June 25, 2023: There's been movement. We have stakes!

 They staked the driveway and where the house will sit on the .24 acre of property.  It looks like about 10 houses are staked!  We are so excited!  It's really happening!

June 10, 2023: Our Newest Adventure Begins!

So, this blog has been about Chris and LouAnna sharing their big adventures - well, we are about to embark on another.  Chris and LouAnna are having a home built (in a subdivision) and watching this house be born is something we'd like to document and share with you.

How'd we get here?

Chris and LouAnna sold their house in Brownsburg, Indiana in 2022 and moved into a rental home.  This gave them time to find just the right [next/forever] house.

Why are we building?

After searching online, seeing houses, putting in [very good] offers, and not getting chosen because another buyer had all cash, we had to find a less frustrating (or heartbreaking) way of buying a house.  Also, some of the houses we were making were more than a brand new home and not exactly what we were looking for.  What if we got into an overpriced pre-existing home and then had to replace the roof, HVAC, etc, etc. So, we looked into: 

• custom builders that build on your own property or lot.  They have floor plans to choose from buy you can also edit those or sometimes go off plan altogether and build a custom, original home.
• builders who are building an entirely new neighborhood (you see these signs "Homes starting in the $200Ks") and this house comes with the property, utilities, permits, landscaping the front yard, etc.  Essentially, they build the home for you on one of their available lots within the new neighborhood and after it's all done, you buy the finished house.

We found a great custom builder but finding land that fit our price range was not easy.  When you buy land, you either hope it already has the utilities on site or all that is an additional expense.  You must also pay for clearing and grading of the land so it's ready to be built upon.  When we crunched the numbers, building in a neighborhood was going to get us into a good home within an acceptable timeframe.

We signed the contract and picked out the colors, fixtures, upgrades on June 7th with a target closing/move-in date of December 1, 2023!  Let the countdown begin!  Could we close in December and celebrate the holidays in our new home?

What did we pick?  I'm so glad you asked!

The home will be 3bd/2ba, 1590 sf, 1 story ranch with mud/laundry room and open floor plan.  It will have an attached 2 car garage.  It's on .24 acres in a back corner of the neighborhood.  From what we can tell, we are one of the first 10 houses being built.  Right now, it's just an open field with roads, divided with stakes - roughly showing the property lines.

Exterior: mostly vinyl siding (color: Harbor Blue) with a little bit of brick accents on the façade (color: Jet Black) with white: windows, shutters around the front window, trim, and garage door.  We capped things off with a medium pastel yellow front door.  The roof is brown - we didn't get to pick/edit that.  We decided to have them screen in the back patio (~6'x14) and add an additional 14'x14' concrete slab off the back patio.

Flooring: the bedrooms had to be carpet with this builder (color: Fossil) but the rest of the home we upgraded to a very nice Vinyl Plank (color: Rustic Lodge).

Kitchen and Baths: the cabinets will be a beautiful warm wood cabinet (color: Cafe) with Formica countertops (color: Carrara Blanco) that look a bit like marble without the price tag.  The fixtures that came standard are nickel and chrome and that's fine with us. 

Other upgrades: We both enjoy cooking on a gas stove, so we decided to add natural gas to the home (range, water heater, furnace) and so we were able to add a gas line to the back patio so Chris can connect directly to the grill/smoker he loves.  No propane tanks?  Nice!  They will plumb for a water softener as the water hear is very hard.  They will also pre-wire all the rooms to handle ceiling fans as we are kids of the 80s and fans = comfort.  The house came with 8' ceilings and we changed them to 9' ceilings to open it up even more - and for our tall friends.  The front yard will be landscaped with grass sod, a tree, and plants and the backyard was just going to be seeded.  We'd like to see if they can sod the back, as well, since we have two dogs and would like grass sooner than later.

With this builder, the appliances are additional (and not cheap) so we decided we will shop for those on our own.  We already have a great W/D and Water Softener so we just need to shop for the kitchen appliances and there will be plenty of year-end sales to make that more affordable.  We will also have to add a fence as this builder no longer handles those.  No problem; we hired someone to do the fence at our last house, so we feel competent and comfortable with that.

