My Brain is Fried!

Oh my goodness, I have done enough thinking this last week to last me a lifetime:) I am so not used to it. *smile*

With us starting the foundation there has been SOOOO much stuff to do. It's hitting home, realizing that our dream is becoming reality! The prelim stuff was fun, so I can't even begin to imagine how awesome actually building the house will be!! But before it's awesome, it's not so awesome. We've been budgeting and figuring out what we can afford to spend and how to spend what we do have. The Lord has been good and we have been able to pay for everything so far with cash. We are still going to be able to pay for digging the footers and some miscellaneous things with cash, which is a huge blessing and will be so great for when we switch from the construction loan to an actual mortgage. I finally broke down and bought Quicken to help us become more streamlined in our actual spending/saving. I am SOOO glad I did that. Before, most of our budgeting was done on paper and that was SUCH a headache!! But now, all I have to do is input our debits and deposits and it automatically budgets what we spend in what category...pretty amazing:)

Wow, looking at that last paragraph, that was sooo boring! I know you ain't reading this blog for financial advice. I mean, come on. We just took out a huge loan, why would you want advice from us? HAHA! :) Well, back to the non awesome stuff:

Back to the budget. Paul and I have been wrestling back and forth about if he needs help with the framing and if it's money worth. To be honest, with one man doing the framing (which is totally possible), it would take 2 to 3 months to roof in. Paul has this awesome friend in Florida who has promised before we even got the loan to come and help him in the framing. (Tim, you're amazing!) But literally, we don't have the tools or the manpower to finish it in less than 6 weeks. I know, you're probably thinking, "Well, that's not too long". But here's the deal:

The block will be done in the third week of this month. We are going to be letting the foundation settle for three weeks. That brings us to the middle of September before we begin the framing. And here's the kicker. Mack Brame, our Septic guy, needs to put the septic system in before the middle of October (or the ground will be too hard and he won't be able to dig). So, there. Gotta have the framing done by the beginning of Oct.

If it wasn't for that, I would have won the argument and just have Paul and Tim doing the framing. But Paul made that very good point and I lost! :) hehe. Oh well. I am kinda happy that it's gonna be done sooner (if not cheaper). But, we believe that the Lord has already supplied the money for the extra framer!

So, Paul called Tim in FL. Tim gave us the brilliant idea to ask Paul's fomer boss in FL to see if he might be able to come up for two weeks and help him frame. Besides the expertise he would bring, he would also bring all his tools (hence saving thousands of dollars of tool buying). So...Paul called Bro. Mike Mueller. You want to know what's so cool. Mike Mueller's brother, Rob, is the one doing our foundation work! Small world:) Anyways, Mike was very open to the idea and gave us a really great bid for the job. And of course, I wasn't happy enough with the one bid, so I begged Paul to call some local framers to see what their quotes were. That was pointless...they were all much higher. But one good thing came of it.

When Paul explained to one of the framers that he would be using 2x12s to frame up the floor trusses, the guy opened up the option of using TJI's instead. Now TJI stands for "Tru Joist something". I don't know what the "I" stands for. oh well. But it's basically an engineered floor truss system. It's straighter than 2x12s; it needs less concrete, block, nails and labor to install; and it has a 30 year warranty against squeaking! This was a no brainer for us. And the cost will even out considering what we don't have to use to install it. Does that make sense? Hope so. :)

"Thank you, Mr. Framer, for the excellent piece of advice." This, people, always goes to show you that it's never too late to ask for advice. Or to take advice even when it's not been asked for. There is always somebody smarter than you! lol

So, where was I? Oh, yes. getting framer quotes. My dear mother told us of an Amish lumber company in Crofton, KY (where our house is being built). So, today my hubby, kids and I decided to check it out. There was an Amish framer involved so, what the hey! We drove out into beautiful country and there against gorgeous field and woods backdrop is the company. It definitely looked out of place. :) We drove back there and there were all our soon to be Amish neighbors working so hard to make lumber. It smelled amazing!! Love the smell of newly made wood. May be my new favorite scent. Somebody make a new candle or something! Well, Paul went inside and I decided to brave staying in the van with the kiddos. Little did I know that two hours later my hubsters would still be in there! So after an hour and a half of good chillins and thirty minutes of crying chillins, we went in. And found out a big shocker: it turned out that our lumber company that we were going to be using went bankrupt!! And we didn't even know! Yikes!! So, we found our new lumber company:) The Lord knew:) As always!

After the two hours there (Paul going over our plans and specifications with the owner) we went and picked up all the food for the lunches I am going to be making the men who are doing our foundation.
Paul and I decided on a few things that hopefully I will post later (because we still have to talk to the peeps involved) and came up with the money we needed to make it happen. So, that, people, is how I have lost several million brain cells. Too much thinking. Some not so awesome stuff happening (coming up with more money; lumber company shutting down) to some pretty awesome stuff (the Lord providing ways for more money; and a new, less expensive lumber company). Why do we not even trust the Lord...He works everything out. Now, please remind me of this tomorrow and the next day and the rest of the year when there are other things that go wrong:)!!!

Tomorrow we are squaring up where we are going to be putting the house. Pray all goes well. I'll be taking pics and posting! Yay! And I'll be posting some more idea pictures...just can't help it:)

Btw, the RED SIDING WON!!!! YES! I was hoping it would:) That's what we'll be using! Thank you for voting:) Now, please vote in this next poll. Even though we won't be finishing the upstairs until a few years down the road, we still have to know where we will put which rooms and what kind of rooms to have (for plumbing and electricity sake). So, help me, please:) :) :)

On to build,

Rachael