The Wind Didn't Blow Very Hard

Last Friday I said something like, "Over Labor Day weekend, we'll go wherever the wind blows." Well, I slept more this weekend than I have in the past month. I looked at my personal allergy forecast from pollen.com this morning and I saw why I slept all weekend. I have had a headache for about 4 days straight. Ragweed and grass is at 11.5 on a 12 point scale. I am a wreck. Needless to say, I have no pictures to add today. I will say that I think that Rob and I came up with a firm plan for housing. Let me give you a little background, for those of you who don't know our constant dilemma. Eight years ago we moved into a trailer that my dad had on his property. He took out a $20,000 loan that was used to get the trailer set up and legal (spetic tank, electric, impact and building permit fees to the county, survey, new carpet, new bath tub, etc). We paid that off over 5 years. Since then we have lived rent free (we do, though, pay property taxes - about $200 / year). As great as rent free sounds, bear in mind that we have no foundation which leads to multiple evacuations during tornado season, and 4 people are crammed into 950 square feet. So our choices have always been: 1) stay and build a house at my dad's 2) move somewhere else into a pre-exisiting house 3) move somewhere else and build. If we choose 2 or 3, we leave behind the $20,000 that we put into the lot and we leave behind any value that we might get from the property on a loan application. But if we choose 1, we have emotional issues (as in, is this really ours, are we living under my father's shadow) and the property isn't really big enough for what we want to do. We still have to live next door to my dad, so if we want to do anything other than just build a house there, we will have to take into account his perspective. We want goats, horses, and chickens. I don't think that would exactly thrill my dad... But when I was talking to him about our farming plans and how that wouldn't work on the hill, he said that there is some property that is behind us that is owned by a guy that told my dad he is in Mississippi now and never plans to come back to TN. If we could buy that 8 acres, we could have our livestock there. Long story short, unless something changes, we are going to try to buy that land and build on our existing site. Just this minute I found a web site with our house plan on it! We love this house!! http://www.theplancollection.com/house-plans/home-plan-5080 We are going to take the washer and dryer out of the Master Bedroom and put it in the dining room -- I saw this cool thing in the Martha Stewart magazine that looks like a buffet type cabinet, but when you open the cabinet doors there is a dryer and front loan washer in it. If you don't love it, don't tell me. I love it and have worn out the magazine where we first saw it. When you throw the magazine down on the table, it just opens to the page of this plan because I have looked at it so much -- page 84. I'm in love with it. Now I just have to manage not to kill my husband before I can get it built... He has been on my ever lasting nerve lately, but that is another story for another day...