We Have a House!!!

Before we left for Newcastle on Friday morning, we drove by the house and saw that there were 8 guys working on our slab and popping chalk lines, so we knew they would start framing soon. We didn't realize that when we came back the very next evening, it would look like this! I will never forget getting that first glimpse of the boards on our roof. I literally gasped out loud, I was so excited! It is so reassuring and exciting to see our home being built! Even though we are somewhat misplaced this summer, we know where our home is and it is coming together before our eyes. It was so fun to walk from room to room and think about where our furniture will go, how I will decorate, all of the wall space I will have to hang pictures (YEA!), etc.! Madison spent much of the time we were there pouting because Mackenzie's bedroom has a bigger window than hers does. Someday it will be so fun to look back at these pictures and see what our house looked like at each stage of being built. I feel good about the fact that it will meet all of our needs, but it isn't overly extravagant or huge. And, it will be BRAND NEW! I am realizing more and more that I love the fact that no one else will have lived there. Throughout the process of deciding whether we should build or buy, I really wasn't sure what would be best for us, but now that we are to this point I am confident that this was the right choice! Now we just have to wait for the end of August...

Some things I am most excited about in this new house:

* 800 more sq feet

* Having a playroom/office

* Open kitchen/living room

* Covered back patio

* Everything about the kitchen

* Master bathroom is awesome!

* Much bigger laundry room (and a new washer & dryer!!)

* 3 car garage

* Christmas lights are going to look so good on all those tall peaks! (Brian promised me!)

...

I could go on and on!

They are standing in the room that will actually be Madison's.

Madison in Jonah's room, pouting that her window isn't as big as Mackenzie's.

Mackenzie does have a pretty awesome window in her room!

I love this!!

Here we are in the kitchen, by the big pantry!

Madison is sitting in the kitchen, right where the island will be.

Jonah wasn't nearly as excited about this as we were...he didn't have shoes on so we couldn't just let him run around because there were nails and boards everywhere.

We will have a lot of attic space!

The back of the house...

Hopefully this will be the house that we finish raising our family in!

They seriously crack me up! They thought the port-a-potty was just about the funniest thing they had ever seen.

This is what it looked like on May 21, a few days later.

Here is the living room, with our corner fireplace.

The kitchen will be here.

The playroom/office that will have French doors.

This is looking from the living/kitchen area, down the hallway into the front entrance.

My HUGE laundry room! (Well, huge to me!)

This is what it looks like now, just one week after they poured the slab and started framing! So exciting!!

 And lastly, this is what it looks like on May 28th, right before we left for Hot Springs and then Memphis for Choir Tour. I can't wait to see what it looks like when we come back!