Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Finally, a blog about something other than the house! Amazing! It's about BASEBALL! When we're not working on house things, we're at the ball park!!

First off, a big congratulations to the Eden Valley-Watkins high school baseball team! They won section 5A, and will play in the state tournament on Thursday in Jordan. We are hoping they win their first game that day so we can make it down to watch the second game scheduled for 5:30. If they win that game, they get to play in the championship game at Target Field on Saturday! We would definitely go watch that game too, which would mean 2 trips to Target Field for us this week! We are going to the Twins game tomorrow, and praying for no rain! Good Job Eagles and best of luck at STATE!!

Another big congrats goes to the Watkins Clippers amateur baseball team (Noah's team) for getting the bid to host the 2015 MBA State Tournament! They will be building a brand new grand stand, and making numerous updates around the field. The dugouts will be torn down this fall, and there is a lot of work to be done! Cold Spring will be the co-host, and I can't wait!!

That's all in baseball news today! The Clippers are still leading their league, and we're hoping for another state tourney appearance!!

House Update!

Well, it seems that I have gone missing from the blogging world! Ooopsies! I don't think anyone reads this anyways, so no big deal. Just a little house update...

-Marty & Melissa came to our land and helped us clear all the sumac. It looks great! We actually have a yard! It was a lot of work! We just have to go back and move the brush piles sometime soon and we're all set!

-We had the land witched and found a few different spots for our well. It was tons of fun to see that done, as I had never seen it before. It's crazy how some people just have the gift to detect water hundreds of feet below ground!

-I met the septic guy out there last week and we found the most ideal location for our septic. We unfortunately cannot do a gravity system, but no big deal. While up there that day I saw a deer, 2 bunnies, lots of butterflies, and there were 2 bluebirds in the bluebird house!

-Our loan was officially accepted, and we close on it next Wednesday! Yay! We knew that getting approved would be no trouble, but it feels good to know that it's done! Just another thing to check off the long to-do list.

-We have been busy BUYING things! My favorite part! I dreamed of the day we would finally get to go and buy things, instead of just looking. That day is here, and we're gathering a big pile of stuff in our basement. We even have our flooring picked out...5 inch engineered hand-scraped maple. Yummy.

-We are still planning on starting in July. Duane is framing a house in June, which should take 3 weeks (weather permitting) and then we're next on the agenda! Wahoo! It's getting closer and closer, and I have never been so darn excited!

And the Beat Goes On

Things have really been coming together with the house! We are waiting to hear back from the title company whether or not we can start clearing the land. Marty and Chris are coming to help us with that, so hopefully we can do it soon! We are meeting with the granite yard, Brian our drafter, and Duane our GC tomorrow. We will get our final final plans done so they can get to the bank by the end of the month. Once the bank gets them, they will schedule our appraisal the first week of May. Our appraisal will be good for 6 months, so hopefully we don't run into any snags! We are meeting Duane at our land, and will stake off our official house location! No pressure! Once we have that figured out, we can get our septic design, and finally our building permit.

We got the go-ahead to start buying things, so we (I) have been busy looking at EVERYTHING. We're keeping our eyes open for good sales, and figuring out exactly what we need. It's been lots of fun, and I'm really excited to start buying things! If anyone hears about good sales anywhere, let us know! We have most of the big items picked out (sink, faucet, appliances, some lighting) but waiting to buy them on sale. Getting impatient!

On another note, baseball season has started! YAYYYY! Noah is playing for the Watkins Clippers again this year, and we're hoping for another state tourney appearance! They had a great first game, beating St. Nick 13-6. The best part was Noah getting a home-run! He also went 3-6 with an RBI. He did awesome. They have their big home opener on Sunday, and it should be an awesome time. Come to Watkins to see them take on St. Augusta! Free hot-dog, hamburger, or slice of pizza and a drink with each paid admission! They will also be taking DVD footage at the game for their bid to have the state tourney in Watkins in 2013. That would be HUGE! I'm so excited that the season is finally here, and look forward to spending lots of time at the field and with the team! SO much fun.

Other than baseball and house stuff, we don't do a whole lot! A little fishing off the dock, and lots of walks with Harry! We are excited to start building, and look forward to moving into our dream home. I feel like the day will never come, but it will be here before we know it!

Stupendous SUNday!

Yesterday was such a great day! The sun was out, and we had such a fun agenda for the entire day. We started the morning at church, honoring Palm Sunday. Noah was even chosen to be one of the people to walk down the aisle twirling a ribbon in celebration. He did a good job, and I told him he was a very manly ribbon twirler.

After mass we can home and had a quick snack before heading to our next stop, Cabela's. Noah had a gift card to spend there and got lots of fishing stuff and some bow-hunting gloves. I even got myself a new hat! I really wanted to take home a moose, but I guess they aren't for sale. Hah.

As we continued heading south, we stopped in Maple Grove to have some lunch at Olive Garden. MMMmmmm. We filled our bellies and ventured on out. Oh! While at the Garden, I received the news that Nicole had her baby boy! YAY! I'm so excited for her and Ben; they will be amazing parents! Congrats to them!

We arrived downtown mpls with some time to spare before the Suns game, so we checked out Target Field--

It was awesome! I'm so excited to cheer on the Twins this summer in their new home! Here we are in the golden glove--

It was almost time for the doors to open at the Target Center, so we headed up for the game. I was so excited to see my Suns again! I think it's so funny at the Timberwolves games, when there are more Suns jerseys in the crowd than Wolves. Hehe. That's what they get for being a crappy team! They had lost 15 games in a row...would tonight make 16?

