These look so nice, hard to think about using and abusing them at the gym and whatnot.

Anyway, I will try to keep folks up to date on our progress if they'd like to know. I am not ungrateful to win this sweepstakes, please don't think I am. I won a house from HGTV, not a cash equivalent. Nonetheless, it is still a very difficult process to go through. Please keep these things in mind when entering this contest. There are large expenses that will be paid, and especially these days, please check out the developer. This is the second time HGTV has used Core Communities, as the Hilton Head home was built by them. That winner also had issues with payment.

I'm asking everyone to keep their fingers crossed that this will actually turn out to be the fairytale I had hoped it to be! Thanks again for everyone's thoughts, prayers and support.

We have hit a snafu with dispensing of the home. The developer, Core Communities, is not financially stable at this point in time. They may not be able to honor the contract to purchase the home from me. I may have to attempt to sell the home on the open market, and most likely take a huge loss. My only hope is to make enough to pay the taxes. HGTV is attempting to work with us as much as possible, and I have hired a wonderful attorney to help me through this process.

As much as this was a dream come true, right now it is a living nightmare. I am not balking at the closing costs, as they were stated directly in the rules. But when you think of having to actually take title to a home that may be unsaleable, due to the economy, oh my heaven's sake...

We have decided not to keep the house. It's unfortunate, but with a young family, and my longevity with the County, I could not afford to uproot and move, as much as I would have loved to. HGTV has been wonderful, and the winner's weekend was amazing. Thanks to HGTV and all of the sponsors who have worked so hard to create such a masterpiece, as all of the homes have been. It was a very hard decision to let the home go, but we had decided to use all of the furnishings and build our own "green" home here in Saginaw, Michigan. We have a lot picked out, and our builder is LEED-certified. We had intended on building a "Parade of Homes" home, with the latest green technology appropriate for Michigan. We were attempting to get more than a "gold" certification for the home with LEED standards. It would be one of the first of it's kind on our area.

Hello everyone! It's Kari, the 2009 Green Home winner! I am finally writing to all of you to say "thank you" for all of your well-wishes and congratulations. I wasn't sure where exactly to say hello, so I figured the newest blog would work. I just wanted to give all of you an update...