More Land

We looked at more land today - lower price point than the first property we looked at (and blogged about here) so I was crossing my fingers it would appeal to us. It was nice, sloped but not too bad, 1.5 acres nicely squared so fencing it wouldn't be weird or difficult. But it was off a busy road so there was a bit of road noise and it was giving off a weird chemical smell. The real draw back for this property though was the particular path we'd need to take to get from there to work every day.

Pretty scenery - but not the property for us.

In the end after weighing pros and cons we opted to pass on it. I hope to do some homework on two properties we have at the top of the short list to figure some things out. No rush though. Still not planning on purchasing anything till next spring at the earliest.

Giving Thanks

Today is Thanksgiving - a day set aside to give thanks for the good things in our lives. We have friends, we have family, we both have jobs, we have a roof over our heads, and warm food in our bellies. And of course we have the girls. It's been a while since we've had a photo dump of them on this blog so without further ado.... crazy puppy time.

Sadie gets some air going after her ball. Mad skills.

Violet loves to get in on the action. She doesn't care about the ball so much. She cares about running with Sadie. That's the game for her.

So happy ♥

Love this picture. So full of joy.

And lastly, a little video. We got the girls a plastic egg toy and Sadie thinks it's the best thing since sliced bread. Violet was too busy eating grass like a little moo cow to be bothered playing with it.

House Plans

We are currently talking with a design/build company located in Seattle to talk numbers and figure out if our desire to build is feasible for us. Our budget isn't the largest out there but they are willing to work with us to see if this is in the cards for us.

One option is to find some floor plans I like and just have them modify them to suit our land and build codes - that would save money on the design and put that money back into the build part. And that works perfectly for us because I think I know what I like and want.

The tweaks for us would involve:

• No sun deck or covered porch
• The upstairs would be a simple open loft. No bedrooms or bathroom. It would be a bonus space which is exactly what we need.

So keeping in mind the above changes, here are some photos of a house built with this floor plan as shown on Linwood Home's website.

Front of house - entry way

Back of house - we would not have the basement space as shown here.

Living room space - open floor concept. The 2nd floor would be an open loft bonus space.

Kitchen



So that's where we are. Still researching, still planning, nothing set in stone and no decisions made.  We will have a meeting with the design/build company now that I have sent her this floor plan and hear what she has to say and we'll find out if this is all a pipe dream or if it might be possible for us to do this.