Jen and Steve dot Com

• Today is my cute Mom's birthday. #
• New Flickr Pix! Colette http://bit.ly/TuE82 #
• Woke up with a tummy ache. Too much popcorn at the movie last night. When will I ever learn? #
• Bangs are now eyelash-length. To grow out or to cut is the question. #
• I really cant stand @perezhilton. Not only is he a whiny bitch, he undermines the very cause he is out to help: equality for all. Pathetic. #
• Scanning scanning scanning scanning imovie scanning photoshop…. #
• Ive been taking pictures for three hours straight and feel truly happy. Maybe this is really what I should be doing. #
• New Flickr Pix! Carly's Bridal Shoot http://bit.ly/3uHBw #
• Geez. We lost two Pop Culture Icons in one day. First Farrah Fawcett, now Michael Jackson!! Very weird and sad day. #
• New Flickr Pix! Carly, Blushing Bride http://bit.ly/FFUaS #
• New Flickr Pix! Blushing Bride http://bit.ly/LE5e3 #
• My Builder just called to let me know they are planning on digging on our house in 2 weeks! FINALLY! Yay! #
• New Flickr Pix! Carly & her Bridesmaids http://bit.ly/q0zkN #

When we told everyone that our house would only take 2 to 3 months to build, they laughed at us. “Just wait. SOMETHING will hold things up,” they said. I didn’t want to believe them.

But something is holding stuff up. We’re over a month behind already. Or, I should say, THEY are a month behind.

The city of South Jordan is behind on their permits. The builder won’t submit permits for certain lots until the adjacent ones have permits back… also, the FDIC changed some construction loan financing for builders that put them a little behind on submitting for permits in the first place. So even though our permits were supposed to be submitted in May, they still haven’t been submitted, and it’s the end of June. They’ll probably submit them any day now, but then it’ll be at least another 2 weeks before they begin to dig. PERMITS. Ugh.

It’s beyond frustrating, because we can’t predict what the interest rates will be, and they already have gone up since May. We are looking at a September move-in at this point… if we’re LUCKY.

So yeah. Now I’m beginning to see why people say building a house is frustrating. I thought I’d see framing by now, but our house still looks like this:

Of course, there is a silver lining in this. As long as interest rates don’t go too high (maybe they’ll even dip again?) this actually will SAVE us money. For every additional two weeks we aren’t in the new house, that’s another paycheck we receive that doesn’t have to go towards any mortgage or utilities. So we’re able to save oodles of cash. We’ve been paying about 10 times the normal amount per month towards the car, and at this rate it’ll be totally paid off in the next month or so. It’ll be nice to move in with absolutely no debt payments of any sort, and some money saved up.

That is, if we can resist splurging on fun things like cool camera lenses or laptops!

Last Saturday I turned 31 years old. THIRTY ONE. When did this aging thing happen? I mean, wasn’t I just 19 like 5 minutes ago? What happened to my twenties? Where was I? I remember being in high school thinking I’d get married around 28 or 29 (check) and have kids a couple years later. Well, it’s a couple years later and I feel nowhere near ready to have kids. But my biological clock does.

And I guess it’s starting to happen a little… that feeling when I see a newborn that makes me want one of my own. That feeling when you see a cute toddler gently grasping her Mom’s shoulder as she sits on her hip… I kinda want that. But if I had a kid right now, it’d throw the delicate balance of my life into a total tailspin. Would I work from home? Do daycare of some sort? I just don’t know. But I don’t think my aging body wants to wait too many more years to find out. (To help me wait, I can always refer back to this.)

The reality is that I am AGING. Thirty one feels so very much older than 30. 30 was a rite of passage, where I felt like I got to be part of a cool new club. 31 is just another “thirty something”. Nothing special about it… just GETTING OLDER. My gray hairs have invited friends to the party, and my thighs are in the mood to change their shape and not look as cute in jeans. WTF?

