Almost finalized....

The forever process of planning out the architecture, the materials to build with, and special things I've wanted is now ALMOST over.  With our closing deadline on the lot looming in the near future we were finally able to sit down with the builder last night and go through a step by step breakdown of costs.  One interesting fact was our builder took our house and all of the "upgrades" we have and went over to Bellevue which is an Ivory Home community directly across the street from our lot.  He asked them to give him an estimate of how much this house would cost if they were to build it.... The crazy thing was their estimate was 130-160 THOUSAND dollars more.
They said, "due to high demand, they are increasing their prices 30k in the next 30 days"... what a RIP!
Needless to say, I was in awe at the price difference, and happy that we are on track to build an affordable home.

And for those of you wanting to see a taste, this is what we are building....

front view. 3rd car garage visible.

side view with side load garage visible.

layout with secluded guest suite on the main level.

upstairs. 4 bedrooms and laundry.

basement layout. will be finished later.

kitchen layout. floor to ceiling cabinets.. upper cabinets with glass front doors. :)

 We are doing the entire main floor in hardwood except the front living room and guest bedroom. The rest of the house is this super lush multicolored carpet.  Cabinetry in the kitchen is white foil, not painted so it doesn't get scratched!! The island is going to be stained dark to help balance everything out.

We haven't decided on tile, stone, or colors yet, but things are coming together slowly but surely.  We should have everything finalized by next Wednesday, and start building the middle of February!!

Piece of Dirt

Lance and I have been trying to keep things on the down low since nothing is finalized, but last night with the help of our friends and their great interrogating skills I guess we are good now to share our news.....

Lance and I had been toying with the idea of beginning the building process but was hesitant because we hadn't found a lot we loved yet.  The beginning of November I spotted a DREAMY lot.  It's located in the heart of Draper right off of 300 East.  A flat, .54 acre, grassy, lot in a cul-de-sac.  EVERYTHING we've wanted and have looked for.  A little worried the lot would sell we contacted our friend who is a real estate agent and she informed us that the lot had two interested buyers, but no offers in as of yet.  Nervous that our dream lot would sell, we began our search for a builder. 

We scheduled an appointment to meet with Candlelight, and found that the cost of building was going to be too expensive and it wouldn't be the custom, personalized home that we've been wanting. So I turned to another company that I met back in 2011 at a home show and liked a few of their floorplans.


I called them impulsively on a Saturday when all Lance wanted to do was sleep and relax at home and dragged Lance out of bed to drive the journey to South Jordan (Daybreak) to see a model home. We loved the attention to detail the builder put into his home and the quality of his craftsmanship.  We also fell in love with his personality and began to be excited to build with him.  Dave, the builder and owner of Stone Brook Homes, is a contracted builder through Smart Choice and would most likely be our guy.

So a few days later, following a doctors appointment at the fertility clinic I ventured down to Orem, UT to talk with a company, Smart Choice Communities, about the possibility of building on a lot we found in Draper.  During our meeting we were going to discuss the cost associated with building and the procedure and plan for the next couple of months should we choose to build with them.    About ten minutes into the conversation we found out that the lot, our dream lot, was under contract... with us!   They had spoken to Dave the builder and had put in an offer to secure the lot should we choose to build!  I was dumbfounded and now the concept of having our own lot and building our own house was real.  This is happening!   We talked for two hours about the floorplan and cost and financing and decided to let it soak in over the holiday weekend.  The Monday after Thanksgiving we were able to speak with the lender and get our pre-approval process started and by the end of the day our financing was all aligned to build our home. 

front of the lot.  there is an additional one lane street behind the lot that we have access to.

somewhere in the middle of the lot.

the large piece of dead grass is from the barn that was recently torn down.

street view looking into the cul-de-sac from 300 east.

the lot is right below the letter A sharing a cul-de-sac with 3 other homes
you can also see the one lane road behind the house that we can use.

my favorite part is how close the lot is to a park with little baseball field and tennis courts (with an AWESOME running path around the entire park YES!!

The next week we were scheduled to meet with the architect, but hit a road block. The floorplan that I loved was going to be too expensive to build and out of our price range. They had missed 1000 square feet of the home when giving us our estimate. Super bummed I started over and began searching for smaller floor plans that would still fit our life style. With hopeful spirits we met with the architect, only to be entirely disappointed. Our agent wasn't able to meet us and show us floorplans due to a family emergency, and the architect didn't tell us anything we didn't already know. He began to tell us that any drawing up of floor plans he would do for us would cost $3000 out of pocket. He also slightly insulted us by telling us each and every room in our floor plan was small. "I mean..the dining room is small. You couldn't fit many people in there. The living room is just barely big enough to be comfy. The bedrooms are all small, ect..." We left extremely frustrated. How could a plan that was now out of our budget be classified as too small for comfort.

I immediately called our builder and we ventured back up to Salt Lake to meet with him and his architect, who wasn't going to charge us (yay!). We agreed on a floor plan where we loved the 4 bedrooms up stairs, but I was still unhappy with the downstairs layout. Over the next week Steve, the architect redesigned the main floor.

We received the updated down stairs floor plan just last week, but there were still things we wanted to tweak. We went to dinner at Su-Casa and talked all about the things we wanted to change or update and Lance says, "you know what would be awesome? if we could increase the height of the 3rd car garage to fit in a basketball hoop!" hahah!! I thought Lance was crazy and that there was no way we could do that, but a few hours later I mentioned it to the builder and he said that wouldn't be a problem! haha!  Oh the little things that make your husband happy!

