Can You Dig It?

Well, the big pre construction meeting was this afternoon - very informative, very thorough. Our pm knows his stuff - I feel like we're in good hands! Went over the "blueprints" with a fine toothed comb and gave us a tentative closing date of 9/24. But the best part about the meeting....finding out they're breaking ground tomorrow!!!! Holy crap! And, since there's only 27 homes going up in our community, they expect it to be complete in a year. Wow! We went over to the lot (no model home in our comm, meeting is at a nearby model home) after the meeting to get a better feel for how the house will sit, and our pm explained to me how the stakes were layed out. I was confused before. Doesn't take much.

We were a little disappointed to learn that there are no sidewalks in the cul-de-sac or on our side of the street like we were originally told, but no biggie. There's a 10ft easement at the front of the property should they decide to put them in someday. Also a bummer? Apparently the HOA has final say about fences and sheds - all have to be submitted for approval - and it's pretty much a given that any sheds will be denied no matter what. Fences have to meet certain criteria, which - of course. I expect that. But no sheds? At all?! Yikes. I guess the original developer wants to preserve the aesthetic integrity of the community. I'm hoping as time goes on they'll do away with that by-law, because otherwise one of us is going to be parking in the driveway so our garage can hold all our lawn stuff!

See, the story with our community is that it was originally intended for high, high end homes. Well, about 10 homes were sold and built and then the housing market fell out. Fast forward a few years, original developer can't move anymore homes and RH steps in with a more affordable product - with stipulations upheld by the original developer and homeowners. Only certain models and elevations were made available, brick front standard, hardy plank siding standard, among other things. I AM happy to be on the receiving end of those standards - but no sheds at all?! Really?!

So I'll be driving by the lot tomorrow after work. Stay tuned for pics of a giant hole....

It Won't Be Long

Finally got that call we've been waiting on - pre-construction meeting is happening on Monday! We get to meet our Project Manager (henceforth known as PM - or pm if I'm feeling too lazy to capitalize), finalize all the nitty gritty details about construction (outlet placement, light switch location, etc) Our Sales Rep (henceforth known as SR - or sr if....you remember) said we can expect it to last around 1.5 hours. Since there's no model home in our community we're meeting at a nearby development and then we'll follow pm to the home site and go over any other questions we have. And we'll get a tentative closing date along with a timeline of when we can expect certain things to be finished. It's all happening!! Very exciting. Stay tuned...

Not much to report on at Lot 15 these last couple days. We went over after a dinner out last night and the most exciting new change is 6 long, bright orange sandbags lining the curb along the front of our lot. And a concrete washout basin on another lot. Which tells me that at least they're sort of considering starting something soon? And it's a definite maybe that we'll be scheduling our pre-construction meeting soon? Fingers crossed for this week.

So I'll talk a little about why we're moving. We have a great house now, we've lived there almost 10 years since right before we were married. Our oldest - my husband's son - was 3 when we moved in. Since then we've added 2 more kids and 2 more dogs (though we've since lost 1). Did I mention it's 1000sq ft? And there's only one bathroom? Not even a half bath? Thats right, 5 people sharing 1 bath. Needless to say we've more than outgrown it. We all have so much love for our little bungalow, but it's time to bid it adieu.

Now try to contain your enthusiasm, but here's a shot of the bright orange sandbags. Wonder if our HOA will let us keep them.