We made our way down down down to our awesome seats. Here was our view--

We were even closer than last year! It was a great game, and of course the Suns won. The Wolves had a comeback that made me a bit nervous, but I knew in the end the Suns would take them down. We had lots of fun, and I can't wait to see them again next year! It's gonna be tough to get any closer, but I will try!

Oh Let the SUN-Shine In!!

In three short days I will finally be sitting here:

Eating a hot dog and watching my Suns beat up on the Wolves. I feel like we've had these tickets forever, and I can't believe the weekend is almost here! Now my only dilemma is deciding which Steve Nash jersey to wear. Orange 0r white? Big decision!

UPDATE: An hour after posting this blog I received my NBA top 5 video email. Who was the feature in one of the videos? Steven J. Nash, of course. Top 10 assists, he's ridiculous.

Attack of the Cookie Cutter Houses

Over the past couple weekends, Noah and I toured many houses in the Parade of Homes. I believe we hit 9 different houses, 7 in St. Cloud, and 2 in Buffalo. We went to the houses in Buffalo the first weekend, and had a blast. We got many different ideas, and were so excited to see the St. Cloud ones the following weekend. My excitement was quickly squadooshed.

These houses were horrible! Everything used was builder's grade, and looked like it would fall apart with the touch of a finger. They were, of course, in these huge developments where the only thing that sets your house apart is the number. Sad! I can't believe the prices on them. I feel sorry for anybody who thinks these houses are actually worth that price.

I know not everybody is as lucky as us and can build a custom home, but I highly highly highly (yes, that highly) suggest to anybody looking to buy a house to consider building their own. If not, at least choose a house with some personality and high grade construction! Now, I'm not saying to go buy some huge fancy $500,000 house. But you get the idea. Don't fall for the trap. If you do want to buy one of these cookie cutter houses, please be smart enough to completely low-ball them, for most of these houses aren't worth near what they're asking.

Ok, sorry, I just had to get that off my mind. Oh, and yes, there was one house in St. Cloud that was awesome. And yes, it cost $550,000. But it rocked. Oh, and it was actually in St. Augusta.

The end.

PS- I think we picked our house color...SW Mega Greige. At least that's the choice for this week, I'm sure it will change :)

Blow your Trumpet...

We have made a decision. Like, for real. A decision 4 months in the making. And the final answer is...

Silestone quartz countertops! Wahoooo! We originally went back and forth between granite and quartz. Then we were going between HD laminate and quartz. Well, the common denominator in both scenarios was the quartz, so there you have it! I am probably way more excited than I should be, but a decision made now is one that can be wiped from my boggled, overstuffed mind. We even have a color picked out (Sienna Ridge). Yay us!!

Now on to picking out our final Hardiplank color...argh.

Hi...it's me, laura!!

After over a month of a blogging hiatus, I have returned. We have been super duper busy lately, but hopefully now I should have more time on my hands. I believe this is turning into a house building blog, as we pretty much do nothing else. Here are some of the things we have been up to...

-We had the land surveyed, and found that we will have 17.4 acres. We are so lucky! Don met with the lawyer, and we are in the works of getting our names on the deed.

-We met with our builder on Friday night and got our final cost estimate. I was so nervous! It turned out okay, and with some cuts here and there, I think we can make it work! Step by step we are getting closer to our dream home!

-We spent some time on Sunday afternoon touring a few homes on the Parade of Homes tour. We got some great ideas, and found out that we both agree on what we like and don't like. That will make it much easier once it's time to make our final choices! I am already looking forward to next weekend so we can see some more!

-I spent a lot of time looking at appliances yesterday, and have made our final (well final for now) choices on our fridge, range, micro, and DW. I'm still working on washer and dryer...two things I know nothing about, so will have to do lots and lots of research!

-We are waiting to get the material list from the lumberyard, and need to get the sworn construction statement to the bank before we can move along in the banking process. Once that happens, the fun will begin! At least I HOPE it's FUN!

It has been really stressful, but it will all be worth it in the end. I don't know exactly what the future holds, but I do know one thing...we're going to have a painting party, and would love help from anyone!! Food, drinks, music, and laughs will be supplied!!

SUPERbOWl SUNdAY!!

I sure hope everyone has their meatballs, chips & dip, and cold bevvies ready, because it's GAME DAY! Of course, it would be 10 thousand times more exciting if the Vikes were in it, but oh well. We stocked up on food this morning and I'm sure getting hungry!

Noah and I had the opportunity to do a 3-D walk-through of our house on Friday! It was really cool to see exactly how everything lines up. We couldn't see everything we wanted, but got the main idea. It was especially cool to see the entire outside of the house all the way around.

We finally have our plan finalized, and are now awaiting our estimates from our GC. There are of course little things were are still working on, but all in all our house plan is complete. It's so fun to arrange our furniture on paper and really plan where everything will go! Our goal is to have thanksgiving dinner for our families this year!

Our next step is to find a lawyer and get the land in our name. We need to have the land in our name for at least 6 months prior to closing, so I'm getting ansy to do that! The decision I'm most excited about is our decision to go with 9 foot ceilings on our main floor. We had to cut costs in other places in order to accomplish this, but I think it will be totally worth it!

Ok, enough about the house. Even though that's all we do these days! We are getting (at least I am getting) super duper excited for baseball season, spring fishing, and of course SUMMER! I've had enough of this winter crap! We are supposed to get 9-13 inches of snow during the next 60 hours! ICK! COME ON SUMMER SUN!!!

Homey Home

We just got the first rendering of the outside of our house yesterday! We looooove it! Do you?

RANdOM QUEStiONS...

Would this look good in our mudroom?...

Do you like this flooring?...

And last, but not least-Do you like this window?...(the big one on the left)

That's all for today! Sorry I don't update this blog ever anymore, I'm just a tad bit busy!