Country Mouse, City Mouse.

So I grew up in the country. Our house was approximately 8 miles from Hometown, basically out in the sticks. I hated it more than anything while growing up, but now I can appreciate it.

Tonight, on the way to stalk our new house, I took the "country" roads and saw hundreds of lightning bugs. I adore lightning bugs. I was never one to catch them in a mason jar, because I thought that was mean. I have always preferred to see them out, in the air, lighting up, the way they're supposed to.

I like where our new house will be. In one direction, you can go back toward civilization, to Charlotte. In a couple of other directions, it's pretty remote. To the point you're not sure those living there have teeth or running water at home. But then a mile later, there's a Walgreens. It's weird. But I love it.

So the result of tonight's stalking trip...

Holy crap!! It's going up FAST!!

It's got good bones.

Soooo. The pins came out. Holy balls. It was awful. There's a video of it on YouTube, courtesy of Bob. I haven't watched it yet, but I sent it to a guy friend today who proclaimed, "That's some seriously awesome shit!" So naturally, I can't wait to watch it... Not. But my foot is somewhat healed. The bones are where they're supposed to be, leaning the direction they were meant to, and I don't have permanent metal keeping them that way (unlike my right foot).

Now I'm stuck nursing a dried, cracked, swollen, oozy foot. You barf yet? Yeah. I have. My foot is that gross. Bleh. This poor mangled thing is in need of some serious attention, which I am happy to give, especially considering Bob left again today to go back to training. Boo. And again, if you're reading this and you need this surgery, let me know if you wanna see pics. I have weekly updates from both surgeries.

I actually have a pretty exciting weekend planned, and I'm already looking forward to it. A friend from work is hosting a Thirty-One party, which appears to be right up my alley. I also have shopping planned with my girls... One girl is going shoe shopping with me to find shoes that I can actually wear (starting next week!!). The other girlfriend is house accessory/furniture shopping with me. She just moved into a new house and we'll be in ours soon. Hopefully. I'm going to go ahead and start sale shopping for accessories so I don't have to purchase everything at once. It'll be bad enough with all the furniture we have to buy...

Speaking of houses... ours was framed today! We have vertical boards that resemble the walls. WOO HOO!!!!!

 

Sadly, our friends are already picking out "their" bedrooms. And even worse, they will each have their own. We may have picked a floor plan much too large for the two of us. Oh well. Guess we'll need to start having some babies to fill all those bedrooms. 

On the mend. Ish.

So I went back to the doctor yesterday to have my stitches removed. The nurse removing them was very lucky she didn't get punched. After surgery, once the stitches were put in, they covered my foot in some sort of surgical tape. In my brain, I thought she would remove that tape and then cut the stitches out one by one. Ooooohhhhh no.... She snipped the knots off either end and yanked them out. Sweet baby Jesus. I had NO idea she was going to do that. However, that pain only last about an hour. Whew. So now, I don't feel the stitches anymore... only the 4 pins sticking out of my foot.

So anyway. Bob is out of town for another 6 weeks or so. It pretty much sucks. Hopefully I'll be able to see him in a couple of weeks, but that's no guarantee. It's kinda like he's deployed, but still on American soil, which is weird but awesome at the same time.

Tomorrow I get to meet with our builder! Yay! Once I meet with him, they pour the foundation, and then we are scheduled to start framing on June 10. Woo hoo. I'm so ready for this new house. Our lives have been full speed ahead for the last two years and it's all about to go faster once the house is done. We're discussing furniture, paint colors, landscaping, and babies. So many decisions, so little time.

Sleepy decisions.

So. The last couple of weeks have been a blur. I've been super busy and having some strange health issues. Pretty much when I'm not working, I'm sleeping. It's weird. But pretty awesome at the same time. I do love me some sleep.

Anyway. My trip home was amazing. I was able to relax, hang out, and spend time with my family. Being stuck out here in NC with no family and very few friends makes Hometown that much more special. Dad's birthday went well. We just took him to lunch and gave him his gift... The Rusty Wallace Experience at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. He'll get to go to "race class" and then drive a race car for 10 laps around the track. I'm pretty sure he'll enjoy it when he actually finds time to come to Charlotte!

We're moving forward on the house front... both of them. We're having wood floors installed in our current house on Monday. Last week, we went and picked out all the stuff for the new house. If that wasn't 8 hours of hell, I don't know what is. OMG. It was brutal. Horrible. Ridiculous. Not that Bob and I argued that much, just the lady helping us was utterly unprepared for our appointment. But we got through it. And our house is designed. They should start the building process in the next few weeks, then it'll take 10 weeks to build. Woo hoo! I'm pretty pumped.

Anyway. Now we're caught up. It'll probably be another two weeks, especially if I continue my current sleeping patterns.

SOLD!

In my current world, with little to no carpet in the downstairs and a torn up, grassless yard, this particular grassless yard makes me happy happy happy.

It's the site of our future home. With a sold sign on the lot. Holy balls.

I used to love trees...

If you're interested, I'm currently blogging live from a dismantled living room. I am just about sick of having a disheveled house and parts that are off limits.

Yesterday, they came and ripped up all the affected carpet. They'll be back later this week or next to remove ALL the carpet from downstairs and start taking down walls. They're going to cut the drywall out around the bottom of ALL the walls of the bathroom, since sewer water flowed under and through them all. This means that we will get the "open concept" we wanted in a house. Ha. We currently have FOUR dehumidifiers running to try to dry the walls out before removal. This makes it hard for me to stay awake downstairs. I have to sleep with white noise at night, and with 4 machines running, it's like sleepy time city, baby. 

