Time to select windows!

Our house plan calls for a lot of large windows.  Our first goal was to make energy efficient selections.  Our second goal was to  maximize the view.  Our third goal was to allow for functionality.  I never knew I would care so much about windows, but am learning that we will be putting a lot of time and research into all the details of our home. Eric at Lite Windows was really helpful and I think we've made some great choices.

We've broken ground!

I knew that we were supposed to break ground this week, but was pleasantly surprised to find mounds of dirt on our lot this morning!  My son and I watched the excavator work for a few minutes.  He suggested that we bring his big sister back to see the lot after school.  I took some photos and video of the excavator working just in case they finished up before we returned. 

Later this afternoon, we returned with my daughter to see additional trucks and the foundation experts putting in  the footings.

Overcome with excitement, I waved at the guys from my car, but refrained from honking or otherwise causing a scene. 

I guess it's official.  We're building a house!

Trees down...

We love our wooded lot.  We were disappointed that we needed to take some of the trees down, but, as our builder pointed out, they would do us no good in the middle of our living room. 

The lot!

After looking around at existing homes for quite some time, we decided to build.   We had watched more than twenty homes go up in our current neighborhood and building a new home didn't seem too unusual on the west side of Iowa City   Some say that the desire to build a home is in my genes.  I'm not sure if that's true or not, but I did grow up in the house my Dad designed and built.  My brothers have also built homes. How difficult could it be? In May, we found our lot.  It was a wooded lot on the top of a culdesac on a quiet street.  The neighborhood was new and also expecting a new elementary school to open in August 2012.  We suffered a bout of cold feet and didn't move fast enough.  It sold before we could buy it.  Although we were disappointed, we were determined to find a lot or a home that would suit our needs.  After visiting a home built by Rempel Construction & Cabinets, I began to visualize that home (or one very similar to it) on the lot we'd lost.  After scouring the list of available lots, we decided to give up our search for a while. One day later, I received news from a friend that the lot we had wanted had became available again.  Having been given a second chance, we jumped at the opportunity to buy the lot.  Just over a month ago, we closed on the lot.  Today, after several weeks of modifying and finalizing our house plans, we signed a construction contract with Randy Rempel to build our home.  We can't wait!