This week, we had 2 meetings.  The first meeting was with Guardian.  We went into that one not really knowing what to expect.  We ended up doing a security system and a whole bunch of little things that I honestly know nothing about.  It was a lot of technology talk.  Listen.  I don't understand that stuff in the least.  I hardly ever watch tv and the only technology I use is my cell phone for fb. hahaha.  Don't I sound super old?  All I know is that we will have a mounted tv in the living room and in the loft and I will have my hook up for my home office.  And FINALLY, I am getting a tv in my bedroom.  I never subscribed to the whole TV in your bedroom thing.  But now that I am now on the back half of my 30's, I don't feel like sitting downstairs to watch the 11:00 news.  So there's that. 

The security system is really cool.  Not only can I open and shut garage doors and turn lights off and on with my phone from anywhere in the world, I can also have a VIDEO of whoever is at my door sent to me the moment they arrive.  So I will know who the boys are bringing into my house 24 hours a day. hehehehehehehehe  Mama Nancy Drew strikes again.  Those kids aren't sneaking anything past me in their teenage years.  Obviously, we told them that we also got cameras installed in every room of the house.  But we told them that about this house too and they still believe it.  Makes the truth come out a lot faster when you pretend to walk upstairs to "look at the tapes."

Today was the most fun though.....we picked the colors of our new house!!!!!!  We went in pretty confident that we were going to go with a gray siding and navy door/shutters.  WRONGGGGG.  We went to the Ryan plans around here this past week and I found one color that caught my eye.  (It is tricky to secretly take pictures of people's homes while they are out doing yardwork.)  It is called Irish Thistle.  When Alison (our sales rep) showed me the swatches last week, I didn't pick that one at all.  But when I saw it on an actual house, I really loved it.  It took a little bit of arm twisting, but I got Steve to agree to it too haha.  No, really, I think he likes it just as much as I do.  It is hard to see in the pics because it was SO sunny today, but here is a house in our plan with the same color/stone scheme that we chose

Here are the swatches indoors

I know, it is hard to see.  It is a dark gray shutter and front door and the irish thistle for the siding.  It has a greenish gray tint to it.  Then we chose beige trim, gutters, and garage door.  It reminds me of a modern day cottage which is very much my style.  I really like the stone too.  I mean, they had like 4 or 5 different types of stone and they all just looked like rocks to me.  So I am not picky in that way.  We went with Bucks County.  It's pretty...for stone.

Then we had to sign off on other little things.  a 1 or 2 bowl sink (we picked 2), did we want to upgrade our faucet for 300 bucks (no) and did we want 2 small pieces of crown molding on the kitchen cabinets for 600 bucks (hell no.)   But we did cave on a few things.  We were originally going to just stick with the half wall instead of banisters in the stairway but the banisters look so much nicer and open everything up more.  So we upgraded that.  (Don't tell my dad.  He advised against it because it was a 1600 dollar upgrade, but my mom told me that she liked it and everyone knows that mom opinions trumps dad opinions....at least when home decorating is concerned.)  We added a few outlets, ceiling fan rough in's in all of the bedrooms.  So all in all, not too shabby.  After showing us where our house would sit on our lot, there really isn't a huge back yard but we have never had a big back yard so thats no big deal to me.  HOWEVER, she remembered the boys saying how badly they wanted a pool, so she drew a pool into the backyard.  There is room for a smaller pool.  So maybe we will next year, who knows.  Andy said he will pay for it. haha.

Now we just wait!  All of the materials are being ordered.  We meet with our project manager on July 5th and they will break ground mid July.  Woo!  So until then, we have to work on getting our house ready to roll.  Busy busy!  

Hi everyone!  We are building our forever home and I thought I would share the ups and downs this way for anyone that wants to follow along!   I am so excited to start this journey but so nervous at the same time.  We have lots of work to do to get our house ready to put on the market in a short time, so the stress level is a little high right now.  The fun part though, is picking all of the features in our new home.  Super excited about that!

Last week, we made the first payment to secure our lot.  Here we are on our homesite!  It says that it can have a 3 car garage, but we went for 2.  Because we all know that it is a Jimmy Schuessler tradition to not get kids their own car unless they want to commute to college.  Make em' earn it!  huh, Dad?  haha

Of course, it wouldn't be a true Tracy blog if I didn't include blurbs about the boys.  As everyone knows, Ben is my ornery one.  He is the smartest 7 year old I know, and he knows how to push my buttons better than anyone.  His new thing is to try to say bad words disguised as good words.  So as we were standing where our new home will go, he picked up a piece of rock and asked Alison, our sales rep, if the rock was made out of "ass-phalt," obviously with an emphasis on the first part.  That child.  He has been telling everyone that our driveway will be made of asphalt.  I can't even.

Anyways.
The model that we have chosen is the Florence-elevation D.  It was important for me to have all of the things I have always wanted since we are building.  So this elevation has a big front porch that I can sit on.  Inside, it has a neat loft for the boys to have as a game room/playroom, an office area for me since I work from home now, and a big master bedroom and bathroom.  My favorite part though, is the addition of the morning room.  I will post pictures of that later on.  This is what our house will look like:

Sorry about the poor quality...it is a picture of a picture on my phone haha.  In fact, these are the colors that we love.  It is a greyish siding (called Flint) with a navy door and navy shutters.  The only difference is, we upgraded to a stone porch so the entire porch and half way up the house and garage will be stone.  Here is an example that we tried today. 

Speaking of upgrades, they will kill ya!  haha.  I wanted ALLLL of the upgrades.  But, that is just not in the cards.  So our upgrades included a morning room (which adds a whole new room in the basement for storage), we upgraded our cabinets/countertops to the Sienna package (cabinets will be white), we got the stone front, we changed the master bath to have a walk in shower, and we added an electric fireplace (another thing I have always wanted!)  I wanted other things too, like a finished basement, a fancy ceiling in the master bedroom, and all hardwood floors, banisters instead of a wall, and extra windows...but it just isn't in the budget.  Rats.  Oh well.  The boys are already planning for a pool and Steve wanted to upgrade to add a wet bar buttttttttt yeah, no.  haha.

Next week, we get to finalize our color choices, meet with Guardian about the electrical stuff, and pay the rest of our good faith payment (eek. that one hurt.)  Then in about 2 months, we will break ground!  ahhhhhh!  As of now, our closing is set for October 12th.  That means that Benny is going to have to go to a different school at the beginning of next year.  He doesn't seem to mind at all.  Andy was moving to a new school anyways for 5th grade so no biggie there.

Sooo now, we are concentrating on getting our house ready to list!  Painting, fixing little things here and there, planting new grass, anddddddd the major declutter.  Boy do you accumulate a lot of stuff in 9 years.  Can everyone say yard sale?  Yeah, it's coming.  Here is our cute little house.  If you know anyone that wants a nice starter home, I'm your girl.

Well, I think that is enough for now!  I will update next week once we meet with Alison to finalize color choices!!!  :)