We have recently moved from Lawton/Ft Sill, OK to Augusta/Ft Gordon, GA, courtesy of the army. My "plan" for moving here was NOTHING like it's turning out to be. I had originally wanted to buy a house, older house, in the Olde Towne district. Close to the downtown area, where all the fun stuff happens and where my favorite eating spots, coffee shop, and bakery are located. I love the character of the older homes because, in my opinion, the newer homes really lack in that. The area where I wanted to live isn't the best but, I hoped that the crime rate was going down as they built up the downtown area, bringing it back to life. Richmond county is notorious for their horrible schools but, I found an amazing magnet school that would suit us perfectly.
As time got closer for us to leave OK, it was pretty evident that we wouldn't be able to sell our house for the price we needed to sell it at. So, I decided that it'd be best for us NOT to buy a house in GA. I did not want to go through this hassle, again, of worrying about renting it out and finding the right person, etc. (Luckily, I DID find a family that I know would take care of our house, to rent it) I figured that renting in GA would be easier on us. The night before we were to leave OK, we had a horrible hail storm that broke all of the windows on one side of the house, ruined the siding, tore down the gutters, damaged the roof, along with a few other minor things. That set us back from leaving for a couple of days and pretty much sealed my decision of NOT buying a house in GA. We already paid to get new floors in the house. Now we had to get a whole new roof, new siding, new windows, etc, it was pretty much going to be a whole new house. I'm greatful that the insurance covered most of it. Oh yea, did I mention that we had to get a new AC unit before we left? (That one, we had to pay the whole thing out of pocket) Yea, a lot of money to have to put out for a house that we're no longer going to live in. Lucky for the renters, though.
So, we get to GA and start looking for places to rent. Some of Tony's buddies were telling him to buy a new house in Grovetown. First of all, I did NOT want to live in Grovetown. Hello, downtown Augusta is where I wanted to be. Grovetown is a podunk town with a whole lot less to offer than Lawton, OK. No, it just wasn't an option for me. PLUS, a new house? Sounds nice but again, NO. I don't like most new houses because they have no character. Let me rephrase that. New houses are beautiful, no doubt about that. They just don't have the character that I want, in a home. I love the detail in trims and other decor of the older homes. Older houses are like older woks or older cast iron skillets. They're seasoned. They have a whole lot more flavor. Yes, I just compared houses to woks and cast iron skillets. Well, we decided to look, just to say we did, and I just knew it'd be a "no". We met up with one of Tony's buddies and he took us to the selling agent of the housing development where he lives. She showed us plans and yea, they were nice. Sure, who wouldn't like a new house? But really, after all that money we just spent, we really don't have money, now, to buy a house. Even going with a VA loan where we don't have to put ANY money down, we'd still have to pay closing costs. We just can't afford that. It was going to be tight enough, just to pay for security deposit, pet deposit, first and last month's rent on a house, and anything else that we hadn't thought of. Then she told us about a $5000 bonus for new buyers and an additional $1000 for military, policemen, and firefighters. Well, that alone would pay for closing costs. Then, like a wave, it hit me. Grovetown is close to Augusta, and we can still enjoy all that it has to offer. It's not an hour or even a half hour away to where it'd be inconvenient. Grovetown HAS been built up a little, since we left just over 6 years ago. It's in Columbia County, which is known for their great school system. The magnet school that I was set on, I had to apply in January and had to be a current resident of Richmond County at THAT time. And as far as new houses having no character? Well, we can add our own. That's part of seasoning a new wok or cast iron skillet, right? Season it with YOUR own seasonings. Maybe this wont be so bad, afterall. Grovetown has a lower crime rate than Augusta, anyway. So maybe this IS the right choice for us.
With all that happened to our house in Lawton, it DID work out. Maybe not the way I wanted it to, but it did work out. It could have been really bad. But finding the right people to rent from us, I think we were the answer to each others prayer. Time will tell. I hope they're really happy there, though. We had to put out a lot of money but, thankfully we could pay for it with our tax refund.
Now, we are renting a small apartment, waiting for our house to be built. It's very exciting to see different things being done. So far, we're only at the foundation. If we would have picked a different spot, where the same house is being built and further along than ours, we would have had walls and a roof by now. But we're happier with the location we picked, so it's still a win.
We're going with the Craftsman style front.
This is the lot we chose.
That's us! We're the "sale pending"!
They cleared the lot and getting ready to break ground on 2 July 2012.
It's ground breaking day!
Foundation for the foundation?
Hmmm, MUST be getting ready to start the foundation.
The beginning of the foundation.
This will be the front porch. ------->
These last three are as of today, 11 July 2012. Looks like they covered the ground to keep it dry for when they poor cement? I have no idea. I'm just excited to see something new each time we go.