The start of "the dig." I feel like it's an archaeological site. Like we built on sacred Indian burial ground (a la Poltergeist) and that's why we have such ridiculous things wrong with this house. See all those roots?! This is the neighbors pipe... (and a peek at my new car in the background :)

And we won't even call this a "root".... This is our sewer pipe. With a freaking tree growing out of it. Nice, huh? 5 feet long. Ridiculous.

The neighbors pipe below... which water is SUPPOSED to run through that. Turns out, about 6 units on our side of the street have been replaced as of today. They all looked just as bad or worse than ours. But of course, ours was the only one to back up into the house. On one hand, I'm thankful that we can spare someone else the headache of a sewer back up, but at the same time, damn it, why couldn't someone else be teaching this damn lesson! Gah!

So needless to say, every single damn water pipe on our new property will be clearly marked before I start planting trees. I may even have a locator come out and find the pipes as I'm digging holes for trees. I think I'll give myself a 20 foot radius in which no rooted plants will be planted. That should be good, right?

Sadie Green.

So. My most favorite-est great aunt's name was Sara Green. She never had children, so my Mom kinda became her surrogate child since my grandparents worked non-stop 24/7. When I came along, naturally I became her baby too. I really can't put into words what she meant to me. She was just the perfect aunt.

When I was growing up, her house was just magical. She had a wall of all our photographs, from her great-grandparents down to me and BL, all her siblings, all their kids, all the cousins, everyone, and most in black and white. She also hung lots of random things, one of which was sheet music from the song Sadie Green: The Vamp of New Orleans. It's not the most flattering song in the world, but it was special. One of her nicknames was Sadie, she adored New Orleans, and it fit her wild child personality pretty well.

Anyway. When she passed away, one of my great uncles snagged it off her wall before I could get there. I've been searching for this sheet music for YEARS, specifically since she passed away in 2007. And tonight, I WON IT ON EBAY! Omg.

I can't wait to mat and frame it and hang it our new house!!

Green monster.

Holy crap. See that bright green spot on the right middle side? That's where our house is gonna be! Squeeeee!

Lot 47.

Please allow me to introduce you to Lot 47. And the house directly behind it. I'm not entirely certain why it's been painted green, but I really don't care as long I get a house there.

I don't think I told ya'll about where this house is located. Ever hear of Heritage USA? Well... It was a massive Christian theme/water/amusement park built by the Bakkers in the late 70's. I'd never heard of it before moving to Charlotte, but apparently (according to wiki) it was a top tourist destination in the 80's. It was this ridiculously huge compound. People bought timeshares and condos. There was a full working castle, a farm, a pyramid, a barn, and an amphitheater.

Once the Bakkers went bust, the land was sold off. All that remains of the compound are a high rise tower, which is part condos, part hotel, part offices, and part who knows what else, the castle still stands, but the amphitheater was torn down about a month ago. There is still a campground, but I'm not sure if it's the original or not, and also some sort of religious group/news station headquartered there.

I feel a little weird living there. Kinda like we're building on an ancient burial ground (a la Poltergeist). It's just a little strange when you actually stop and think about it. Supposedly millions of people visited this place. It's just odd that it's 95% neighborhoods now.

Anyhoo. We are still waiting on our appointment to go to "showroom," which is where we pick out EVERY GD THING. The exterior (colors, materials, design), the inside (colors, cabinets, countertops, floors, stair rail, door handles...), and we choose the landscaping as well. Holy balls. My head is already about to explode and we haven't been there yet. Bob isn't the best decision maker, so I've been trying to pick stuff out and agree with him on stuff beforehand. Once we go to showroom, we have three days to change our minds about anything. After three days, it's $500 per change. WTF? Yeah. So we won't be making changes. Bob might stroke out.

 

So one day this fall, this lot will have a house on it. Balls. 

Sofas, tables, and chairs, OH MY!

So. All the paperwork is done. We're building a freaking house. OMG. It's sinking in. We have to furnish approximately 3,000+ square feet of home. Bob is scared shitless. And rightfully so. I already have a Pinterest board for the furniture we'll need. I keep hinting we don't just need a construction loan, but a furniture loan also. He's not buying it. And by not buying it, I mean the part about the loan. He's gonna be buying furniture though. Lots. So much so that I'm trying to talk him into renting a storage unit so we can start buying now as stuff goes on sale.

Think happy furniture buying thoughts for us (me)!

Houses and bugs.

Sooo. I've been absent for a while. And it's going to get worse.

Bob and I have been so busy. He had this weekend off (his only one for months and months) so we celebrated with a crawfish boil and a new house. WHAT!?! Yep. You read that correctly. We had crawfish shipped in from Louisiana and had an amazing boil Friday night. It was super awesome and Bob did a phenomenal job with the mudbugs. Tonight, we had andouille and crawfish etouffee. Whew. It was superb.

Now, about the other thing... SQUEEEE! We've been looking at houses for several weeks now. We'd seen a couple we liked, but none we just had to have. So, next best thing? Build your own. So this afternoon, we bought a lot in Fort Mill, SC, and we start construction as soon as all the 9,000 pieces of paperwork go through. Holy crap.

It's going to be huge for the two of us (we're planning ahead), but it's going to be perfect. We get to pick every single detail out and I'm so excited about that! Hank and Jack are going to have more room than they know what to do with, and all our close friends and family will each have their own dedicated bedroom (until the babies come). Squeeeeeee!!

So about my absenteeism... This will probably turn into a house blog, because I'll be bitching about all the house details. But maybe not. Stay tuned and find out.