Our house, in the middle of our street

I promise I'm not trying to be Pioneer Woman. I'm really not. It just sort of happened that she had a cooking blog, and then I made one, and then she added her home-remodel to her blog, and now I'm adding my home-building to this one. But she has sections I'll never have, like photography and homeschooling, so see? We're totally different.

But anyway, the point is that we're building a house and whether you like it or not, you're coming along for the ride. I don't really have the luxury of ruminating over color and fixture decisions, so I probably will never ask you what you think about granite counters vs. tile counters, or oak vs. maple, or brushed nickel vs. copper, I'll keep you posted on construction, color palates, and furniture choices. And once we move in, you guys can help me decorate.

To begin, here's our lot.

It's the 2nd biggest lot available in the development, but it's oddly shaped. Sort of triangular, but with a flat side instead of a point at one edge. There are a whole bunch of silly rules governing where on our lot we can build. Like, nothing can be built within 10 feet of the sidewalk, and the garage has to be 20 feet back from the street, and we have to have a two-car garage, and we can't build within 15 feet of the back property line. It all seems quite silly to me, but I suppose they have reasons. The property backs up to a "green space," which looks like it'll be a tiny wetland in the winter. On the other side of the blue house you can see is Highway 47. We can't hear it too much just standing on our lot, so when our house is built and we put trees in and get other houses going up next to us, we won't be able to hear it at all. Also, we'll only ever have neighbors on one side, but we'll have two neighbors on that one side. All in all, it's a great lot in a great location and we're exceptionally pleased with it.

I tried to upload the floorplans as well, but they're in PDF format and Blogger wouldn't let me. Just as well, I suppose, since they're not final. We need to add a fireplace and a coat closet, and we're going to see if we can tweak the garage a little so that we could put an office out there. We also want more windows in the kitchen. Things we LOVE about it so far: The placement of the stairs, at the back of the house; our HORMOUS master bedroom, which runs the entire length of the house, includes a walk-in closet the size of a dorm room and a bathroom bigger than any I've ever seen or heard of; the island/bar in the kitchen; and a pantry. I'm a happy girl.

So we're talking to the architect about the floorplans today. Once we get them to a place we're happy with, then we go out to Bend to pick colors/fixtures/counters/cabinets/etc. Once we're happy there, they tell us how much the house is going to cost. Then we scrap all our decisions and pick cheaper colors/fixtures/counters/cabinets/etc. In theory, that's all done within a week. Around that time, the lot will close and they can start construction. Then I set up camp across the street and watch my house go up.

Then we move in, break for Christmas, and come back in a frenzied whirlwind of activity to get the house ready for our New Year's Day housewarming party.

Should be a fun couple of months.