May 2016 - Closing on the Land/Construction on the House Begins

Poor guy was going too fast down the stairs when we got home from Church Sunday afternoon and took a spill down the second half. He was so hysterical and it looks SO much better here than it did...I thought he would for sure have a black eye, but I put a little frankincense on it once and it was practically gone by Monday morning. 

We got our temporary power set on May 3rd. We purchased the pole from our neighbors because they had just finished their house and had their pole from the electrical company. We were under the impression that the power company would come and set the pole when we paid for the set up of $450. We were sadly mistaken. We are expected to set up the pole and then pay for them to come set up the meter on that pole. Well when we got to looking at the cost of the pole and the equipment we were looking at close to $800 to make it ourselves. Thankful for sweet neighbors and Jonathan thinking to ask them. The Lord has been so faithful in the little things for this and we haven't even broken ground. Excited to see his hand throughout the rest of this process.

We passed inspection on Friday, May 6th and the electrical company should be moving the pole that is sitting where we are planning to put the house hopefully within the next two days. 

The closing process has been an experience to say the least. We turned in our paperwork almost a month ago when they told us it would be two weeks and we could close. Well the appraiser was swamped and it took him two weeks to even get to our paperwork. We got it back on Monday, May 2nd and we were very disappointed with what came back. He only accounted for the actual cost of the house our builder would spend to build the house and did not consider the land worth even what we paid for it. With that we can only get 85% financing on the property and land combined so we were stressing out about how we were going to be able to come up with the full downpayment. God is good though! I started praying that they would re-consider the fact that we had purchased the land from family (which helped with our current equity of the land) and also the fact that we had already put in the driveway. Since we called Tuesday morning they are going to work with us and re-evaluate the appraisal. We are praying that they come back exactly where we need to be and we know that the Lord will provide whatever way it comes back.

We are trying to build a shop for Jonathan, knowing that if we don't go ahead and do it now we might not be able to for several more years. With 15+ acres we NEED somewhere to put our equipment and all of the extras that we have for the lawn, garden, toys, etc.  Without the extra in our loan we won't be able to move forward with a shop. We know that God is SO much bigger than us and that this is a small request, but He has been so faithful and so BIG to us throughout the process of moving and purchasing this land, that we know that whatever comes to pass is in HIS will. 

Side jobs are something that we never know are going to happen for Jonathan and honestly he hasn't had one in the past year or so. We had a side job last week that ended up being a great help for us and we haven't gotten the money yet, but we know that for the hours put in, we had a great return and it's been at the perfect timing. We have been praying about where else we might could come up with a few extra funds lately and Jonathan got a call this morning (May 4th) with the possibility of another side job for a church who can't get their air working properly through their online system. Praying this will come through and be what we need for the barn.

Monday, May 9, 2016

We found out today that they increased our loan amount to EXACTLY (or more than) what we needed. How good is our God? We will be able to pay off the rest of the land and finance the house. We will even be able to come up now with the cash for the barn and we are closing on Friday, May 13th at 8:15 in Somerville. We are excited about the process to come. 

Friday, May 13th - We closed on the House! Everything went smoothly and we were finished quickly. Now to break ground!

Saturday, May 14th - Our last lunch with grass - no broken ground yet.

Monday, May 16th - They delivered a bulldozer to the land Monday afternoon and broke ground on Tuesday. We picked out all our finals for the house on Tuesday with Creekside Homes and ran by the property on the way back. They were starting the process and were completely finished spreading by Wednesday before lunch.

Beautiful roses on our property. LOVE fresh wild flowers!

Breaking ground Tuesday...

Tuesday night - the boys were playing "king of the hill" and having a BLAST.  Fresh dirt is their favorite. They were itching to get it in while we were there watching the men work Tuesday during the day, so when Jonathan got off we went back and they played for a while. Fun day for sure!

Daddy got in on the action - he really was King of the Hill! 

Thursday - May 19th - They laid out the forms for the slab today. It's getting real! It will rain hard tonight and tomorrow, so the plumber will wait until Monday to come and get going. Hopefully we will have a slab and well by the end of next week.

Monday, May 23rd - They finalized information for plumbing fixtures, but we were unable to get started today - they actually laid the plumbing on Tuesday and should hopefully pour by the end of the week.

Also, God has been so good to us this week. We knew we had a refund coming from our overpaying insurance for our home, and we received that check this week. Also we received a surprise check from our loan payment that we were shocked to get back. Today, Wednesday, as I opened the mail, we just received a 3rd unexpected check for overpayment of closing costs for our home on Fern Road.  And to top that off...Jonathan found out that he scored a side job for Friday after work.

 Sometimes I just need a reminder that this is exactly what the Lord has called us to do - we seeked His face SO HARD before moving forward with any of these decisions on the land, selling our house, and now beginning to build. I'm excited to see the process of the house going up, but I'm even more thankful for the blessings that we have been bestowed over the past few months. How good is our God?

