Catch'n up

I have been thinking about this blog and wanting to post updates for quite some time. To be honest, I have not even been to this site since my last post which I thought was some time in October. Turns out it has been a lot longer than I remembered.

Well, I have a good excuse... or at least a good story. On top of that, I've started to question whether or not this blog is even a prudent endeavor. By that I mean, is it wise to publicly share a home building project with the world. With Google Street View and Maps, I already feel like some lines could be too easily crossed. I want a certain amount of privacy for myself and my family. What I have decided is this: I will set some boundaries for what I am going to share. The intent of this blog is to "share the experience", but with some discretion on the details.

This "discretion on the details" is actually part of my excuse for the absence in posting updates. While I was negotiating with the owner, I realized that it was probably better to keep my cards close to the chest. I didn't think that the land owner had found this blog and was keeping tabs, but there is no sense in taking that risk during negotiations. I thought it was better to "go dark" until the deal was done. Coinciding with back-and-forth negotiations with the land owner, was another turn of events... I lost my job.

Now I imagine most of you realize what that means when you are trying to close on a property. I disclosed to my lender what had happened and they naturally killed the deal. In the end everything has worked out. We still were able to buy the property (with a little creative financing), and I started my own Java/Rails/Oracle/MySQL/Web strategy software consulting business. This really has been my excuse. I am very busy. Good busy. This sheds a bit more light in needing some time and again; discretion on the details.

So where are things today? Well, we closed on the property at the end of 2009. We just received the preliminary design options from the architects last week. We were blown away! They did a fantastic job. Our next step is to pick one of the three design options and start to make choices on space usage and design details. Actually, we probably have some other higher priority tasks.

The first will be to finish remodeling our house and put it on the market to sell. I've been remodeling the house pretty much since the day I bought it back in 1998. Specifically, I need to finish rebuilding the deck, which has been on hold since I almost took my thumb off when trying to reset the cellar door. The entire house needs a coat of paint, and the downstairs bathroom needs an updated floor and vanity. This is not exactly the best time to be selling a house, but our neighborhood, despite having 300 something active listings, actually has held it's value over the last 2 years.

Second, we may need to have some trees removed from the new property. We have two 92 inch diameter live oaks on the property. They are both being somewhat choked from light by an abundance of spanish moss and competition from at least three water oaks. Our architects warned us that the water oaks could be the first trees to come down in a storm. That option has been confirmed by a landscape architect (who is a family friend) as well as the County Planner. As much as I hate the thought of removing any trees, it may be that it is in the best interest of the trees we have if a little thinning is done. It should make all those reading this blog feel better to know that I am going to first seek the option of the county forester before taking any actions.

That is where things are today. I'm sure that I will remember some interesting details as I start to become active again with this blog.