My motto has always been: Change Is Good. But never has that seemed more true than now.

You see, it's been about 2 years since we started the process of building our log home. We had the land picked out, the bank picked out, the GC picked out, the builder picked out, the logs picked out, the floorplan designed the way we wanted it, and we even started clearing the land.

Then why isn't our log home done yet? Why haven't we even raised the first log yet?

We've been forced into a slight holding pattern right now due to all the banking & loan issues going on these days. Now is not a good time to get money -- especially large amounts of money.. Especially for home loans.

So, we are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, I guess. And we have to wait it out a little longer until banks are willing to lend money like normal again.

In Everything Bad, There Is Something Good
Fortunately, this gives us plenty of time to take a step back and reflect on where we are and how we got here -- in terms of planning and building our new log home. And I have to say, I'm honestly quite glad that the process of getting everything in order to build our log home has taken so long this far.

What I mean is...
If we had built right away (back in August of 2006), and gone with our first gut instincts on the details including:

• where to build


• what we want the house to look like


• where we want the windows


• ...etc, etc. etc.

Then we wouldn't have truly ended up with the log home of our dreams! (Which is right around the corner... I'm sure of it.)

Wooo hooo... We got our Building Permit today! Finally.

Here's the funny part. (Well, not funny ha-ha.)

The cost of our Building Permit was $9,177! Jim about had to change his drawers when they called to say our permit was ready to pick up.

To break it down...

The Building Permit itself cost us $1,240
The Plumbing Permit cost us $75
The Mechanical Permit cost us $28

And the worst part:

The Privilege Tax amounted to $7,834

Talk about a bittersweet moment!!!

Another trip down memory lane here...

Wanna see what our culvert looked like -- right after they finished putting it in?

(I thought you would.)

Can you see it now???

What a difference a couple of days makes!
(...and a bush hogging machine or two)

When we purchased this lot in Williamson County Tennessee, it had already been surveyed and perked. So we didn't have to do that part.

Our first official step toward building this log home was to clear the land (...in a manner other than Jim & I routinely walking the lot with a pair of loppers and a machete in hand and chopping down whatever annoying bushes & prickly branches stood in our way).

We finally decided to hire a professional team to take out most of the trees & brush that we knew would be in the way of the home. They had all the right equipment for heavy duty bush hogging, and they were even set up to deal with all of the rock they encountered on the property.

As it turned out, they were able to complete the job in about a day and a half.

Yesterday, Randy asked a great question about the likelihood of us subbing a creek for a pond on the property. (See my reply here.)

Our conversation reminded me of the fact that one of the 3 creeks on our property is what is known as a "blue line stream".

Here's what that means...

What do you mean you can't see anything there?... [I say with raised eyebrows]

Right there... [pointing] that's where the house is going to go. Over here... [pointing to the other side] this is where we're going to put the well. And the septic... it's right over there. The driveway will go up through here and around that side.

Oh, and here... [pointing, while looking completely enamored with all of Nature's beauty] right here is the only spot where you can actually see 2 of the 3 creeks at the same time!

Trust me, once you get inside the tree line, it makes more sense. It's a little bit cleared out in the middle there.