Okay, technically, it's not ME that has been framed. It's my new house!

Now that the walls are up, it's starting to feel more real each day. My contractor says I can expect to be finished sometime in September, almost a month earlier than planned. That means I need to get moving on selling my existing home — good thing I watch a lot of "Designed to Sell"  on HGTV .

Although I'm optimistic that I won't have too much trouble selling my current place (fortunately, the real estate market is still pretty healthy here in the Midwest), I've started to panic about funds. That's because in my Online Banking profile, I can see all the money that I'm on the hook for: my existing mortgage, my home equity loan (which I used to buy the land), and my construction loan. Let's just say that the debt outweighs my deposits by quite a bit, not a comfortable place for me.

Gulp. I keep reminding myself that real estate is an investment.

I've also been keeping an eye on mortgage interest rates, since I will need to secure my permanent financing fairly soon. Unfortunately, they have not been going in the direction I'd like them to! I'm trying to be optimistic about this, too. Worse comes to worst, I may end up with a higher rate initially and will plan to refinance down the road.

If you're not yet in a position to build your own new home, or if you think I'm just plain nuts to be doing so, you can get some practice by building a virtual one in Stagecoach Island. They've even got their own HGTV-esque show!