Saturday Work Day

My motto right now is every little bit we do brings us one step closer to building our house.  We received letters this week about getting our course of construction insurance.  I called around and found the company we are going with, then I found out we should not buy it until about the 7th of July (more delays).  It looks like we will not be starting the houses until after July 15th.  I keep reminding myself that God is sovereign over this adventure and He has the perfect day for us to start building our homes. 

Debbie sweeping.

We worked a little bit on our properties this Saturday.  We had to fence around the oak trees, find the corners of our lots, and clean up around the properties.  It was great to see everyone working together.  It was very hot. 

Jacob and Michael helping to fence in the trees.

John pounding in a post.

Maria, Leticia, and Debbie

Our new tools for the house.

Debbie with her new pick axe.

Deena's trees fenced in.  The big tree is going to be removed.

 Everyone worked together moving lumber, so we could fence around this tree.

The tree close to the road is going to be removed.

The bathrooms arrived this week.

Trees on Debbie's property fenced in.

Debbie's property after she cleaned off the house site.

House Elevations

One thing we got yesterday was the front and back elevations.  We were very excited to see how our house will look.  The houses are going to be craftsman style.   It is incredible what God has given us in these homes.  They are going to be a beautiful when they are done.  We can hardly wait to get started.  

Debbie's House- the front elevation 3 bedroom with attached garage.

Deena's and John and Tricia's house- the front elevation 4 bedroom with detached garage.

Work day and Pre- Construction Meeting

We finally had our pre-construction meeting this morning.  We signed our purchase agreements.  We got our tool lists and met our construction forman.  It was great to see that everyone is excited to get started on the house.  We did not get our start date.  We are hoping that we will start June 30th.  We did get our work hours.  Saturdays we will work from 8 am to 6 pm.  Sundays we will work from 9:30 am to 5 pm.  This will only add up to 35 hours, which means we need one person every week working with us for at least 5 hours or we have to come mid week to make up the 5 hours. We are limited by the city what hours we can work on the weekends.

We got our blueprints for the house.  It is so exciting to see what the elevation of the house will look like when it is complete. 

 Deena signing her purchase agreement.

 Debbie signing her purchase agreement.

 John and I signing our purchase agreement.

Before we went to our pre-construction meeting, we went and cleaned up the street and the sidewalks. 

 David working on the street.

 Jacob cleaning up his lot.

Michael working in front of his lot.

Ian sweeping in front of our lot.

Deena picking up trash.

Debbie clearing leaves from in front of our lot.

Pat (Debbie's helper) sweeping.

John sweeping in front of our lot.

We are having another work day next Saturday.  We are going to fence off the trees and clean up a little more.  Please be praying that all the paperwork that is holding us up will be completed, so that we can get started this month.

Neighborwork Week

Just got a flyer in the mail today.  We are going to start cleaning up our lots this Saturday from 9-10am.  Then we will go some place else to have our meeting.  Not sure how much we will get done this Saturday, but it is exciting because it means we are getting closer to starting. I asked if we could bring other people to help clear the lots. They said no, but we will be looking for help soon. 

Pre-Construction Meeting

We came home from the beach to find a letter about our next meeting.  We are having our pre-construction meeting next Saturday, June 9th at the site.  We will get our blue prints, tool list, sign documents, and meet our site supervisor.  This is the one we have been waiting for.  We are finding out our start date.  Yeah!! Yeah!! Yeah!!  I think we might actually start building by the end of June.

I got me forms from the USDA last Saturday.  Signed them and sent them back.  Debbie still had not received her forms as of Tuesday.

Forms from the USDA

John and I came home from our vacation yesterday to find out the USDA has started to send out eligibility paperwork to the families.  (This is not an approval, just stating that we are eligible and requires our signature.) Deena has gotten her, but Debbie and John and I have not received our paperwork (we are the only two families that have not received our paperwork).  I called the USDA this morning to find out when a check we wrote back in February will be cashed.  She told me that they were just starting to process the paperwork on the last two families.  Our check will a be sent to out today. So, I am not sure when we will get our paperwork. 

Other news: 

The Dept. of Real Estate said it will not approve our HOA until mid June.  This push back our start date to late June.

We have our next meeting scheduled approx. June 7th. 

Prayer Requests:

The Dept. of Real Estate will approve our HOA soon.
Debbie and John and I would receive our eligibility paperwork will arrive soon.
Peace and contentment while we wait for the start date.

Escrow and Insurance Meeting

Well, tonight we had our escrow and insurance meeting.  It was fun, because we got to ride together.  We had many laughs before, during, and after.  We had to introduce ourselves again. So now Debbie and Deena have a better idea of who their neighbors are going to be.  John and I met our neighbor at the first meeting.  We signed and filled out some escrow paperwork.  We went over our CC&R's for the HOA.  We went over the title options.  We did not get to the insurance yet.  We are still looking at mid June for the start.  Our loans have not yet been approved, because our HOA has to be approved by some government official and we can not progress until our loans are approved.  Please pray that we will get our loans approved soon.