Zone This

I have downgraded the house building experience from merely Pain In the Ass to Gigantic, Flaming Pain In the Ass. I knew that my posterior was in for a rough bit with this process, but never did I imagine the rigmarole involved, and we're only the teeniest way into the thing.

We had an appointment with the Planning and Zoning Department in our county-to-be last week. I set the appointment with one guy, and figured it would be about 30 minutes, wham-bam, we're out of there. After an hour and a half in a little room with three of the county's finest zoners and planners (watching them for the most part figure out how to use their new mapping software), I now know I must plead with the County Commission for zoning mercy, and, if my pardon comes through, plead again with the Planning and Zoning Department and then AGAIN with the Planning and Zoning Board (the Board, of course, not to be confused with the Department). There shall be much zoning, and even more planning!

All this, to build this little orange rectangle here (note the the general lack of houses, trees, or really anyfuckingthing around):

I guess the coyotes give a fuck if your easements are planned in. Little bastards.

I also met with 3 builders last week and talked with 2 more over the phone. I feel like I'm making progress there, though after walking through so many model homes I'm sure when I get my allowances for floors and counter tops I'll be so sad to find I can afford only linoleum and other plastic products instead of the lovely granite and slate I've been seeing. And then I will pout.

In non-house related news, the Little Miss is one hell of an Easter Egg hunter. She was up before any of the other kids and found every one of the eggs hidden under two feet. She then quickly learned to squirrel the jellybeans out of each and every one. My girl, she likes her some jellybeans. She was absolutely adorable in her little yellow polka-dot Easter dress. It was so cute that, in a stunning feat of suburban housewifery, I made everyone else in the family wear yellow to match her yesterday. It was like the Von Trapp family, but with less whistles.

The Little Man had his four-year-old checkup last week. He was so excited to go because he wanted the doctor to tell him how tall he is. He's been obsessed with his height and his "long legs" lately. And for good reason. The child is 43 1/4" tall! And weighs 40 pounds. Did I mention, it was his FOUR year old checkup? He is kind of an Amazon stick person, and proud of it. The scary thing is that he's only a few inches (for him, a couple of months) from riding all the big kid rides at the amusement park. Yowza.

It Really is Me

Damn, but the dust is thick around here. Actually, according to the History channel, if I had left a building neglected like this for 6 months the vegetation and vermin would have made serious inroads towards completely demolishing the sucker.

Thank goodness the Internet is a vegetation and vermin-free environment. (At least the vermin are mostly not the bitey, house devouring types)

While I was hiatus-ing, both of the kiddos had birthdays (birthday party planning is over for another 9 months YEAH), the Little Man started pre-school and LOVES it, and the Little Miss is walking, talking (some) and showing her true personality and will any day be running the house. My, but she's a bossy little thing. For someone whose vocabulary consists of "mama", "dada", "hi", "bye" and "ball," she makes it crystal-clear exactly what she wants and browbeats her live-in servants (aka Mom, Dad and Big Brother) into getting it for her. But, she's adorable, so we don't chafe at her rule so very much.

In addition, two family members and a good friend's mom have been fending off cancer, another close friend had a miscarriage and it seems that every time I talk to someone I learn of new, funky, health-related issue that someone is dealing with. It's enough to make me want to stick my head deeply into the sand and wait for 2008 to pass on by.

Not that these stories (and more!) wouldn't have served as great blog-fodder, but quite frankly, I just haven't felt like it. However, a combination of events has made me want to tell stories again:
1. The Little Miss has decided that entire nights of sleep are now ok with her (THANK GOD)
2. My current knitting project is full of holes and I don't want to start over tonight (oh yes, I've started with the knitting)
3. I think I made a major breakthrough this week on a project I'd like to chronicle - building our new house!

I'm very excited about actually having made progress on the house. We decided FEBRUARY 2007 that we were going to do it. Since then, we've been looking at house plans (I swear I've seen at least 1,500 of them) and talking to builders, kind of getting our toes wet. We are finally at a point where we need to make a move and things did start churning this past week.

We found someone in a neighboring town to draw us up some house plans. She's going to put the pieces and parts of the plans we like together into something uber-cool (and that we can afford to build). I've also talked to a banker and builder that I liked. We may end up not using them, but they didn't prove themselves to be idiots immediately, which was refreshing.

This process promises to be one wild ride, so stay tuned.