Happy New Year!!

Much will occur in the upcoming months. Much building, much drawing, much painting, much imagining. Hopefully, by the early fall, most of those things will be done and we will just be able to move in. Of course the thought of moving again makes me feel woozy. The thought of a new house is the cure for what ails me.

We have now closed on our loan. All the money is supposed to be in place and it will quickly be a reality that we will have to start making payments on our masterpiece. For all the sucky things about apartment living it is cheaper and a little more worry-free. But, there's nothing like living in your own house. We have missed it these past 9 months.

Pictures will be forthcoming very soon. We hope to have an actual groundbreaking ceremony with everything but silver shovels. Stay tuned.....it's about to get interesting!

House Plans Coming Together - Now in 3D!

We have been so busy after closing on the property figuring a way to make this whole process get jump started. We've finally had a breakthrough! We now have a new builder - Clyde Rector with Century Builders! He is EarthCraft certified and has been in business for over 30 years. We met Clyde through my aunt and uncle and are excited to get started. We expect to sign a contract next week, but due to Clyde's schedule, we won't break ground until after the first of the year.

Funny story - today, we got a letter from the City of Greenville that we are in violation of city ordinance by not cutting our grass! I guess we should be happy that we actually own grass now, or at least weeds!

Until there are studs and drywall, there are more images to show you. We talked to Pella Windows a few weeks ago about a possible publicity opportunity for us because we are using their Pella Impervia fiberglass windows. They are issuing a press release soon with some possible images. The images they are choosing from are below. We will post again once the article is released.

Land Barons

Sorry there have been no updates lately, but there really has been no updates lately. We closed on our property yesterday so we are now part of the landed gentry of the City of Greenville! We are still waiting to build until we figure out a) which contractor to use, b) how exactly to finance it, and c) when to start. The good news though is that we got notice yesterday that our rent on our apartment will not go up if we decide to renew our lease soon. We hoped to be out in January, but my current estimate involves us probably being finished around late spring, early summer 2007. Stay tuned for more soon!

Info About the Site

We've shown what the building is going to look like, but what about the property itself? We found a fairly good-sized lot (about 3/10's of an acre) near downtown Greenville which was leftover after a redevelopment neighborhood was created called Viola. The only drawback is it's very long and skinny. Not a problem though for two architects! As hot as intown living is in Greenville, we couldn't pass it up. To the side is the entrance to the Viola neighborhood. Our property is to the right of the sign. Below is a map of the area, a view of the property from the street, and the view of Greenville from the back of the property. The view will be even better when we are looking from the second floor. More to come!

Project Starting Soon

Lura and I have been planning and preparing and the beginning will soon be near. We are finalizing financing, permitting, etc. before building begins. Check back for updates in the near future! In the meantime, before there is a building, as any architect will tell you, there has to be some drawings, so ponder on these little beauties.