Where do we go from here?

So now that it's been decided that we are going to build onto the dairy, how are we going to bring that dream to life?

Well, apparently, according to a mortgage broker friend of Nick's, we are on the absolute MOST complicated path possible to home-ownership.

Awesome.

Why would we want to do things the easy way?

What would be easy:

• Find a home and buy it
• Find a piece of land and build on it
• Find a unicorn

What's not easy:

• Building a home ONTO an existing structure
• The existing structure being made out of solid concrete and rebar
• The existing floor plan cannot be changed or moved

Since we decided to forgo the easy route, we have quite a big list of to do's in front of us and we are slowly checking each item off the list, along with me realizing I am a very difficult person to please. Sorry everyone. Just kidding. Siento no siento - that's the saying in the Baucum house. 

Our giant list of to do's:

Completed tasks:

• Research and find a structural engineer to certify the home is structurally sound to build on AND can support a 2nd story
• Try not to laugh at the guy on the phone who told me this would cost $35,000
• Find and hire a structural engineer who we won't have to name our second born after
• Hire a survey company to do something with the elevation / flood plane - we have to do this to make sure we build above the flood level (something like that, I was not in charge of this step of the process). All I know is if it floods, I'll thank God our floors are remaining concrete and break out my squeegee.
• Research architects
• Almost cry at cost of architects (you want to charge me WHAT per square foot?????)
• Google "how to design a home by yourself using the internet, a pencil and graph paper"
• Read somewhere on the mighty internet that a home designer can do the plans for a home at a fraction of the cost
• Research home designers
• Get irritated that there's a lack of home designers down here that do anything other than a beachy cottage vibe - keep your starfish shells and coral away from my house, please :)
• Find a few home designers that I can stand
• One design company is in Wyoming and apparently Texas is too far away for them - fine, don't take my money
• Interview home designers (Nick had to do this task with his mom, along with me on the phone, since I'm chained to a desk and my current prison sentence only allows for a 60 minute meal break)
• Talk to Nick about the designers we interviewed and decide on one guy 
• Get excited that our decided home designer will also be our builder (and pray for him that he has to deal with me from start to finish)
• Send lengthy email with 914 questions to our decided home designer
• Include link to Pinterest board with 100+ (and growing) pins of our ideal home (how did people design anything before Pinterest???)
• Realize how grateful I am to have a husband like Nick who is on board (99% of the time) with my design aesthetic and is fully supportive of letting me design my dream home - his only requirement: home cooked meals and desserts come out of my fancy kitchen every day - DONE AND DONE
• Hire designer (and silently cheer that he wasn't scared away by my lengthy email signaling possible neurotic and OCD problems)

To be completed tasks:

• Apply and get a pre-approval letter from our new bank
• Receive contract / MOU for blueprints
• Put cost into excel spreadsheet in a fancy new tab called "Dairy Home" - super creative I know
• Plan out our dream home with the home designer / builder
• Try to get the plan right the first time so we don't end up paying for multiple sets of blueprints
• Cry and stress that I've made the right decisions
• Send approximately 1,750 more emails to our home designer / builder
• Get final blueprints and approve
• File our 2015 taxes
• Apply for construction loan / mortgage (we will be rolling our construction loan into a mortgage with the same bank, so less fees, less hassle, etc.) 
• Receive contract for building our home
• Tell everyone we know that we cannot go to your wedding, your birthday, go out to eat, buy new clothes, participate in bake sales / fundraisers, travel to see you - until the house is complete and then we'll have you over for dinner but will you please bring the food / booze because we've now spent all of our money?
• Receive schedule / task list from builder
• Pray that it is super detailed and organized
• Possibly re-do schedule / task list to suit my brain and email to home designer / builder
• Pray he sees this as endearing and not irritating (it's a 50/50 shot)
• Start building
• For once in my life, pray for no rain 
• Install hidden cameras on the land to spy on construction (just kidding, maybe, that's expensive - I have my mother-in-law for that)
• Find reasons to visit the ranch to check on progress
• Pick out finishes, appliances (just wait till you see the stove I am getting / want to get / oh please to everything that is holy pray to get), furnishings, paint colors, etc.
• Cry and stress that I've made the right decisions
• Pick up every piece of furniture I can find at garage sales, estate sales, on the side of the road, at antique shops, at flea markets, etc. and make something beautiful out of it
• Spend weeks planning where art / dead animals will hang on the walls downstairs since, well, concrete walls and where something gets hung is where something will stay. For life. Or until Nick buys himself an impact drill. Christmas gift anyone??
• Finish house (these two words seem so simple)
• Move into house
• I know there is more involved in the whole "finishing" and "moving into" the house, but at the point we're at, that's the gist of what I know right now

So yeah, that's where we are at right now. Seems so simple right? Honestly, as difficult as this is and is going to be, I don't think we'd change any part of it (minus the incorrect way I filed our taxes last year). Our life has been about embracing the chaos. Simple is boring, let's have some fun!