Drum roll please....

Ok...so the big question is..."What's this picture all about?"....well remember a few months back I mentioned that we were starting the process of re-modeling our current home...the home we have lived in for over 16 years...the home we raised our children in from elementary on...Jackie was 11 and Marcus was 8. So...we have been meeting w/ an architect and a spacial concept designer...who specializes in kitchens...we live on 2 acres in a wonderful little area south of town! We have the best of both worlds...we kind of live in the country but we are in the city and close to everything! Well, folks...I CAN NOT come up with a design I am totally ga-ga over...and I want that for my home...It is a good design but it is one that we have outgrown...it has been a great place to raise 2 wonderful children...but now that we are older and our lifestyles have changed...WE need a change...we need more open spaces and we need it to be more on one level versus two...and we haven't seemed to be able to come up with anything that we are totally comfortable with. We were all set to get started sometime this year...in fact we should have started last winter and to be completed by now...but something kept holding me back! I just couldn't commit. Believe me when I say...we looked at every angle of re-doing...including taking the home down to the existing foundation and starting over...we have also looked in town and in surrounding areas at everything imaginable...from old historical homes to be re-done to new homes in old communities to condos in the city to land way out in the sticks....We NEVER found anything that we just knew was IT!! So, we just put things on hold for a while and figured we would know when we found what we wanted. We actually found a house that was newly built about 3 or 4 years ago...ON our VERY SAME road...we loved it! It was ALMOST everything we had been looking for...we could make a few cosmetic changes and then it would be OURS...well, in the midst of looking at this home...and we looked at it a LOT...just ask our realtor! My very dear friend who recently built just about 5 minutes from me...my friend who helps me and gets me into all these weddings...called to let me know that the old house down the road from her...actually just one 5 acre lot over from her house was on the market...it is a 3 acre piece of property that has an old pole barn way in the back and a house that was built in the mid to late 50's! People...I LOVED that piece of land the minute I drove by it...it has trees....lots of trees...mainly in the back 1/2 of the property...but they are great...plus it has some other features that I adore...such as it is a rectangle shape...not a pie shaped lot of land like we have now...I know it's my OCD...but I like things a little neat and orderly and to me...rectangle shaped acreage is the answer! So....WE BOUGHT IT!!!...we closed right around Christmas...but I've waited till now...when I had the key in hand to tell most of you....I knew if I listened to what God wanted me to do...he would find the answers for me...and as always He did. However, I must admit there were times that I became a bit anxious and antsy about the whole thing...but boy am I ever glad I waited and listened!!

Now this is the crazy part...the house isn't a house we can make work for what we need...and truly the value of this place is in the land...so we are having the house excavated (we are salvaging a few things to repurpose or give away) and then we will build close to the current home site...we also may have the opportunity to buy up some land on one side of ours...and possibly the land behind us...which in total will average more than 10 acres plus our land...we're still working on that...and if it's meant to be...it will be...but for now...we're tickled pink about being able to build our dream home...on a little slice of heaven...It can't happen fast enough for me...but we are just in the earliest, earliest of stages...I fear it will take well over a year by the time we choose our architect and design...clear the house off...do some new fencing and building a workshop/barn for hubbin! But...we'll get er' done...so if you have any great ideas feel free to email me...

Glad I could share this with all of you...I know some of you have been wondering what that picture of trees was about...I can't imagine what you may have been thinking...I'll soon have more pictures of the place...and I will post them...b/c you know I'm going to have a pictorial diary of the WHOLE process. Now I just have to come up with a clever name for my new little ranchette...hubbin and I are already disagreeing on that one...hmmmm...this could be dangerous or fun...but what the heck...we're moving forward with it!!

Thanks for listening...

blessings...
Teresa