Lost in translation...

Our Inverness Sales rep, Susan, sent us an email asking for a status update from us.  Uhhmm, we were waiting on a status update from her.  We walked out of her office telling her we needed $6,000 from Inverness to even consider building.  Somehow, it was lost in translation...

"Hi John and Kathy

I hadn’t heard back from you guys and wasn’t sure if you were able to get a hold of appraiser and ask the questions about the basement full bath and oversized lot value.

And then I thought to myself, “was it me supposed to get back in touch with them???”Yikes! I was so caught up and stressed out with trying to overcome the gap, I think I forgot what I said I would do. Old age creeping up on me…….

I know that you mentioned the additional $4000 in concession from Inverness. If I could get that approved, would it work and could we move forward?

I will certainly ask if that I knew that would solve the problem.

Forgive me for dropping the ball on this if I misunderstood you!

Please let me know what you are thinking!

Thanks

susan"

We have already started looking for other options.  One a 10 acre piece of property with an older home, that we could renovate to our desire.  My boyfriend is in love with the land.  I don't want to deal with a remodel with all the issues that they could find.  Hey, I watch HGTV... remodels are never an easy thing.  

The second option is going with Schumacher homes.  We found a .42 acre lot, the same size lot we were going to have.  We could purchase that and use Schumacher as our builder.  They are a bigger company and can give us the custom home that we desire.  We can change walls, exterior, anything we want.  The land is in a more upscale neighborhood with most homes around us being larger than what we plan to build.  In the hopes that will increase our appraisal and value.  We are going to an open house for the model we like, tomorrow, at a home under construction in the drywall stage.  Then Sunday we are meeting with them to price it all out.  They have a CAD system and can make changes right in front of your eyes.  The downside is things like landscaping and driveways, etc are not part of their base price.  Though their base price is well below Inverness for the same size home so it may equal out.  That is what we need to determine.  

There are pros and cons to redoing this entire process.  I really like our lot with Inverness and the location.  Our secondary location is closer to traffic and doesn't have the large trees in the back.  It does have a flat lot vs. the Inverness lot that slopes.  Ugh, the decision will be tough. 

So we let Susan know what our plans were and what we wanted from her.

"Hi Susan

Kathy and I are still deciding how to proceed.  As you can imagine, I am not happy about the appraisal.  Giving 16 thousand out of my pocket does not seem to be the smart thing to do.  If in 2 years I have to sell the house, I would be taking a HUGE loss!  All the houses you will be building around our house will be lesser value and smaller, so thinking that will bring down the value of our house.  I just don't see how the value of our home will increase.  I think it will actually decrease over the next few years.  If we were to take off every upgrade (except the basement and the garage), we could maybe get down to 314,000.  We are simply not willing to do that.  If we wanted a CHEAP home with no upgrades, we would have stayed with Ryan homes...  I think Tony is overstating the base cost of the house at 242,000 for the Fairborn area.  Since the base cost of the house is 232,000 in another area, in my eyes, I think he could come down some on the base price of the house.

The appraiser did get back with me.  He said he counted the bathroom in the basement as part of the basement estimate.  He did not give any value for the larger lot since he did not feel it increases the value of the house.

I was not too happy with those responses, but does not seem to be anything I can say about it...

When we last talked I had asked you to get with Inverness and see if they would be willing to go give $6,000 as opposed to the $2,000 they are offering.  If you could please do that, so when Kathy and I make a final decision, we have all the information.

We are currently talking with Schumacher homes.  I found a lot I like, that Kathy can LIVE WITH..  :)  We have a meeting with them on Saturday and Sunday to discuss different homes and different options.  Which means I will miss the beginning of the super bowl, so I am not thrilled about that.

As you know, I do not like to mess around and I like to get business taken care of.  We looked at numerous homes for sale in Fairborn and several that are of interest to us.  However, we would like to buy a new home and we would like to go with Inverness if we can work out the money issue.  I just don't want to buy a house and then not be happy for the next 10 years feeling I got the shaft. 

We will come see you next week.  After we talk, Kathy and I will make a decision and go from there. 

Also, Joe called me today and I let him know all the above info.

John"

Susan seemed to understand.  She loses out on a really nice commission if we go elsewhere.  We've already discussed our plan with Joe, our lender, and he will oversee the financing of whatever option we choose.  Not having to redo a ton of paperwork will be awesome.  

