House - Day 9

Framing started today!  It is so exciting to see it actually start looking like a HOUSE!  We also had quite the hill in our backyard, and it has been graded to a much more level surface. 

I have had some requests for more details about the house, so here they are...

• It is a two-level house, with a basement.
• It is about 2,750 finished square feet (our basement will be unfinished).
• There are 4 bedrooms upstairs, plus a master and main bath, a laundry room, and a loft (I LOVE the loft!  Can't wait to have a place out of the way for all the toys!).
• The main floor has an office/flex room, a great room, kitchen with a dining nook, and a mud room and powder room.

We are getting more and more excited to finally have a place of our own, even though it may be a WHILE before we completely get it decorated the way we want.  :)

Now for the pictures of the day...

I am pretty sure these two little munchkins are getting excited as well...

Short but Sweet

This past weekend Cameron's dad was in town.  He had some work stuff to do up here this week, so he came in on Saturday to spend a couple days with all of us before he had to head to St. Cloud to do his work.  It was a VERY short visit, but we loved having him here!

Miley loves it when her grandparents come to visit.  She doesn't leave them alone the whole time they are here, wanting them to do everything for her, and wanting them to play with her 24/7.  She even asked if Grandpa could take her potty everytime she needed to go...Grandpa settled for just reading her lots of books instead.  :)

This was also the first time that Grandpa got to meet Landon - his 29th grandchild!  Landon made sure to put on quite the show for Grandpa, cooing and "talking" with him and giving him lots of smiles!

We only got one night and a couple of days with Grandpa, but we are glad he got to spend a little bit of time with us!  We are already excited to have him and Grandma, and Grammy and Papa (hopefully?) back in three weeks!

House - Day 4

Day 4 - April 7, 2011:

The foundation is going in!  Looks like we may be on track for framing to start on Monday?

Squeal!  So excited!

Please excuse my lounge pants and overall dishevled appearance...didn't realize I was going to be in a picture when we left our apartment!  Well, let's be honest.  This is just kind of how I look these days being stuck at home with a new baby and a potty-training toddler.  :) 

Signs of Spring

When you see your two boys doing this at night...

...watching this...

...it is a sure sign that spring is here!  We start them young, right?  :)

And the weather outside is finally starting to match!  60's for the first time since NOVEMBER!!  That's 5 months, people! 

Ahhh...I feel the end of our hibernation is in sight.

**Post Edit - And in the words of my sister "HELLLLLO JOE MAUER."  I love spring.  :)

Happy Little Man

Despite having a nasty cold for the past couple of days...

...and a gunked up eye due to a clogged tear duct...

...Landon still is giving us his sweet little smiles. 

This is what makes all the sleep deprivation worth it. 

House - Day 1

Here we are!  Week of April 4th, and the digging has begun!

Hopefully it looks MUCH prettier soon!

House Deets

OK...so here it it.  I am ready to spill the beans on the house thing.

We are building a house!  It is scheduled to begin on Monday, the 4th, and they are guessing a closing date by July 15th.  So how did we get to here?

Many of you know that I REALLY was not crazy about the idea of staying in Minnesota long term.  It is just too far away from my family.  However, Cameron is also going to begin grad school here soon.  As we were looking into all of our options, and places where he could go to get his MBA, part-time vs. full-time, etc. we came to the conclusion that right now, in our lives, the option we are most comfortable with is Cameron going part time at the University of Minnesota.  General Mills pays for him to get his MBA here, and it is really hard to turn that down.  Plus add that on top of his regular salary, and we would be so much further ahead at the end of it then if we were to go somewhere and go full-time.  With this part-time route, Cameron will probably take around three years to complete his MBA, and then as part of the deal, he would owe General Mills three years.  So we were looking at a minimum of 6 more years.   

During my pregnancy with Landon, I really started feeling the NEED to have somewhere to call "home."  We have been renting for 4 years now...ever since we have been married.  While we have liked the flexibility that has offered us, with a soon to be 3-year-old, and a new baby, I just need space - a yard, a garage, etc.  Plus, I am ready to nest.  It is not easy to be going through that nesting phase of pregnancy while you are in such a temporary housing situation.  And there is NO WAY I would want to be renting for 6 more years.

So basically, between the financial aspects, and the mental/emotional aspects, we were just ready for this next stage, even if it is here in Minnesota.  We really do love it here.  Like I said, I wish I could just switch the geographical location.  :)

So why did we decide to build rather than buy?  After looking at a LOT of options, we discovered that we could build exactly what we want for not significantly more than the houses that are out there.  We wanted something that was a reasonable price, but something that we could also see ourselves in long term.  While we will always leave the door open to other opportunities and career moves for Cameron, General Mills is a FANTASTIC company, and if we were to stay here indefinitely, we wanted a home that we could see ourselves in for a long time.

All that being said, we are thrilled with our decision, and are so excited to have a place that is going to be OURS.  We are building on about a quarter of an acre, and I am so excited to have all the extra space for our little family!

I will keep our blog updated with the progress of our home as it is being built.  We have spent the last week making all kinds of selections for the inside - hardwood floors, carpet, vinyl floors, paint colors, countertops for the kitchen and bathrooms, cabinets, appliances, etc.  It has been so much fun picking out what the inside of our house is going to look like.  Hopefully is all comes together how we envision it!  We also picked out the exterior colors and stone.  We have been dragging poor Miley and Landon around with us to all these appointments, and I think all the excitement is wearing them out...

Landon was conked out as well at this same time, I just couldn't get a picture of him since he was facing backwards.  :)

Can't wait until July 15th (our estimated closing date!)!

Here it is...our lot is staked!