The Good, the bad & the ugly

Oh where do I even begin? It's been awhile since my last post because things have been so busy with life in general, but also because things with the house were up in the air for a little while.

I'll start with the ugly.........
We thought we were getting so close to breaking ground. At the end of October we were ready to meet with the builder to go to contract. He had the details, specs and numbers in place and after the "go ahead" we would start the site work while we were waiting on the permits to get completed. So we schedule a meeting and we sit down and he is almost $39,000 over our budget!!!!! Both of our eyes got really big and we had a huge lump in our throat. He had already given us an idea of where we were at, but it kind of hit us in the face at this point. I knew that all of the selections I had made were within reason, so where did we go wrong?!?! We sat quietly in the meeting listening to all he had to say. He told me I had picked everything within his normal allotted numbers or even below what he would normally allow, except two areas. My kitchen cabinets were a little high (maybe $2,000 over normal custom homes) but that was one thing I didn't want to compromise on. I've had my eyes on my creamy white and bright kitchen for years! And the second area was the wood floors. I want wood floors all throughout my house except carpet in the bedrooms and tile in the bathrooms and laundry room. So there is A LOT of square footage of wood floors. But that is the look I'm going for so I selected the same look that was a little less expensive. So that brought it down to not quite $38,000 over budget! There really wasn't anywhere else to save he told us. It was the structure that was making it so high. The frustrating part was that if we would have known this house plan was out of the budget we would have made changes in the beginning. But we were under the impression after our initial conversations in the beginning that this house would be able to be built within our budget. So we left there a little discouraged, frustrated and upset (to say the least). We were already nearly a month past when we originally thought we'd be getting started and here we had a house plan that we couldn't afford to build! So after the initial anger tapered off we decided to email the builder and just let him know our feelings and that $38,000 over budget wasn't going to be possible. So after a day or two we got back in touch with him and he was going to see what he could come up with to get it in our budget. Then the praying began (or shall I say changed to focus on guidance with what to do. I've been praying for this process from the beginning!)

The bad.........
We met with the builder last week and he had several options for us to get our dream house into our budget. It came down to us eliminating some square footage and possibly looking at a few different features to cut. The options were to eliminate the unfinished game room upstairs, eliminate bathroom 3, reduce the study and dinning room wall by 2 feet, change the garage door to a standard 16 foot door, reduce the garage by 2-4 feet, eliminate bedroom 4 and eliminate the stone and go to all brick. I really hated to have to change anything, but we decided to eliminate the game room upstairs, reduce the size of the study and dinning room, change the garage door to the standard size and reduce the size of the garage. And the funny thing is, I was at peace with this. As angry and frustrated I was in the beginning I was at total peace with these changes.

So now to the good......
We now have the ball rolling again!! Our plan had to go back to the architect to make the changes and then it will go to the engineer for his changes. Then we'll have a new final number and hopefully at this point we will be at our budget (or below)! And then site work and permitting will FINALLY take place. But in the meantime we've been working hard.

I love this picture because it shows what it originally looked like when we purchased it and what it looks like now. Matt worked really hard this weekend!

Here are some more pictures of what we've been doing.

 

And here is what we've been doing at the property:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Culverts are in and we're on to the engineering phase!

Last week a little more progress was made. Praise the Lord, because honestly I'm beyond ready to get this show on the road! We had NO idea how much time and leg work it took in the beginning. We are getting so close but I feel like we are still so far away. I'm ready to SEE SOME DIRT MOVE!

The culverts were installed last week though so we can now drive onto the property. We drove the Jeep onto it and drove to the back to check it all out. They also marked the final trees that are going to have to come down where the house is going to be. We're trying to keep as many as we can. We also determined the depth from the road we're going to go back and decided our original plan of 50 feet (to save money on concrete because its so darn expensive right now) was way too close and 125 feet would give us a great sized front yard and a HUGE backyard. Oh how I can't wait for us all to be running around back there. Especially after almost 3 months now in the apartment with no yard.

The soil sample was also completed so the architecture plans along with the soil sample have gone to the engineer. Once the engineer is finished with his work (which will hopefully be this week or the next) it will all be submitted to the city for permitting and while that is being done they will begin site work!

