It's Official!

I haven't been ignoring you, it's just that nothing has been happening.

And then BAM.

We signed the closing documents yesterday!

We officially own the land!!

Now the fun can begin!

Josh and I were worried because it took SO LONG to get to this point.  We won't  have the site ready by the date on our contract - Feb 28.

Josh spoke with Kellie and then Lynn at Adair who both assured us that we can still move forward with this project, even though we won't have the site ready by the end of the month.

They were both very helpful and responsive to our concerns regarding price protection and Josh and I feel confident that we have made the right choice in choosing Adair. 

Now the fun can begin!!!

Whoo hoo!!

We drove out last weekend and took a look at the finished shared driveway.

Our shared driveway is quite long.  The driveway meets the road just past the white truck.

After it turns north, it follows the adjacent lot's property line before entering our property at the southeast corner of our lot.

 

The van is parked where the shared driveway enters our property. 

The turn from the shared driveway onto our property is a bit sharp.  We're mildly concerned aout 50' trucks making the turn...

We staked out where we want our driveway to be. 

The stakes are a bit hard to see... 

We met with Jeff, our excavator to talk about how the driveway was going to cross the drainage ditch - which we are calling a creek.  (hey, it does have water in it.)

We talked about how the pad was going to be built, because our site is sloped.

We also talked about how we are going to get power to the well for construction.

if we need to get power.

We have a flowing artisian well!

That means that water comes out without a pump!

Totally nifty!

I turned the facet all the way open.

Plenty of water!

We're hoping that there's enough pressure to satisfy the needs of the construction team.

It would save us a bit of money and work if we didn't have to run power all the way to it before the house was up.

Hmm, let see what else...

The loan should fund by the end of the week, then we'll receive our draw sheet and we can get started on our OTDs!!!

Here's the view from the southeast corner.

I'm hoping to take pictures from this spot throughout the process. 

I'm totally excited and have to remember that I still need to be patient.

They're forecasting snow on the valley floor tomorrow and Friday. 

snow is not conducive to dirt moving.

Movement...sort of....

We've had to push back our closing date (again).

It has taken awhile for the seller to get going on the shared driveway.

We drove out on Saturday and saw that they had begun the process of building the road.

 

This picture is taken from the main road.  There will be asphalt as far as the big rocks go, and then we'll have a gravel road.

The gravel road will go straight back to where the little white poles are (kinda hard to see.) 

There the road will turn left and go to our property.

Things are happening....slowly....

We Have Water...

in more ways than one!

The seller drilled the well!  whoo hoo!

I drove the kids out to see what it looked like.

it happened to stop raining just long enough to take pictures.

not very impressive, is it?

but it's there, and it's a step in the right direction!

the torrential rain also left some nice sized puddles

well, pretty darn big puddles.

Puddles The Boy COULD NOT RESIST.  Isn't that was rain boots are for?

I opted to park outside the pasture, and walk in.

I didn't want to get stuck.

(fast forward a couple of weeks)

On Christmas day, after opening all the presents and washing all the brunch dishes, we decided to drive out and show the property to Josh's mom, who hadn't seen it yet.

Josh decided to drive right on out to the property, through the adjacent fields.  We got out, looked around and as the rain started to drip we opted to leave. 

well

we tried to leave.

Josh misjudged the depth and mushiness of the ground.

we got stuck.

(hee hee hee)

Josh and Grandpa pushed and pulled, hemmed and hawed...

finally, we called my folks and asked them if they'd like to take a drive,

and oh, by the way, if they could bring a rope....

the kids were happily reading new books they'd received that morning and eating gobs of chocolate.

When my folks got there, they were grinning and laughing!

(wouldn't you be?)

what fun!

they quickly pulled us out past the mushiness, and we were on our way home.

It was truly a Christmas adventure.

:)

Well Drilling

Got a message today from our Realtor, letting us know that the Seller was having the well drilled today.  Cool!  She also let us know that the Seller is waiting on a permit from the county before he can install the shared driveway.

That's about it.   Just waiting.

Monday Morning

Wow!  Things are starting to happen.  We have an appointment to meet at the property to confirm the property lines on Wednesday and we have an appointment to order our house on the 15th.

We drove out yesterday at looked at it again.  There's still no direct access to the property and we didn't want to cross the other lots to go stand on it, so we stayed in the car, but I did take some pictures :) 

cows and horses in the distance

the old red shed is the north-east corner (we think)

Pretty view, no?

The lower edge of the brown line of grass is the south-west corner (we think).

happiness!

Offer Accepted!

Our counter offer was accepted by the seller!!!  whoo hoo!!! I am totally excited!  (can you tell?)  Monday we get to start moving forward again!!!  Yeah!!!

:)

Counter offer recieved...officially...

We finally recieved the official counter offer from the seller yesterday.  We immediately sent over our counter offer that our Realtor had all ready to go.  She emailed it to the seller's agent first thing this morning.  Now we wait.

Any bets on how long it will take to get a response?

In the meantime, the Mr and I have decided which floorplan we want.

It's called the 1920.  Imagine the garage off the dining room.

and we're playing with where to put the house on the lot.

The Mr. played with his computer and drew this picture.  The dark blobs are two trees.  They are huge!  One is a cedar tree that smells wonderful and the other is a massive evergreen.

Still Waiting....

Yup.  we're still waiting.  We finally heard from the seller's realtor over the weekend that the seller had changed his mind and would be countering our offer.  We were supposed to get paperwork on yesterday.  Still haven't seen anything.

On a happier note, on the finiancial side of things we're all set.  Loan approved and ready to order an apprasial on our project....we just need a project....

So, really this is a non-update.

and....we're still waiting

We submitted our offer....and waited. and waited. and waited.  On Monday our Realtor got an email from the seller's agent.  Which said, basically that the seller liked our offer but went to the hospital for a day surgery and it would take a couple of days to get the paperwork signed.

okay.  that's fine. we completely understand.

Yesterday our agent sent the seller's agent a message asking how it was going, and he responded that the seller (who's 84) was still in the hospital recovering from surgery, it wasn't an in and out thing like he orginally thought.  and the seller didn't want to deal with the sale until he was feeling better. 

okay. again, we understand.  no big deal, we're in no real rush.

have I mentioned that I have no patience?

Offer submitted

The Mr. and I met with our Realtors today to make an offer on the property.  Cross your fingers!

No mud!

We went out and walked on the property on Monday.  It was nice.  Two huge evergreen trees and a slight slope.  The view is just stunning.  I'll have to snap a picture so I can share.

A school bus drove by and I didn't need to raise my voice to talk, so I don't think the road noise will be a problem.  Our realtor expressed concerns about the slope and how it drains and the lack of information on wells in the area.

I thought it was a positive thing that we weren't mucking around in mud, we'd had torrential rain for a couple of days and the ground wasn't soupy.  So, good drainage.

Sorry no pictures yet, forgot to take my camera with me.

What's the next step?  Our Realtor asked the seller's agent for the septic approval paperwork and any information on wells in the area.  He finally responded to her and sent the approval and a water test that was done on a neighboring property's well.  No contaminants to speak of. 

Now we need to make an offer on the property, and see where that leads.  We have a tight budget, but I'm optimistic that we'll be able find a number that makes the both the seller and us happy.

Stay tuned!!!