Last spring, The Man and I bought a lot which would put us safely within the boundaries of the high school The Boy was supposed to go to before the district abandoned the HFA program at his middle school.

It was a convergence of necessity and desire. We needed to move, and The Man has always wanted to build a house from scratch, having remodeled and flipped many. We sold our house, late last summer, and moved into a rental. We contracted with a company to clear the lot so we could build.

Unfortunately, the company we allowed on our land took several months, much longer than the promised 6 days, and charged us over double what was a fair price, doing many things on the lot that were not only unapproved, but in direct opposition to what we requested. Needless to say, this negatively impacted our budget and our timeline.

We had originally hoped to be moved in by March. We began framing in March, and luckily from that point forward, work moved quickly. The Man has worked tirelessly, doing much of the work on his own, and as he says himself, he’s “not 25 anymore!”

We are now hoping to get our Certificate of Occupancy within the next week and a half, and move into our new home. And while the end of a project like this can be overwhelming with the number of decisions and dwindling funds in the budget, we have a home worth half again as much as our old home, and it is paid for – no mortgage. Just another with-hard-work-dreams-do-come-true story, one I’m thankful (ecstatic) to be a part of.