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Construction Week 4 - Muuuch Better!

Remember all those terrible rocks I told you about? Well, right after my last construction post, we stopped having to worry about digging up giant sandstone boulders. Because once we got through all that annoying, expensive sandstone... ...we hit a solid sheet of GRANITE. (*sob*) But guess what? Just a few days later, the world's best construction crew had everything taken care of. Whew! I know I should be a home-building expert by now, but that's at odds with my naturally cheap frugal ways. Sexy Nerd has explained to me again and again why we couldn't just build the house on top of the granite and it makes sense every time he says it...but it's not like the giant slabs of granite were going anywhere, right?? I understand...not really. At the beginning of the week, we had mountains and mountains of dirt. But by Saturday... ...they'd all disappeared! Sayanora, you &*%#ing rocks. During week 4 of construction, I also g

Sexy Nerd Quote of the Day

"I'm going to beat you with this frozen loaf." Muttered after I finished the last slice of thawed bread and didn't take a loaf out of the freezer. Yeah, he looks like a nice guy, but mess with his stockpile of bread and you'll incur the wrath of Sexy Nerd! *I'm a bit worried that someone is going to read this and email me information on women's shelters. Really, he hadn't had his coffee yet and I laughed hysterically after hearing this. Sexy Nerd is not the type to "beat" anyone.

Bad News! Construction Weeks 2 and 3

Everything went so smoothly during our first week of construction, clearing trees and dirt faster than we'd imagined, that we began to expect the entire process would be much easier than everyone had said. People have been voicing their concerns to us ever since we purchased our lot. Clearly, though, everyone else was wrong. Ha! First, the good: (Keeping with the theme of our last two weeks of construction, this part is brief.) Five years in, we finally brought Pica and Biscuit to see their future home. After many attempts to get them both to look at the camera, this was our second best result. Small dogs = small attention spans. Close enough.  Thus ends the "good" portion of this construction update. On to the bad. Oh, it's so bad. GIANT ROCKS!!! (Oh no!)  There were barely any rocks found during the first week of construction, but with only a small section of earthwork to go, the crew hit rock, rock, and more rock. Special equip

Will We Live Long Enough to See Our Dream Home Finished?

Or will we kill each other in the process? Last night was a lazy night, as was the night before. Every day and night has been lazy, with the exception of me researching tubs for our guest suite, which Sexy Nerd took no part in. So, imagine my frustration this morning, barely awake and getting ready for work, when a certain someone frantically demanded that I drop everything and choose a tub right this instant. Apparently, I'm holding up the entire project, and being late for work is a small price to pay for not causing any more problems. *Grumble* Oh, and that part of the drawing that says "matching ceiling plane"? I might just insist on changing that, just to irk you-know-who.

Construction Photos

Construction on our mountain dream home, week one: (This is post 2 of 2. Click here for post 1 of 2 .) See that fence? Don't get too used to it. The neighbors will be moving it onto their property any day now. If only we'd caught them before they'd paid someone to build it...and before the posts were cemented into place! (There's that neighborly guilt again.) Here's a weird question for you - what do you think of this part of our lot? I call it our dry riverbed and Sexy Nerd calls it our canyon (it's hard to tell from this photo, but the ground dips down here) and we like it so much we've designed the hot tub in the master retreat (hee, hee) to look out over this area. However, the last time we both thought something on our lot was really neat (a gnarled old tree trunk), every person we showed it to was like, "That's really ugly and stupid and what's wrong with you two?" The construction crew was just going to

Construction Week 1

We broke ground last week and have been amazed by how quickly everything is rolling along. Within only 4 days, the crew created a driveway, cut down all necessary trees, removed all the waste (including a pile of wood from when our crazy neighbor cut down a bunch of our trees, much to our dismay, but that's a story for another day), dug a pit/created a mountain, and more! Photos from Week 1 of Construction (post 1 of 2)( click here for post 2 of 2 ) Can you imagine how disappointed our neighbors must have been when they drove home and discovered a porta potty next door? Even worse, the neighbors on both sides of us just moved in and neither family had any idea construction was about to begin! I know there's no way around it, but I can't help feeling guilty. There are doorstep goody bags (with balloons!) in their future. Truth be told, I don't look like I feel guilty at all in this photo. On day 3, the ground was flat. The next day, we had our ve

