Johnson Home of Eastern North Carolina

Clearly you need to start somewhere and that somewhere should be with buying some land. I never thought I'd move home to Hertford County but after having a baby and plenty of nieces and nephews, our views changed and "Family" became a huge part of our lives. Moving home became our obsession. When the baby was just one month old, we began exploring our "move home" options. First, we needed a reason other than family… like say, a job. After lots of research, several job applications, a few let-downs, the Good Lord answered our prayers and a job opportunity Brad had previously been rejected from became available again. He got it! We had one month to move home before he started working with DOT. For two months and our stuff in 5 different houses, we lived upstairs at my parents' house. Finally we moved into some new digs at Brad's grandmother's house. We have truly been blessed by God to have such amazing family.  Without them we wouldn't have any ...

Some Tips and Forget-Me-Nots for Along the Way Take your budget (what you know you can actually afford) and times is by 0.9. This lower amount should be your new budget. Try to stick with that number along the way as it is incredibly common to go over the budget! So when you DO go over the budget, it won't come as such a shock because you can still afford it. Plus, if you don't go over your budget then it'll be an even sweeter reward in the end. Pick paint colors, lighting, interior/exterior/cabinet doors, flooring, etc. ahead of time so when you need it, you can easily go buy it and not have to stress over all the choices. It can be overwhelming (I'm speaking from our past situation.). To add character to your new construction home, look for light fixtures at Habitat for Humanity or yard sales that you can buy and repaint. Same goes for furniture and even possibly, faucets or appliances. Think about adding Sweat Equity into your home. Do all the painting (you...

  I'm not at all sure if anyone will actually read this or even get anything from it but I feel like maybe blogging about our experience with home-building will help us through it. From what I've heard some people wouldn't wish this experience on their worst enemy. Oh, that's awesome…    We've done this once before; however, it was a custom, pick-your-plan thing. We chose the floor plan we liked, the colors we wanted, changed the layout so we had a side-entry garage and that's about it. It was quite simple. The only other thing we did was ask if we could come in on a weekend and insulate the interior walls and the garage for additional sound proofing and, for a more obvious reason, the electricity bill.    This go-round we want to be more involved. Not as in "I'll be the general contractor, you do the work" kind of involved but know what's going on and add our own bit of sweat equity along the away.   With me not working (for reasons that we...

I had to make a change. This cleaning one day a week was for the birds! I absolutely despise cleaning the bathroom. Although it is my least favorite chore, you can bet your sweet hinny that it does get done. But with us living in a home with one and a half baths that run into one another, it makes for a lot of flooring to be swept then mopped. I think I dislike that the most.  Before I had baby boy, I saw on Pinterest (go figure) that the best way to make sure your home is clean and not having to sacrifice an entire day to do it is to put aside 15-20 minutes of intense cleaning a day. So I did. I loved it! Then the baby was born. I felt I had no time (or desire) to clean. Then we moved home. Moved in with my parents. Then moved again to where we are now. Needless to say, my cleaning schedule got Gone With the Wind.  With the inspiration from a few friends on Facebook, I Pinterested a new cleaning schedule that I edited to fit me! Here it is. I put it in a plastic...

Ingredients: 2 chicken breasts or 4 tenderloins 1/2 cup of packed light brown sugar 1/3 cup of reduced sodium soy sauce 1 cup of pineapple juice (or canned pineapple fruit… see below) 1 clove of garlic OPTIONAL Just throw it all in the crockpot and turn it on 8 hours low or 4 hours high.  Instead of just pineapple juice, I buy canned pineapple rings or bits. Pour a cup (give or take) of the juice in the crockpot then add a few pieces of pineapple. These taste amazing when it's ready. One of the easiest recipes I know. Plus, it's in the CROCKPOT! Not much easier than that. Enjoy!

Grease Monkey! Raise your hand if you're guilty of draining ground beef right down the sink drain. Shame on you! Just kidding, we've all done it.  My husband is a civil engineer but he does have a concentration in environmental engineering and he has spent a fair amount of time down in man holes for work. He said you would be so grossed out by what you see down there-- what people flush and rinse down drains. I don't even want to know. I do know this: there's a reason why your town/city instruct you not to pour grease down drain. It's bad for the environment and your home's drain. So after years of trial and error, I've found the best way (for me) to drain ground beef and dispose of it… and it doesn't involve me sliding on my flops and trekking out to the edge of the field in the middle of the dark night to pour it out either. Some suggest draining in aluminum foil bowls then letting it sit overnight to congeal. I used to do that bu...

Fruit Flies Suck I cannot figure out why those tiny flying annoyances are still around in the middle of autumn but they are. I even quit buying bananas because I store mine on the counter and not in the fridge like some do. Those little flying bastards were everywhere… including on and around the baby's clean sippy cups, spoons, and pi-pis. Not cool. First I tried the banana peel in a bowl with plastic wrap covering the top, poked full of holes. That seemed to trap them but then when it came time to empty the bowl due to the rotting banana peel, I had no choice but to take it outside and "free" them.  More research led me to discover, YET AGAIN, the power of VINEGAR!! Here goes: - a plastic cup - dish detergent - vinegar (I had success with red wine and distilled) Squirt a small amount of dish soap into the cup, pour in about 1/4 cup of vinegar in the cup, then add in tap water quickly so it produces lots of bubbles. Sit the cup in a high-traffic ...