Floor Plans

I thought that I'd dropped everything off at the house (vintage - bday gifts) but just the table got left there. I forgot. I was worried about the cabinets and hamper getting wrecked when there's so much going on there. And with all the clutter (junk-picking stuff & Mark's work materials) in the basement. So I was able to take a few pictures today.

I've gotta tell you, this whole house thing is so much fun! It's been so relaxing & exciting all at the same time. I can't explain it. I thought I'd be all frazzled by this point - especially when the floor plan keeps getting changed - but even that's been fun! I feel so relaxed about the whole process - probably because I trust Mark one-hundred percent.

I forgot to mention before, that there is no real floor plan. No blueprints or anything. He made a couple of sketches when we first were talking about this house, last summer. But he didn't use any of them for building or anything. I found that out, this weekend, when we were changing the floor plan again and I wanted to look at it (the paper), for a visual. He said there isn't one. I'm so confused. How do you build a house without a floor plan?! Lol. I'm such a 'visual-learning' type person that I still have to look at those sketches just to have an idea of things. And he didn't have them. So, we just started laying scraps of board on the floor for markers.

Toivs (his brother Hans) is going to do the wiring soon. So now we're trying to figure out where to put lights. I know it sounds *stupid* - but even that's exciting! :) Lol.

For anyone to understand how exciting this is to us, I'd like to tell you. Many people I know would never want to talk about finances. - I would never want to talk about specifics but I have no problem telling you that we've had financial struggles and we're still trying to land on our feet. We racked up a substantial amount of debt when we were first married.

Let's say, we shouldn't have gone to Hawaii for our honeymoon - but we SURE don't regret it either! :) And Mark's had to put a ton of money into his business (anyone who may not know - he's a self-employed builder). And we ended up moving several times - which set us back every time. We went through many years of being behind on the bills. And because he's self-employed we have rarely had health insurance. That means, we just finished paying for Aapo. Good thing we love him so much and would never want to return him...well, almost never. Lol. ;) Mark has worked so hard for the past six years. It's been 'hard' for both of us at times. But I'm not writing all this to say "woe is me" because everyone has their trials. I'm telling you - just so you can understand exactly HOW exciting this house is to us.

We are finally getting in a place of our own. We didn't have all our ducks-in-a-row. We didn't have money to put down. We have a loan. Mark's doing all the labor. Mark's making the lumber. Our doors are from junk-picking. Many of the windows we have were bargains from Menards or from jobs Mark has worked on (Thank you to those!). And we're so grateful. Some year, down the road, we'll get all of the windows that we'd like to have on our house.

I'm also glad because my "style" just so happens to fit our budget! Like the doors, for example, I want mismatched doors. I want them to look shabby-chic - so mismatched it is. And free, they are. They'll all be the same color. This house is a huge deal for us. I'm not saying that it's not for anyone else - because I know everyone is excited to be in a home of their own! I wanted you to know why we're so excited about ours!