House Woes

Things are coming along with the house. The basement is poured and the garage is up!.... But, here's the woe part. The driveway.

When we picked the lot for our house it was VERY important to both Chris and I that we have a flat lot. We specifically said multiple times that we wanted a flat driveway for our kids to play on. We made that abundantly clear to our builder. The kids ride bikes and play soccer all summer and when they get older we'd like to put up a basketball hoop for them to play with; hence the need for a flat driveway.

So, we got to look at the house last night and I'm not kidding you, it seriously looks like they made a 3 foot mound of dirt right where our house is sitting and just built our house on top of it! The house is pretty close to the road too so it's not like they can make the top part of the driveway flat and then just slope it at the bottom. Nope. It's gonna be a hill. A huge hill.

I know what you're thinking. It's not that big of a deal, you're getting a brand new, beautiful home and you are complaining about a slope in the driveway. OK, to some degree I'm upset with myself for getting so miffed about a driveway, but this is my home, the one I'm gonna live in for the next 20 plus years and I want it to be usable....or at least fixable. A driveway is not fixable. I had visions of Chris and I sitting on the front porch watching our kids play outside, drawing chalk, riding bikes, playing soccer and basketball. Not anymore.

So, we're driving away from the house and I'm almost in tears telling Chris how the kids won't be able to ride bikes....we made it very clear that we wanted a flat lot....why would they decide to build a hill under our house... on and on. I keep hearing Hannah's voice pipe up from the backseat, "mommy, we can still play on it, it's OK, it's not to steep, don't worry." She's such a sweetheart. After I rant some more I hear Hannah say, "mommy, I already prayed two times for our house." Thank-goodness my children are learning the lessons I'm trying to teach them even though I'm obviously not putting them into practice myself. So, then we all prayed and I felt better. A little.

Anyway, Chris called the builder and told them about the problem. We're still waiting to hear back from them. I already know there's nothing they can do. It's not as if they can rip up the entire foundation. Oh, and even if they could, we don't have time, we HAVE to close on that house November 15th. We already paid a big chunk of change to lock in our interest rate and that is only good til Nov. 30, so basically if we don't close before then we lose the cash.

Ok, enough ranting and raving. I'm upset, but I'll get over it. In the grand scheme of life it's a SMALL problem to have. We're just hoping that somehow the builder will work with us and let us make a big patio on the back at no charge so that at least our kids have some place to play.