Susans reply:

"I very much appreciate the update. I totally understand how you feel and want to do whatever I can to get this back on track so we can start construction, if possible!

Please bear with me; I have a call in to Doug to fight for the extra $4000 needed."


We are expecting a snow storm starting tomorrow night.  I'm hoping it's not too big and our appointment gets canceled.  In the meantime, I am mentally designing and decorating two different complete houses in my head.  It's a bit stressful.

Fair or unfair

Our meeting with Susan was less than successful. I understand she's in a hard spot and I won't blame her, but we are annoyed, at best. 

Our appraisal leaves us $17k short. When asking about the appraisal and what we can do to get it changed, the answer was that the lender had already tried to fight it and it is what it is. So the question remains, why were we not informed and included in the process of this as it was clearly not successful. We were told we could contact the appraiser themselves to get the answers we needed. Our lender is on vacation in Florida and his assistant has dealt with all of this. We know nothing from them until Monday. From Florida our lender has agreed to pay an additional $1500 on our pre-paids on top of the $1000 he was putting in to closing costs. Though that $1500 doesn't help close the gap we face now. That comes later. 

Now this is when Susan starts to make excuses for the lackluster plan she's about to present. How costs of building have gone up. How the price of our plan went up 10k in January and we were lucky to get it in December. How everyone is losing in this deal. The lender is pitching in and Inverness is as well. She even blamed us for choosing options that are too fancy for the area. 

So here was her plan. We lose our good faith deposit, we were to get back $8000 at closing. We take our Guardian options out, $4000. Inverness pitches in $2000. Then all we have to pay is $3000. She lays it all out as if the $3000 is all we have to pay. Not bad, right?  EXCEPT that $8000 is OUR money too. AND we would still have to pay Guardian out of OUR pocket.  

When reminding Susan of this she made it sound like giving up any more than $2k would mean they made no profit. Susan is just doing her job and I know some stuffy guy in a suit is calling all the shots. It's just aggravating they aren't trying harder for a sale. 

Looking up profit margins on new home construction, most builders make from 7-9% on the sales price. That's after the sales commissions, financing fees, etc... That means Inverness has a net profit of $23-27k. We knew this going into the meeting. 

So we issued a very fair ultimatum. We asked that Inverness come up with another $4k and we would cut some options. Like the $1200 contrasting paint option, and all the other things we can do ourselves later. Then we would leave the rest as a down payment. 

Here is what I don't understand about all of this. If the cost of our house went up $10k, add in to that the cost of everything that added value. Like the basement and 3rd car garage. Take away the $15k incentive on upgrades. So our model, if purchased right now with no incentives would cost $302,000. Our appraisal is $314,000. That with EVERYTHING standard. The left over $12k will barely cover the level 1 flooring options throughout the house, and forget about granite in the kitchen. It seems to me their base pricing is a tad too high for the area if appraisals are going to come back like this. 

We left the meeting and drove around our town looking at other builders and lots. We cruised around looking at houses for sale. We sent a message to Susan asking when we could get our money back if we opt out. If we have to go another direction, we need to do it now. I hope we hear back by the end of day Monday. This needs to get solved. I think we are being more than fair for what we're asking. 

The Appraisal

Our lender emailed the appraisal to us so we could see it. I've never looked at one before so I had to google a few of the terms.

Our Sales Comparison Value is $314,000. That is our appraised value. As in, if the house were built, and we were selling it, that's what they think we could get on the market.

Our Cost Value is $329,000. This is the part that confused me. The cost value is what they deem a buyer would have to pay to build our house on a similar lot. Well DUH!!  That's exactly what we are doing!!  If they know it costs more to build how are appraisals ever at the right price?

From what I can see, they didn't give us credit for a finished basement in our square footage. Nor did they include our basement bathroom. It's listed as a 3br, 2.1 bath.  I'm not sure if it's normal to not be included in an appraisal, but one would definely put it on a sales listing when selling the house. They also gave us no credit for our lot. We are being compared to 3 other homes in our area, each sitting on lots half our size and without the wooded view we have.  Only one of which is even remotely similar. I get it. Our house is much bigger and nicer than anything around. But this is our current school district. We don't want to move out of it.

