I really do love my house!

The other night while getting ready to go to bed, I was walking down one of my hallways, and just thought, "I really do love this house". in 2004, after dd left for college, dh finally gave in to his dream of owning property and building a house. He bought an ugly piece of land in the back corner or our town; it was used as a garbage dump (not officially, just where people would dump their stuff) AND there were 2 trailers that had burned down years ago (it was rumoured that meth was involved) AND it was the place where kids would go to party. I did not see the property, till dh had it cleaned up. 18,000 lbs of trash and 21,000 lbs of scrap medal..and the frames of the 2 trailers.

As you know, where there is construction, there is theft. So, dh got a 36' long travel trailer and moved onto the property that Dec/Jan...we put the house up for sale...and I moved in May 2005. Our house sold fast, and the new owners wanted it quicker than the usual one month. So, me and the cats moved into a travel trailer. Needless to say, I hated it! Kitchen/bathroom wholly inadequate. I'll never forget, dd visited from college, I was giving her a tour of the trailer, pointed to the extra front room and told her 'this will be your room for the summer'! Her eyebrows went up. She promptly went back to college, and got herself a summer job at Macy's and made arrangements for summer housing. ha! that front room became the storeroom and mini scraproom. As it was while we were living there that I took my first scrapbooking class and got HOOKED!



I won't go into all the construction stories. Needless to say there are stories, of delays and subcontractor theft. Taking of deposits and not showing up. One guy, the truss company actually accepted our deposit and on the day they were supposed to deliver went bankrupt. BUT there are also stories of heroes, those who went above and beyond. If you ever need a concrete guy, stucco guy, roofer, contractor, electrician...we have some great recommendations for you.

so, here is the finished house, compromises and all...I wanted brick and columns, you know kinda like something you'd find in Houston. BUT dh convinced me that brick was not practical in earthquake country..so we got stucco...but kept my columns.



this is a pic of our back...we have a seperate garage...don't you love that concrete work..stamped and colored. It goes all the way around the house. Not what we planned, but because we loved it, we added it.



anyways, it could be said that the outside is dh's part of the house, the inside is mine. I'll have to do another post about the inside. hint, 30 colors (according to the painter) (he counted sheens)..