Posted by parsonse (My Page) on Fri, Jul 27, 12 at 11:46 Congrats dutty!!! I hope things dry out quickly for you so you can hit the ground running soon! Energy rater, we're in Murfreesboro, TN, about 30 miles east of Nashville. My husband and I are both from this area and since we're building on property that's been in the family for 30+ years, we don't plan on ever selling so yes, we are investing in doing what we can to make this house as energy efficient and tight as possible within our budget. If that means I don't have cabinets installed in the mud/laundry room right away, then so be it! Closing is this afternoon followed by a meeting with the builder and excavator to situate the house on the lot so we can pour footings next week! Hoping to be in by Christmas... Hello Parsonse, I am located a couple of exits down from you off the Sam Ridley exit. Where exactly are you building in Murf. and with what builder?

Wow....you guys have my sympathy! We bought our land in the Fall of 2005 and then spent about a year working with our architect, making all our material selections, getting all the permits in order, etc. Spent about another year interviewing builders and eliminating all of them after coming very close to signing on the dotted line with two different ones. After two very frustrating years, we were about to give up and put the land up for sale when our neighbors advised us to contact the builder who built their house, an Amish contractor who had so much business from referals that he never advertises and has his own crews. He had a waiting list over a year long, but because of our wonderful neighbors, and because he really liked our house design, he moved us up the list. We broke ground on July 10th, 2008, and exactly 92 days later, we had a 3400 sf, two story, Craftsman style farmhouse with a walkout basement, a sunroom, screened in porch, and huge deck. We have gorgeous custom made cherry cabinets, doors and trim, granite countertops, hardwood floors throughout the whole house, and every detail was finished to absolute perfection. Everything was done on time and to our very exacting standards and I couldn't be happier. Our punchlist had just two items on it - both just very small things like moving a switch or two and some touch-ups. I'm telling you all this because I know how many people have bad building experiences with delays and contractors who don't seem to care what a schedule is. There are GOOD builders out there, even in these times. I highly recommend Amish builders if they build in your area. They are extremely efficient, work from sunrise to sundown 6 days a week, and dont waste either materials or your money. Good luck to all of you with your builds.

Here is mine last Spring. It is about 15 years old, and obviously we have not pruned it (except so that we can still walk around it) for several years. I plan to take it down by about 50% in a few days - it really has gotten TOO BIG! IT is 9-10 feet tall right now. My DH built it a support out of plumbing pipes, which is hiding under the rose - you can see a bit of it peeking out of the bottom. We are in North SF Bay Area in CA - it certainly likes it here! Jackie

Happy anniversary Marilyn Sue. We started dating in HS when I was a junior and he a freshman at Penn State. We married after he graduated and while I was a junior still in college. A year later we had a son and four years later , a daughter. The son has a daughter, the daughter ,a son, and the granddaughter has two babies, boy and girl. So over the half century mark. Yikes!