Cool Things Our New House Will Do (AKA the Smartest Smart Home Ever)

Current state of the home.

To stay positive about our home building experience, Graham and I have been compiling a list of things that our new house will do that will improve our lives:

• It will help us lose 10 pounds automatically. Dubious claim, you say? No way!
• Our house will alert us when our kids' nails need to be trimmed, and it will clean up the little tiny nail clippings that are so hard to clean up!
• Our new house will not only do our laundry, but will also put the clothes away too!
• The house will cook healthy meals on weeknights!
• Our house will keep our toddler from getting into everything and destroying our stuff!
• Our new house will keep our food from spoiling prematurely.
• The new house will make us happy for ever and ever.
• The house will save us thousands of dollars!!
• Our new house will help us make BFF's.

Ok, so this is an obvious exaggeration of the benefits to our new house. However, we did notice that we kept saying to each other, well, once we're in the new house.. or, this wouldn't happen in the new house.. Which is kind of a dangerous way of thinking, like life all of a sudden will be amazing and perfect once we live somewhere new. Spoiler alert: it won't. We will still be the same people with the same lives.

But let me tell you the things that will actually make our lives better in the new house...

• While the house won't make us lose 10 pounds, we will definitely be less stressed with lower levels of cortisol. Also, the workout room means more concentrated workout times and a specific place. I'm excited for more cardio because our current townhouse might tumble to the ground if I start doing TurboFire HIIT workouts again.
• I wish the kids' nails would no longer require trimming in the new house, but our robot vacuum will definitely help clean up the mess!
• Laundry = the neverending story. The worst. The one thing our new house will do is allow us to put all of our clothes away in the house! Our old house had small closets, so we had to keep some clothes and shoes in the garage.
• I can't even emphasize how much our current kitchen stresses me out. It's unbelievably small. The new kitchen will hold ALLLLL of my stuff and have a pantry. It's going to be so amazing. Plus, the double oven means I'll be baking more fresh bread!
• Having a new house that is 100% ours will allow us to put toddler locks on our stuff. We have been in our rental townhouse for a year, and Sadie gets into our stuff DAILY, like my makeup, Graham's shaving cream, and Carter's toothpaste. I'm so excited to put toddler locks on the cabinets!
• The MINIature fridge we have right now is one of my current pet peeves. It is so small that when you put one thing on a shelf, another thing falls out of the fridge. Without fail. Plus, the cooling mechanism is so spotty that it half freezes anything in the back or side of the fridge. We are throwing away soooooo much food! I am incredibly excited for a new Samsung fridge with water and an ice maker! I haven't had one since I moved out of my parents' house in 2001.
• Ok, we are not guaranteed to have eternal happiness in our house.. But, we will be able to host out-of-town family (and we both have big families!) for family get togethers, and that will make us truly happy.
• The new house is currently costing us thousands of dollars, but it will pay off in the end. The energy efficiency is key, as well as the increasing cost of homes in the area (thank you HGTV for featuring a home in our area!). We couldn't afford to buy what we are building, so this will all be worth it when we get our home appraised when it's completed.
• Lastly, we have friends and family that have been our friends for a long time, but we will have new neighbors that will be awesome friends now and in the future.

One thing to remember: we are beyond blessed to have this opportunity to build a family home.

Update: Curious about our progress? Click on this link to see all of our home building updates, or check out my Instagram account for continuous updates.

Another House Update

When my house is done, what else will I have left to talk about??

Anyways, after February being a horribly frustrating month with the lack of progress on the house, I am very happy to report that March was a MUCH better month. If you want more pictures, check out my Instagram account on the right. I'm too lazy to post them right now on the blog.

First: our septic guy was able to come out and dig the tank and drain fields. Our septic designer got the drawings done and permit submitted to the county, so the areas should be backfilled this week.

Second: the electrician came and did the rough-in, including outlets, cable, switches, etc. He listened to what we wanted, made recommendations, and was super efficient. One thing is for sure, Lexar does not skimp on the outlets--a lot of other builders do!

Third: the siders finally started with our Hardie board plank siding. I can't even tell you what a relief that was as we were told for weeks/months that they were starting. I was really starting to get anxious (for good reason too) about the moisture level in the wood since the lumber was exposed to and unprotected against the elements for so long. The siders showed up and worked really fast one day, then didn't show up for another 4 days after that. It was very frustrating to say the least. Also, we were told we needed to backfill the septic prior to the siders starting, which really stressed us out. The timing was poor because we booked the septic guy over a month prior to starting because we expected the siding to have been completed already. Luckily, the siders just put some wood coverings over the holes and got to work.

Anyways, the house looks so GOOD with the siding on. Lexar puts trim around ALL exterior windows. I emphasize this because again, some builders skimp in this area. A lot of tract homes around here do not have exterior window trim in the back or side of the house, making the expensive homes look cheap. Nobody will really see the back of our house other than us due to the slope of our lot, but it doesn't matter. The trim for the windows and doors are really nice touches.

Fourth: the trenches for our permanent power and water were dug. The bad news was that nobody was telling us we need to call in our permanent power with our company, so that put us back a week. Our power company wasn't available for a full 7 days for the transition from temporary power to permanent. So, that means we will be ready for inspection for electrical and rough-in after Thursday this week

Fifth: the garage walls were finally installed between the 2-car garage and the 3rd car garage.

Sixth: our wood moisture levels were measured by Lexar. Bad news: still high (between 17-30%). It should be below 15% prior to insulation. So, we bought 3 more industrial high-CFM fans for our crawl space and house (we already had 5 in our house!!). One fan we bought is called Monsoon and it is one seriously strong fan.

Our project manager still says May for completion date, but that is a tight schedule for 60 days. We are thinking more like June. Anyways, we had to ask for a construction loan extension, so hopefully we'll hear back about that soon.

Thanks for all of your kind words and support. This has been one crazy ride, and I don't plan on doing this ever again.

Update: Curious about our progress? Click on this link to see all of our home building updates, or check out my Instagram account.