New Home Excitement

** Warning in advance: There are a crap ton of pictures here...you may be best served giving this a minute to load before you start scrolling, lest your browser lock up. **

On Saturday, January 19th, Erin and I signed the purchase agreement to start building our new house. During the process of selecting our lot, we found that there was a house under construction that the previous buyers backed out of. Since this house had the same framing options that we already wanted, we decided to take it and save ourselves several months.

What follows here is a visual tour. It starts with the front of the community and progresses into our neighborhood. There are pictures of the model home, so you can get an idea of what the interior will look like, as well as a few shots of the framed home. Commentary abounds.

Woo.

This is the entrance to Regent Park, which is the larger development in which our neighborhood is situated.





This is golf course the lies right next to our neighborhood. It looks slightly more impressive in the spring and summer when the Bermuda grass is actually green.



This is the entrance to Madison Green, which is our neighborhood. There are 6 or 7 different builders in the Regent Park development, each with its own neighborhood.





On to the house. To begin, here is the floorplan for the house:


Now, here are some pictures of the model. It's worth noting that the model has something like $95000 worth of upgrades and options added in. We will not. So where you see certain things like hardwood floors and granite countertops and wrought iron stair railings and custom paint jobs, recognize that it won't be in our house. It is also unlikely that our place will be this well-decorated. These pictures do, however, give you a good idea of the space and layout.

This is the living room, which is directly to the right when you enter the front door:


This is the dining room, which is directly to the left when you enter the front door. It's also the early favorite for "Last Room to Actually Get a Piece of Furniture Placed In It." The over/under currently stands at June, 2013.



Walking forward from those rooms, we pass the staircase on the right (please note that in the absence of a dozen beers, the staircase will likely appear less blurry. This, of course, means that Chandler will always see the staircase in this manner):


Coming through the entryway, the kitchen sits on left, along with a "breakfast nook." There are a few other upgrades here that we passed on, like the double ovens and the extended cabinets (ours will end where the oven is).







Standing in the kitchen, you can look out into the family room.







Past the family room would ostensibly be a small den/office area. However, we've upgraded it into an actual bedroom, with a bathroom right next to it.





That's the first floor. On the second floor, after clearing the stairs, you are immediately in a loft area, which functions as another family room/child play room.



On the right are the double doors leading to the master bedroom.






Master Bath:



Walk in closet that is the same size as the bedroom I had in my senior year apartment with Nick and Chandler. Like that bedroom, the closet is accessible from the bathroom. God, that apartment sucked. What in the world made us pay that rent?



Also off the loft is another bedroom.



Walking through the loft, we come to a bathroom on the left (I'll spare you the pictures...it's a pretty standard bathroom). Past that is a short hallway with two bedrooms and a laundry room in between (hoorah for second floor laundry!).






So that's the basic layout of the house. As I mentioned earlier, the house that we've selected has already been framed. This is what it looks like currently:





Behind our house is a common area that's used as a storm drainage area. All of the rain and snow from the last few days let us see how the water flow works. It was nice to see that it doesn't collect in a swamp in our backyard. Anyhow, it's quite nice to not have someone right there.



The property here goes back to the top of the black silt fence. Beyond that is the common space.



It's a good sized yard, without being overly huge. When lawn mowing is a 10 month activity here, I didn't want an acre to deal with.

So, that's what we have here. Next step is going to the home studio to pick out our options a week from Wednesday. After that's finalized, building resumes. As things happen, more pictures will be taken. I promise, however, that I will never post this many again.

Camping in the Smokies

Last weekend, Erin and I headed to the western part of the state. 150 miles west and a couple of thousand feet up helped us to get away from the temps that were generally around 102 (with a heat index of 107). I have some pictures, and the stories to go with them.

First of all, how can you not love a place called "Moonshine Creek"? Unfortunately, the distillery was not in use anymore.


The owners have named all of the cabins after booze. I took a picture of what I call "The Chandler Suite." Other cabins were Jim Beam, Ezra Brooks, Johnnie Walker, etc.


The "Creek" portion of the name comes from the creek (or "crick" if you want to get the appropriate southern pronunciation down) that flowed through the middle of the campground. Our site was right on the banks, which created the very pleasant sound of running water.



Even though the temps were lower there than in Charlotte, they were still in the high 80s. When the sun broke through the trees, bathing us in heat for several hours, we coped by putting the chairs in the creek and letting the cold water run over our feet and legs. It helped.



Saturday morning was actually quite cool for a while, giving us some extra time to lay in the tent and relax.


For dinner on Saturday, I was determined to make hobo dinners. The problem was that the fire pits had low walls, and no grill/grate over the top. I didn't anticipate that. However, with some ingenuity, I was able to solve the problem.

I started by creating a small fire in the center of the pit, and placed two larger rocks on either side. I took the grate off of the propane grill, and set it to the side.


As the fire burned down, I created a nice bed of coals in between the two rocks. I then built the rocks up higher.


I put the grate across the rocks and over the coals.


I added some additional wood to keep the heat up.


Flipping every few minutes, I was able to make a tasty meal of seasoned beef, potatoes, and carrots. Hooray for ingenuity!



Some scenery shots in and around the campground:





The only complaint I had is that the sites were very small, and totally lacking in privacy. Fortunately, there weren't many tent campers, so it wasn't an issue. In the future, however, I think I'll stick to state and national parks for my camping.

In all though, the trip was a resounding success. Very different than the booze-a-minute trips that I am used to. We read, we cooked, we hiked, we had some drinks. I taught Erin a few things about making fire and cooking outdoors. She took to it very well, which is important if our marriage is to succeed ;)

Charlotte Knights

In the grand tradition of the Pistons and (formerly) the Lions, The Charlotte Knights play their games in Ft. Mill South Carolina. Fortunately, given our location at the south end of town, Ft. Mill is closer than the downtown location that the Knights will be occupying in two years.

The Knights are the AAA affiliate for the White Sox, which makes them awfully tough to root for. Fortunately, the Mudhens were in town last night. Dru, Kate, Erin, and I sat above the visitor's dugout in the third row.

The game itself was rather exciting...taking a 5-1 lead into the bottom of the 9th, the Mudhens called on the AAA equivalent of Todd Jones. In between the first two outs were a ground rule double, a single, and a walk to load the bases. A 5'2" nobody with zero RBI at the AAA level cleared them with a double that fell about a foot short of HR status. Fortunately, the next batter flew out harmlessly to end the game, and we could leave with a Mudhen victory.

Here are the pics:

Can't argue with this promotion...


...or the fact that Hooters sponsored it.


A few pics of the stadium.








Players stretching pregame.



Here's a fine action shot (Brent Clevelen)


Fernando Rodney walking by the dugout. He had pitched the night before, so we didn't get to see him on the mound.


Their mascot is Homer the Dragon. He rides an ATV. You really can't make this stuff up.




This is outfield advertising that you can only find at a minor league park in the south.


Bazardo on the mound last night, gave up 1 run through 6.2 innings.



Brent Clevelen with an unconventional looking swing, that actually went for a single up the middle.


Henry Mateo with the weird stance. He got an RBI double though.


Timo Perez beating out a throw at home.


Jack Hannahan not so lucky.


Me and wattse at the end of the game.