Worst Case Scenario

A few days ago I was watching a sport's psychologist talk about how to build confidence in our kids and one of the things he suggested was teaching them to plan for failure. We won't always succeed and things will not always go perfectly, so if we have a plan for how we will deal with failure then we will not be devastated when it happens and we will be able to jump into action.

 But when you have an over active imagination, like I do, your imagined failures are pretty dramatic.

For example:

Yesterday we had the four way inspection at our house, the four way is the big inspection before they start hanging drywall and finishing the exterior to make sure the plumbing, electrical, HVAC, and structure are all up to code. I was charged with sitting there while the inspector did his thing.

I was a huge ball of nerves, so I did what had been suggested, I came up with a way to deal with what I imagined would be the worst case. It went something like this:

Inspector: I am done with my inspection and I have some bad news. This house has so many problems and honestly there is no way to fix  some of them. I am afraid this house will never pass inspection so the best thing for you to do is burn it to the ground, try to collect the insurance money, and start from scratch.

(How decided I would respond): Do you have a match?

See, no good.

And although the house didn't pass inspection, and we have two pages of things that need to be fixed, at least they can be fixed and I am not left standing there with a burnt match watching my dreams go up in smoke.

So maybe there is something to this after all.

And now some pictures of the house (remember last month when it was just a hole in the ground?):

Life is Messy

Right now I am sitting on the floor of my bedroom watching So You Think You Can Dance, my favorite, the rest of my family is downstairs playing Minecraft, not my favorite.

Things have been so crazy around here with trying to build the house. I knew when we signed up for this that it would be my top priority and every thing else would happen when and if I had the time. Plans have been rearranged or canceled more times than they have actually happened, the house we currently live in is normally a disaster, and my kids have played way too much Minecraft this summer.

I am trying to let it go, I am trying to realize that I am doing my best, and I am trying not to feel guilty for this being the lamest summer in Morris Family history.

I know in a few months we will have a house, we will plant roots, and it will all be worth it.

But, this last week has tested every ounce of my resolve, I have had to let go of so many expectations, and just go with the flow and tackle what needed to get done.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we were at the house working until past dark. Wednesday and Thursday we were up before the crack of dawn and at the house trying to get as much done as possible before Rob had to go to work. When we realized it wasn't going to get done on time Rob took Thursday afternoon off and we worked all afternoon to finally get it under control.

It was such a great feeling when we pulled away from the house that night at 6:30 pm.

To complicate things even more, Thursday was the first day of school. We did our best, we made it on time, and we even squeezed in a few pictures on our future front porch.

I am feeling so grateful we actually able to accomplish all that.

When I dropped the kids off at school I was covered in dirt and I am sure I didn't smell very good either. I told Rob I was just setting everyone's expectations really low, to which he laughed and asked if I was even wearing a bra, nope sure wasn't.

Today has been a little more relaxed, I only stopped at the house for a few minutes after I picked up the kids from school to make sure it was not full of water after it poured last night and all the windows were left open. Thankfully we only had one tiny puddle in the dining room, something I could handle.

Tomorrow we will be back out at the house to tackle some more projects. We need to place a vent for the oven exhaust, wire up all the low voltage wires, and do some MAJOR cleaning.

And then MAYBE next week will be a lot calmer and I can work on catching up on some things around our current house. Fingers crossed!!!

House Update #1

May and June were crazy, and I am looking forward to catching my breath in July. Now that all of our ball games are over, we are done with Youth Conference, and things with the house are up and running, I think I can finally start catching up on life.

I probably shouldn't throw that out there, but I am hoping for the best, keep your fingers crossed.

The house is under way and moving fast, which is good because I have a party planned for the end of October and I am counting on being in my house by then. I love seeing the progress as it has gone from a big field of weeds, to a giant hole, to forms that will eventually be our basement walls.

I was going to post the first pictures of our progress last Monday but then I got really busy and never got around to it, so here are two weeks worth of progress pictures.

North front side of house, AKA future garage

South front side

Back of the house taken on the north side

A few other shots from the back

This side will eventually be a huge family room for the kids, it is a couple years down the road, but one day.

This room was not in our original plan, I wasn't so sure I wanted it, but now I am really happy we are putting it in. It will eventually be underneath my porch and completely surrounded with concrete making it perfect for cold storage. Some of my flat work will have to wait, but in the end it is worth it to add this room.

This week they are pouring the walls, starting on the plumbing, and pouring the foundation. We then have to wait for a couple of weeks for it to cure before they start framing.

After years of dreaming it's surreal to see that dream start to come to life, some days I still don't believe it is happening!!

The Lot

The last two weeks have been rough, honestly life was pretty stressful and full of many ups and downs as we tried to nail down a lot to build our future home on, but the last two weeks can be chalked up as the worst so far in this entire process.

I was completely useless for most of the last two weeks, I tried to go about my normal day and accomplish items on my "to do" list, but it was really hard and my motivation was gone. I would wait most of the day for people to return my calls, hopefully with good news, but usually they were calling with more hoops we would have to jump through to make it happen.

There were moments when I thought we would loose the lot, and a bunch of money we have already invested, and in order to deal with the stress my body and mind seemed to shut down and only do what was necessary.

Part of me is grateful when I deal with stress this way because the alternative ulcer flareup is very painful, but the guilt of my behavior is terrible and I can't help but feel like maybe if I was a little better I would be able to deal with the stress and still be at the top of my game.

In the end it took a week longer than our contract gave us, but we finally signed the papers on Friday and we have a lot to start building on.

I am so grateful to have this part of the process behind us, I can't wait to see the house start to go up, but I know that there will still be many challenges ahead. I only pray I can deal with them a little better than I did these last two weeks.

It is summer break after all and I would love to enjoy it!!

Testing The Water

(this picture has nothing to do with my post, but his "caught in the act" look cracks me up)

Rob and I are in the process of making the final decision to start building our dream home.

(was that confusing?)

After a very unsuccessful home search we decided building was probably the best option to get exactly what we wanted in our price range. So now we are looking into everything and trying to determine if that really is the best decision for our family.

Little did I know there would be so much to do before we could even start digging the hole.

I thought we would get approved, make an offer on a lot, have our house plans drawn up, and then build.

HAHAHAHA, if only it was that easy.

I made a stop into the bank today to see about financing, and left with a list of things to do before we could even start the loan process, most of which involve making some final decisions and getting permits in place.

This only adds to the list of things our contractor gave us to do, eek!!

If we decide to pull the trigger on this entire deal I will have to share our step by step process, maybe it will make it easy on someone else, because there is a lot of stuff to do and consider.

All I know is it will prove to be an adventure as we try and figure it all out.

Thankfully we have so many people who have given us a lot of tips and tricks. Some we have thought of, and others we probably never would have thought of.

I promised Rob I would enjoy the journey of getting there, and not get overly stressed out and be miserable, I really hope I can keep that promise. We will hopefully only build our dream house once and I want it to be a good experience for everyone.

Wish us luck, I am going to need it!!