Draft House Plans!!

Here it is! Our dream house!

This is the front elevation of the house we hope to build! Our designer, Holly, has been so great to work with. She took our ideas and made them real for us. Of course, being the detail-oriented engineers we are, we've been tweeking the plans. The really exciting part is I know we are going to be thrilled with the end result.

We are currently awaiting estimates from a builder to see where we stand in reference to our budget. Keep your fingers crossed that we don't have to go back to the drawing board altogether!

~LK

More land clearing snip-its...

Pink sky at night...our view due west (towards the road)

These photos are from three other days we worked on the land in December and early January. Our last day out on the land was 1/4/09. Since we're having an "old fashioned" winter around here with consistent cold and snowy weather, the snow has taken over -- and we have to do all snowmobiling we can while the conditions permit! Wanted to share these photos...perhaps our last until spring!

This one is of Keith wrestling some vines out of our trees...



Steve and I joined in the fight...and as you can see, the vines nearly won!



Never underestimate the ingenuity of a German...especially George Krug! When he couldn't get the brush to burn as well as he hoped he brought out all the stops. His 'fire-building supplies' included some standards like kindling (dried all week in the basement) and newspaper...and some specialty items you don't normally find in use on a vacant lot in the middle of 80 acres like a fan! Yup! He wired up a small fan to a car battery so he could get enough air on his fire! Now that's determination! :) Our future neighbor, Chuck, also lent a hand to get the fire going. If you aren't handy enough to wire up a fan, a leaf blower will do in a pinch!



George is also known for his unique attention to detail. Along with "Bucky", our very own deer who guards the property when we aren't there, he brought us a sign to point the way to our future home. Nice touch!

There are so many neat things about our land. For one, a friend and former colleague, Rita Markel and her husband Lew live about 1 mile away! Another excellent feature is the undeveloped park we have just a few hundreds yards away. It's called Hunters Creek park and it's known by the locals as a great place for hiking, cross country skiing (although not for the faint of heart), mountain biking and just enjoying nature. On January 4th Rita and I ventured into the park to check it out. She and Lew have logged many miles in there but it was my first time in. This is a photo from the trail we hiked. It is BEAUTIFUL in the park - breathtaking even! I feel so fortunate to have something like this just steps from our home. I can't wait to check out more of it! You can find out more about our park and view a map at http://www.hunters-creek.org/.

~LK

Welcome 2009!

Well hello and Happy New Year! I'm long over due for an update, I know.

Since my last post in November we've worked at the land a few more weekends, but the work has drastically slowed since the snow got to about knee deep. Then the holidays came along and we kicked into high gear with all the shopping, baking, cleaning, wrapping, etc...glad all that's done for another year!

Since my last post we've had our most exciting update so far. We received the first draft of our house plans from our designer - Holly - on 12.6.08! Keith had to pick them up from her because I don't know if I could have contained my excitement and waited until I saw him to look at them! We poured over the plans the first night and spent a few days after reviewing her rendition of our dream home. Her first pass was exceptionally on-target, a welcome step forward!

We faxed the plans to my Dad for comments and Dad K and Mom K put their two cents in too. Now we're waiting on draft #2 to come back for review. Although we would love to build exactly what she drew the first time around (especially "her" closet!), it is certainly well beyond our budget. It was basically back to the drawing board for the 2nd floor but the 1st floor was nearly perfect!! She even included 3D images of both floors so we could get a realistic sense of the space. VERY NICE!

On New Year's Eve we visited our first kitchen store! Honestly, I was not looking forward to this step. Hubby and I have such different decision-making styles that the idea that housebuilding is the 'true test' of a marriage is likely to be borne out in the decisions regarding door hinges and what color to paint the laundry room [yep, he will care!]. Being one of my favorite rooms in the house, I was feeling a bit territorial about the kitchen design -- not a good place to start from! :) Any way, all that aside, it was a really fun trip. We kept ourselves in the stock (vs. semi and full custom) area of the store and narrowed it down to one door style and our top 2 counter-top finishes! We even agreed on the stain and wood color --- AMAZING and yet another good omen. Next step for this milestone -- meeting with the kitchen designer to lay out the detailed kitchen plan. FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stay tuned...once we get draft 2 I will post a few images of the plan. I know...the nerve to make you wait! Don't worry, it will be worth it [be sure to remind me of that as we get down the road a bit with this project!].

~LK