.  She is getting so big!  Her party was at the new indoor playground in Tumwater, Piper's Playground.  The kids had a blast.  I was bummed that it was a super sunny day and they were playing inside, but the party was a great excuse to check it out.

  

We're Building a House!

It's official!  Our construction loan was approved, we signed the paperwork and the loan closed today!  We break ground on our new house next Thursday.  This process had been a long one to say the least.  As I reflect back to the start of our housing crisis, I am so relived that God provides and that the desires of our hearts are not overlooked by our Maker.

We bought a house in 2006 and thought we were making a wise decision (why waste money on rent when we can buy?).  Little did we know that the market would plummet the next year and we would be stuck in our home.  I absolutely LOVE my little house and size wasn't really a problem we needed to deal with until we decided to start our family.  Lincoln came a long and we were still fine, a little snug, but nothing too horrible.  Then along came Brooklyn...  Now we had the kids sharing a room, which again wasn't unheard of, but with no garage, only two closets, two dogs and a cat we began busting at the seams.  After Brooklyn's first birthday and Christmas we were at max capacity!  While the housing market is better than it was last year, there was no way we could recoup our losses if we tried to sell.

This last summer we decided to go to the bank and see if they would give us another home loan so we could buy something that fit our new family while renting out our existing house.  To be honest my I thought the bank would never give us a second home loan!  Thankfully I was mistaken!  After a refinance and the fact that we could claim the rental on our property as income for the last few years, we were approved!   We began the joyous job of house hunting.  We looked for a while and just didn't find exactly what we were looking for so Josh suggested we build a custom home.  Again, though I was thrilled with the idea, my pessimism got the best of me and I was really doubting that we could do something like that.  Josh got the ball rolling and looked into the financial side of things.  Turns out it looked like we would be able to build!

The next step was to find the right property in the right location.  And of course it needed to be the right price.  We finally settled on a five acre piece near Maytown.  We put in an offer and after a counter they finally accepted.  In early September we became land owners.  After buying the land things really felt real.  This was actually happening.  Either that or we are stuck with this property!

Picking out the floor plan and deciding upon a house style was the next item on the "to do list".  What a task that was!  We went through a zillion plans and changed our minds constantly about this and that.  Finally we settled on a single story ranch layout, craftsman style home.  We made some custom changes to make it fit our desires and needs.  Josh, being an engineer was able to draw up the final plans.  He spent an immense amount of time looking up building codes, making change after, change after change!  Finally we were ready to submit for permits. Mind you in the midst of prepping for the permits the well had to be put in and the water tested.

Now, here we are, phase one of the actual building project.  The foundation area is marked off and will be dug out next Thursday.  Who knew that our first house would end up as a possible investment down the road.  Our little slice of heaven is taking shape...  :-)

This is where the house will sit.

This will be the driveway heading into our property.

This will be the view from the top of the driveway/the garage.

To be continued of course!