WE WERE ON A ROLL UNTIL YOU SAID "DECORATING"

The next day dawned somewhat brighter.  As we made our way to meet with Christen there was a newfound bounce in our step. We joyously handed her the pre-approval letter to a look of ‘I told you everything would work out’.  For once, I was glad someone else was right. Now came the fun part, she said. Floor plans! She handed us several in our size of choice – around 1,800 square feet.  Fortunately, we got to actually see some of them in person, which for someone who is exceedingly visual like me, was a huge help.  We saw some we definitely liked, but weren’t sold (no pun intended) on anything. Finally, she showed us a plan that used to be a show home and it had most everything we wanted – a bigger living space than any we’d seen thus far, a separate office, and minimal hallways (dubbed “wasted space” by my husband).  Even better news for us was the fact that this floor plan was being built currently and we would be able to see it in just a matter of days. We had some changes in mind for it, but minimal compared to other houses…or so we thought.

 Once we got to go in it (and when I say “in” I mean the studs were up so we were actually walking THROUGH the walls) we saw it was indeed what we were looking for, except for one thing. The master bedroom windows faced the side of the house with the not-so-attractive view of your neighbor’s stockade fence. Lovely.  So, with a little tweaking by the hubs (he should really consider a career as an architect after all he did to make it work) we managed to put the master bedroom on the back of the house and move the bathroom to the previous bedroom locale. Whew. After about 4,527 changes back and forth with the architect, (who I am sure has us under a less-than- flattering name in her email address book), including the addition of a third car garage - an entirely different bag of issues- we finally had a floor plan we were IN LOVE with on a lot that was so big they joked about including a goat in our purchase price. Booyah. But then, things took a turn for the worse. For my husband, at least.  “What’s next?!” I asked Home Helper with eagerness. “Design meetings!” she said with sheer glee.  Next to me I hear a slight, painful groan coming from my husband. He does NOT look excited. Great. Now I am beginning to see what people meant when they said this process would be a marriage tester. It was already a patience KILLER. This was the part that I was most looking forward to…and the one my husband dreaded with the passion of a ticked off hornet.  Let the fun begin….