PR: Day 6 - food, rain forest, burns, and bio-bay

It's our 2nd to last day in PR and we woke up and hit the ground running!  We used Yelp again and had such good food!  Pan Mas Rico here in Fajardo was A-May-Zing!  Chris got a pastrami sandwich on sweet bread and Coke (finally saw Coke at a restaurant) and LouAnna got a #2 breakfast platter of 2 fried eggs, honey ham, sweet toasted bread and a cafe con leche (coffee with milk - highlighted in the picture below).  Chris ordered the small sandwich thanks to a review and so LouAnna took a second picture of his big hand on the "small" sandwich for reference.  😂  The entire order was less than $10!  😮  Did LouAnna talk to anyone while we were here, you ask?  Why yes, she did.  haha!  An older gentleman wished us "buena salud" (he told us meant "good health" in English) while we were eating and then asked what do we say on the mainland when people are eating?  Puerto Ricans say "good health" so that the food is a blessing and nourishes the body.  LouAnna explained we really don't say anything but that "good health" is such a lovely sentiment.  Puerto Rico - you are adorable!

Then, we headed out to El Yunque National Forest.  It's a rainforest; the only one in the U.S. National Forest System.  Chris and LouAnna aren't hikers, so we went, got out and took pictures, and left.  But, at least we can say we've been to a rainforest and it was very pretty and lush.  The road up the mountain was very narrow in parts and also had a lot of big potholes so driving up (and down) was an adventure.  A jeep would have handled it like a champ, but we were in our rented Kia Soul.  😄  The amount of bamboo in this forest was amazing and beautiful.  Some bamboo was about 10" in diameter; gorgeous! 😍

Then, we headed back to Luquillo Beach.  We checked out some shopping at the Kiosks, which is like shops you'd see along a boardwalk in the mainland.  We didn't have any food because we had just eaten a couple of hours prior, though we hear the food here is very good.  It was mostly cloudy today and the water was a bit rougher, but it was still delightful for us.  Due to the overcast, we didn't put on sunscreen...until it was too late.  Both LouAnna and Chris burned today...we laid on our stomachs for too long.  Chris's back is burned, though not badly and LouAnna's back and the backs of her pasty white legs. 😖 Luckily the condo has aloe in the fridge and Chris spread on a generous amount on her legs once we returned home at the end of the day.  Aaaaahhhhhhhh!  🙌

Lastly, we headed out to do a Bioluminescent bay tour with Yokahu Kayak Trips at Laguna Grande here in Fajardo.  There are several tour companies to choose from but we recommend this tour.  Chris and LouAnna finally found something they aren't good at; two-person kayaking.  Chris's strokes are so much stronger than LouAnna's that we had some trouble kayaking upstream, which resulted in being escorted/towed 😂 to Laguna Grande by one of the guides; LouAnna was fine with that - it was super narrow in the canal that led to the lagoon and it was SO.VERY.DARK anyway.  On the way back, we figured it out enough to navigate ourselves the entire way back (it was about a mile each way).  👏 Also, for the ladies; LouAnna can vouch for tour guides who were all very nice and handsome. 😂  The tour lasted 2 hours and it was a great night to do it!

Tomorrow is our last day in PR.  Since we are both burned; we are going to lay low and get ready to head home.  We fly out at 2am and have about a 12 hour 😩 layover in Orlando and should get home around 6pm on Wednesday.  

We love you PR!  💝 😘

PR: Day 5 - Back to Luquillo Beach

Today was totally chill - just how we like it!  Chris caught a glimpse of the most gorgeous sunrise when he got up to use the bathroom - then came back to bed.  LouAnna slept in and then, after having breakfast at home, we loaded up for the beach again.

LouAnna thought the beaches would be packed since it's Sunday but Chris didn't think so; Chris was wrong.  The beaches were packed with families enjoying the amazing weather.  People brought table-top grills, coolers full of beer, and the music!  It was a party at the beach!  After a couple of hours of swimming and sunbathing, we got so hungry smelling all the grilled food, so we left.  Good thing, too; both LouAnna and Chris were pink from slight burns.  We can't come back to the beach tomorrow and the next day if we burn today, right?!

 

We felt like a pizza and tried a local place called Rustico here in Fajardo.  We called and placed a carry-out order.  They said it would be 90 minutes and they'd call us when it was done.  After 90 minutes (with no call) he headed that way to bring home a cold pizza and cold bruschetta. 😞 Turns out, they took down Chris's cell number wrong.  LouAnna wasn't a fan of the cold veggie pizza; Chris thought it was alright.  The bruschetta was fine; I'm guessing it would have been amazing if it had been eaten much sooner.  Oh well; live and learn.

