One Brick, Two Brick, Red Brick…House!

  

Shortly after we were engaged, my fiancé and I sat down and worked out a plan for the first years of our marriage. There is still a LOT we don’t know but we believe that figuring all of this out is meant to be the fun part. :-)

We have a lot going for us. We both have stable employment and regular paychecks – a true blessing. But we live and work in two cities about an hour away from each other. So where should we live? In the middle of course!

We started by finding a realtor and visiting homes in the area. We struck out on the houses we were shown and decided to be adventurous and drive around some. We stumbled across a newer subdivision in Bessemer. The houses were everything we wanted for our first home. And so, after crunching the numbers, we realized we could build a house and start building our credit with the same money it would take for us to rent.

So building a house it is!

Our house is going up so fast! We get so excited turning onto our street to see the newest changes. We are very proud owners and have taken several friends and family members on a tour!

Last week the bricks and siding went up! I can’t wait for it to be painted. I will admit - I have been discouraged at times and not able to focus on the end result. For a while there it only looked like lumber. But the more work that is done on our house, the closer I feel our wedding day coming. This is a very exciting time for the future Johnston family!

Here’s the latest sneak peak. I’ll try to post updates regularly on our progress.

Building a house can be daunting. Have you faced this before? Any tips for the newbies? We’d love to hear some advice!

11.26.2011

November 26th, 2011 - The biggest news from this day was not Alabama's solid victory over that other team Auburn...well for most people in Alabama it was a big deal...but for me it was HIS PROPOSAL!

So I kind of love this fella a lot a lot. Above is a picture we snapped outside of Jordan-Hare stadium. Little did I know he was hiding a ring in his pocket! Though looking at this picture now he does look a little mischevious. :-)

And here is a pic he snapped of me while I'm trying to tell my parents we're engaged! It was only a teensy bit loud in the stadium.

His proposal? Pretty A-MAZ-ING. But before I can get to that a lil bit of history: Drew and I are college football fans for rival teams.

I support Alabama and he supports Auburn.

For any of you reading this not from the State of Alabama:

1 - You need to come visit.

2 - When you get here, before you find a place to live, a job, or even stop to grab a bite to eat, you must choose either Alabama or Auburn. You can never switch and your choice will define how well you get along with your neighbors (and family and friends and church members...etc.)

Enter into this environment us! Two years ago we went to the Iron Bowl in Auburn with some friends. We had the best time. Looking back, Drew says that was when he knew he wanted to get to know me better. A few months later, he worked up the nerve to ask me out! We have been together since, have had some fun adventures, and make sure to be nice, understanding, relatively cordial/not that mean every time our teams are playing.

Now for the proposal!

Last year, as the Iron Bowl started getting closer, Drew told me he won two tickets to the Iron Bowl! Sweet! And he was going to take me! Double sweet! We planned a trip up and I was excited to proudly wear my Bama colors back in enemy territory. Hehee. We tailgated before with friends and family then as the gates started to open, I could tell Drew was getting anxious to get inside.

Another mischevious smile on our way up to our seats

By the time we got up to them, he said he needed to go to back down real quick. I promised to watch our stuff and off he went. 10 minutes...15 minutes...30 minutes...later I start to worry and begin the obligatory texts of "Where are you?" "Are you ok?" "Was it the food?" lol About this same time I see a camera crew start making its way thru the stands with Drew in tow behind (I probably should have connected the two).

When he made it back to the seat, he said he was sorry for taking so long. I told him that was fine and was starting to tell him what he missed when I notice he is getting down on one knee! In his hand was a ring and he was saying the sweetest things then asked me to marry him! He says all I said was "Really? Really??" and made his heart pound before saying yes. :-) I was so ecstatic and my hands were shaking so much. Everyone around us was starting to cheer and take our picture. Then I noticed this huge news camera RIGHT over Drew's shoulder.

That's right - Drew had planned for the news crew to do an entire story on his proposal. It was on the air that night in Birmingham!

A lot has happened since that moment but that is all subject for another post. Do you have a favorite team? Do you think your love could survive such a big rivalry?

Roll Tide Y'All!