Very shortly after this picture from my last post, the framing was complete. It was crazy how fast it went and it was so fun to drive by every day and see the changes and progress.

Within a few days after the completion of framing, we had a roof!

And a couple days later, we had windows!

Here is the back view of the house.

It’s starting to look like a house, huh?
Well, all that exciting stuff is over (for now). For the past week and a half it’s been plumbing and HVAC. Not that it isn’t great progress, it’s just not as much fun to watch! But we have our plumbing and HVAC systems in (I’ll spare you the details and pics of that!) and electrical starts tomorrow. Once all that is done, the drywall will start going in and it will really start looking like a house inside!

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When I left off they had just poured the footings (see previous post here). The foundation came next and we were thrilled that we finally got to see something coming up from the ground!

I absolutely LOVE our brick choice. It’s the first one my eyes were drawn to when we walked into the brick. It’s Statesville Tumbled Oversized Walnut Creek Brick.

I love even more this beautiful brickwork!

This is the foundation for our front porch. Isn’t it gorgeous?!
While the foundation was being finished, we got this delivery.

Who knew a shipment of wood would be so exciting?!
They quickly laid the floor.

This was the first time we got to “walk” our house! Finally! After looking at it on paper for over six months, we were actually walking on it!

Then this…

It was one of the happiest days of my life! It might sound silly, but my dream house was coming to life.

 And it went up fast!

At this point we were able to walk through the house and actually see the framing of the rooms downstairs. It was wonderful to finally get a real-life view of the house we had worked on creating for so many months.

The back…

The roof…

The porch…

And this is where we are today. They put some makeshift stairs in so we were finally able to go see the upstairs today as well. It’s unbelievable! It puts a smile on my face just thinking about it!

I do have some pictures of the inside and I’ll post those soon. Stay tuned…

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Although it was exciting to see things changing, even if it was just dirt being pushed around, we were ready for more! So we were very excited the day the surveyor came out to plot the house. That is, until we saw where the house was plotted!

You can’t tell very well from the photo, but the house took up pretty much the entire width of the lot. And, because it was so wide, the only way it would fit was to move it really far back (our lot is skinnier in front, wider towards back) leaving us no back yard.

It also left us very little side yard on either side.

I was completely devastated. We all knew the house was wide, but no one had anticipated we would have to plot it so far back on the lot. We also didn’t expect it to take up the entire span of the lot.

There was only one logical thing to do to solve this problem and it was not something I was very happy about. In order to get our back yard, we would have to switch our side load garage to a front load. So right there, on the spot, I had to make a decision. I wasn’t happy about it, but it didn’t seem we had much of a choice, so we said go for it. So our plans have changed from this…

to this…

I REALLY didn’t like this idea at first. I didn’t want the garage to be the first thing people saw when they looked at our house. I didn’t want it to be a distraction from our huge, beautiful front porch. However, I realized that our garage does not sit in line with the front of the house, it’s a good bit back, so attention will not be drawn to it too much. It’s  grown on me and I”m ok with it now. It’s moved our house up a lot and given us much more of a back yard. It’s all good.

So then we were ready for the footings to be dug and poured. Ready and waiting. We waited because of sleet and ice (Remember, we are in SC and that doesn’t happen EVER!) and we waited longer because mother nature decided that after a summer and fall of drought, it was finally time for it to rain.
But we finally had a couple days of beautiful sunny weather and have our footings!

It was cool to finally see the footings because it really gave us an idea of exactly where the house would sit on the land and also we could get a better idea of the size.

We were so thankful that this part was complete because we knew that now they could really get started on the building! Not only was it exciting to finally see the footings complete, but I found this on the lot too.

The bricks for our foundation!

Until next time…

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After finally breaking ground on our dream house at the beginning of January {read about it here}, we were so excited to watch the trees being cleared, the dirt being moved and anything else that reminded us that we were finally doing this!

By the way, this will be our view from our front porch…gorgeous!

So things were moving along but then we ran into a couple delays that have slowed the progress of the house.

We hit rock…
Not just rock, boulders. Lots of them. These were all removed from our lot and this is about one third of them.

After removing those rocks there were a couple in the ground they had to break.

These guys were being difficult! So difficult a special machine had to be brought in!

But Mr. Mike (Our builder. Yep, that’s him running that machine up there) got through them and the grading of the land could finally move forward.

Next we had the big hill. I am not sure where all the dirt came from, but the boys loved it!

They climbed it…

slid down it…

and thought they were on top of the world!

It was fun while it lasted, but then the hill was bulldozed away.

The boys weren’t too happy about that!

So the land was prepped and we were ready to for the surveyor to stake the perimeter of the house. That was until the surveyor came and staked the house. I’ll tell you all about that next time!

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First, we sold our sold our house in just four days and then we had only thirty days to pack up and move out. Needless to say, we spend those thirty days packing morning, noon and night! It was a whirlwind, but we were very thankful to have sold and closed so quickly because that meant we could get started on our new house!

