The early bird gets the worm.... NOT!!!

So after much hard work and sense of urgency my husband and I were able to get all of our paperwork together and we got our loan approval back in two weeks.....

We were on cloud nine all day and anticipating the day we break ground.  Well I think the builders got wind of our excitement through email and they called to let us this.....

That although we are ahead of the game with all of our paperwork it doesn't change the delivery date....

I about dropped to the floor.  Talk about bubble bursting!!!!!!!!  We were so excited at the thought that it would speed up the process, but apparently they go off the purchase order date. I would understand if it was the other way around and we were behind, but still.... all that hard work and now we have to wait in the wings until everyone else ahead of us gets their stuff in order!!!

So now although everything is in and submitted, we have to sit back and wait and watch the days go by until we break ground :(

Clearing hurdle 1!

We woke up to great news this morning..........! 

Our loan has been accepted and approved without any drama!!!! 

I have heard nightmare stories with other people about the loan officers needing more paper work and time to get approval, but ours almost seemed too easy!

Now the next step is waiting on the permit request.  Hopefully that will come in the next week so we can get this party started!!!

Survey says..... two thumbs up!

When Chris and I made our decision on the Palmetto Grove house, we based our decision soley on the floor plan....

I know what you are thinking, so here let me say it for you......

WHAT?!?!?!?! Who does that?!?!?!

Today we had the chance to go out to another community in East Orlando to check out a Palmetto Grove that is ahead of construction.  Although there is no drywall up yet, we got an idea of what our home will look like based off of the beam placements. 

We could not be happier with our decision and cannot wait until we break ground!!!!  The one room we are most excited about is the upstairs bonus room.  We gave up having an upgraded master suite because we would rather have the additional entertaining space!

After seeing what our home will look like, we left giving this decision two big thumbs up!

Design.... not on a dime!

My favorite shows to watch lately is basically anything on HGTV so it was only predictable I was looking forward to this day.......

We had our appointment with the design center yesterday, and I have to say..... I love my house already and we haven't even broke ground yet!!!!!!!  Our design coordinator made it very stress-free and helped guide us to our decisions.  She noticed early on our style and her oppinions were very beneficial.

For our kitchen cabinets we originally chose this combo

BUT.... after going to Rooms to Go to look at furniture an interior designer mentioned she saw a pink undertone.  Right away my heart started to race and the last thing I wanted my kitchen to look like was and old Florida pink kitchen from the 80's. 

Well, originally we wanted a nice cherry cabinet, but it was a little out of our budget.  After reviewing our decisions, and doing some research on kitchen remodels, we heard your kitchen gets torn apart, it's impossible to live in, and is very expensive. SO, we made the decision to get what we wanted now at what is more affordable than later.... Sooooo, this is our combo for our kitchen

And I LOVE IT!!!!!!

**We will have black appliances which will compliment the little black specs in the granite; and the cabinets will be upgraded to 42"**

Next, we designed our guest bathroom......

The tile to the right is more of a creme, (the picture doesn't do it justice) which will go around the walls.  The little brown squares just above is what's called a "listello", basically a border, will help add a visual  and give more character to the shower; you can see the grout we chose, as well.  The counter top is a formica granite looking.  (we decided since we wont be using it that much, we can upgrade down the road to real granite for cheaper than what the builder was quoting us. )

Next, our island oasis, daily retreat from reality, our master bathroom!!  I wanted to go for a very soothing, spa like feel.  We went with the his and hers sinks, a soaking tub with jets and a walk in shower.  We are extending the cherry cabinets to our bathroom and topped it with a darker granite called Ubatuba

Our set up will look like the photo below, with a similar wall tile and floor tile.

(this is the design center)

Our listello will be these colors

(which is a mixture of glass and slate)

BUT.....instead of checkerboard, they will be in this pattern....

We were lucky our appointment was on the day it was.  They had just changed their carpeting options, so we were able to get a nicer quality carpet that used to be an upgrade 4, but we got it at an upgrade 1, saving over half the cost of its original price!!!!

We are so excited about our decisions and can't wait to see it all finished!!!

Sold!!!!!

We took the dive into first time home buying!!!  We met with Ryan Homes yesterday and signed our purchase order!  We are so excited to share this adventure with our friends and family.  After much deliberation on the lot selection we are thrilled with the one we chose. 

We are walking distance to the community pool, have 50 year old oaks that will provide great shade and landscaping and we will be the house at the T-intersection of the street.... no staring at "joe schmoe" tinkering on a car every day!

We got to put the sold sticker on our lot (which you can see in the photo). Our new chapter remains unwritten... join us as we take the pen to the paper and start the new chapter of our lives!

Decisions

Our house hunting began in 2010, spending endless nights looking on remax.com and watching HGTV for hours.  Ready and willing to take the dive last year, we were faced with the challenge of repairing our credit, we set our minds to it and conquered our scores.  One evening last July, our good friends Ryan and Jenn came home and shared their excitement about the Historic Winter Garden area and the new development named Covington Chase.  Out of pure curiosity and enjoying our day off, Chris and I drove out to that area the next day.  Immediately we understood their excitement and fell in love with the area, too.  Although the idea of new construction was definitely appealing, we still wanted to explore our options of pre-existing homes.  We explored short sale options with crayon decorated walls and houses that would need complete remodels.  Needless to say, considering what the developer was offering brand new was just as comparable and competitive to what was existing and what we would have to upgrade on our own.