Christmas Cards 2012

Lance and I debated back and forth about how our Christmas cards would go.  We had them all planned out then last minute decided we weren't going to do any at all.  With Christmas just two weeks away we decided extremely spur the moment to take some.  We planned them for Sunday dinner at Lance's mom's house.  Sunday rolled around and so did a HUGE snow storm.  We were bombarded with tons and tons of snow.  We decided that the snow wasn't ever going to stop so we might as well hurry and take them... and 15 minutes after we took them and had changed out of our wet clothes it stopped snowing. Here's a preview.

 Merry Christmas!!

Sunday: Animal Puppets

Whenever I watch Lance with kids all I think is... you'd make an awesome/fun/cool/hip dad.
Here's proof.

This is our primary class.  We have 3 kids and a guest and he had all 4 of them giggling and LOVING the bear and puppy puppets he just found towards the end of the lesson.

23.

I am officially the WORST gift receiver I know. A few days before we left for California I was bored at work and was wondering what Lance got me for my birthday (since he had implied that my presents were off my wish list.. which I thought was fill with things that were all too expensive).  During my boredom session I decided to pull up Lance's bank account and see just where my gift was from and I stumbled upon a purchase at bath and body works (which wasn't on my list, but I had mentioned I wanted some body scrub).  I just went on to assume all he got me was that and I was content with its simplicity (since he had purchased a purse for me back in August claiming it would be for my birthday).  The night before we left for California Lance asked if I wanted to bring my presents to California, open them now, or open them when we got home.  Since I secretly knew what the present was I said we could open when we got home.  Lance decided to give me one gift that night which was a lotion from Bath and Body Works.  

We ventured to California and spent the weekend indulging in the 40 mangoes my mom bought for us (yes... 40. Literally).  Every few hours Lance would grab a mango or two and devour its deliciousness. Our black Friday consisted of going to Wal-mart and Target and buying a few DVD's that were on sale..

 We went out one night to shop with my mom, but didn't find much- new makeup, shampoo and hair products, and new socks!! (I LOVE NEW SOCKS).  We ventured up to Santa Monica for an afternoon with my step sister, her boyfriend, and my brother.  It was nice having my brother around for the weekend even though we didn't do much, just ate and talked.  We also spent a good portion of our mornings helping my mom make lollipops for her company. 

my mom... working away.

On the morning of my birthday I decided to treat myself to a mani/pedi.  I am officially in LOVE with shellac and will be purchasing a UV light sometime in the near future.  I'm sure it isn't the healthiest thing for your nails, but it is so amazing to have your manicure look great for longer than 3 days. 

 When we arrived back home on Monday night Lance asked if I wanted to open the rest of my presents.  He presented me with a bath and body works git bag filled with more lotions and after smelling them all and thanking him for his thoughtful gift picking he tossed me another bag...

 I have been coveting this watch for the last couple of months and Lance went above and beyond and got it for me!  I am in LOVE with it. 

Happy First Winston.

I know I'm super late, but my beloved Winston celebrated his first birthday on 11/11/12.  He has been a joy and a pain over the past year.  His hyper nature tends to be a bit overwhelming and I'm pretty positive he doesn't realize how bulky he is because he tends to attach your face rather quickly with his teeth chomping in your direction. He's slowly getting used to being around people his own size (example below with little Minnie Collard).

 As you can see Ellie has already mastered the art befriending little people.   Winston has continued to pursue his cat-like side by always wanting to sit in a dining room chair... and hover over your shoulder on the couch. 

He has definitely brought a lot of excitement to our home, we love this furry chunk.

Almost not busy

Just to let those know who were wondering. Lance didn't get the Corner Canyon Head Coach position, but congrats to the guy who did get it!  He's a great guy and thank you to him for fighting for our country.

In other news, I just learned today two big things in regards to school.

 #1  Graduation will be on April 30th which is Less than 6 months (5 months 3 weeks and 3 days away!)

#2 My capstone on Labor and Delivery is scheduled for January and I just got my preceptors schedule!!!  One bummer to the schedule is the fact that she will be working on Wednesday and that is also the day that I have class, but hopefully missing 1 or 2 classes won't hinder things too much. 

I'm super excited to finally say that I will be graduated in less than 6 months.  It feels like I have been in school for eternity, but now things are winding down and I am so grateful for the skills and knowledge I have gained over the past 5 years of my higher education. 

Thanks to BYU for teaching me that being perfect isn't everything and faith is everything.  Thanks for giving me wonderful professors who enjoyed teaching and brought out the passion from within me.  Thanks for the dreadful testing center and having the agency to choose when I was ready to take a test instead of marking it with a set time and place.  Thanks for the big stairs and spacious campus... my legs looked wonderful and toned thanks to you.  Thanks for accepting me as a student and giving me numerous scholarships to provide me with essentially a free college experience.  Thanks for my bachelors degree, and although I'll never use it for what it is, I'm grateful to have it.

Thanks to Eagle Gate College for accepting me into the nursing program literally a week before classes began.  Thanks for the flexibility of working with students and their busy work and personal lives.  Thanks for being close-ish to my house.  Thanks for providing me with adequate knowledge to make it in the nursing profession. 

Less than 6 more months and my signature will officially be Christine Gummersall RN.

:)