We hung out on the patio with the view and relaxed.  Nothing too exciting, but exactly what we wanted for this vacation!  We did see a rainbow on the way back from the beach; you are gorgeous Puerto Rico!  Here are a few pics of the area, a hot man walking out of the ocean, and a nest of SOMETHING that we saw at the beach by the cars in the parking lot; we do NOT want to be here when that thing opens up!  Oh my!  😱

I'm guessing we go back to the beach tomorrow - shocker!  😄

A partial rainbow

What IS that????

PR: Day 4 - Food, friendly conversation, and the pool

We used Yelp to find another good place to eat not far from our AirBnB.  El Timon was a tiny place

with amazing food!  LouAnna got another turkey sandwich (and a coffee - duh!) and Chris got the Roasted Pork & Smoked Ham sandwich (toasted) with lettuce, tomato, mustard, and pickles.  It was delicious!  We noticed that Pepsi is the drink of choice at the restaurants we've been to so far.  The only Coke we've seen is at grocery stores.  We also ordered a Tornilla, which is like a puffed pastry cream roll except it was filled with something very close to vanilla pudding and this one was topped with caramel that was sticky and crunchy.  Sweet!  See the picture below.  The dive was playing 80's music and there were a few people speaking Spanish and one guy guessed the singer as Debbie Gibson.  LouAnna knew it wasn't Debbie and spoke up.  Turned out that guy (and his son who was about 8yo) were super friendly and LouAnna and they talked (in English) the rest of our time at the restaurant (after introductions, of course) about music, the island, a few differences between the mainland and PR.  

Then we ran to Walgreens because Chris has lost his pair of sunglasses sometime yesterday and couldn't be at the beach for the rest of the week without some.

Tornillo

When we got back to our place, we changed into our swimming suits, grabbed our dirty laundry, put it in the washer which was on the ground level of the apartment complex, and hit the pool.  Not before LouAnna struck up a conversation with the other couple in the elevator that were on their way to the beach.  She and they talked about Luquillo and other beaches in the area.  She's so open and friendly and people can just tell!  It was a great day for the pool and though the water was cool at first, we both jumped right in and it was amazing within moments!  There were probably only about 20 people in the pool area in a pool that was about twice the size of most hotel pools we've been to in the states.  We laid out soaking up some more Vitamin D, cooled off in the pool, and finished up the laundry.  Showered, made dinner, watched the sunset, watched a little TV, and called it a night.  Such a chill day.  We LOVE island life.  We are already talking about when we can come back!

Enjoy the picture of the sun setting here in Fajardo! #nofilters

PR: Day 3 - Beach Day!

Friday was pretty chill for the most part. We decided to stay in and chill for the most part of the afternoon. From our balcony, we saw a manatee and possible barracuda swim in the bay near the shore.

About 3pm or so we decided to go check out a local beach. Luquillo Beach was about a 15-minute drive from where we are staying. The cost to get into the beach was $5.50 for the carload.

I've been to a few beaches and this has to be one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever been to. The beach was tucked behind a sand bar which allowed the swimming and the beach more enjoyable. As you are out in the water looking back on the shore you had El Yunque mountain in the background.  #gorgeous

Water was a little chilly at first but when you got used to it, it was fantastic. It was so nice being able to get out on some water and just float for a while.

I don't know if it was because we went out on a Friday afternoon or what, but the beach wasn't as crowded as I had expected. They aren't like the beaches in Destin Florida. If I were to guess, within the 1/2 mile of beachfront, were maybe 100 people.

We left about 5pm since both of us are ghostly white. I didn't want LouAnna to burn and be miserable for the rest of the trip. She got a little sun but nothing bad. I can't tell if I got any sun or not. Either way, it was nice to be able to soak up some vitamin D again.  Thinking of you all at home in Indiana.

LouAnna wanted some spaghetti for dinner. We quickly made dinner and settled in for the night. Fajardo comes to life on Friday nights! Music from several of the bars down below could be heard in our place as if they were RIGHT NEXT DOOR.

It wasn't too long after dinner was over, I decided I had enough fun and excitement for the day. I felt like I had hit a brick wall and my head was starting to get stuffy. Feels like a head cold coming on. But that won't keep me down while in Puerto Rico!

PR: Day 2 - Let's go eat somewhere

LouAnna and I ventured out to try some local food. LouAnna wanted to try out some local coffee places since they grow their own coffee here and it is such a big deal. LouAnna picked a place not too far from our place, Dulce Aroma.

