I'm back...again.

Yea, I'm back...again. A friend of mine just started a new blog the other day, and after reading it, I decided to start posting again on mine. I guess after reading the new blog, it took me back to the beginning when I started mine and made me remember why I started writing in it to begin with. So, here I am again.

It has become quite a busy time in my life and the life of my family recently. My wife started a new job at the end of May, and she was/is very excited about. She needed a change and this job came along at just the right time and her outlook was good. There have been some bumps along the way though. My wife currently works in Annapolis, which is about 1 1/2 hours, on average, away from where we live. When she was first hired, she was told that her new store was slated to open mid August at the latest, which would mean that she would only have to commute about two months before she was in her new store setting up. Difficult to deal with, but an acceptable drawback given the future prospects for my wife.

Then, the store's opening got pushed back to the first week of September due to some sort of issues at the construction site. Right around the same time, the other stores in the same complex opened. Then the opening got pushed back again, this time to October 6th. That would mean my wife would have to commute to Annapolis almost 4 months, including the first month our kids are in school. Keeping our eyes on the prize, we pushed along hoping that the opening would get moved ahead, which is always a possibility.

Now, there are rumblings that the opening is getting moved to as late as November 12th, which is the latest the company opens stores. If it doesnt open then, it wont open till February. Obviously, something will have to be done before then, as the bending point of the family will have been passed long before.

In other news, the house is moving along through the first stages of the program we are following. I think we are on step 4 or so out of 9. We have to get bids for everything and submit them with our budget, so that everything can be looked over by underwriting to see if we go forward. So far, all is looking good and, fingers crossed, we might be able to break ground by the mid to end of September. We are all excited about the journey we are on with the house, and cant wait for it to move along a little further. However, it is not without its bumps as well.

You see, the program we are doing allows us to build a much bigger house than we would normally be able to by giving us guidance along the way, not requiring a large down payment, and eliminating the General Contractor. That last item alone can save as much as 10-20% of the total cost of the house. In this program, the General Contractor on the house is therefore filled by the buyer, which in this case would be ME.

Being the GC on a house can be a time consuming task, and although it saves a ton of money in the long run and I look forward to doing it wholeheartedly, it eats up an equal amount of time. My wife and I will also be doing things on the house ourselves to save even more money, which is also going to take time. Time which I dont currently have with the way my life is arranged. Which is why I have had a splitting, nail-biting headache for the past 5 days. I have to make a decision that I hate, but have to if things are to continue.

Well, it's getting late and I have to go to work in 8 hours after being off on vacation for a few days. I'll write more after work.....