Planners We Are

So remember back when I told you we were going to build a house in two years. Guess what. Two years is only a couple of months away, and build a house we are.

It, of course, is not going to be the one we want. Not in any way, shape, or form. It will, rather, be the one we can afford and scurry about in with our creaky knees when we are old, although I will be the only one with creaky knees I’m pretty sure.

I say it will be the one we can afford because as luck would have it, the house we WANT to build is about 600 square feet smaller than this one. . .and about $30,000-$40,000 more expensive. . .go figure. These home builder people, they like their own plans. And the custom people are very, very kind and have come and sat at our kitchen table and taken careful notes on exactly what we want and how we want it, but their buying power is not as “frugally appropriate” as the larger builder people.

We wanted a two story Victorian Farmhouse with a couple of porches. That is hard to come by for a reasonable price–not that houses are currently reasonably priced–have you PRICED houses lately people???? Oh. My. Goodness. Atleast in our neck of the woods–and we will LITERALLY be in the woods. The one we wanted was 2,300 square feet. The one below is 2,900 square feet. I am aghast even saying it. . .that is a BIG house. . .but if you look below, you will see that the only “wasted” space is in the monstrosity of a master bathroom that will embarass my humble roots for the rest of my life.

Anyway. After MONTHS and WEEKS of talking and looking and planning and getting bids, I give you what my friend Susan calls “The Perfect House.” She used to sell real estate, and she knows her houses. She took one look at our cobbled together plan and wrote comments all over it, and at the top she wrote, “This is the PERFECT house.”

No Kidding.

So. . .I give you the perfect house. Even though it’s not what we wanted.

Allow me to ‘splain a few things. I say this is not what we wanted. . .but it does have all of the ROOMS we wanted. . .the main ones being:

*a dining room large enough to house the table for 10 that my husband INSISTS upon–and you are all invited to dinner ’cause we’ll be able to fit

*a study (also hubby’s request) so there is an actual spot for him/me to grade papers without having to remove everything for dinner–the HUGE size it to match the dining room so as to maintain the symmetry of the front

*a craft room (WITH a closet) for ME, ME, ME so I can sew and scrapbook and not have to remove everything for dinner

*a game room for the children where they can play games and do their thing and not have to remove everything for dinner

*are you noticing a theme here?

*we ended up putting two plans together, because when we went to this particular model home builder place, the look of pride on our son’s face when he went into the door of “his” room and came out the door of the Jack and Jill bathroom into the hallway was beyond price. He was beaming at his cleverness AND the cleverness of whomever designed the Jack and Jill bathroom low these many years ago. Should you care to see the two original plans you may go here and here

*the first plan is called the Victoria–ironic no?

*the second plan is called the Sonora

*we’ve taken to calling our version the Sonoratoria–but I’m hoping it doesn’t stick

*the Sonora is the main part of the house and the Victoria has the bedroom area we wanted to use. You will also see that I finnagled the plans to give me a room and the kids a room and stretched the dining room ’cause Microsoft Paint rocks when it comes to messing with house plans

*the Jack and Jill bathroom and a “game room” will lessen the disappointment (for all of us) at having to sacrifice the window seat and smallish balcony we were planning for the children.

*evidently window seats and smallish balconies run about $15,000-$20,000 apiece

*and lookit. . .a laundry room that no one will need to walk through to enter our home. We have one of those right now. . .it’s called the garage. . .and lookit2 a table on which to FOLD the laundry. . .and lookit3 IT’S BY THE CHILDREN’S ROOMS which may not actually get the clothing into the washer, but it’s a lot shorter distance that I will need to carry it

*the kid’s rooms are “near” us without being TOO near us as they are growing older and getting louder

*either the study or the craft room (or both) could become a bedroom should any of our parents need to live with us in the future

*the game room is CLEAR on the other side of the house so on nights of slumber parties they are atleast 30+ feet away from my bedroom.

*and, as Susan pointed out, the living room does not share a wall with the bedroom, so the chances of the t.v. being heard by me when I want to go to bed is far less

*this house will also have a farm house appearance AND the appearance of dormers on the roof. Alas, it is a great anguish to me that the dormers upstairs will not be used as it costs the SAME $30,000-ish to put stairs in so the game room and craft room can be upstairs with the great dormers. My friend Susan, however, assures me that I will prefer a game room down stairs 30+ feet away from my bedroom as opposed to over the top of my head, so I am choosing to believe her

*I have prayed and prayed that God be in charge of this, and though it’s not what I’ve long dreamed of, it “feels” right, and I’ve learned to trust my feelings some of the time.

So, tomorrow Tony and I will hie ourselves to the available models/speck versions of these houses (without our long suffering children in tow) to measure and walk around and look at the space to make ABSOLUTELY FOR SURE, SURE, SURE before we walk in and ask Dude Man at the home builder place to lay down a bid.

I should have gone to bed two hours ago, but I needed to think this through before we set out, and I figured I might as well drag all of you along.

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And if you care to sign a petition. . .run on over the Rebecca’s blog. She currently homeschools her twin 6 year old girls (who, by the way, think playing chess is cool and were recently amazed to find that soup can come from something other than raw ingredients) and the state in which she resides, California, has just ruled homeschooling illegal. I don’t for one minute think that this will stand, but she’s asking us to sign the petition even if we don’t live there so that the idiots who passed this law will know that we think it’s just ridiculous. And that’s coming from someone who has taught in public schools for quite awhile. And I also find it rather ironic that the granola crunching state of free love would make this issue of personal choice illegal. Go figure.