Decisions

We closed on our house on July 10th. What a birthday present for me! We didn't realize how quickly we were going to be expected to start choosing things for our house. On July 13th, we had appointments to choose our brick, cabinets, and appliances. All appointments went really smoothly except for the brick appt. Can you imagine choosing brick when there are so many different choices? And, there aren't always houses to see that actually have the different types of brick. After lots of stress and pressure, we finally decided on a brick. You'll never believe the name of it! Kimberly Queen!! Ha!!! We figured that it was a "sign" that there was a brick with my name. All of the other brick names were weird names like Belle Glade, Congaree, Cumbahee, etc. We liked the look of "Kimberly" so we gave up our search and our headache!!!

On July 17th we were off to Aiken to meet with Marge at Wolf Construction to make a few selections there such as hardwood floor finish, concrete color, trim color, etc. Then, we had an appointment to choose ALL of the lighting for our house! YIKES!!! This was intense! We tried desperately to stay within our allowance, but did less than great! Needless to say, we've got to go back and revisit some of our lighting choices!! Last, we had to choose the plumbing for our house (showers, tubs, toilets, hot water heater, faucets, etc.) We did really well staying within our allowance here! Sort of!

We still have a good bit of decisions left to make. Until then, I'll rest my brain and try to get some ideas so that I am a little more prepared for our next appointments!

Original House Plans

Here is the house plan that I found on www.eplans.com when we were first thinking/dreaming about moving to the River. Richard had very specific requirements. The Master had to be on the main level at the back of the house with a water view. The Great Room had to be on the back of the house with a water view. We wanted an open plan. We wanted a three car garage, 4 bedrooms, and a bonus room. It also had to have a huge screened porch on the back of the house along with a deck. With all of those specifications, I was able to find only one house that actually met all of the requirements. Believe it or not, we both fell in love with it. The builder's architect took our plan and made it exactly what we wanted by changing a few things here and there. Here is the picture of the actual house (above) and floor plan (below) that we saw originally. Keep in mind that the bottom of the house will be bricked in with the 3 garages on the right side of the house. The entire house is going to be brick.Richard found a picture showing how he wanted the back of the house to look (red house above with porches on rear). These were our original ideas. Later, you will see the actual plans and how it has turned out on paper thus far!

Our Latest Adventure

Well, we've finally decided to build a house on the water. It has always been a dream of Richard's to live on the water so that he can enjoy a spectacular view while having his boat accessible at all times. After considering various options for a few years and after accepting the fact that we would be living here for quite a while, a perfect opportunity presented itself. Richard found a river lot for an excellent price on the Savannah River (still on the SC side) in a neighborhood called River North. He found a wonderful builder in Aiken (Wolf Construction) who is extremely cooperative and who agreed to build our house while staying within our budget.

I decided to create this blog to document the stages of our new house so that I would remember our trials and tribulations a long the way.

Here is our lot. A tree in the middle of the property had just fallen after a storm.



Here is our lot after being cleared. You can see glimmers of the water at the back.