The ball is rolling!!!.......{well it was!}

Its seems like every time we get the ball rolling someone puts the breaks on. This time it was the city. We were under the assumption that the builder completed the building package and submitted it for the permits, but the city threw in a few curve balls.
First we found out the city has an arborist and we were "suppose to" have her come out and inspect all of our trees before any are removed to ensure you aren't cutting down any trees you aren't "suppose to." My first thought was "we paid for this, why the heck do we need your approval to remove OUR trees?!?!" And after the conversation between the arborist and Matt I thought we might as well hang up the idea of ever getting any permits approved. When she told him "Sir, do you know what global warming is.....???" all I could think was "oh no.....here we go!" It's safe to say Matt wasn't too happy to begin with about the whole situation so her comment wasn't received too well.
THEN........surprise! We also need you to get a drainage plan completed. "Oh sure! We love throwing money out there to everyone! Who else can we pay?!?!?" Ok yes.....can you feel my frustration?

So........we decided it was time to end the madness. We wanted no more surprises and needed to get this ball rolling and everything sorted out. So Friday Matt and I met with 4 different people from 4 different departments of the city building/development programs. I wasn't really sure how it was going to go but on the way there Matt said, "You ready to see me do my thing?" I didn't know what that meant but I will say.........he did his thing!! They were very apologetic for all of the trouble and headache we have been put through so far. They also vowed to make things as smooth and easy as possible going forward. They allowed us to bypass the full arborist part and just write a letter stating that we only removed tallow trees and all other "good" trees were transplanted to our neighbors. That saved us several hundred dollars (Whoo hoo! Finally score one for us!!) And as far as the drainage plan we already had the survey company on it and as of Monday EVERYTHING was submitted for permitting!! So in the end I think the meeting was very successful. They now have a name with a face and understand our frustration. Hopefully they live up to their word and make everything as quick and easy as possible going forward.

Now the dirt work is finished and our property looks like this:

And this last weekend we got to enjoy it with a cookout and bon fire with our family and friends.

We are so thankful for these moments to slow down, enjoy some peace and quiet and be surrounded by our family and friends.
As far as the house goes.......it looks like we might be ready to close on our construction loan by the end of this week or the next  and the arborist said she would make a visit to our property to check everything out and give her approval today. Please pray we can start the foundation soon!!