LouAnna ordered a large espresso with a turkey sandwich. I had the chicken pesto sandwich and a Pepsi. Both sandwiches were amazing! We both brought back half of our sandwiches.

While we were out, we decided that we needed some more stuff for the week, so we hit up a local Walgreens. Since we've been here we've noticed there are quite a few chain restaurants here: Subway, McDonald's, Wendy's, KFC, Church's Chicken, and Burger King are ones we've seen so far.  We haven't eaten at any of them because we're in PR!
After leaving Walgreen's LouAnna started to feel bad, so we headed back to our place. She decided to take a nap to try to sleep off whatever hit her. Turns out that her sugar was WAY off due to the 16oz espresso she had earlier in the day.
We had planned on going to bio-bay kayaking Fajardo that night, but we rescheduled it to Monday night due to LouAnna not feeling well. So, sorry about Day 2 not being eventful like I had promised.

PR: Day 1.5 - let's look around

The first full day in Puerto Rico was pretty uneventful. Most of the day was spent recovering. LouAnna and I spent the majority of our time outside on the balcony listening to the waves break on the shore below us. The windows in the living room open almost the entire length of the room allowing for some wonderful coastal breezes and we couldn't be more spoiled with this amazing view of the coast from the 25th floor!

The biggest excitement was probably playing with the shower. There were several different water jets. It even displayed the water temp. I probably took too long of a shower playing with all of the features, but what the hell... I'm on vacation right?  I'm gonna look at Lowe's to see how much to get one of these babies for our house!  ;)

We did manage to go out to get some groceries since we have a full kitchen (to save money and time). Thankfully they had a Walmart about 2.5 KM from where we are staying. The food there was a bit more expensive than I thought. But then again, most of the food was shipped here.  PSA warning!!!  A super helpful tip for those that are wanting to come to experience the island life... bring bags with you to Walmart or other grocery stores. They don't have plastic bags here. We wound up buying small trash bags to carry the food up to our room.
Dinner we decided to stay in, I attempted to recreate a naked burrito bowl.  LouAnna was happy and that's all that matters.  We curled up on the couch, still pretty worn out from the previous day's travel.  But then again, this is island life; relax!

Puerto Rico - Day 1: the getting here

Welcome to another adventure of Eichrodts' travels.

A few months ago LouAnna Engle Eichrodt talked about going away for our 5th wedding anniversary. She searched for great deals. We settled on Puerto Rico.

We scored some great tickets through Spirit airways, less than $200 round trip each. I guess they are famous for their bare fares. They charge you for everything though. Drinks, snacks, checked baggage and carry on all were an additional fee.

Rachel drove us to the airport, we got the winter advisory message. Our flight was delayed an hour due to a plane swap at the previous stop. We finally boarded the plane at 6:47pm. Onward to Orlando!

Our experience in Orlando wasn’t a good one. First off back to Spirit, I swear their seats have no padding in them. So two and a half hours in an uncomfortable chair, luckily we had each other on the first leg of the journey.  As the passengers started to depart from the plane, we both experienced something weird. Passengers from behind us skipped out on waiting for their row to get up.  Orlando international airport is laid out kind of weird. They have different terminals and gates in different locations. We are pretty spoiled with how our airport is laid out. We flew into gate 12 or so and proceeded with the hoard of people to a common area. I checked the board for our connecting flight, the details didn’t match what was on our tickets. So we talked with someone at the information desk. Turns out we had to get on a tram and go to another terminal. The lady we spoke to wasn’t completely clear on the directions. We wound up riding the same tram multiple times before one of us pulled out our phone and found a map of the airport. Finally, we found the right gate!

For our next leg of the adventure started just after 11pm. We were separated by a few rows, LouAnna’s row was completely filled, I had a row to myself. We both tried to get some sleep, but we just can’t sleep on a plane. After a 2 1/2 hour flight we made it to San Juan, Puerto Rico!  We both decided that we are going to bite the bullet and rent a car for the week. It was a good thing as a cab ride to where we are staying would have been $100 before tip.

Traveling in Puerto Rico is about the same as in the US, with minor exceptions, EVERYONE here has really bright headlights. LouAnna drove the 50 minutes from the airport to Fajardo. It would have been less time but I made us take several wrong turns.

