Johnson Home of Eastern North Carolina

 Brad called the Land Records lady about our address. Good thing because she had forgotten. Imagine that! But nevertheless, we have an address now!   I texted Mom to tell her what her future neighbors' address is and she responds with "when are you putting up your mailbox?" Really, mom?? Kinda need the house to at least have some string markings for the foundation, first. Sheesh. She's a little bit excited for us. :)  Got a few other contractor names and have another meeting today for estimate #2. Brad and I have tossed around the idea of subscribing to Angie's List but thought it might not have too many listings for our area being as we are 1- a very rural area, 2- one of the poorest areas in the state, and thus, 3- not many are gonna pay for the Angie's List subscription to write reviews. Or maybe we have the wrong idea about this ol' Angie? Perhaps but still not investing. Word of mouth and physical proof seem to be the best way to go in this small ar...

 Well, we are at a sticking point with these 3 things. Haven't selected floor plans because we haven't talked to enough contractors and don't know if we'll be able to afford the house. Haven't chosen a financial institution because we don't know how much we'll need to borrow as we don't know how much the house will cost to build. Haven't selected a contractor because some institutions only finance NC licensed contractors. Is your head spinning yet? Because mine hasn't stopped... And we're only at the very beginning. Good grief.  We are looking at yet another floor plan because the only contractor we've talked to is about $20,000 more than we want to pay.  One bank has approved us for way more than we want to borrow and another only does 15 year mortgages now. This means a much higher monthly payment. Brad has a point- paying a lower monthly mortgage for a longer period of time means we end up paying $40,000-$60,000 extra for our house i...

  It's good having connections. It's not an abuse of privileges per say but rather a knowledge of how to use those connections. With Brad being an assistant engineer with DOT for the county we are building in, it kinda makes getting your driveway put in done quickly.   We had to purchase our 20 foot pipe from CRMP for about $180 then DOT came and put it in for free-- dirt and all. They would have provided rock too but seeing as it won't be the actual driveway we'll use (using the farm path beside our property as our garage will be side entry. Hard to explain but it makes sense to us...). Brad decided on no rock and to plant grass but DOT used a more silty dirt and we aren't sure how well grass will grow there. :( Maybe we need to ask DOT to come BACK and put down some rock so the dirt won't wash away. I guess it'll always be a "No" if we don't ask. Here are the pics: See farm path to the right.  Not much but you gotta start somewh...

Proverbs 24:27 Do your planning and prepare your fields before building your house. This was in my morning devotional today. How appropriate? We keep getting asked if we've talked to a contractor yet, when are we planning on building, etc. It's borderline annoying but I just keep answering "Not yet. In due time. We are taking things one step at a time. Trying to complete one task before moving to the next." We have a plan or at least an outline of events and we're filling in the blanks as we go along. We are trying to prepare for the ups and downs and unexpectedness of building a house. I mean, we just got the deed to our land last week and we're already experiencing the unexpected. Building a house is stressful. People who have done it say if they had to do it all over, they'd buy a house. That's not very optimistic for us.  We just want to be as prepared as possible as to avoid as many "surprises" as we can. Of course we are in for ...

  After that incredibly awful Broncos defeat last night and all the really mean but "funny" posts all over the Internet, I feel compelled to explain why I am a Peyton Manning fan and not necessarily a Denver Broncos fan.   I grew up in a NASCAR home. You have a favorite driver, not a favorite auto racing team (i.e. Joe Gibbs Racing, Hendrick Motorsports). Well, I guess some people do, but not my family. If our man was out of the race, then moderately pulling for another Richard Childress Racing teammate wasn't totally unheard of.    I was a Dale Earnhardt, Sr. fan… because my dad was. I would spend Sundays watching that black #3 go 'round and 'round those tracks. I guess my "relationship" with the player started at a young age. Watching NASCAR was a way for my dad and I to bond. I did everything I could to learn more about Dale, Sr. (or at that time in the 90s, he was just Earnhardt… Jr. hadn't made his NASCAR debut just yet.) I watched his in...

  Hoping to get the pre-approval paper work flowing next week with one bank. Might try two just to see what's up. With me not working and us on only one steady income, I don't have such good feelings about dem dolla signs the bank will allow us to have. We shall see.    I have family who works "high up" at this bank but doesn't deal directly with family (smart move, bro) so we've been directed to another loan officer. Said family member did let me in on what we need for a preapproval. And holyyyyy smokes, it's a lot of mess.  We need but are not limited to: - driver's license - SSN card - 3 years worth of income tax info - retirement/401k info - current bank account info (ALL accounts) - life insurance info - out-of-pocket health insurance info - 529 monthly contribution info - 3 of the most current pay stubs Good LAWD! It's taken me a few weeks to gather all that information. Whenever I think about searching for it, I get tired and ...

  The deed has been recorded. Playing with lawyers who know your family (because one landowner is your county's tax collector?!) and just consider this a whole "family deal" kinda makes for an easy, but I-don't-feel-taken-seriously affect. The deed was supposedly recorded two Fridays ago but I still can't pull it up on the online Register of Deeds. Maybe another Friday or two and I'll be able to see it. Our survey platt is there, though. That's a good sign, I guess? I loved how our lawyers were pretty much available to take my phone calls all the time but I didn't love how their receptionist/paralegal/legal assistants had no idea how to answer any of my questions. Like none of them. But instead of trying to help me find the correct answer, would just blow me off. Lots of deep breaths and persistence later, I found my answers. SHEWW!   The Land Use Program had some deferred taxes on our acre that we agreed with the landowners that Brad & I would pa...