So part of building a NEW house is the process of dealing with the OLD one: cleaning, updating, marketing and selling. Fortunately for us, we have the good fortune to be able to begin working on the new one before we have to sell the old one. And by "old," I mean the 6000 square foot, constructed in 1930 brick Tudor we currently live in. The same lovely old home that lost half its power yesterday. Brown-out conditions, fading to black, in half our home. Apparently, the underground wires, buried without conduit probably in the 1970's, gave up the ghost around 8:00 a.m. yesterday. Consultations with the power company, life-saving resuscitation by the electrician, and various pow-wows are leading to an expensive conclusion.
I am an optimist. That's a good thing, I think. So wouldn't you rather buy an old house with recently-updated wiring and a new breaker panel? You would, wouldn't you? We'll get our money out of this, right?
We do enjoy the mac and cheese....and ramen....
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
A Little Past the Beginning, but Beginning Nonetheless
So we're really going to do it. We have a beautiful property with the river view we've dreamed of. We have secured financing that, while scary, makes sense for the future. Being married to a financial guy is very helpful in this, believe me.
We have a plan. We love it. There are myriad logistical/governmental/psychological steps to go, but we've hurdled some already. There are requirements for the neigborhood to approve of us, our design visions and process, not to mention city codes.
So why do I feel like this isn't really going to happen? That it seems too unbelievably lucky to get to have the location AND the house for our next 26 years together. I must have some serious societal payback to, well, pay back.
While I'm pondering (and implementing) the "paying it forward" aspect of this project, this construction job will become my full-time job over the next 18 months, and I'm looking forward to it, in addition to being fairly terrified. More than one person has told me about the marital stress we're going to be encountering during this. Really? I hadn't even considered THAT. I thought being worried about the size of the required TV in the rec room was going to be typical of our potential quibbles....
I think we have a good, broad-brush, idea of how we'll divide and conquer the job. We have amazing professionals on board so far. But not a contractor. That will be a long story for later.
Anyway, this is just an introduction to the journey of a family of five, downsizing to their dream home. There will be life tangents on here, so if you're looking for "how to build your dream home" this probably isn't the place.
More later.
We have a plan. We love it. There are myriad logistical/governmental/psychological steps to go, but we've hurdled some already. There are requirements for the neigborhood to approve of us, our design visions and process, not to mention city codes.
So why do I feel like this isn't really going to happen? That it seems too unbelievably lucky to get to have the location AND the house for our next 26 years together. I must have some serious societal payback to, well, pay back.
While I'm pondering (and implementing) the "paying it forward" aspect of this project, this construction job will become my full-time job over the next 18 months, and I'm looking forward to it, in addition to being fairly terrified. More than one person has told me about the marital stress we're going to be encountering during this. Really? I hadn't even considered THAT. I thought being worried about the size of the required TV in the rec room was going to be typical of our potential quibbles....
I think we have a good, broad-brush, idea of how we'll divide and conquer the job. We have amazing professionals on board so far. But not a contractor. That will be a long story for later.
Anyway, this is just an introduction to the journey of a family of five, downsizing to their dream home. There will be life tangents on here, so if you're looking for "how to build your dream home" this probably isn't the place.
More later.
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