Phase I: The House-Garage-Barn

First, after promising my husband this blog would not become my new facebook--aka I would not be blogging all day every day--I decided that Monday is my blog day. That way it is not taking up time during the weekend or time at night during the week when neither of us work. I don't work on Mondays for now so this is perfect. So Monday = Blog day. :) Anyway on to business...

Right now my husband and I live in the city. Not a big city but a city. We both grew up in the country. My husband, A, hates the city (I'm not a huge fan myself). His parents own a bunch of land near the land their house is on, which also happens to be where he grew up. The land is in different places. It isn't all in adjacent parcels so there are a few options. A certain chunk has always been A's favorite. His parents gave us five acres from that parcel and we are going to build "Phase I" or "The House-Garage-Barn".  The land is many more acres than that and we hope to buy the whole lot eventually.

Phase I:

This is my idea for what we call what we are building. It hasn't stuck even though it is much shorter than the alternative. We are building this structure in the same general area as we will (someday) build our house. However, when we build a house we want it to be "right." We don't want to build and then add on and then remodel. We want to build it and be done. We definitely could not afford that right now. So we build something small that will get us out of town that will still be usable when we have a house. Enter......

The House-Garage-Barn:

The original plan was to build a garage/carriage house type structure with an apartment above it. This way when we build our "real house" we can still use the garage area as a workshop and the apartment as a guest house. When we started looking at plans, the original idea actually looked kind of boxy. So we spent a lot of time looking at plans and finding something that suited our needs without looking weird. 

We found the House-Garage-Barn. It looks like an old-style barn on the outside, has a two-car garage and *perk for A* a workshop area (He does woodworking on the side--his current project is refacing the cabinets in our current house). The upstairs is a 900-ish sq. ft. apartment. 

One great reason that we love this plan is that there is a lot of storage space in the first floor. We have a house that is double the size of the the apartment we are moving to. Although we don't have enough furniture to fill it by a long shot, we have enough junk from the years of living on our own (including 3 copies of the Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl on DVD) to fill up any and all storage space. 

One other thing we are excited about is that we don't have to have a house style picked out before building Phase I. We don't have to worry about the house matching the building.  Most places that have a detached garage build the house and garage together and build them to match. Many properties have a barn and the barn doesn't match the house. So we have a cool looking building that won't match our house and won't look weird because it doesn't match. 

Not sure what next week's topic is yet. We shall see what I come up with over the week. For now I have to get going with the rest of my day. :) As Tigger says, "TTFN-Ta Ta for Now!" :) Have a good week.

Blog the First

So this is my first time blogging. I feel like I might have something different and unique to say. Maybe I do or maybe my family will be the only ones to subscribe. I guess we will find out. So here we go!

I quit facebook last week because I realized that all it did was waste my time. I never really talked to anyone on it. I didn't use it to stay in contact. I played games and looked at profiles and pictures--mostly of people I didn't know. So I started a blog because this way I can talk(type) and maybe along the way I can make some new friends, encourage someone, make someone laugh.

Now that you know why I started a blog, here is a little about me. I am 24, married to my best friend, and a college graduate(almost twice). I finished the coursework I needed to apply for medical school in December. I need to take the MCAT(Medical College Admission Test) this spring. Yes, I am going to be a doctor. Hopefully. My actual bachelor degree is in Marketing. A stretch from marketing to medical? Maybe. Here's how it worked: ever since I was a little kid I went back and forth between marketing and the medical field.

Age 8: When I grow up, I want to be a pediatrician.
Why: In the movie Joe versus the Volcano with Tom Hanks, there is a scene where Joe is waiting to see his psychiatrist and the waiting room is awful. Like bland-city! I thought, "If I were a doctor, I could make my waiting room so much cooler than that!" I wanted to have those mini-recliners in my office for little kids. And cool paint on the walls--bright, happy colors and my nurses would wear the coolest scrubs.

Age 11-ish: Marketing is so cool! I think I could do it.
Why: Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster in What Women Want are advertising executives and got to come up with the coolest campaigns for everything from Tylenol to Nike. This would give me an outlet for my creativity.

Age 16: Midwife. I definitely want to be a midwife.
Why: I love babies and taking care of women while they are pregnant and helping bring new life into the world would be awesome.

Age 20: Declare Marketing as my major at the beginning of my third year of college.
Why: I was living in a town far away from my family and my boyfriend. I had been oscillating between medicine and business for years. I wanted to be done with school.

Age 21(three months and a birthday after declaring marketing major): Doctor, I need to be a doctor. However, I keep the marketing major.
Why: I realized that just wanting to be done with school is not enough of a reason to decide anything about the rest of my life. I knew after three months in the business school that it wasn't a good fit for me. I needed to find something that would let me help people. Being a doctor is the most tangible way possible to help people. As a marketer, I would have woke up every morning for the rest of my working life and hated going to work. I had changed my mind so many times. I didn't want to be a quitter. So I didn't change my major.

Age 22: Graduated from college after 3 1/2 years. Degree in Marketing with emphasis in Marketing Analytics. Moved closer to where I wanted to be. Started classes to get prereq's for medical school done (who knew that a degree in marketing wouldn't get you too far towards medical school?). Thinking about Primary Care. (Primary Care Physicians are pediatricians, family practitioners and doctors specializing in internal medicine. They are the front lines of medical care and are those who develop the most long term relationships with their patients).

Age 23:  Do a two week medical preceptorship at a local clinic. I got to see so many procedures, meet so many people and get a glimpse into so many different specialists and primary care physicians lives and practices. It was the best experience, career-wise, that I have ever had. I came out of it knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that I want to be a doctor. I also knew that I want to practice primary care. I want the relationships.

Age 24(now): Looming primary care physician shortage. I have just finished my prerequisites for medical school. Studying hard for the MCAT. I am so glad I didn't take it last spring while working 25 hours a week, going to school full time and planning my wedding. Now I am married, working full time and studying. I took Biochemistry in the fall and am feeling much more prepared than I would have been last year. It pushed back med school for a year, but I firmly believe that everything happens for a purpose.

More to come.....