Big News!

This afternoon, we signed with our builder!!!  Finally, after months of back-and-forthing, we have made our decision. Typically, Eric and I are very decisive so it felt kind of weird to be taking so long to make this decision.  But we wanted to get it right, and we didn't want to feel rushed.  And I think we accomplished that mission. So, at the end of the day I was pretty (okay, incredibly) giddy over this:

Our preliminary plan (photo credit to 10 year old Evan)!  Here's what happened.  Eric and I have discussed every little detail of this process, so when we went into the meeting with the builder today, we knew we were ready to sign if the price worked out, but we were a bit nervous that might not happen.  The meeting was looooong--2 hours to be exact.  This is what the kids did to keep themselves busy for part of that time:

Make crazy faces

Pout

Nah, actually they were extraordinarily well-behaved thanks to the marvel of IPhones and IPads. Once we saw that the figure was doable (we had to reduce the square footage some to make that happen), we said we were ready to sign right then and there. So, the owner, Matt, had all the papers prepared and we agreed to build with Johnson-Reiland (the more local of the 2 builders we were considering, aka Builder B).  After we wore out the ink on a few pens signing everything, we ended up with this beauty.

I'm calling the new house a girl because, well, isn't she gorgeous? Plus, she's pretty much my creation.  Eric had some input, but he left the major design work open to me, so she sprung from a girl's heart and dreams.  Now she needs a real name.  Any thoughts?  (Hey, Niche--this is totally up your alley, girl! Help me out!)

We've already made a couple of changes--the front door will have a sidelight added to the left of it to let in some daylight as well as a view of the golf course.  And there are some other changes on the inside we've already done (those will come with the next post that has the complete floor plans).

I've already had some fun playing with exterior colors.  Covenants in this neighborhood dictate the siding has to be Hardie, not vinyl or aluminum.  So, I visited this website:hardie siding
and played around a bit.  My fave--TimberBark (a charcoal gray) with white trim.  Sigh--I could look at that color scheme all day.  Eric has other ideas, though, so we'll have to see how that ends up.  Tell me what you like!

After the excitement of deciding on a builder, we drove past our lot again, picturing our beauty here:

Ah, I can just picture her with the rolling fields behind us, the big blue sky over us and the golf course in front of us.  I am so excited I can hardly stand it! I might have even done a happy dance when we got home from the meeting.  No judging--a girl needs to celebrate exciting moments like these!

For now, I'm basking in the glory of our new house, thrilled that our home on the Lane is one step closer to really happening.