Wall Stenciling

Right when we moved into the house we got the nursery painted right away.  My mom is here visiting so I'm finally able to get the stenciling done while she spends time cuddling the baby ....

Moving Day!

We got the keys to our house!!  There was a little bit of a delay with some paperwork so we ended up getting to move in on Friday instead of Wednesday, which was kind of a bummer because Chad ended up having to work overnight shifts between the loading and unloading of the Uhaul, but we had some awesome people come help out which we couldn't have done without.

 A lot is unpacked already but still some to do before we share some pictures.  We already had our first trip to Home Depot for paint for the nursery and some other fun homeowner stuff.

Everything is just about ready for the baby to show up, just a few more things to wash and put away.  I think Chad is nesting too - he's got the garage already organized so we can park in it.  Today we're 39 weeks and 1 day.  I had an appointment this morning but there wasn't much happening to indicate her wanting to come out.  I don't think it will be until after April 2nd and have put it out of my head to expect her this week, so hopefully I'm not out anywhere in public if my water breaks!!

House Progress 3/1

 We have a driveway!!  And carpets!!

 

Raise the Roof!!

We have a roof!! And windows!!  Crazy what the difference is in a week.  This time I actually went for a little walk through.  It's so different walking through OUR house instead of a similar one being built for somebody else.  Can't wait until the things go in that we picked out, like the cabinets and tile, so it feels even more like it's ours.

One thing we added to the house that we weren't able to see in another model beforehand was the game room upstairs.  Getting to finally see it, it's huge!  Chad had to decide where he wanted all the wiring for his sound system to go, this room is 100% his to set up, although I'm pretty sure I'll have a few suggestions : )

 

We've Got Walls!

We get weekly phone calls on the progress of the house building and the last one we'd heard that the foundation was being poured, so we were very happily surprised to see framing happening when we stopped by today!!

{Insert First Home Here}

We are building a house!!  Starting in June we began looking at a mix of existing homes and new construction in several different areas of North Fort Worth.  And houses are so different here than they are in Montana and Alaska.  We've been in Texas 2 years now, so we've had time to adjust that nearly everything has brick on the front part of the house, if not all.

We went back and forth on buying or building.  In July we found a builder with a home that we loved, but learned at the end of the month about our pregnancy so we decided that particular company and house wasn't the best for us right now.  Earlier in July we also decided to not renew our apartment lease (which ended in September), as they were unwilling to sign a shorter 6-month lease and wanted to charge an additional $350 in rent each month we stayed past the lease.  To save money and have the flexibility to move quickly on a house if needed we opted to move in with a friend who has his own 4 bedroom house without any roommates.  This move happened 3 weeks ago and we are now living cozily in his upstairs loft space with our bedroom packed with boxes : )

We're now 15 weeks into the pregnancy and with all the extra hormones happening and being the planner than I am, I'm becoming increasingly anxious about where we'll actually be in March/April when the baby arrives.  In my head I'm thinking "find a place and move in by Christmas = have lots of nesting time," while Chad is a little more flexible on when all the house stuff will actually happen.

The great debate here is do we wait to look at the houses that are for sale in December and January and possibly not find the right one for us or go with a new house (like we'd originally planned) that won't be done until February??  It didn't take us much time to decide that any existing home we'd find would have to have some remodeling done to it (ie, kitchen and bathrooms!) that wouldn't take place immediately due to the adjustment to parenthood that we'll be going through.  Also, the price of any home + updating things to our tastes equaled out to the same as just starting from the ground up.

So, we found a neighborhood with great houses and great schools, that's about 15-20 minutes away from Chad's work.  It's the closest thing to fitting most of our needs in a home (plus a few extras) while staying in our  budget.  

We've picked out our lot.

And our blueprints.

And will be moving in sometime in February.  I'm semi freaked out that this will be a month before the baby is due, but as everything will be brand new there will be no walls to repaint or home repairs to fix, so we're crossing our fingers that everything will go smoothly.  And now that we have a floor plan for our first home I can sort through all my pinterest boards to see what I can modify and incorporate to make quick work of settling in when we get the keys!