Week 22 Update

This week it is really all about the house - not much has happened in the other areas.

Land Home - A picture tells a story.  I am going to give a series of pictures of the build.  It has been a wonderful week watching it starting from the ground up.  As a continuation from last week, the room above the garage is built and looks like it will work great for college boy and any guest that want a more traditional space to sleep in - other than the RV.   Where to put the entrance door is the problem now - the space is only 6ft at the very top of the stairs to one side, so we are considering putting it on the bottom floor. I think that will work fine.

We opened up a portion of the hallway to give us more space for moving in furniture and to just let it feel not so cramped.  The hall is still a bit narrow towards my daughter's room, but it is only 6' of space, so not far at all.

When they put in the roof, the space inside suddenly felt a LOT larger - like incredibly larger.  I don't think I will ever regret going with the 10ft ceilings everywhere.  It allowed us to put windows in places that otherwise would not have gotten any - like our master closet, our daughter's bathroom and our water closet (yes, that is the name for the toilet room). 

We are just in awe.  The patio space is so large.  I will take better pictures of the different areas once you can actually see the divided spaces.  It is still just a bunch of boards, unless you are there.

Just concrete and pipes

They are coming - the dumpster has been delivered!

So much in one day!

Rain made them quit after just a few hours.

Another short, rainy day

1st sunny day - WOW!

We got the chimney and the more detailed woodworking

Today, they are putting up the chip board siding and getting all the windows framed out.  Lots of detail work that won't show up in the large pictures, but we can see by going there.

This is the room above the garage.  It is not a really large space, but it will serve the purpose intended. 

This is as you come up the stairs (that are not in- I am on a ladder)

This is the other view - you cannot get a sense of the height - it is 8 ft sloping to 5 ft.

Things are moving on along now - even the kids got excited being able to see their spaces.  The builder ordered the windows a couple of weeks ago, so I think this will be coming together soon - I am ready for them to put the electricity pole up so I can start working on the front door!

The other great news, the artist doing our stained glass for the door finally got us the design!  Isn't it gorgeous!

On the disappointing front, the shed has come to a stand still.  I tried to call yesterday, but I have not heard back from them.  Concrete people are behind from all the rain, so I understand, just keeping me informed would be great.

RV Living - Well, as you heard from earlier in the week, this RV and company just do not mix.  We made it work, but I am going to say no to everyone else until the house is built and we move in.  It was just too hard.

Even with college boy, we had to move chairs outside - he had no privacy, though noone does on this RV.  Really, we are comfortable with us 4 and we cannot accommodate for any more people.  He moved out yesterday and seems much happier even though he in camping in a living room.

Cooking is still tough, but we are getting into the groove.  Seeing the house go up has helped us all. 

The really bad colds Darrell and I had knocked us for a loop - my voice has only just come back and he is still coughing.   Next week, the younger two are going to my sister's house, so they will each get their own space to sleep and a nice big shower with water pressure to clean themselves in.  Dad and I get ALONE TIME!  LOL - we said we would watch skin flicks just because we could - not because we like them!  LOL

Homeschool - I decided to take off this week as well.  With my voice out - we were not getting very far, we had company until Tuesday, the builder went out of town, so I was up at the land a ton - we just gave up.  We will get back into it when they get back from my sister's.

Now, something fun that came up - Laney said she wanted to give the theater a try.  WOO-HOO!  I am super excited for her.  This takes care of several issues I worried about - 1) she is a hesitant public speaker 2) she loses voice inflection when talking about something other than normal conversation 3) she is looking for friends and the theater are a tight knit group of people, 4) it satisfies an art semester!  This is good all around!

Well, I need to get another cup of coffee - I am dragging today.  Lots of paperwork things to take care of and I also need a bite to eat.

Did your week turn out as good as you wanted? 

401(k)

Yes, even in the midst of all this house building party, I am watching our 401(k) like a hawk.

We are still contributing up to the match - which is 100% of 6%.  We never stopped, even when we were gung ho about the Dave Ramsey plan.  We could just not turn down a 100% match.

What I am excited about though is how much it has grown this year!  We are WAY behind the mark on retirement, but we are not giving up. 

As of closing yesterday, we have $71,000 in our 401(k).

OK, I am sure many of you did a double gasp and that is fine.  We are working on it.  We are going to have to play catch up, but we do have goals in mind.

