It's A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood...

Audrey and I took a drive through our new neighborhood today after we dropped Natalie off to school. It couldn't have been a more beautiful morning. The sun was shining. There was a slight breeze, and just a few fluffy clouds.

I am really excited about moving into this neighborhood just as much as moving into a new house. Some of our closest friends live down the block. There were many people out walking their dogs, taking a morning jog, and playing with their kids in the community playground. Our old neighborhood was nothing like this.

It will be nice to have a sense of community, sidewalks for my kids to safely ride their bikes, and many friendly faces to see every day.

Here are a few photos of the neighborhood!

Hopefully you will get to visit us when we get moved in.

A New Beginning

As most of you know, we have sold our little yellow house and are now vagabonds. We have been living with Jeff's family for 3 weeks and 3 days. Mike and Jane have graciously opened their house to us while our new home is being built. I am setting up this blog so that everyone can check out the construction of our new house. This is an interesting journey to say the least, and I am excited to share it with everyone.

First, let me get you up to speed.

Two weeks ago we got a call from the builder - "You really need to build a deck because a patio is not going to work because of safety codes. That will cost you an extra $1500!"

Jill replied to said builder, "Ok, a deck is fine, but we are not going to pay for it. You will eat the cost of the deck because you should have known about the safety code issues a long time ago. We pick out the lot and the model of home to build in April." Suck on that....I didn't really say that.

Builder in reply to my nice but firm response - "Well, we can absorb the cost of the deck, but you will still have to pay $300."

Jill & Jeff's reply - " We will not be giving you one more dollar for anything, either make this work or we will buy a house down the street in the same neighborhood."

Builder (with tail between it's legs) - "Well, we had the land resurveyed. We can build you a patio as requested in the first place"

Round 1: The Durr Mafia

As my brother Andy would say, "Don't mess with the Durr, or the Durr will MESS with you!"

With that drama behind us, we met with the ground's supervisor on Monday, Sept. 15. Guy is really great. He eased our minds about the patio, and is very easy to work with thus far. They broke ground on Thursday, and already have the footers poured! We are off to the races! I will post a new entry each week with pictures to keep you informed. Feel free to leave comments any time.

Love you all,

The Durr Mafia