My boyfriend is already annoyed and looking at homes for sale in the area so he can be prepared to walk away.  Susan assures us she has a plan ready for us on Saturday. I feel bad she's working from home on her days off to help solve this. I just want to understand it all. Either the appraiser didn't do his job, or Inverness has to make some changes in their pricing.

The way I see it, if they cut off the premium lot price of 9k, they don't really lose anything. We just let them keep our down payment and its solved. Then I don't have to pick and choose what upgrades I have to lose, or walk away.

Stay tuned for Saturday's meeting.

The bad news I somehow knew was coming

It has been so smooth and easy up to this point. This morning we received a call from our lender to tell us the appraisal has come in $17k under our sales price!!  I was so afraid it was going to happen after reading about it in others blogs.

I am not sure what are options are at this point. We are meeting with Susan on Saturday to discuss them. 

What I think we can do is put in a complaint and have the appraisal redone. Another thing is if Inverness can work some magic and come down on price we can meet them somewhere in the middle. Well, not quite in the middle. Or a mix of all of the above. 

Now I'll stress about this until it's resolved. Until then, we are delayed from moving forward. Ugh!

Darby in the dark

I spent last night browsing Pinterest for ideas when building a house. I found a site that someone had put together listing all the regrets of the first time home builders in her community.

Most of them I had already read in the many blogs I follow. Things such as spending money on structural vs cosmetic.

One regret I found interesting is a lighting one. They regretted never having visited their model home in the dark to check the lighting. Once they moved into their home they found their lighting insufficient for the evenings. They would have added extra lighting had they known.

I took this advice to heart and drove out to the model home this evening at dusk. Luckily it's winter and that's at about 6pm, as Susan is about to leave. We arrived at 5:50pm as the sun was going down. It wasn't dark, but dim enough to need lighting inside. I went through the entire house and turned off all the lights. Susan is fantastic about letting us make ourselves at home.

The first thing I noticed was all the light switches I flicked off and on that seemed to do nothing. Note to self, walk through with the electrician so I know what switch belongs to what.

Second, the switch placement bothered me in many ways.  Some switches, and the thermostat, were placed in the middle of the wall where one would normally want to place art or photos. Those need to be moved to the edges of the walls.  Also, in the kitchen I had to go to four different switches to get all the lights off. One next to the refrigerator, next to the sink, next to the peninsula and in the nook. I want to have them all together.

We will need to get lamps for the great room. There is only one overhead light that shines down on the fireplace. We don't want to litter that tall ceiling with lights. Nor do we want to deal with changing a lightbulb two stories above us.

I have to say I agree with this tip. It is a definite must before building.

Houston, we have a problem

I took my normal route home from work and cruised by The Bluffs.

The model home is coming along  nicely. I think they plan on finishing by the end of February.

The crew was working on the Camden. The basement is dug out. I'm not sure if they have the footers in. I didn't want to disturb the crew.

My lot looks beautiful, as always. There are new green stakes all over. One in the front of my lot, right in the middle. I'm wondering what the green means.

Now here is where I begin to question everything. I drive up to Cathy & Johns lot. The forms are no longer lying all over. Yet, they aren't down in their basement area either. I look across the street at the spec house and the forms are up in their basement!!  What the heck?!

I came home and told the boyfriend about it. How can the spec house be moving along faster than a home already under contract?  We didn't know. It's not our house so maybe there were delays.

We decided to message Susan and just see what was going on. Her response surprised me. She told us she had been out there earlier in the day and she was just as surprised as we were. She messaged Jeff, the construction supervisor. His explanation was that the crew got confused. Uhmm, how does that happen?  The forms were sittin ON Cathy & Johns lot. It took MORE work to move them across the street to put up elsewhere. How does that happen?  Jeff has promised Susan that Cathy & Johns framing will be done first.

Needless to say, my boyfriend and I are looking at one another in bewilderment. Wondering if they screw something like this up, how are they going to get all the little intricate changes in our home right. I guess we are going to have to be on top of everything.

The Great Wall of Darby

This is the Great Wall in the Darby II model home. They have placed two huge art pieces up to decorate the space. I am not a fan of random art pieces. I like a more personal touch. So decorating that huge space became my first goal for this house. 

Being a huge fan of Pinterest, I scoured their wall decor ideas and found some arrangements I liked. 

I have been collecting pieces for my own arrangement. The final custom sign came in today. 

Now the look is complete. I just need them to build the wall so all the pieces have a place to go. 

