Now I don't know nothin' about buildin' no houses, so I don't know if they're going to let everything sit over the winter so they can build in good weather, or if they're just waiting for some other reason to start building in the next few weeks. I'm hoping for the latter because it would just suck to have an empty hole across the street for the entire winter.
I've never even been in a neighborhood when they've been building before. The five houses I lived in growing up were all in established neighborhoods. I've been surprised by how long it can take to build a house. Of course, I'm not privy to all the ins and outs of the delays in building, but I was quite surprised to see one home sit for nearly a year after it looked like it was finished before its owners moved in. Another house looks like it's just about done near the entrance to our development, but I've seen no more work done in the last month or so. I had gotten somewhat used to the noise of big equipment just outside my home, so it's awfully quiet not to have any more building on the two homes going up on my block.
I am so stoked to be (hopefully) moving to Tennessee. Now it's not exactly set in stone; we don't have our orders officially cut, so anything can happen. Really I am excited to be going ANYWHERE other than here. It's not that I hate it here or anything; it's really quite lovely here and I've made some good friends. It's more that I have a sort of wanderlust within me, probably from moving around so often when I was a kid. I'm just sort of done living here, if that makes any sense. By the time we move next summer, I will have lived here in Washington longer than anywhere else in my life. Odd, isn't it? Generally I only live somewhere for four years; here will be four and a half by the time we leave.
But I've heard really nice things about Tennessee. First off, I'm really excited to be moving back to the South. Mmmmm sweet tea!! I'll finally be able to order sweet tea when I go to a restaurant! Plus my Southern accent will come back in full force. Secondly, I've heard it's really pretty there. I definitely will miss the mountains here in Washington, as far as scenery goes, as most of the so-called mountains I grew up with are just sort of glorified hills. I'm also looking forward to having four honest-to-God seasons, instead of one really long cool rainy season that just sort of slides into a few warm sunny weeks, and then back to the rainy season.
What's the best thing about Tennessee?? The proximity to Virginia, of course!! I think it's something like 16 hours' drive to northern Virginia, which isn't bad at all. Certainly it's better than flying across country. The funny thing is it's just about the same distance to southern Virginia for when I go to see Caroline! Fortunately she has plenty of extra room in her ginormous townhouse so I can come for an extended visit! YAY!!! Maybe I'll go there for a few weeks when I get pregnant with my next child so she can pamper me a bit and I can have Gracie play with her "cousins"!!!
So keep your fingers crossed!!! I want this duty station!