The Biggest Time Wasters on the Internet

Today I will... ...stop wasting so much time on the internet! When Sexy Nerd and I were in Iceland last year, our Airbnb rental had Wi-Fi that worked great on his tablet and on his phone. On my tablet and on my phone? It did not work AT ALL. Weird, right? No matter how hard we tried (oh, how we tried!), my devices refused to acknowledge the existence of the perfectly functioning internet signals beaming all around them. It made me crazy. A funny thing happened though. Without the internet constantly in my life, I was able to think more creatively, enjoy my free time better, and even came up with a few genius ideas for my novel (you know, the one I've been working on for the last decade, darn internet). No mindlessly scrolling through my never-ending Facebook feed. No "just checking my email real quick". It was like my brain had been freed!  Of course, you probably can't just ban the internet from your life altogether. How would you keep up with your

BIG NEWS!

Excerpt from an email I sent my BFF on 12/13/11:  A few months ago, Sexy Nerd and I were browsing land and houses online, not really planning to buy anything, and came across a listing for a 13.1 acre property in the mountains. It was described as having "various meadows and views of 4-5 mountain ranges", which seemed funny to us. We walked the property and, although we didn't find anything we would consider to be a meadow, we bought it. Now we're designing a home to build on it.  4.5 years later, I received this nifty email from Old Republic Title: Congratulations, we have closed, funded and inspected.  You may start construction. Happy Homebuilding! That's right. WE'RE BREAKING GROUND TO DAY !!! Can you believe we're finally, FINALLY going to build? Woo hoo hoo! We spent the weekend shopping for tile FOR OUR DREAM HOME THAT WE'RE ACTUALLY BUILDING! (Not this exact tile. Ick.) Oh, and now I finally get to use this :

Give Me Ants at the Picnic Any Day

Sexy Nerd and I are finally,  finally  almost ready to break ground on our mountain dream home outsi de  of Albuquerque, NM . How much longer has it taken than we'd expected? Well, I thought we'd have been living in the house a long time ago! We hiked our lot yesterday, double checking the house placement and making sure the windows are correctly located to maximize the views. We have new neighbors on both sides of our lot and we discovered one of the homes has built a new fence since we last visited, about 10 feet of which is on our property! In the interest of making friends with our neighbors though, we decided not to say anything. There's a tree that has fallen over at the top of our lot. Our plan is to eventually turn it into a fireplace mantle. In the meantime, it has been a great picnic spot, complete with 360 degree views of the mountains. We'd packed a snack and a beer each and up we hiked to the edge of our property, looking forward to resting on that fal

I Think Marriott May Have the Hots for My Husband

Sexy Nerd - flirting with the front desk or business traveler extraordinaire? Welcome Mr. Wartman! You are like a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow - a wonderful sight to see! Livermore Residence Inn Sure, when Sexy Nerd stays at a hotel, he's like an enigma wrapped in a sunshiny unicorn kiss. When I stay at a hotel? DISASTER, pure and simple. I have waffle-induced PTSD . The most important part of this little ramble? He knew to bring all the chocolate home to me, as well as the little bags of microwave popcorn. A smart man, that Sexy Nerd ;)

Ta Da! Our New House Is Ready For Her Close-Up

You've all been very patient waiting to see our new home. The bank admits we "fell through the cracks" (their exact words!) but now we're finally, finally going to actually build this thing. The bank actually took so long that we have no choice but to close on our construction loan next Wednesday, because waiting until next Thursday would be outside the application window and we'd have to start over from the beginning. That said, next Tuesday would be too soon to close on the loan because the bank "can't possibly have everything ready" on their end by then. I just have to keep reminding myself that we got a screamin' deal by going with Compass Bank. Our house is going to look just like this (pending HOA-approval) but with a few nifty details Sexy Nerd's computer program couldn't show - yellow shutters around the big square window and a white (or possibly red...no, definitely white...I think...) arbor above the garage door. We're