new house

1 Comment Posted on November 17, 2014December 1, 2014 new house, parenting, Storytelling, Uncategorized

Dear Jack: Our Blue House Is Being Painted/Our Last Week In Our Townhome

4 years.

Dear Jack,

This past weekend, immediately following your 4th birthday party on Saturday, we led my side of the family in a caravan (your Nonna and Papa, along with Aunt Dana, Uncle Andrew, and cousin Calla) to see the progress on our new house we’re building.

As we drove near our cul-de-sac, Mommy yelled with excitement, “It’s blue!”

We had learned last week that the siding is actually made out of wood, and that it would be painted eventually. Well, the painting has definitely began.

Mommy was also very happy to see that our marble countertops are in; as well as the kitchen’s bar.

I was particularly happy to see that our garage doors are now in, along with automatic garage door openers; considering as long as Mommy and I have been married and lived in our townhome (over 6 years), we’ve never had a garage for our cars.

Each time we visit our new house, I become even more satisfied with our decision to buy it, and therefore, to move out of our townhome.

Which, speaking of…

This apparently is our last week to live in our townhome! Mommy and I bought it brand-new in 2008, when we got married, but now it’s time to move out and move on.

Last night as I was saying goodnight to you, at your sleeping bag on top of a foam mat, I explained to you, “Jack, this is our last week to sleep and live in this house, because we’re going to be moving into the new one in January, in a couple months.”

At this point, other than mats to sleep on, in addition to enough food and clothing to by this week, our house is empty.

Papa helped Mommy and I move the rest of it to the storage facility over the weekend. Mommy had to secretly pack up two of your favorite stuffed animals in a box: Puppa the puppy and Cheaty the cheetah.

I had the opportunity to see if I could fit in the backseat of the 2014 Scion FR-S that I was reviewing for your birthday week. (I could.)

This coming weekend we’ll move our few remaining items in our personal vehicles to our friends’ house where we will be staying until January when our new house is ready.

Exciting times…

Love,

Daddy

Leave a comment Posted on November 11, 2014November 11, 2014 parenting, Storytelling, Uncategorized

Dear Jack: We Moved Most Of Our Stuff Into 10 x 10 Storage Unit This Past Weekend

3 years, 11 months.

Dear Jack,

As I just mentioned in my previous letter, The Cabinets Are Now Installed In Our House, Nonna and Papa drove up this weekend to help us with our move into a nearby storage facility.

For the past several months, each Sunday after church as we’ve dropped off the recycling, we’ve also been dropping off bags of clothes and home goods to Goodwill.

And for the past several weeks, Mommy has been selling many of our home furnishings online. People bought our TV and stand, our coffee table, and this past weekend, our couch.

We figured with most of our home furnishings being around 7 years old, and for the fact we’ve already been stashing cash away for our new home’s furnishings, that we’d be better off just selling off some of our larger items instead of fooling around with having to move them.

So in theory, we will be able to buy a new couch, coffee table, TV and stand as we move in to our new house; which is somewhere around January 29^th.

As would be expected from a nearly 4 year-old little boy (you’ll turn 4 this Sunday), you were extremely eager to help us with the move! All while wearing your Batman pajamas, of course…

I actually was pretty impressed with how quickly you could run with pillows and boxes and toys that were as big as you. You also were very handy with the broom. “I am brooming this right now,” you explained.

You loved running up and down the ramp on the moving truck. You were legitimately helping us move, Jack!

It was a work-filled weekend for sure, but as for now, most of our stuff is now in a 10 x 10 storage facility; including our box springs for our beds.

I think Mommy and I are pretty convinced we never plan to move out of the new house we’re building.

Meanwhile, you built an 18 wheeler out of Legos. As you explained, the drivers sit on top!

We celebrated the conclusion of the weekend’s hard work with some vegan burgers at Burger Republic; where you were a bit loopy, thanks to the wonderful combination of your beloved tater tots and the privilege of not having to take any naps this weekend while Nonna and Papa were in town!

Leave a comment Posted on November 10, 2014December 1, 2014 Health, new house, Storytelling, Uncategorized

Dear Jack: The Cabinets Are Now Installed In Our House

3 years, 11 months.

Dear Jack,

This weekend was very special. Your Nonna and Papa (my parents) drove up to see our new house we are building in Spring Hill, Tennessee.

On the way to the site, you made sure you had some Annie’s snacks, as well as GoGo Squeez, both of which are contributing to your “No Artificial Anything” 4^th birthday party this weekend. (Mommy and I let you sample some from the stashes that were mailed to us.)

We also were moving most of our stuff into storage this weekend as well, but more on that in the next letter…

As for the new surprises in our house this week, we saw that our cabinets have been installed; both in the kitchen and bathrooms. It’s a pretty big deal to see them. Mommy and I are very pleased with our choice; black with these cool “scoopy” handles.

It was a decision we made very quickly, along with the carpet, outside color of our house, which type of hardwood floor, etc. So it’s good to know we made a good rash decision a couple months ago.

I stood in front of where the sink and dishwasher will go to get a feel for what it will be like to do the dishes in our new kitchen.

Mommy and I were also pleasantly surprised with the banister on our staircase. I feel that it is more elaborate than the one featured in the model home.