Here are some pictures of the recent work:

This was the view down the street tonight at dusk. The clouds had a beautiful pink hue to them and it was so nice and peaceful out there. Can't wait to sit out here on my back porch every night!

Electrical Plan and Cabinet Samples

On Friday of last week we had another meeting with the builder. This time we got a more detailed set of plans and information from the architect. It included roof elevations, cabinet designs, the electrical plan as well as an updated floor plan and front elevation with all of the changes we made last time.

We made no more changes to the front elevation, so this is it! OUR HOUSE!! We then went over the electrical plan noting the types of  lights we were wanting to put in each room, adding electrical outlets, adding pot lights, adding tv jacks and adding flood lights to the front and back.

Then I got the samples of the cabinet styles and coloring we were interested in.

My plan is to have the bisque color in the kitchen and the dark mocha color in the bathrooms and kitchen island. These are my kitchen inspirations:

So........next it's picking out granite, flooring, lighting and plumbing! And we're also waiting on the plat to get finished, the architect to complete everything so that it can go to the engineer and then go to permitting! We should also get the soil sample results back this week too.

Our builder told us "I think this is the fastest we've ever moved through these stages. Ya'll are on top of it!" To which I quickly replied "All 4 of us are crammed into a tiny apartment. Can ya tell we're ready to get into our house?!?!" (hint, hint!)

Culverts, Soil Sample and a Sign

We have had some movement going on this week with the house. I finally feel like we’re getting closer to breaking ground! Good thing because the walls of this apartment seem to be closing in on us some days. We have been staying busy, but just one day with all 4 of us at the apartment together and we’re all climbing the walls. I keep having to remind myself that it could be worse and it is only temporary.

The first thing we got this week were the culverts delivered. Soon we’ll be able to drive onto the property without going through the ditch! A soil sample was also taken. They take 2 fifteen feet deep samples to test the soil and see what the different layers consist of. Then that determines how much and what kind of dirt work is needed to prep the area for the foundation. Who knew ALL of this stuff needed to be done, right??!?!? I sure didn’t!

Then, the builder came by and stuck their sign in the yard. I don’t know why but that kind of made it feel “official”.

We also met with them to finalize any changes to our preliminary plan so that they could have the architect start drawing up the official plan. We’re getting closer!!

Building our dream house!!

We are starting a new chapter in our lives and I'm so excited to document it here. We're building our dream house!!!

It all started when we found this beautiful piece of property. I wanted to be in a neighborhood and Matt wanted some room to spread out. So when we found this 2.2 acre lot in a small, gated neighborhood we jumped on it. Especially since we had put an offer in on another lot in that neighborhood a year earlier and decided to walk away when they wouldn't budge on the asking price. But when it sold and we kept looking and couldn't find anything comparable, we knew we had found a needle in a haystack. Months later when 3 more lots opened up we didn't hesitate and made a strong offer. And not only did we get it, but our dear friends bought the lot next to ours and another friend bought the 3rd lot!



Here is it!!

 

 Ready to grow old here.

 

Soon after we purchased the property we cleared it. We were so excited and couldn't wait to enjoy it with bon fire's, kids running wild, discovering animal tracks and playing in the dirt with the girls.

 

 

 

We even had a crowd watching the tress come down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So we've played in the dirt, had races, climb trees, made bon fires with our friends, the kids have told scary stories in the dark by the fire with their friends, we've made smores, envisioned our future here and truly enjoyed this piece of land.

And now we have selected our builder, had several meetings with them and turned this:



into our dream home!!!

 

I can't believe this is happening! It really seems real now that we have OUR floor plan and OUR house design. Last week we got our preliminary sketch and floor plan, made the changes we needed to make and it is now with the architect for our official plans to be drawn up.

 

Tomorrow I get to meet with the builders to pick out cabinets, then comes flooring and countertops! I'm loving all of this so far but we still have lots of work to do before we even break ground. Permits and soil samples, platting and engineering, etc. etc. But we are hoping to break ground by the beginning of October.