Tiffany Dionne...Party of Five

OMG...where do I start?  It's been crazy these past few months.  We've had a few trips...the kids just finished up fall sports...I'm wrapping up a busy wedding season for my cake business...AND we're finishing up the house! Here's a few quick updates: 1.  Our beloved sales rep Emma has left the building.  She left on good terms but we're sad to see her go.  She was so kind and laughed at all of our "house stalking" escapades.  We're creepers...what else can I say.  She found humor in that and loved it.  Our new contact is nice too, but I'm kind of bummed that Emma won't be around to see the final home that she helped us with. 2.  We got an offer!  We were getting scared because it was getting closer to our closing date and we hadn't received an offer yet.  There were about 6 other houses for sale in our neighborhood...ours being the largest...and the activity was really quite sad.  We actually had more showing than the other homes

I'm so excited to announce that things are moving along!  We finally got the green light from our loan officer and our foundation has been poured.  The workers will be working on sewage drainage stuff (I guess that's what you call it) this week.  We walked the lot with our PM a few days ago.  He did a great job explaining how our lot will most likely end up looking.  I'm a visual person and I just wasn't getting it before his explanation.  All I saw was the foundation of our new home sitting in what I'd describe as a huge bowl.  For the life of me I couldn't understand why we wouldn't need a sump pump.  So, basically, our lot will be filled in with dirt from surrounding lots and leveled off.  A home should be built on a strong foundation. Everyone taking a peek. We're making a few small changes to the layout.  Nothing that will require a change order, but will make our house a little different.  Because of the way our house sits the

After weeks of waiting, and biting our nails...like SERIOUSLY I have no nails left...we heard from our Loan Officer.  And the verdict is (drum roll, please)... We have the green light to move forward!  I could have screamed when I heard the news.  I was fully prepared to hear we couldn't do it, or we needed a bazillion other documents.  I've been working on this whole "positivity breeds positivity" kick lately.  That mindset really works.  She's sent the blue letter over to Ryan Homes telling them everything is ay-okay.  SQEEEEEEEE! So now we wait for them to break ground, which should be sometime next week.  It was originally planned for this Friday but that's ok.  I'm just overjoyed that we can move forward.  If all goes well, we should be in our new home before Thanksgiving! Sorry for the short post, but that's all I got.  I'll leave you with a picture of our model home, which is pretty much what our home will look like. River Oaks Mod

Ever taken a trip to the Lowes tile department?  Did you feel like the walls were closing in around you?  I often wonder how many divorces take place because of fights that broke out on those aisles.  It was time for us to make our flooring selections and since I'm keeping it 100% real with y'all, I was scared shitless!!!  We had a conservative figure of $10K in mind.  Did I say conservative??? We arrived at our flooring appointment a little early (only about 10 minutes because we're very punctual people).  I feel like my time is precious and others' time is equally important so we avoid being late at all costs.  Our flooring rep (FR) didn't seem very excited to see us.  She greeted us with pleasantries that seemed a bit...er...umm...forced.  I could see steam coming from hubby's ears so I continued to smile and remain as upbeat  as possible.  Apparently this office was just taken over by her company and the previous company still has all of it's samples i

Yesterday we had our meeting with our Loan Officer (LO).  It was a very informative, yet stressful meeting.  Partly because we didn't bring all of the documents that we should have.  I asked dear hubby several times if he had his papers together.  "Trust me.  I know what I'm doing.  I've done this several times before.  Just trust me woman."   Umm hmm ...He said ALL of that to me.  But guess what?  Guess who didn't have what they needed?  Not this chic!  Let's just say someone kept getting the side-eye during this meeting. The good news is there's no doubt that we qualify.  The not so good news is there may be a slight delay in what we hoped to do.  Our LO explained that you can only have one FHA loan on a home in the same area.  Our new home is being built literally three minutes from where we live now.  If it were in another state this wouldn't be an issue.  So, we can either wait to sell this house before we proceed with our build (which mean

We stopped by to meet with our Sales Representative (SR) on Sunday, July 26th.  We totally only planned to discuss a few options we wanted to change and sign a contingency contract.  We had our eyes on two lots, mostly flat lots with the walk-out basement option.  We were really hoping for a flat lot because we're entertaining the idea of building a pool in the future.  Before I could process what was happening we were signing a contract to secure our lot.  Oh shit!  What did we just do?  We don't even have an offer on our house yet.   Are we flippin' cray cray? Us on our lot making it official. Our SR was amazing and discussed our concerns and several possible situations with us.  I left feeling a little more confident about our decision.  To say I love our lot is an understatement.  We'll only have a neighbor on one side.  SWEET!!!  It's directly in front of the cul-de-sac that my friend lives on.  I'll have peace of mind knowing I can watch the kids whi

Ok, so we didn't go to Rome the city.  It was suggested by a friend that we visit a new subdivision called River Oaks.  Her family just built there and we were discussing the layouts of our homes.  I may have mentioned that if we  EVER  built again I'd make a few changes.  I told her we weren't in the market to build because we currently live in a Ryan Homes Victoria (not to be confused with the Victoria Falls), that was built in 2008.  It's a beautiful home with vaulted ceilings and an open foyer. What we didn't know at the time was how much of an energy sucker those pretty ceilings and foyer are.  We also never realized how the layout of our home wasn't very functional for our family.  I mean, it doesn't really leave much room to grow (not that we plan on growing).   I'm not saying it's not a good home, not at all! A few weeks ago I convinced the hubby to go visit the model home.  The model, called the Rome, was absolutely stunning.  It doesn'