Ah well. All that aging stuff considered, I had a marvelous birthday. You know why? With age comes knowledge and experience. I remember now what I did in my twenties: sifted through lots of bad choices and bad boys until I found the right ones. I DID kiss plenty of frogs (eh, many too many actually) before I found my prince. But I found him! And he really is absolutely charming. Men are like fine wines, they really DO get better with age. I chose a marvelous husband, who is always thinking of others and is always empathetic to my needs, even before I know what they are.

This birthday he completely outdid himself though. Like, totally spoiled me. We each have our own personal separate savings accounts that we do with whatever we want. We use that money to spend thoughtlessly or frivolously… however we want to without having to consider what “we” want to spend the money on. We also use it for birthday gifts. Well, turns out he had been secretly saving up without my knowledge to buy me something for my birthday that I’ve been lusting after for as long as he’s known me: A Nikon DSLR Camera! The new Nikon D5000! He could have spent that money on a new bass, a new amp setup, or even the Macbook he’s been lusting after. But instead he splurged on little old me. I was completely blown away. How in the world do I deserve such kindness??

He kept it all secretive, and made me wait downstairs while he “wrapped” my present. When it was finally time, he brought me upstairs, where I found a big massive Home Depot box. I opened it, and inside was about three days worth of crumpled up newspaper. I had absolutely NO clue what I’d find in there. But when I got to the bottom of the box and saw a Nikon D5000 I just about passed out.

Every since that moment the camera has barely left my hands. I am in love with it. In fact, it’s sparked a whole new plan now – something that’s been a secret pipe-dream of mine for ages: to transition from freelance design to freelance photography. I have a lot of learning to do, but I really hope this is something I can embrace. I already took some bridal photos of Jake’s fiance Carly (I’d post them here, but he still hasn’t seen the dress so I’m waiting until after the wedding), and I’m doing Lisa’s bridal photos and engagement photos in a couple of weeks.

Also, Steve’s oldest brother and his girlfriend Debby had their second baby this week! Her name is Sophie, and she’s adorable. Of course I brought my camera to see the first glimpses of this little doll, and I am going to do a “real” photoshoot of her as soon as she’s home from the hospital.

So yeah, it was a great birthday. And Steve’s birthday is NEXT WEEK! How in the world am I going to live up to the amazing surprise he gave me?! I’m going to have to think of something!

So that’s it! That’s the spot our house will be built upon.

We’re getting SO excited. Two weeks ago we had our “color selection meeting” where we picked out all the details & finishes & colors that will go in our house. We also gave them our down payment. So yeah, it’s official.

We chose upgraded carpet in a dark tan for the upstairs & study, high-end Mohawk laminate wood flooring in “bourbon pecan” for the entire main level, and upgraded to 18″ tile in the bathrooms & laundry room. (Flooring is a big deal to me, obviously.) We also decided on oil-rubbed bronze fixtures & doorknobs, Corian countertops (in “canyon” color), and upgraded stained knotty alder cabinets in plantation style. We basically are doing almost the exact same finishes in the kitchen as the model had, so it’ll look a lot like this. We also added a french door to the study (all because of how much I fell in love with my french door in the condo). All of that might not mean a whole lot to you, but it means something to us! We can’t wait to see it all put together.

They should begin digging sometime in the next 2-3 weeks. Once they do, I’m going to take a picture from this same spot every week so we can all see the progression. They keep telling us they house will only take 60 – 90 days to build once they start digging. So we’ll see!

So it’s all a go. Our condo’s appraisal came in where we needed it, and so Jake & Carly are for sure buying it! We close tomorrow!

All week we’ve been in the process of packing and moving to the Bauman’s basement apartment. We’ll be there by Wednesday.

It’s all happening so fast! I can hardly believe that only a month ago we were just barely beginning to daydream about it.

On Friday we have our “color selection meeting”, where we pick all our upgrades and put down our construction deposit to get the build started. At this rate, we’ll be in our new home in August. Woo hoo!!