If you are a follower, you probably remember that back in May we were beyond excited to have purchased land to build a new home. Our dream home.

We thought we already had the perfect plan. It was one of Southern Living’s most popular “Idea House” plans, the Abberley Lane. I had torn that house out of Southern Living Magazine years before. I loved it! But I never in a million years thought I’d have the opportunity to build it!

I absolutely love the look of this house. It reminds me of a lowcountry plantation home. Hubby and I met in Charleston, and we used to love to walk around downtown and look at the gorgeous homes and architecture of the historic city. This one caught my eye immediately when I saw it because it reminds me of one of those homes.

Although it was the perfect plan, there were a “few” things we wanted to change. I know I have shown you these before, but it’s been a while so I thought I’d briefly refresh.

We wanted to extend the porch so that it wrapped around both sides of the house. This meant moving the garage to the back.

We wanted the kitchen and family room to be more open to each other.

We wanted to eliminate the two story family room to allow for more square footage upstairs.

We also didn’t need the formal living space in the front of the house so we borrowed the front entry and stairway from another Southern Living plan, Wentworth Heights (shown below). It allowed that extra room to be hidden behind the stairs. Perfect for my messy craft room!

 A “few” modifications became many changes and many drafts, but we finally had the perfect plan. Thank God for our architect who was so patient and accommodating! (KC Home Designs).

She is currently working on the most recent (and final set), but this is pretty close. We only made a few changes after picking out appliances and choosing bathroom cabinets.

After the plans were complete, it was time to choose a builder. We decided on Olde South Homes, a very impressive husband and wife team. We are thrilled that they will be building our dream home and have been very impressed with everything so far!

After weeks of waiting to close at the bank and a couple more weeks of waiting on permits, etc, we have finally broken ground!

I’m sure these pictures aren’t too exciting for y’all, but for us it was HUGE! So we are finally, after months of patiently (and not so patiently) waiting, building our house! Stay tuned, I plan on posting about the house often!

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For those of you who follow my blog, you know that we are in the process of selling our current home in order to build our dream home.

Our plans have been under construction for several months now. I’ve shown y’all on a couple different drawings of our version of the Abberley Lane shown above. Well, even though I said it was finished, I fibbed! Or maybe just changed my mind a few more times. We are in the final stages of detailing and we made a few minor changes since the last time I shared with you the elevation and floorplan. I’m excited to show you, and I will, as soon as I get it back from the architect! And, we have chosen our builder as well! I’ll announce that soon too!

The good news is that after less than a week on the market, our house is under contract! Not only that, but we have less than one month until closing! While this is all very exciting, it is also terrifying to know that I have to pack up my entire house (and I got a lot of stuff people) and find somewhere to live while our new house is being built! Yes, I’m freaking out a little bit!

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So back to the point of this post. I’ve tried, I really have tried to make things as interesting as they used to be. But since I knew we were moving it seemed sill to re-decorate, I was afraid to paint furniture because I don’t know what my colors and decor will be in the new house, and frankly, I just didn’t have any creative motivation. But I did try my best to post some things. And I planned on continuing to do so, until today.

I stressed all day (while packing) about getting a post up. You see, I get anxiety if I don’t post frequently enough. It used to be that I had to post every day. But then when I started my business I learned to relax and that it was ok to skip a day or two here and there. But lately, I’ve been skipping more days than posting and it’s causing me major anxiety. (I found this little comic here and thought it was funny.)

Then today I had this moment where I realized that I needed to take a break. Not a permanent break. Oh no, I’m going to be sharing with y’all the building of the new house! And then I get to share decorating it!!!! But I am going to take a temporary break for the next few weeks while I pack the house up.

So I hope that you don’t mind. I might still post here and there. But I want to do it because I have something to post or because I have a few spare minutes to do so. I don’t want to feel pressured or anxious about it. But please don’t leave me! I promise that when I come back, I’m going to have way more to talk about and to share than I’ve shared in the last year! I promise! I’ll be back soon…

]]> http://scissorsandspatulas.com/2012/10/a-little-time-out.html/feed 9 http://scissorsandspatulas.com/2012/10/a-winner.html http://scissorsandspatulas.com/2012/10/a-winner.html#comments Mon, 22 Oct 2012 00:52:52 +0000 Jennifer http://scissorsandspatulas.com/?p=2604 Continue reading →]]> Oops, forgot to announce the winner yesterday of last week’s giveaway!

The winner of the Designed Beginnings $40 store credit giveaway is…

Diana! Somehow she left a comment within a comment but technically it was the third comment. Congrats Diana!

If you didn’t win or if you didn’t enter, please stop by Designed Beginnings shop. She has some adorable vinyl wall decals!

