# 520 - COUNTRY HOME BUILDER MEETING!

I am tickled pink. Well, if I were actually tickled, I would be BLUE because I can't breathe when being tickled, and my husband learned LONG ago that such a silly act might shorten his lifespan.

However, I feel emotionally tickled because we FINALLY have selected our builder and have an official sit-down meeting scheduled this coming Monday - July the 14th of 2014! Ta-Da!

If you are a long-time reader of this blog, you KNOW the extensive journey we have taken to just get to this point. If you are a new reader, the synopsis is...Sgt. Dave and I have blogged while living in the Greater Houston area about how desperate we were becoming to move OUT of city limits and to our acreage. However we had nothing but woods waiting for us. We sold our house, bought an RV, packed up, put things into storage and towed the new "house" to our acreage and we roughed it...our electricity was even powered, initially, by generator, only.

It's been a long, eventful year of Farm Life Lessons.

Living in an RV this year has been interesting. For anyone wondering if it can be done, yes, it can be done. However, after more than a year in an RV, I am ready to be land-based again, minus the wheels and hitch.

Frankly, it would have been more fun to buy acreage with an old house on it and to renovate it, but we are having to build brand new construction, which is always concerning to me because today's construction does not compare to the solid construction of long ago.

So, let me tell you the reasons we selected our builder. First of all, he is not intimidated by me. Little ole me. As you might imagine, some men are indeed intimidated by a woman who has a business background and has no problem speaking directly about a topic without tip-toeing around it. I don't have to have perfect answers, but I do need to work with someone who is a straight-shooter and who will listen to our construction needs instead of telling me what he wants to build with our money.

There you go with that part.

This builder can do...
1) 10 Foot Ceilings
2) A Possible Loft
3) Matching Detached Garage, but on concrete slab
4) Install Any and All of My Custom Window Selections or Work to Solve Issues
5) Can Build a Steep Roof Pitch
6) Can Install a Metal Roof
7) Cathedral Two-Story Ceiling
8) Dormers
9) Pier and Beam Foundation or Concrete

So, we have scheduled a meeting with our builder this coming Monday to discuss the most basic of issues...the floorplan. Basically, since I want to keep my costs down, he will help me decide upon a cost effective structure that would meet my square footage desire, and then we will work on the internal floorplan for separate rooms and overall layout.

This week, I keep looking at different kitchens and am more drawn to a light and bright design.

The above kitchen is pretty fancy, but I like it.

I have had two white kitchens, those were my favorites due to their welcoming and bright environment, but I didn't like the constant upkeep required of them. Yet, my white cabinets were able to be scrubbed down and that did make it nice. I suppose they weren't any more difficult to maintain and keep nice than any other cabinets.

I had considered solid pine cabinetry, but I am not sure whether or not the look would wear on me too fast.

I also like the cream colored cabinetry with the stain in the crevices to give them depth, then a light colored countertop...I no longer want a dark countertop; however, I am hoping they can take our old fallen White Oak tree and make a kitchen eat-in bar out of it, with raw edges left unfinished.

 

But, I do know the appliances will be stainless steel and we will have a wall-mounted vent-hood. Actually, we will have the appliances as listed below:

1) Wall Oven with Above Microwave/Convection Oven (looks just like a double oven and is technically a double oven with the convection oven). This gives me double ovens, but I don't have to pay for, separately, and install, separately, a microwave.
2) Cooktop - Larger cooktop, not sure if I will be doing propane or not, at least five burners
3) Oversized Wall Mount Vent-hood to match the size of the cooktop that will be beneath it. The vent-hood is so large that we wont need to buy cabinetry overhead, so the vent-hood will cost more money upfront, but we wont be spending any money on cabinetry above the cooktop.
4) Kitchen sink: I prefer higher end stainless steel with double tubs, one deeper than the other. Sgt. Dave does not really like stainless steel sinks. I don't want granite, been there done that...awful.
5) Stainless Steel Dishwasher
6) Stainless Steel Counter-Depth refrigerator

The floor in the kitchen, dining, laundry room and probably the entry will be a spanish terrazzo tile. After picking and choosing certain elements that I enjoyed from past homes we owned, I know that terrazzo tile is a warm earth-tone color that is diverse and will go well with our pine wood floors. It is also very easy to maintain. For me, the flooring is EXTREMELY important.

We will also have a "Café-Outdoor Kitchen-Combo." It will be a structure separate from the house and will be very rustic, appearing something similar to this...

We also will install a rustic outdoor shower for those days when we are grimy and dirty and chicken poopy. We will place this outdoor shower near the end of one of the porches, out of the way, with a path leading to porch steps so that the shower will have privacy. This area will be multi-purpose and will be a great place to also bath the dogs.

The great thing about the builder we selected is that he has assured me that whatever I would like to do...he will do his best to get it done or be straight-forward about valid obstacles so we can discuss solutions or alternatives.

I hope the face-to-face meeting will be as great as I am hoping it will go. We have toured properties he's built or is building and I have checked on his references. Everything is looking great. Maybe we will be much closer to beginning to build our house within the next few weeks. We shall see!