We have been considering with my business, to not use any of that money personally, but roll it into retirement accounts.  I still need to do research, but there are small business owner retirement accounts that are not limited like the Roths. 

That is something we are considering though - Roths, but we would have to do the backdoor as we make too much money to qualify for them.  However, my business could fund both of ours easily.

It is a battle though - pay off debt - including the mortgage or save.  Given our time span left, I am leaning toward saving in the 401(k), using the business to fund more retirement accounts, then use Hubs paycheck to pay down debts.

It is not Dave Ramsey worthy, but there is a security bone in me that just wants to save, save, save.

I got to thinking about this more today, because I was approached by a woman wanting 3 tshirt quilts.  She is willing to wait.  I have a waiting list of 6 quilts right now and no one seems to care how far out in the country I am moving.  I am dying to sew again and would if I could, but that storage room is not an option.  It will come with time - patience has never been virtue of mine, but I tell you - I am learning it now - kicking and screaming, but I am learning it.

So, our rough plan:

1. Home - the one we are building is the one we are staying in.  Texas is cheap to live in, the county we are moving to is even cheaper.  Hubs job is here and there is a possibility of free lance, part-time work in this field once he retires.  I have a business here that can go on as long as I want it to.

2. Debts - we want to be consumer debt free as quickly as possible.  We will know that number a little better when the house is finished. I want to do a 10 year mortgage, but Darrell is not on board with it, he thinks a 13 year is better with 2 kids in college.  We will see.  I still think we can do it.  So that would be 10 years to be out of debt.

3. Retirement - Continue funding 401(k) to matching.  Look into my business funding an additional retirement account and/or building up cash reserve.

That is it right now. Darrell needs to delve more into what he will do after retirement, but he is not ready.  The road is still too rough ahead for him and I think he will be better suited to do this when the kids are out of the house and the mortgage is paid off.

There you have it - our very rough and not well thought out Retirement plan as of today.

Hanging in there!  How is your Thursday shaping up?

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Our builder is gone this week, taking his son to the Naval Academy.  So, when the boss is away - yeah, the building is very slow going this week.  It does not help that it is raining a bit every single day.  We are in a rain forest right now; yes, everything is super green and lush, but extremely humid and hot!  I tend to swell in the summer and yep, I am very swollen right now.

Yesterday, only 3 workers showed up to continue framing.  I was there when they started, then checked again at lunch - no more workers, then we went in the evening.  They were no further than what I saw at lunch.  Disappointing.  At this rate, we will not get done until after Christmas. 

Hopefully, when the builder gets back, he can get a fire started under them again.

The framers have almost completely got the bottom floor done and they are working on the second story over the garage.  The shed has come to a complete stop - I have no idea when they will get the concrete poured.

With no voice, I cannot call.  Hubs is backlogged at work because he was sick, so he cannot call right now.  Maybe my voice will come back this afternoon and I can get some work done.

But in the meantime, I am enjoying the summer sales my vendors have!  It seems all my vendors have these terrific sales in the summer - like 50% off or more, so I stock up on digital files.  I am itching to start sewing again and have considered getting my machine, but I know I will want to embroider and that is just impossible here.

So, I am starting my list of what I want to do.  There is a homeschool entrepreneurs' show in October and I would LOVE to go, but with that time frame, I would not have time to create very many items.  IF, we get in the house September, I might, and that is a big if!  The likelihood is at about 1% chance.

Gratitude:

1. Heating pad - I love my heating pad.  Loosens my muscles in the morning and starts my day off right.

2. My kid's quirks - they are so funny and sweet.  I love when they are all together talking about the old times...

3. Ice - Though I love sonic ice, I will take any shape.  I am not sure how anyone lives without it.

4. Computers - pads and phones just don't quite fit the bill.  Computers are the best thing ever invented.  I was not very creative until computers came along.

5. The darkness of this RV - I cannot sleep with light at all.  At our homes, there was always light we fought with whether it be from neighbors, or lights in other parts of our home, whatever the source, it always woke me up.  However, in this RV, we can get it very, very dark where we sleep.  It is heavenly.

With no voice, I am obviously still sick, though I feel much better, so I am going to take it easy again today - run up and see how work is going, do some laundry and that is about it.  What all are you up to today?