This is what it’ll look like. Isn’t it cute?! I badly photoshopped in some grass to give a better effect of what it’ll look like with landscaping.

We’re so excited!!

March was surely a month to remember. The word ‘eventful’ really doesn’t even give it enough weight. It was certainly a month of transition and movement for everyone in the Bauman family.

Of course, it started sadly, with the passing of Bill, and the funeral and everything following that. Obviously that was a huge emotional upheaval, and really hard to get through.

But as soon as the dust settled from that, other things suddenly began happening.

First of all, Steve’s sister Lisa got engaged to Pepe, and they’re planning a wedding in August. Yay!

Then almost immediatly after, Steve’s brother Jake got engaged to Carly, and they’re planning a wedding in June. Yay!

Then, the Utah government put out a $6000 grant program for people buying newly constructed homes, to use for down payment. They only released 1600 grants, and they are first-come, first served. Steve & I have been teetering on the edge of wanting to move for a while, and saving up for a down payment was the one thing we’ve been waiting for. So this grant really piqued the interest of Steve & I, and we took a drive down to the one community of new homes that we could see ourselves living… Daybreak in South Jordan.

Well, that was all it took. We fell in love with the neighborhood, and decided that we’d put our condo up for sale immediately so we could hopefully take advantage of the $6000 grant before it ran out.

Well, before we could even list our home for sale, Jake & Carly decided that our condo would be the perfect place for them to start their new lives together. They didn’t want to waste money on rent, and wanted something just like we had in our Condo.

Perfect!

Without using a real estate agent, we are going to be able to sell them our condo for less than it’s worth, (which makes it a great deal for them) and still walk away with the equity we need for a down payment on our new Daybreak home (which is a great deal for us.) All these pieces just suddenly began falling into place, and the whole month of March felt like fate had just taken over and began steering the wheel. On top of that, Jake will be moving out of a mother-in-law basement apartment in their Mothers house that Steve & I can move into while we wait for our house to be built… RENT & MORTGAGE FREE. We’ll save oodles of money.

We’ve picked out a house to build. We’ve put down earnest money and reserved a lot. Jake & Carly and Steve & I already have financing in place for our home purchases, and we’re all easily approved and good to go.

It has all seemed to good to be true! It can’t be this easy, right? I mean, something has got to happen to throw a wrench in… I’m just not that lucky.

Well, I’ve found the possible wrench. Maybe.

See, the market sucks right now. Which means other condos in our complex have been short-selling (selling below market value, basically an alternative to foreclosing). That ends up hurting the value of our condo. The pain is only temporary, since the market is sure to turn around this summer and the values will go back up, but it’s still a fact of life for the market right now.

The lot we reserved in Daybreak, it can only be ours if we give them our down payment before May. That will be our construction deposit to get everything going. And that will be no problem, since Jake & Carly will close on the condo before then, and we’ll have our equity money in pocket.

But, it’s going to be tight. An appraisal on the Condo still must be done. And if it comes in less than what we’ve all agreed to pay/sell it for, then we’re going to be in trouble. We have a bit of wiggle room, but not much. See, appraisers have to use comparable homes sold within the last 3 months, and there has only been two sold… both for much less than the normal market value of our condos, clearly bail-out short sales. So there’s a chance Carly & Jake will buy the house at a bit less than we originally planned, and Steve & I will be left with not quite enough for a down payment right away.

And if that happens, we might lose our lot.

It wouldn’t be an outright catastrophe, however, since our earnest money would just transfer to another lot… one that isn’t scheduled to be open for building for several months. We’d just live in that basement apartment for a few months longer. That, of course, will give us time to save up the remainder of the down payment we need, but still. The interest rates & home prices could rise a bit by then, and we might not be getting the ideal deal that we’d get immediately. Not to mention, the $6000 grant would surely be gone by then. And I don’t like the other lots quite as much. *sigh*

So, I’m stressing. It’s my least favorite position to be in: not knowing what’s going to happen, and completely unable to do anything to effect the outcome. Helpless, and forced to be patient.