So after 21 hours of our adventure, it was finally time to get some much-needed rest. We both woke up the morning well after 12pm. Puerto Rico is an hour ahead of Eastern time. I woke up and opened the patio door to see our view for the week.

Washington D.C., but really Baltimore; Nora and heading home

So, we actually slept in Frederick, MD...which means LouAnna and Chris drove about an hour "home" after the Oriole's game last night to take showers and then crash for about 8 hours.  This morning, we left Frederick, and headed to a little town called Boonsboro, MD.  We all went there because LouAnna's favorite author, Nora Roberts, was doing a book signing there today.  (By the way, if you want to get LouAnna anything for a birthday or holiday, gift cards to Amazon work well so you can buy e-books of Nora's to read on her iPad!)  We got to the town and LouAnna stood in line at 9:40am.  By about 11am, LouAnna and Chris got their "letter" G which told them to come back at about 2:30pm to get in line to meet Nora.  This is Daisy waiting on Nora...but making friends with the Boonsboro natives and guests...

Well, after dawdling around Boonsboro, the whole family (Chris, LouAnna, Rachel, and Daisy the dog) went back and checked at about 1:30pm and they were already on letter "H".  So, LouAnna and Chris got in the "lets-meet-Nora-line" and by 1:57pm, LouAnna had met the woman she's been reading since 2006.  It was awesome!  Here's a pic and their dialogue.

LouAnna: I went to Ashford castle and did the hawk walk.
Nora:  You did?!!  Did you love it?!
LouAnna: Oh, yes.
Nora:  It's one of my FAVORITE things I've ever done!
(She signed book)
LouAnna: I'm here all the way from Indiana; it's so nice to meet you!
Nora: Aw, it's nice to meet you too, thanks for coming today!
(took picture)
LouAnna: Thanks again!

After that, it was 2pm and the family headed home on their 9 hour journey.  Chris drove about 2 hours through the Appalachian mountains.  Then, LouAnna drove about 2 hours.  Then, Rachel drove 3 hours.  Then, we stopped for dinner and Chris drove the rest (1.5).  We arrived home at about 11pm, unpacked, showered, and just relished in our arrival/home/bed/our stuff.

During Rachel's shift of driving, we chatted about our vacation.  We came to a mutual consensus that we all liked Arlington Cemetery's Changing of the Guard as our favorite part of vacation, followed by the Lincoln Memorial as a close second!  We all also agreed that we expected more of the 9-11 Pentagon Memorial...we expected it to be...MORE.   Chris and Rachel both thought it was pretty cool to ride the subway for the first time, too!  We loved our condo in D.C, our trip to Baltimore and seeing LouAnna's fave author; it's been a GREAT family vacation!!!

Final shower count: Chris (16), LouAnna (16), Rachel (14 - she didn't go to the baseball games and sweat it up).

Also, on Rachel's driving shift, we decided that next year, we would not only make a week's vacation of Pittsburgh/NYC/Philly, but also take a short trip to Chicago, and then another long weekend trip to the Seattle-ish area to visit friends.  This year isn't even over when we think about our first cruise in October (we WILL blog, but post them ALL when we get back mainland), but that we are already excited about next year's vacations, as well.  We'll have a FOURTH member of the family on those trips next year...

...as we hope to adopt a greyhound (Henry) who will share in our adventures starting in 2017!  Stay tuned friends; these Eichrodts are just beginning to "adventure"!!

Washington D.C. - Bye; Hello Baltimore!

So, we said goodbye to D.C. today and headed up to Baltimore for the night.  We made a stop at Charm City Cakes, home of the Ace of Cakes TV show because R & L used to watch that show!

Rachel and LouAnna met Geof and LouAnna got a photo!

After that, we headed to the hotel to drop off our stuff and grab lunch.  After lunch, it was a quick nap for LouAnna and then Chris and LouAnna headed to Camden Yards to watch the Baltimore Orioles play against the Angels.  At this ballpark, Chris and LouAnna decided since they are on a mission to watch a game at every MLB ballpark, that they should also blog about these along the journey.  They have already been to 4 together (and LouAnna's been to 5 others) and started writing down notes of each park so that we can put together blog posts about those another time.  Anyway, here's the photos of today's fun; they were giving away free t-shirts to each fan to celebrate the 50th anniversary of when Baltimore won the World Series and there was also about a dozen of those players who were there and honored today.

Two MLB games in two ballparks in one week; good week!

Tomorrow is a little more fun and then the long drive home to end the vacation.