New construction and schools

I have a question for those parents who have built in new developments. How is the school bussing dealt with?  Is there anything we need to do to get a bus route to our new development next school year?

We will be the third family in The Bluffs to build, and the only ones with school age children. We would really like to avoid having our kids walk to the entrance, which is on a very busy main road. 

If anyone one has any experience on this, we'd love your input. 

Meanwhile in The Bluffs,

Cathy and Johns

Spec house

Lot #9059

I just can't help myself

Even at the grocery store, I find myself eyeing things for the new house. They added these large letters in their decor section. It was a must have when I saw them.  My little stash just keeps on growing.

Re-visiting the Model

Every Saturday we have almost the same routine.  My boyfriend lets me sleep in.  We go out for lunch.  Then we drive out to The Bluffs to see what has happened that week.  Our last visit is always to the Darby II model in Huber Heights. 

Susan, our sales rep, keeps an office there.  She's waiting for the model home, in The Bluffs, to be finished to move over.

Each week we go with specific things in mind.  Where we want the intercoms, to measure out spaces for shelving, etc... 

Today my boyfriend just wanted to sit in the lower rec room (aka our office) and figure out where or if he wanted the tv mounted. 

My goal was to find all the switches for lights, where the outlets were and where I am going to house my utility closet.  Right now my pantry does double duty, but I'd like it to have its own space. 

While looking at the laundry room and where I want my shelving to go I thought about the laundry placement.  Right now the dryer is next to the linen closet and the washer is next to the opening for the utility sink.  We aren't getting a utility sink so that's just open space.  I will be putting shelving in to hold laundry baskets.  I was thinking it would be nicer to have the flat top of the dryer next to the shelving and the washer next to the closet, where my detergent will be.  It's something I'm going to have to ask Jeff about.  I'm not sure if it's a big deal or not to get plumbing moved before the build even begins.  My boyfriends concern is that it's already on the blueprints and probably can't be changed without have to re-draw them.  Hmmm... asking the question can't really hurt. 

It's days like today I think we need to stop visiting the model.  It seems each time we go one of us wants to change something. 

We did learn from Susan that they are waiting on some paperwork to get lot #9039 sold, just 4 lots down.  She is meeting with someone today at 2:30 to price out lot #9041 as well.  The sooner our neighbors get built, the better.  Once our street is done, the rest of the construction will be out of our way.  Susans goal is to get our street sold off by the end of summer, and the entire development is to be done over 6 years. 

Meanwhile, in The Bluffs, some lone worker is out in the freezing cold putting shingles up on the model home.  The gravel has been laid over the footers of the spec house.  The forms are still sitting at Cathy & Johns house.  Not sure if they are waiting for warmer weather or just until next week.  Lot #9059 has still not been dug.  I'm wondering if something delayed their build.  Our beautiful lot is just patiently waiting for something to happen to it.

Freezing in my kitchen

We sent Jeff (Construction supervisor) an email last night asking if he could walk the lot with us and explain what all the stakes were.  He got back to us this morning and we set an appointment for 11:30am.  My boyfriend drove from work and I met them from home. 

We had the kids with us as, according to Fairborn, it's too dang cold to get your butt out of bed and go to school.  I think the kids were okay with that. 

There is about 4 - 6 inches of snow on the ground, depending where you step, and the wind chill was about 20 below.  We wrapped ourselves up and climbed out of the car. 

While the kids jumped around in the snow and made snowballs, Jeff walked us up our future driveway to where our garage would be. 

All the tall stakes with pink flags were the property outline.  The back of the lot is all trees, and apparently he didn't want to climb back there to stake the back of it out.  So we can kind of eyeball it, but Jeff will push him to get some stakes up for us.

The short stakes with orange flags were the outline of the house and garages.  There is a slight slope at the back of the 3rd car garage, where we want a 10 x 10 concrete pad.  Jeff assured us they would be pushing back the dirt and grading it out flat.  He is digging our house a little deeper so he can flatten it out better.  The left side of the yard will be sloping and the right side will be flat.

There are also tall stakes with orange flags.   They tell the excavating crew where to dig.  They have to have 3ft out from all the walls to make room for the equipment to work on forming the basement walls. 

We checked out the boulders at the back of the yard and my boyfriend picked one out that he really liked.  After the final grading has been done, and IF their machinery can pick our huge boulder up, Jeff will have it moved to our front yard for us.  Our very own rock!

