We got the pre-approval and we moved out

The past few weeks have been insanely busy and stressful for our family. The kids and I moved in with family (in a different state), we received our pre-approval, and the kids started new schools. I'm happy to say that things are finally starting to slow down a little bit.

  

When we first started talking about building a house, our main concern was the finish date. We knew there was no way it would be finished before our lease was up. We discussed different options like extending our lease, moving to an apartment for a few months and the worst case scenario... move in with family. The more we talked about it we realized that moving in with family was our best option. Our family agreed and they didn't hesitate one bit when we asked. We are so blessed to have such a supportive family!

We decided to move all of our belongings into storage. We opted to go with a container from United and we couldn't be more pleased. Their prices were extremely reasonable and they've been great to work with. They dropped the container in our driveway and we spent about 3 weeks loading it. We called them when we were finished and they picked it up and moved it to their climate controlled storage facility. When we move into our new house they'll bring it to us. How convenient is that?

There is only one downside to staying with family. We're located 4 hours away from where our house is being built. That means a LOT of travel for me. Joe is staying in Cleveland with his brother, so he can drive out to the homesite every couple of days. I'm going to need to travel for the pre-construction meeting (Sept. 10th) and to take kids for orthodontist appointments. I just keep telling myself.. it's only temporary!

There are so many positives with staying with family. It's a complete change of pace (and lifestyle) for our kids. They've always been raised in the city. We're in NO CELL SERVICE, WV now. We're so far out that we have to plan trips to Wal-Mart. It's a 45 minute drive to the closest city where one is located. Thankfully, we do have somewhat of high speed internet!

All in all this is going to be a great experience for the kids. They're learning how to conserve water (we have well water here), grow their own food, drive tractors and 4-wheelers with Pap, catch butterflies, watch out for snakes, build campfires, what fracking is .. and so much more! It almost makes me want to move here... ALMOST.. then I remember all the conveniences and opportunities of living in a big city. I also watch the 75-100 big trucks that drive by every day going to the newly built deep gas wells down the road. It's sad to see what they're doing to the environment here.

Now that things have slowed down a bit, I'll be able to blog more. We did make flooring changes AGAIN and we added on the morning room, took out the basement powder room, downgraded our front elevation.. and a few other things. I'll do another post with all of the updates very soon!