Carol and Dick's Easter Visit 2.0

Saturday was a great day. It had been in the upper 60s and lower 70s during the week (and sunny) and I was worried Saturday would be raining per the forecasts earlier in the week.

It wasn't balmy for our 8:15am tee-time, but nonetheless it was nice to get out on the course for the first round of the season.

I started out right with a par on the first hole, and had a pretty decent round (that's relative of course).

It was windy, but Dick and I enjoyed golfing Rum River Hills in Ramsey while Sara and Carol shopped.

After Golf, we all met up back at home for lunch before venturing out to do some house stuff.

We took them to the TJB Model near us on Edison street so they could see a finished TJB product. Carol got lots of ideas for their upcoming remodel. There are some components in that house that will be similar(ish) to what we will have, so it was good to show them a finished house before we went back over to ours.

Jason from TJB lives just a few homes down from the Edison Street model and he was out doing yard work.

While Sara, Carol and Dick went into a next door open house of another builder, I went over and visited with Jason for a while. We dealt a little with him early in the process, but more so with Jereomy then, and Justin and Sherri now. Jason and Justin are both Tom (the owner)'s sons. It was good to catch up with him and let him know where things were at with the house.

After that, we went back over to our house to look around again.

One of the things Sara and Carol looked at this morning were mirrors for the bathroom vanities. We've been trying to figure out whether we wanted to do one big plain mirror in our bathroom, or two mirrors, or maybe two mirrors and a medicine cabinet. Lots of options. They found the two mirrors you see below that seem to be the perfect fit. They are black and will work well over each sink. We'll have a light fixture over each of them, and probably a medicine cabinet in between.



Dick had talked to us about landscaping and wanted to look at where the water is going to run in in and out of the house. His suggestion was to be patient and ask that they not rush into laying cement because there is a lot of settling that the ground still has to do. While that is definitely the case, he was able to show us that the water runs out and then along the property line between us and Tom and Laura. We shouldn't have much trouble based on that with land settling and gathering water where we don't want it to.

These are the pictures of the outside of the house from Saturday afternoon. The stone has definitely lightened up, and we are pretty sure we're happy with the look of the front.





After we left the house, we drove a little further into the neighborhood and showed Carol and Dick the house with the stone that was the inspiration behind what we selected.

We then went over to Village to show them all of the selections from there, and to get the final paperwork from Shelly.

Once again, Shelly was amazing. She stayed with us an hour after she should have closed up and gone home to her family. At Carol's suggestion we made one carpet change, and Shelly helped us out with that. We are also extending the tile up higher in our master shower than we had intended because of a small wall we added.

With the exception of that kitchen back splash and hearth, we are done with the monstrous task of making selections at Village.

Early this week we'll send in the signed documents and they will place all of the orders.

It is going to be another busy week inside the house.

Monday, after TLM makes one change on where they had intended to drill the knob holes, they will drill all of the holes for the knobs and handles and deliver all of the cabinets to the house. Throughout the week, the cabinets will be installed and we should be able to get some great photos as the week progresses.

The trim and interior doors will continue to be installed as well.

We have a few more light fixtures to select and order.

And pretty soon we'll sit down and start designing our stained glass above the doors to the office.

Less than two months now, and we're in the process of finalizing our paperwork for the mortgage. We've learned interesting interpretations recently on mortgage rule, including the consequences had either of our rentals been in the same zip code as the house we are building (consequence = no mortgage). We also received a note from the bank to our surprise telling us that we're in a FEMA designated floor zone and that we need proof of flood insurance before we get the lone. We've being told that isn't the case, so we're hopeful our lender and builder are correct.

Anyway, it was good to catch up on the story of our house. Sara is with some of her B-school colleagues preparing for a group presentation tomorrow night.

We're both excited for her to wrap up with her MBA, which will be just shortly before we close on the new house.

Very exciting next month and a half!