I imagined myself walking through our door into our breakfast nook, then into what will be my beautiful dream kitchen.  Then my numb fingers and painful toes reminded me that it was below zero and I needed to get my butt out of the kitchen and back to my car. 


*On a side note, there were forms sitting over at Cathy and Johns property.  It looks as though they are about ready to pour their basement walls.  The footers at the spec house were uncovered and sitting in the snow.  Lot #9059 still hasn't been dug, but the HVAC guys were at the model home putting in all the duct work. 

The Bluffs in the snow... Wait!! What?? OMG. January 7, 2015

It snowed last night and I wanted to drive over to The Bluffs to see how it all looked in the snow.

 I noticed the model home had their roof on and the house had been wrapped in whatever it is before siding goes on.  The windows had been installed, as well as the front door.  

I glanced down the street to #9059 and saw the tubing that was on the other properties when they did the footers. Which means they will dig within days. 

I drove past the model home, heading past my lot to Cathy and Johns place to get pictures.  This is my normal route. I start at the back and work my way to the front. 

The ground was white with snow. The trees were tranquil in the background. Such a peaceful sight. Then, something stopped me in my tracks. I slammed on the breaks and flew out of my door into the freezing cold. Lot #9043 was staked. OUR LOT had stakes!!! What??!!  No one said it was happening. 

I have no idea what most of the stakes are.  The ones that really stuck out were the tall ones with pink flags. They say property line right on them. I walked from one to the other with the biggest smile on my face. Our lot is huge. We even own huge rocks in the back. It's hilarious because we had asked for some. 

The feeling of knowing I'm standing where our house will be was just amazing. I stood in the middle of all the small orange stakes and tried to imagine what was going where. I seriously had no clue.  An email has been sent to Jeff to meet us for a walk through hopefully tomorrow. 

So, the other lots were forgotten for today. I can stalk them some more, tomorrow, on my day off. 

Pre-construction Meeting, aka Plan Review

We met Jeff Peyton today, our construction supervisor.  He came straight from overseeing the roofing going on to the model at the Bluffs. Snow is expected tonight, so they are in a rush to complete it. It's beyond freezing outside. I don't envy his job.

He took us line by line on our contract. Pointing out each change on our blueprints. They literally put everything on the blueprint. Even our small requests of not installing the pantry shelving but leaving it on site. It was extremely detailed. It even had the dimensions of cabinetry and my built-in in the mud room. I wrote down the dimensions of shelving so I could buy some baskets to fit them. 

He went over all the technical stuff you would never think of. Everything from where the piping goes for the sump pump, to the slope of the roof. 

He verified all of our color choices and selections throughout the house. He showed where all the outlets are slated to go, per code. But we could make changes with the electrician on site. 

He showed our lot plan. Showing where our home will be placed. The driveway placement had to change. We requested the curve of the driveway be on the front door side versus the 3rd car garage. Due to placement on the lot and the placement of utilities, they were unable to do so. Jeff said he would work personally with the cement guys to get the curve as close to the sidewalk as possible. It shouldn't be a problem. Due to pushing our house back to fit the lot, our driveway is 35 feet from sidewalk to garage door. I think we may need to think about a snow blower next winter. That's a huge driveway to shovel. 

Our backyard will be almost 69 ft from our back door to the back of our lot, and over 150 ft wide.  That's just huge!!  They will be grading and pushing back some of the dirt so the slope will be minimal. They want to keep some of it for drainage purposes. 

We will have 9 ft on one side of our house and a little over 8 ft on the other. Code requires at least 7.5 ft so over 15 ft spacing between the houses that will go up next to us. Probably more unless they squeeze a huge house onto their lots. Code requires the build to be at least 25 ft from the sidewalk and 30ft from the back lot line.  

We also found out we are tree owners. Our lot line falls back into the trees. My boyfriend was so excited about this that he went out to the site after the meeting to see if he could manage a tree fort for the kids. 

Lot Plan

Through the process he answered about 75% of our questions. The rest we asked after the plan review. We added some new ones as well. 

