# 541 - So Close to Our Country Home!

First of all, thank you to the sweet emails and posts about hoping all is well since I haven't been able to post in a while! Things are getting back on track. I had surgery nearly three weeks ago. I have been on a fast road to recovery, but things aren't going as FAST as I would really like. Typical.

The good news is, during my hospital admission, I learned that I am a year younger than I thought. The arm band showed my age to be 46. I argued with admissions who assured me the computer NEVER made mistakes and it automatically calculates a person's age by their birth date. I insisted that I was 47. Anyway, it turns out, I am 46. The people in admissions were laughing so hard with me as they said, "Congratulations on waking up today and discovering you are a year younger!"

And guess who turned 50? Sgt. Dave had a birthday and we celebrated a COUPLE of times! The best birthday lunch was when he got to be with our two daughters, Heather and Stefie, along with our beautiful 18 month old grand-daughter.

Coraline LOVES to give her Pappy the sweetest smiles EVER! She is a deeply shared delight of our hearts! The great thing is that Heather and Henry are expecting their second child...our second grandbaby! We are thrilled!

Anyway, yesterday we received our Pre-HUD statement, which is the accounting statement of all the closing costs and expenses for the construction loan to build our home. Those statements are always a tad nerve-wracking. Yes, we are getting there folks!

The below photo is SIMILAR to what we are building. We will have windows instead of the double French doors, but the Great Room area has a vaulted ceiling and the kitchen a low ceiling. Just like the below shot, our kitchen will see through the formal dining area to the living room. The floorplan is open and airy.

 

We should close in three weeks. Getting the Pre-HUD statement has been a bit of a shock, as it ALWAYS is for buying a house! But, frankly, we will be glad to have the write-off again!

Here is a better shot of the dormer windows we are getting.

We have lived in an RV for a LONG time, longer than we anticipated would be needed. Thankfully, we did buy a large RV with a couple of nice, large slide-outs to make things tolerable!

I cannot believe we have been so determined to live out our dreams of living in the country. I am thankful we didn't put it off until it became too daunting. We are old enough for it to be possible and young enough for it to be possible, kind of like a Goldilocks phase of life to make such a decision. No matter what, people should GO FOR THEIR DREAMS!

When our kids were young, we bought this acreage. For about 15 years, we enjoyed long and short-term visits to our country home, especially since we had a "retreat RV" parked here for a few years. In those days, we toyed with dreams of planting permanent roots here. As years passed, we began to seriously consider a permanent move to the land. The kids left home and we realized "home" had much more flexibility as empty-nesters.

Here is part of the land that is being prepped for the house.
There is Sgt. Dave, which shows the towering trees we are
contending with. One estimate for clearing this area for the
house is $18,000. Sure. HA! This shot doesn't show the
MASSIVE trees to each side. We do have TREES!

Sgt. Dave has been working for the past few months to get the home-site cleared of underbrush and small trees so we could decide exactly where to put the house and which large trees would need to be removed. The area had been so thickly forested that you could only see specks of sky. The ground was so covered in brush, clusters of small trees and vines that you could not walk through it without a machete. It sure looks different now.

In the picture below, you can see the area where the house will be built, which is just behind the lawn tractor. Sweet Gracie is walking with me through the woods. Behind her, you can see one of the really large trees we must contend with...we do have many very large trees that are extremely expensive to remove.

Gracie is enjoying the day in the woods with us.

The ground of this raw forested land has so many layers of composted material that you won't see a huge hole is in front of you. As Sgt. Dave was warning me of this danger, especially because I am naturally clumsy, he stepped right into one himself. This hole nearly went to his knee. This could have caused someone some real bodily harm.

We are building this house just in time to have extra space for our growing family! I am planning a fantastic little play space for the grandbabies, and I have more exciting news about this house, but that will come next post! We are going to have two guest rooms which will perfectly cater to our daughters and their needs as young mothers...from comfy beds to baby beds, comfy chairs for nursing and satellite tv...things will be comfortable. I don't want my daughters to have to haul all the baby things to our house, so we plan on having as much of it as possible already at our new house, ready to be used. I hope that will make their travels even easier to come see Nana and Pappy. Even though we sometimes feel ancient, out of shape, overwhelmed, under-equipped and completely nuts, we have realized through this process that we are much too young and have a much too involved, large family to embrace too much of a radical concept of "down-sizing" just yet. One day, we will indeed down-size, but I hope those days are decades away. These are the years we have more land, more dogs, more family members, more chickens, more activity, and more desire for uncramped space. But, our grandbabies will be a prior

After nearly two years in an RV, we are feeling the pinch for space, having moments of claustrophobia, and I am about to blow a gasket over not having a walk-in closet. Hey, I lived for years in Germany with a tiny RV-sized wardrobe since they do not build closets because they are taxed as if they are a separate room. I have now had about five years of adulthood with teeny closet space, I passed the test...it's time for the walk-in version again! For now, we need ample room to accommodate our daughters/grandchildren, our future, and our growing lives. especially since everyone is traveling a decent distance to be together, which means the house needs to be roomy enough for sleepy-heads.

I will laugh so hard when Sgt. Dave and I decide to spend most of our time on the wrap-around porch, but I think I might most enjoy sitting in the middle of the walk-in closet with a goofy smile.