]]> http://scissorsandspatulas.com/2012/10/a-winner.html/feed 1 http://scissorsandspatulas.com/2012/10/2602.html http://scissorsandspatulas.com/2012/10/2602.html#comments Fri, 19 Oct 2012 00:07:22 +0000 Jennifer http://scissorsandspatulas.com/?p=2602 Continue reading →]]> Is it Thursday? Hmmm, I guess it is! Did I forget to put up this week’s PTT? Yes I did!

Guess it’s better late than never, right???
Here a couple quick picks from last week…

I can’t get enough of pumpkin-flavored stuff! (Except those pumpkin pie Hershey Kisses. They are awful! Awful!) But these Pumpkin Pie Pancakes with Pumpkin Whipped Cream from The Clever Pink Pirate sound and look delish!

Check out how cute and simple this Wooden Height Chart by Twigg Studios.

And this fall tablescape by Crafty Scrappy Happy! Simple, yet elegant  Stop by for the tutorial for the placemats too!

This Luminary Ghost is too clever! Go find out how to make your own at Kaminski’s Creations.

Ok, I’m ready to see what you’ve come up with this week! Are you ready to share your pretties? I’m sure you remember the rules…

1. Please link YOUR projects, tutorials, tips, etc. that have not already been shared at Pretty Things Thursday.
2. DO NOT link any posts that include giveaways, things you are selling or other link parties.
3. Please put a link (text or button) back to Scissors & Spatulas and Johnny In A Dress somewhere on your blog!
4. Visit other links and leave LOTS of sweet comments!

OHHHH, and seriously people…go enter the Designed Beginnings giveaway! $40 credit to the store and the entries are few which means your chances are big! You can enter up to 6 times! Go here now!

But I did create this little vignette on my kitchen sideboard.
The weather here in SC has been gorgeous! I sent the boys into the woods in our back yard and asked them to find me some big branches. Of course this was not a difficult task for them! They love collecting sticks!

I spray painted the branches with some black spray paint I had in the garage.

During the process of turning and drying each side, I made the “ornaments.” I already had made some of these rosettes for a holiday craft party I had for the neighbors. I used Stampin Up designer series paper, punches and the Designer Rosette Bigz Cutting Die to create the accordion folded rosettes. (order rosette die here) I basically layered the different pieces using the coordinating papers from Stampin Up. (They make it so easy!)

I used Howlstooth and Scaringbone designer series paper for these two. I LOVE this paper! It is darling for Fall and halloween, but can also be used any time of the year! You can order it here.

  These next two are made from Stampin Up’s Wicked Fun designer series paper, which, by the way, is on clearance for an excellent deal! Order it here.

This ornament also uses the Lifestyle Crafts Lattice Doily cutting die.

I also used this skeleton cutting die from Lifestyle Crafts Tricks ‘n Treats collection.

Once I started assembling it, I realized that it would be a great activity for the boys!

So I cut two more sets and told them to see if they could build a skeleton.

I let them do it on their own first and I was pretty surprised at how well they did! But then I let them use mine as a model to glue their pieces to the paper.

My skeleton got some ribbon and some distressing and was hung on my tree with the rosettes.

And here are all the “ornaments” all together on the branches.

My little corner of Halloween!

Hey, have you entered to win the Designed Beginnings store credit? You could win a $40 store credit to use on anything  you want! Don’t miss out! YOu have until Friday, October 19 to enter! Just click here.

]]> http://scissorsandspatulas.com/2012/10/decorated-halloween-branches.html/feed 3 http://scissorsandspatulas.com/2012/10/wall-decal-giveaway-from-designed-beginnings.html http://scissorsandspatulas.com/2012/10/wall-decal-giveaway-from-designed-beginnings.html#comments Tue, 16 Oct 2012 00:01:22 +0000 Jennifer http://scissorsandspatulas.com/?p=2566 Continue reading →]]> Check out this nursery…

Isn’t the wall decal adorable?
Today I’m excited to announce a giveaway from one of Scissors and Spatulas’ newest sponsors!

Designed Beginnings creates nursery wall decals, growth charts, and adorable wall stickers to decorate any child’s room. I love the fun look of these numbers & circles wall decal!

And the growth charts are too cute! What a great way to keep track of the littles’ growth!

Let me introduce you to Ragan, Designed Beginnings shop owner…

 ”I am a graphic designer and decided to be a stay at home mom 3 1/2 years ago when my first baby was born. I now have two boys and one on the way. I began doing selling wall decals on etsy 3 years ago and it has been a lot of fun designing new decals for people.”

Vinyl decals are an easy and affordable way to change the look of any room. The wall decals are easy to install and remove. All vinyl decals are matte, which makes it look more like paint. The matte vinyl adhesive is removable and won’t ruin your paint.

Owls, giraffes, elephants, sports, flowers and more, Designed Beginnings has a wall decal to match any room! Ragan can also create personalized wall decals!

Ragan wants to offer one of Scissors & Spatulas’ readers a $40 credit to Designed Beginnings!!! Hip hip hooray! What a way to start your week, right?!