Some things We didn't like. The windows in the front of the house have grids. The windows added to the side do not. They are plain. They are the same size, just different styles. He said that was typical of a builders home.   They didn't have our 10 x 10 concrete pad behind the garage on the plan. He was working off of our 3rd change order, it was added to the 5th. Someone sent him the wrong one. Susan is currently going over the differences between the 3rd, 4th and 5th to make sure everything gets added correctly. 

Some things we liked. We get a 4 x 6 deck off of our breakfast nook for free. A deck was an option for an additional charge, but we want to put up our own using composite. Code requires one, or they would have had to put boards up blocking the exit for closing. They don't want to do that so now we have a mini deck until we build our own. There will be a white board posted at the front window, on site, so we can leave messages for the construction supervisor. All questions are to be answered within 24 hrs. The locks on our door will have construction keys during the build.  At closing, we are given the master key, which is tough to get in the first time. The tumblers will realign to the master key and make the construction keys unusable. They leave extras of everything, carpeting, brick, paint, etc....  The dimensions of our slide in stove are being sent to the granite guys so we have a perfect fit. 

We had to initial every page to show that we have approved of it all. Jeff was instantly a favorite of my boyfriends as he didn't require a date on anything but the last page lol. Susan has us fill it all in. 

At the end we exchanged numbers and emails. I smiled as I suggested some pictures sent our way, on occasion, would be great.  We discussed how we live close by and he encouraged us to stop by the site and check things out. Take pictures. Just don't get in the way. I assured him my lawn chair would be on the road watching it all happen lol. Once the cabinets and stuff are in the door will be locked, but Susan will have the key for us at the model home. He let us know that he tells the guys to lock up, but don't be shocked when they forget. 

He finished by giving us the top ten questions and concerns of home builders and their answers.  It covers communication with supervisor, communication with vendors, hairline cracks, water in the basement and on site, each stage of grading, sink holes, minor damage repairs vs replacement, double frame check, and a small list of common issues. 

Once the stakes are up and before they dig, Jeff will meet us on the lot to walk it. I am beyond excited for this all to begin. 

The Bluffs, as of January 4th

The big chill of Winter is bearing down on us this week. It was 50 degrees last night at bedtime. It's currently 34 with light flurries. By Wednesday, we'll be lucky to get out of single digits.  

The Bluffs on Trebein have several projects in the works. I wonder if Mother Nature will slow them down. 

The model home, The Hammond 

They are reaching the end of its framing stage. 

Lot #9046, The Bentwood, better known as Cathy & Johns house. 

They have laid down gravel on the footers. I really need to research house building to know what this is all really for. I'm assuming it's the base layer for pouring the basement concrete?

Lot #9049, The Pinehurst II, "spec" house

It has been dug out and the footers have been poured. A much larger basement than the Bentwood across the street.  From reading other blogs, I know the black tarps are for maintaining the temp for the concrete. 

Lot #9059, The Camden.

It's a ranch style home. Their lot is on the very edge of phase 1, and on another street. All by its lonesome.  They are staked out and scheduled to start next week. 

Then... It's our turn!!!  IF our appraisal comes back. I won't mind a delay, as we have asked for a late June closing. We even wrote it into our contract. What I worry is that the delay will be caused by a low appraisal. I really don't want to deal with that.  

We stopped by the Darby II model again today. Susan was just finishing a meeting with another family.  We walked into the door to, "You're about 25hrs too early for your meeting" lol. 

I really enjoy catching up on what's going on with Susan. It's their slow season, at least for the next month or so. She is in the process of selling off Lot #9039, though. I'm already thinking of house warming gifts for all my new neighbors. 

We went over our office set up in the upper rec room while we were there.  I think we need to change the location of our cable outlet in there. We will go over that with Guardian before we get to the pre-drywall. 

There is a lot to cover at our meeting tomorrow. I am starting to get so excited. 

Happy New Year

Wishing you all a happy and healthy New Year. This year already stands to be a very thrilling one for us.

 Susan gave us a call yesterday to schedule our pre-construction meeting. Or as she calls it, our plan review. We are scheduled to meet Jeff, our construction supervisor, on Monday at 3pm. Susan will be with us. She jokes, " I'll bring the alcohol!" Lol. She is just great and assures us that Jeff is very down to earth and easy to work with. 

I'll be spending the next few days going over many of your blogs, again, and getting questions written down. I don't want to miss a thing. This is pretty big, our forever home. I want it it be just right. 

That will all have to wait though.  There are more important things happening tonight. Go Ducks!!!