Another cool surprise was the storage space in the attic. I actually forgot about that!

We finally figured out what crop is being grown behind our house: soy beans.

Should I thank Monsanto for that? Oh well, it’s a pretty view at least.

Obviously, the construction is really coming along; we’re actually ahead of schedule. Our closing date is January 29^th. However, our agent explained that typically the house is typically move-in ready 45 days after the dry wall is installed.

If that’s the case, in theory our house should definitely be finished before January 29th, since the dry wall was already in a week ago.

Of course, I am keeping my expectations low- to be a realistic optimist. We’ll see what happens on that…

We finished the morning with lunch at Whole Foods, where you were able to (very easily) talk Nonna and Papa into buying you a new stuffed animal; a penguin who you instantly named “Pingy.”

To be continued…

1 Comment Posted on October 21, 2014December 1, 2014 new house, Uncategorized

Dear Jack: Our New Home Is Now Being Bricked And Insulated

3 years, 11 months.

Dear Jack,

This past weekend our family checked in on the progress of our new house being built in a ‘bedroom community” outside of Nashville.

As you can see from these pictures, the bricks are being put into place on the front. We had no idea which color the bricks would be, but I’m happy with the selection, which is obviously matched to the bluish-gray siding we also chose.

Our new home is also being insulated right now as well.

And as for the piles of dirt you see in our front yard, the pipes are being installed for the sewage drain.

Something that I was particularly happy about was to see how the sidewalk is being set for the wooded area around the neighborhood.

Just the thought of that makes me feel like I’m truly going to be a real American dad. I know that probably sounds weird, but seeing our new house built really makes me happy, as your Daddy.

I already envision that sidewalk is where I’ll be teaching you how to ride a bike.

It was also exciting to see you meet one of our future neighbors, a fellow 3 year-old boy, named Aiden.

You guys obviously got along just great, running around the lawn of the model home and sort of sword-fighting with balloons.

While we were there, Mommy and I also signed more paperwork with our real estate agent David Stanley, as we are currently in the process of selling our current home, a townhouse in Nashville.

As I should be, I’m not getting my hopes up too high that everything will go effortlessly and as scheduled: I’m keeping my expectations low where they should be, particularly in regards to the move out of our townhouse.

But so far, this has been a very enjoyable process.

I can only imagine what must be going through your mind right now. It’s pretty exciting times for our family right now, but I bet that’s especially the case for a nearly 4 year-old boy!

Love,

Daddy

Leave a comment Posted on October 5, 2014October 6, 2014 parenting, Storytelling, Uncategorized

Dear Jack: Seeing The 1st Construction Of Our New House

3 years, 10 months.

Dear Jack,

It was exactly 8 years ago tonight that Mommy and I fatefully met each other at the taping of an episode of CMT’s Crossroads, featuring Lindsey Buckingham and Little Big Town.

Here we are now, 8 years later; with you, nearly 4 years old.

Back on September 7th, in my 1st letter announcing our family’s new home purchase, I included pictures of the broken ground and foundation. (See Dear Jack: We’re Building A New House In Spring Hill, TN as well as Our 2nd Visit To Our “New House”/ 2014 Lexus GS 450h: Family Friendly Review.)

Well, about a month later, it’s time to update those photos. But first, a quick video I made…

Yesterday we had made the journey to Sprill Hill to check in on the status on the building process. I expected very little progress, if any.

In fact, I was quite surprised when Mommy pointed at our house. At first I thought we were on the wrong street somehow.

Seeing this progress was a great encouragement to me. It’s easy for the process of selling our current townhome, plus the thought of the move itself, to overshadow the fun parts of this.

But just look- this is our house “being born.”

I particulary enjoyed the view out the windows from upstairs. I was able to get a good view of the farmland behind our lot, as well as a view of our next door neighboor’s background; to get an idea of what ours will look like as well.

There’s no doubt this is a scary process, though. I admit that at any given second, I am sort of expecting this to somehow fall through.

However, we’ve went through the budget more times than we can count and we know we can truly afford this new home and still have a decent amount of cash going into our savings. It’s very important to us we don’t become “house poor”; meaning all our paychecks just go into paying the mortgage every month.

Of course, we drive 10 year-old used Hondas, we don’t eat out at restaurants, we don’t have cable TV or smart phones, and the electronics we do own are laughably (!) outdated. So to say the least, we are an extremely frugal family.

If we hadn’t become as ridiculously conservative with our money as we needed to in order to get out of the $60K debt we had worked our way in, there’s no way we could have ever gotten ahead… to get to where we are today.

So having lived through that blessed/cursed learning curve that so many couples in their late 20s (at the time) have to encounter when it comes to the budget, or the lack thereof, we are now (in our early 30s) able to start catching glimpses of what Dave Ramsey has always preached on:

“Live like no one else now so that later, you can live like no one else.”

Based on my financial mistakes in the past, I guess there’s part of me that feels I don’t deserve this house.

Even now, I personally feel… hesitant… about showing info and pictures about our family’s new house.

But it’s important to me that I not only show you this “footage” for future nostaglic and historic purposes, and that I teach you to be as annoyingly frugal as I am… but also because you have many family members on both sides of the our family that want to see the updates on our house.

As for you, you’re still trying to understand that the model home is not actually our new home.

Love,

Daddy

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