Jonathan worked on putting up the trellis for our blackberries and raspberries last weekend - thankful he thought about this because they do take a while to grow and actually start producing. We are BIG fans of blackberries and I personally love raspberries so he surprised me with planting these as well. I'm so excited to see them over the next few years. The boys both come in with black faces and I KNOW they snuck over and ate all the ripe blackberries. Love this life of country living and the perks of being able to grow our own produce and live off the land. It really is exactly how I wanted my boys to grow up and they are doing just that!

The plumbing rough in...

Dirty boys exploring around the land after a days work.

May 30, 2016 - We got a call on our way home from the lake from Israel, our site manager, and he wanted us to run back by and make sure we had our floor plugs exactly where we wanted them, so we ran by to mark them off again on the way home. They had put all the dirt back down and taken care of it being ready to pour in the morning! 

May 31, 2016 - We woke up to rain this morning so figured that we wouldn't be pouring, but Jonathan called me at 10 and said they are going on with it, so I packed a quick lunch and we headed out. When we got there, a concrete truck was unloading and another pulled up right after that and another within a few minutes. We were there around the perfect time. We didn't get to see start to finish, but as you can see they had made a dent by the time we left. The only thing they had left to finish was 1/2 the garage - the final truck wasn't there and the boys (and I) needed a nap desperately after being on the lake for the weekend. We are so excited - now we can start seeing walls go up!!

Getting ready to pour in the garage - the rest was finished. They took out the footings on the inside of the garage and started pouring shortly after they had the plastic and rebar down. It was fun to watch and the boys had a blast watching and playing and eating along the way :) .

April 2016

April has been a busy month for us.

We celebrated Jonathan's turning out from the Local Union 614 with a little party with some friends. Thankful for them all coming and we had a great time! The kids had a blast riding in the gator and playing together. It was a sweet time of fellowship.

Boys loving playing at the land all day on Saturday's lately.

Cutie worn slap out!

Lunch at Stony River for Mrs. Pam's Birthday. My mom kept the boys for me while I went to lunch with the ladies. Thankful she was able to take off and watch them for me. 

Lunch with Aunt Kassie on her birthday.

Boys being boys. They were eating dinner outside and had to sit with the grandparents.

We kept nursery and Jonathan was being "Samson" and Jace was not ok with everyone on his daddy. Love these kiddos. Excited to see them growing up together in life group classes.

Children's Museum fun

These two LOVED the fishing this go around. That's also Tucker's favorite.

Calling turkeys like daddy...practicing at least. So proud of themselves.

Dinner at El Nepal. Thankful for Monday nights kids eat free nights! We had gone to get our pole for the temporary power at the land and it ended up being a much later night than we had planned. 

Cutie Pie - ready for MDO. Looking SO SO much like his daddy.

While Tucker was at Mothers Day Out, Jace and I went to get strawberries in Toone. We couldn't go through Whiteville without stopping at Backermann's Bakery. We LOVE LOVE their bread (German black bread and Rosemary Garlic are our absolute favorites) and get some yummy monster cookies (Gluten free!).

"Look mommy, I'm a snake"

Dinner time at the land while daddy cuts firewood and we stacked it.

Papaw taught my 5 year old, yes, 5 year old!!! how to weed eat. He can crank it and go to town doing exactly what it's made for. He thinks he is hot stuff and he is super helpful. Does make me nervous though!

We took a fishing break one Saturday afternoon. We LOVE fishing together and we only caught a few, but it's one of our favorite past times as a family. Thankful for sweet boys who love to indulge in anything their daddy enjoys. I've learned to love it as much or more than they do.

See the fish he was bringing for me to see? SO proud of catching his first big fish of the year!

Daddy showing them how to take the fish off the hook.

Proud little guy - first fish of the day.

my "helper" while I was casting and reeling.

All the cousins played at the park on a Monday morning and then we had lunch and made a Jerry's snow cone run. I didn't get a group picture, but Jace wanted to show daddy what he got. It was yummy!

Jonathan and I went out of town for a class he was taking in Hot Springs - he had to get certified for a new line of something they are selling at work. I tagged along and planned our kindergarten curriculum for Tucker this year. It was a good trip and VERY productive. We got to go on a few dates and he worked at night when he got back to the room and I worked on more school. But at least we got to go together :) We went to the Jungle Book in 3D. It was a good movie, but I think 3D gives me a headache.

When we got home Friday night we wanted to have a family day Saturday and of course it poured all day, so we opted to take the boys to breakfast and get out of the house for just a portion of the day. It was a fun day.

We are still living at the Golding's and our "new normal" is going well. We have adjusted pretty well and just excited about the process of moving forward with building. Our builder is saying that it will take 4 months to build, but we are hoping to be in within 6 months. We would be thrilled with that - baring no delays with weather. Jonathan is putting in our HVAC so we know it will take a little longer than normal with one person working on that instead of a team, but I can't see that holding us up too much.  

Also, Baby G will be here within the next 12 weeks hopefully! We are going to have a very different "new normal" before we know it. Hopefully we will name this poor baby before too long and we are looking forward to meeting him face to face! I am 28 weeks at this point. Can't believe how quickly time has flown this time around.