Friday's Letters

Hellloooo Friday!

Via

Dear work week, thank you for going so fast. Dear weekend, let's do the opposite, mmmmkay? Dear Daddio, I miss you. You'd think each Father's Day would get easier. Nope. Nope, it sure doesn't. Dear Grandpas and Father-in-Law, I love you all and am so lucky to have such wonderful guys in my life! I'd be lost without you all! Dear Cable, it's a good thing we don't have you. I'd get nothing done. Oh wait...I don't need cable to accomplish that one. Dear Softball Season, thank you for being here! Especially on the nights we win. I dig it. Dear fancy Nikon camera sitting in the case, I can't wait to become best of friends. Dear Pilates, You. Are. Amazing. and I love you. Dear New Dream Car, stop being so expensive. I want you. Or just runaway and come find me. That would work, too.

Hope your weekends are full of adventure!

House Building Adventure: [Floor Plan and Lot]

Wow, this week has flown by! We are hoping to be closing on the new house early next week, so I wanted to get all caught up on this adventure! The juicy parts and pictures are coming! Yay! So, the last time I talked about how we decided between building a buying. Now the super fun stuff happens! Minus the whole waiting 6 months. That part stinks!

So, here’s the floor plan that we fell in love with and knew would be perfect for us! The main floor is 1505 square feet and the basement is 1476 square feet. For all of you that don’t feel like doing math, that makes it a total of 2981 square feet. Definitely not a mansion but perfect for our little family. Our basement will only be partially finished. Gotta keep my handy-man busy somehow!
Our Favorite Things(in no particular order):
  
   *The mudroom! I can’t wait to show you pictures of this room. It is located right when you walk in from the garage. There is the cutest little bench with the cutest little hooks. Almost my favorite room. I can’t wait to hang little jackets and gloves from it someday.
   *The bedroom locations. We really like how the master is separate from the extra bedrooms. I may change my mind when we have kids someday, but right now, I like the idea of having a little privacy and distance.
   *The master bathroom. A garden tub for me and a stand up shower for the both of us!
Obviously we love so many other things about this house, but I’ll share all the little details when I do the big reveal!
There are a few differences in our actual floor plan, though. This is the basic floor plan from the builder’s Cascade Floor Plan.
Main Floor:
 
   * Our layout is flipped, so the garage is on the left and the kitchen/bedrooms are on the right.
   * We have a third car garage. Not surprising given the husby likes his toys. Hubba hubba. Get your mind out of the gutter. Toys as in lawn mower, motorcycle, trailer, tools, etc etc. I am actually very excited to be able to park two cars in the garage and still have plenty of room! It is definitely worth the extra cost if you can afford it. It is pricey, though.
Basement:
   * We have a walk-out basement so there is a door that goes outside from the future recreation room.
   * We are having the family room finished downstairs which includes a wet bar and a gas fireplace. We like to drink and be cozy at the same time.
   * I just realized that there are some big differences in our layout compared to this one, so I’ll have to draw up how we laid ours out. Eventually.

That’s our view. Obviously not as fuzzy. Terrible picture. Clearly if the dog approves it is a done deal. One of our few requirements was that we had a view and an edge lot so we could have a walk-out basement. I love not feeling like you are in a dungeon! We have a view from every single window. Even the front ones. It is amazing. Here are our lot details:
   * 0.85 acres. It doesn’t seem like much, but when every other lot in this subdivision is 0.35 acres or less, we won’t complain.
   * We will never have a neighbor to the right of us. Right now, we have no neighbor to the left, but when we do, our lot is big enough that we will have plenty of space in between.
   * It cost a pretty penny extra. We didn’t have to buy our lot separately, the builder takes care of that. However, their house price includes a certain price lot. Ours was more, of course, so the purchase price went up. It wouldn’t be worth it to everyone, but to us, not being crammed in a tiny cul-de-sac is worth every penny.
I’m not going to broadcast what we’re building our home for, but if you’re in the market and are curious, leave me a comment or shoot me an email! I will say that now is the time to buy. If interest rates weren’t so low, there’s no way we could afford this. If you’re stuck renting and are at a point where you want to buy, take advantage RIGHT NOW!

Pretty sure he’s as excited as we are! I’ll be back tomorrow with another Friday’s Letters!

