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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Life Tip #1

Don't buy a new house on a new street.

Really trust me on this one.

By all means, buy a newly built house! They're wonderful and have the perk of never having occupants before. But take my advice and don't buy a new house on a new street. It'll be the biggest frustration EVER.

Let's look at the house in question shall we?

Granted, this picture was taken last year before everything was (mostly) completed, but this is basically our house. 

Don't get me wrong, I love our house. It's perfect and everything we need in our first house. The fact that it's on a brand new street, however, has made living in our perfect new house a hassle.

When we officially purchased our house, it had some more work to be completed. In our contract, our builder agreed to put up a fence in the backyard, completely sod the front and side lawns, and put in landscaping around our front walkway (which wasn't completed when this picture was taken.) We also talked to him about putting in a shop for Keegan in the back and extending our driveway to the fence line. So far, the landscaping has been completed and 99% of our fence is up. No sod, no extension on the driveway, and no talk about the shop. Now all of the things that haven't completed have been delayed because we've had an unusually wet "spring" down here (I use "spring" as a loose term because it was in the 70s in early February. The South seems to skip right from winter to summer.) I understand that the ground can't be too wet to put in concrete or to lay sod. We're also currently waiting on our gates for our fence, but they can't be put up because the ground has been too wet. I understand.

However, I don't understand some of the things that we've had to deal with in the last month and a half. Such as not getting mail for the first 3 weeks. After we've started getting mail, a package I bought off of Ebay has been "delivered" to our house, but we never received it. And we still don't have internet. I won't even get into the internet saga here, but the root of us not having it yet is because it took the company 2 weeks to "find" our house and then it rained for 3 weeks.

A few days ago we found out why it took the mailman and the internet company so long to find our house. Since our house is on a new street, our builder had to contact the 911 operator and tell them that a new street had been built and people were living in one of the houses. He never did. As far as 911, USPS, and other government organizations were concerned, our street, let alone our house didn't exist. When I found this out, I was beyond frustrated. What if we had an emergency in the month before our house was "found?" 911 would have never made it because as far as they are concerned, we didn't exit. Ugh.

I guess I'll sum this up by saying buying a new house can be an amazing experience. Buying a new house on a new street is a pain in the butt. If you do decide to put yourself through that torture, at least make sure that your builder/relator calls 911 and tells them that you're living on that street.

If you don't you might die because 911 can't find your house.

I'm just lookin' out for you, that's all.

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