Many of you know that we have been searching all over Olathe for a place to buy or build a new house. We love our current home and there are plenty of memories there, but we are simply out of space, so we've made the decision to move hopefully sometime this summer. That will give us about a year in the new house before Elsie starts kindergarten. We've been going back and forth on whether to build or buy an existing home. It seemed like every house we've looked at had too small of a yard, too long of a commute, not enough privacy, too old, etc. We just haven't been able to find our ideal house...so we decided to build it! We will probably use the same builder that built Grandma and Grandma Cox's new house. They liked him and after meeting with him a few times we both like the idea of working with him.
After making the decision to build the next step was to find a lot that we both liked. Sarah did a bunch of research and we narrowed it down to a few developments in and around Olathe. We ended up finding a lot that we both really liked in a development about 2mi south of Garmin in southern Olathe just on the edge of town (for now). It's on a cul-de-sac and is therefore relatively big. The other thing we like about it is that there will be no homes right behind it (one of the things we dislike most about our current back yard is that about 6 families and anyone driving or walking along the street can see right in). This will be more private, though not totally isolated. It is also close to work and preschool which was a major requirement. It's in the Spring Hill school district even though it is an Olathe address. Olathe schools are really good, but that's ok because Spring Hill schools are good too and getting even better as more people move into the area and flood it with tax dollars. The elementary school is just a short walk away over the hill.
We've been waiting for a few months for the streets to go in so that they could lay out the lot and price it and we put our name on the list to be the first ones notified once it was done. Yesterday we got the email that it had been priced. We were ok with the price so the next step was to put down a small deposit (which we did today) to hold the lot while we meet with the builder to discuss the style and options we want for the house. After that we will put some more money down and then it's time to break ground!
After we dropped off the deposit we took the kids out to show them the new dirt!
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| Elsie is standing on the right side marker for the lot. It goes back almost to the tree line. Eventually there will be a road right down the middle of the tree line, but it won't be very busy and we'll have a privacy fence. |
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| No trees...but none of the developments around here have them. If you want them you have to plant them yourself. Leaving our two big, mature shade trees behind is probably one of the things I'll miss most. |
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| This is from the back-left corner looking towards the front. It's pie shaped with the narrowest part right at the front. |
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| Me and the kids at the back left corner. |
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| This is taken from the back left corner. Elsie and Owen are at the back right corner. |
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| Elsie and Owen "enjoying" their new dirt. Owen liked it so much that he even ate some of it. :) |
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Elsie started taking dance classes last week. It was something that she asked for as a gift for her birthday so we obliged. Sarah took her last week and after a bit of nerves at the beginning she did just fine and came home really excited. I think at this point it's mostly running around to music but if it makes her happy and she likes playing with the other girls then it's A-OK with me. :)
See ya!
Ryan, Sarah, Elsie, and Owen
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