Johnson Home of Eastern North Carolina

  I'm being extremely lazy tonight and don't feel much like typing but Brad and I are so proud of the progress so far. Gotta love it when a plan comes together. We look forward to many more wonderful days working with Etheridge Custom Homes.   For your viewing pleasure: A selfie with the freshly dug footings God's Country in the background, y'all. Pouring  Foundation coming together. #buildingonbuckhorn   Some of these pictures were taken by us and others were taking by Willie, our contractor. Check him our on Facebook-- Etheridge Custom Homes.

  I didn't feel it was completely necessary to update over the last two months because all we have done in that time frame is get our money approved and appraisal completed. It took longer than we had anticipated but what hasn't so far??   We feared that appraisal so bad. It was our make or break . It was going to tell us whether we could build this bad boy or wait it out a few more years. We really didn't want to be forced to do the latter since we had already shucked out $2,500 to cover the cost of drafting the floor plans and our various permits needed to get started building. Our contractor, who Brad and I affectionately refer to ask "Big Willie Styles" (A- I do not know why. B- this is a public blog so when he sees it, he will either laugh or be pissed.) had said "if all else fails, you'll just be out a couple thousand dollars." Just? Just?! Every penny we have may as well be gold. One income surely will teach you the value of a hard-earned do...

  Holy wow, this process is crazy! But I will say God works in mysterious ways and the plan you think you have will likely be tossed out the window.    This process isn't any cheaper than it was in the beginning but if we're ever going to do anything with that piece of land we have on Buckhorn Church Road, then we better start making some decisions.    We are so glad that the Lord made us wait before jumping into a decision. We've been known to be so excited about something that we just jump all in. About a month ago we were ready to sign a contract and get the ball rolling. We got a baby-sitter for the night (thanks, Grammy and PaPa) and drove the 20 minutes to this contractor's office with huge grins plastered on our faces. We just knew it was time-- we were going to sign that contract. We pull up into the driveway, wait for 10 minutes since he wasn't there yet, then just as we are about to ring his cell, he comes up and almost driv...

  HAHA! LOL! Teehehe! Bahahaha! LMBO! That's God laughing at our "plan"...  Our plan was to break ground Spring 2014. Umm, Summer 2014 is in about 30 days. So much for that plan.  God knows what we want and though we are being impatient, He has perfect timing. We will get our Forever Home when we are meant to have it.   Got back the numbers from a contractor we really liked... and it wasn't pretty. Way out of our price range. So we've been talking to yet another contractor. He seems very real and is super detailed in his hard estimate. We are waiting for his final number. Fingers crossed he is within our budget.  Mind you our budget has increased twice since we decided to buy land and build a house. We are so far away from what we had planned to spend on a 1600-1700 sq ft house it's not even funny. We honestly can't afford to increase it again. Like I told Brad about our beautiful, cleared one acre of land surrounded by growing corn, "I'm abou...

  I guess you could say I get a little jealous when I see all these awesome DIY projects gone RIGHT. I can't seem to get that to happen to me. I've even given up on Pinterest these days. So many cute ideas... but I lack a creative gene or something. It's super rare when I try to recreate the Pin that it actually comes out half decent.   Below you will find a few of my DIY projects lately. They didn't turn out terrible, I don't think. My motto is "when in doubt, buy some black spray paint." Gold Mirror Gone Black Mirror prepped for spraying End result- I cropped out the table on purpose.  I like the mirror painted black now but it is over a dark brown console table in my foyer and it just doesn't look great together. Whoops. The mirror is heavy and requires a screw in the wall to hang. Since we do not own our current house, I will wait until later to move it elsewhere. The console is a family heirloom in great condition so I dare no...

  Alright, I'm not an idiot but I've quickly learned that building a house is not nearly as easy or as cheap as you'd think. Whatever you have in mind that it will cost to build your home, go ahead and add about 15% more to that. It's ridiculous.   If I've said it a 100 times, I'll say it one more: "it's cheaper to live in a big city". TRUEST STORY I'VE EVER HEARD... or told. Cities have more competition, thus lower prices. Small towns have less to offer but with supply and demand, the prices are cray ! From the cost of gas to groceries to constructing your forever home, you might go broke. Let's not forget that the cost of living is ever-increasing everywhere but the paychecks stay the same.    Now, with all the pissing and moaning out of the way, THIS is what we wanted--  to be home around family and raise our family . I just think we were quite naive about expenses here.    To date we've met with two contractors and with one of th...

 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...