What do I do in these situations? I sit and come up with dozens of different “what if” issues and scenarios, and drive myself compltely mad.

So thats where I am right now. Ugh! We should know within a week or two what’s going to happen. I think I may just need to take another cruise until then so I can get my mind off of house stuff!!

Steve & I stopped at the mall yesterday to spend a gift card he had. He needed jeans, and unfortunately the only kind that fit him right are the way overpriced ones at Buckle. While he was trying on about a dozen different pairs, I made a beeline for the jewelery. This little precious thing caught my eye immediately:

It’s by Fossil, which is quickly becoming my favorite brand of accessories ever. I have a Fossil watch that I wear every day, and I am always drooling & lusting after their handbags, which are out of my price range.

Much to my delight, this cute little silver bird pendant was only $25! It’s not flat, it’s a whole birdie, with sparkly crystal eyes. It just looks like the Twitter bird! And it comes with the perfect chain with accent beads. It’s the perfect wear-everyday necklace. And I’m sure I will.

…she’s the coolest person you’ve ever met. And if you’ve met her, you already know that. If I’m lucky, I’ll preserve one ounce of the cool she genetically gave me. Here’s an example:

I adore music… my life would be utterly empty without it. However, I’m not always the biggest fan of live shows. Blame it on dating far too many musicians and therefore sitting through entire sets in one too many smoky bars, or maybe it’s the fact that I’m always the 5 foot tall chick in the crowd listening to the band, and staring at peoples backs unable to see over the crowd.

Basically, it takes a lot to get me to go to a show these days. I have to really love the artist.

Well, my brothers twitter today informed me of what just might be one of the best concerts I’ll ever see. Next month Yann Tiersen is coming to concert here in Salt Lake! All the way from France… to the Urban Lounge of all places!

In case you’ve never been there, I’ll describe it for you. It’s a smallish dark warehouse of a room with black painted walls and a bar in the corner, a dance floor in the middle, and a typical 3 foot stage. Perfect for local bands. (In fact, Steve has played there dozens and dozens of times with several different bands…) It’s a bit dirty and dingy… definitely not the place I’d picture Yann Tiersen performing! But it is small and intimate, which should make for an amazing show.

Yann Tiersen, in case you didn’t know, is the composer who did the Amelie Soundtrack. That soundtrack is haunting and beautiful and an absolute classic. It’s one of my very favorite albums of all time. I always pictured Yann to be some old guy… but he isn’t! He’s in his late 30s!

In searching for information about his tour, I found this article which made me even more excited. Here’s what it has to say about him:

Guillaume Yann Tiersen is a French musician and composer known internationally for composing the score to the Jean-Pierre Jeunet movie Amélie.His music is recognized by its use of a large variety of instruments in relatively minimalist compositions, often with a touch of either European classical music or French folk music, using primarily the piano, accordion or violin together with instruments like the melodica, xylophone, toy piano, ondes martenot, harpsichord and typewriter.

Typewriter?! Oh man this is gonna be good. Then I went on to read a recap from someone who has seen him perform live…

He began his set on grand piano – and his piano pieces are rarely other than delightful. What wasn’t obvious from listening to his albums was instantly so here – it isn’t someone playing melodica or accordion with him as he tinkles the ivories. Oh no. He plays both instruments at the same time. 

After each track, rapturous applause greeted him as he shifted between piano, melodica, accordion, violin, viola, bass, guitar and even vocals. A rare chance was afforded to the audience to hear a solo viola piece, Qu’En Reste-t-il? from L’Absente, in which at any moment sparks could have flown from the instrument as Yann fiddled for all he was worth. Here was a man making electricity spark from an acoustic instrument before our very eyes. His playing was enough to make members of his audience weep at its beauty.

Wow. I simply cannot wait. So on April 25th, you’ll find me weeping and breathless in a dark corner of The Urban Lounge, to be sure.