One Year Ago Today: [Our Engagement Story]

Wow, this year has FLOWN by! My sweet husband reminded me the other day that our one year anniversary of becoming engaged was coming up. Because our life has been insane the last few months, it had slipped my mind. Leave it to Travy to keep on impressing me! Even though we’ve now been married almost forever 9 months, it is still fun to look back at one of the most happiest days of our lives. So, since today is the day, I thought I’d share our story on this little blog. Let me just start by saying that I really had no idea this was coming. We had talked about our future and I showed him my favorite diamonds (what girl doesn’t) but neither of us were in a huge rush to get married.
I had been in Montana for a week of camp days with my guard unit, and Travis was working somewhere in between home and there. Since we would both be close, we decided to plan a camping trip to Canyon Ferry Lake. It is a beautiful place about 20 miles outside of Helena and is a very special place to me. My brother, sister and I spent a lot of time with my Dad there and I really wanted Travis to see it.

Pretty, huh!? Of course, Riley approved! Before we left town, Travis managed to sneak some time with my Papa (my dad’s dad) to get his blessing. I obviously didn’t find this out until after the fact, but it was so thoughtful of Travis to do this. It meant the World to my Papa. After the work week, we made our way from Great Falls to Canyon Ferry and scoped out a camping spot. There are a few different areas to choose from and since it was a pretty quiet weekend, we ended up getting a whole campground to ourselves! The picture above shows our beach, but of course it wasn’t warm enough to go swimming. June in Montana = very unpredictable.

There’s my two boys, one being cute and one setting up camp. Okay, maybe both of them are pretty handsome! The handyman got the tent set up and I did what I do best and watched opened up a bottle of wine.

After camp was set up, we went for a walk around our bay just exploring and chasing the dog. It was just fun to be away in the peacefulness of the lake with not another soul around. After our walk, it was dinner time. Our plan was to make some tinfoil dinners over the fire. If you’ve never had a tinfoil dinner while camping, you are missing out! It is pretty simple and you can put anything your heart desires in them.

The picture doesn’t make it look too appetizing but trust me, they’re delicious! The bacon was just for flavor but Riley enjoyed it! I also think there was a hamburger patty under there somewhere. Mmm, makes me excited to go camping this summer!
Back to the point…after dinner, I asked Trav to get his guitar and play some music. I had been giving him a hard time for a few months for not writing me a song yet. He is an amazing guitar player and has written a few songs that are so great. I wanted one written for me, dang it! So jokingly, I asked him if he had written me a song yet. He actually said he had been working on one! But of course, he had to tinker and play a few other songs first. Riley and I listened to him and the fire when he all of a sudden got really quiet and told me my song was next!

Can you tell he was nervous? haha. I’m not going to post the lyrics but it was seriously the sweetest song ever. It basically told our story and had me giggling so hard! Then the last part came and he started tearing up! I was a little confused but not really because my Travy is pretty sappy! He cried through the last sentence (happy tears I hope) and then got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I said “Of Course!” and we hugged and it was just perfect. He really couldn’t have done anything more sweet and I couldn’t have been more surprised and happy. I love surprises. He even played the song on our wedding day! I’m looking forward to the next song he writes for me!

He was even thoughtful enough to go to a winery we had been to together and get a couple bottles of one of our favorite wines! The Pomegranate Blush is so yummy! It was a wonderful day that I will never forget and I feel so lucky to be married to a guy that would do absolutely anything, for anyone. Luckiest girl ever! He’s pretty lucky, too, though, if I say so myself!

Friday's Letters

via Instagram! Follow me @jstjessontheloop!

Dear Friday, thank you for finally getting here! Not having a weekend for 12 days really wears a girl out! Dear MT Air National Guard, you only have me for 5 more months! Take that! It has been a wonderful experience but I'm counting down the drills for sure. Dear life, you feel like my instagram picture above. Beautiful and full of life, but stormy, off balance and a little out of focus. I can't wait to be back to normal. Dear bed that's in storage, we miss you and can't wait to lay on your pillowtoppy (yes, that's a word) wonderfulness. Dear Riley, thanks for being the best dog companion on the lovely 6 hour monthly drive. You really are the best darg. Dear Husband, I miss you. Let's quit being so busy. I need us time like crazy! Dear old house, just go away already! Dear new house, you are so worth the wait! Less than 2 weeks, maybe! Yayyy! Dear self, just breathe...and keep counting down to that glass bottle of wine tonight.

Happy weekend. I hope it's full of adventure!

I'm linking up to Ashley here.