Now onto the appraisal and he has some equipment ready to be dropped off on March 13 or 14 to get digging assuming everything goes on time with the closing of the construction loan (which looks promising).
Picture
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Blueprint complete!
Yesterday we met with our builder so he could show us the final blueprint and make sure there wasn't anything else we could think of to have changed last minute. We were very happy with how it turned out! We got everything in there that we had asked for and can't wait to see it come together! I will post a picture of the elevation below. I figure if I post the actual blueprint it is some kind of copyright infringement since it isn't just the floor plan...so I will probably refrain from that.
Now onto the appraisal and he has some equipment ready to be dropped off on March 13 or 14 to get digging assuming everything goes on time with the closing of the construction loan (which looks promising).
Now onto the appraisal and he has some equipment ready to be dropped off on March 13 or 14 to get digging assuming everything goes on time with the closing of the construction loan (which looks promising).
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Contract complete
We sat down today with the realtor and builder and talked numbers/got the contract signed. Now the waiting game begins...he is submitting all floor plan changes to the designer tomorrow who will have the blue prints for us in 1-2 weeks. Then we can get those to the lender who can begin the appraisal and work on getting us to closing on the construction loan. All of this is supposed to be finished sometime between now and March 11. Then....we can BREAK GROUND!
Overall, we are very happy with the numbers and what we are going to be able to get. We are kind of surprised that we are going to be able to get the upgrades that we will be getting for our first house and staying within our budget. To get the basement finished, we will be going a little over budget. We've read and been told that it is cheaper to get this done during construction than coming back later to do.
Some of the structural things we are happy about are 9ft ceilings on the main level and raised ceilings in the basement. We also are getting a 2ft bump out in the kitchin/dining area for a little more room. Nothing big, but I think it will help open the space up a little. He is doing some nice built in cabinets in the mud room and a built in bench inside the front door in the foyer. We should have enough on budget to do mid-level cabinets, granite countertops, and nice stainless steel kitchen appliances. There is enough on budget to have some nice recessed lights in the kitchen/basement as well as along the front porch. Something I liked in the builders house that he showed us were vent lights along the stairway down to the basement. We are getting ceiling fans/ceiling fan connections in all bedrooms and the great room. He will be doing a tray ceiling with crown molding and rope light in the master bedroom.
We were also happy to see that there was seeding/straw placement for the yard and a budget for some landscaping. Thankfully, he thought of things that we hadn't thought of...
Anyways, there probably won't be many updates until closing/ground breaking unless some other unexpected news pops up so we will see you then!
Overall, we are very happy with the numbers and what we are going to be able to get. We are kind of surprised that we are going to be able to get the upgrades that we will be getting for our first house and staying within our budget. To get the basement finished, we will be going a little over budget. We've read and been told that it is cheaper to get this done during construction than coming back later to do.
Some of the structural things we are happy about are 9ft ceilings on the main level and raised ceilings in the basement. We also are getting a 2ft bump out in the kitchin/dining area for a little more room. Nothing big, but I think it will help open the space up a little. He is doing some nice built in cabinets in the mud room and a built in bench inside the front door in the foyer. We should have enough on budget to do mid-level cabinets, granite countertops, and nice stainless steel kitchen appliances. There is enough on budget to have some nice recessed lights in the kitchen/basement as well as along the front porch. Something I liked in the builders house that he showed us were vent lights along the stairway down to the basement. We are getting ceiling fans/ceiling fan connections in all bedrooms and the great room. He will be doing a tray ceiling with crown molding and rope light in the master bedroom.
We were also happy to see that there was seeding/straw placement for the yard and a budget for some landscaping. Thankfully, he thought of things that we hadn't thought of...
Anyways, there probably won't be many updates until closing/ground breaking unless some other unexpected news pops up so we will see you then!
Friday, February 8, 2013
Pre-approved!
After yesterdays excitement, the corrected credit report allowed the lender to be able to pre-approve us in time to keep the lot and not have it bought out from under us. We are very relieved! I probably could have dealt with losing the lot, but not being approved for this loan would have led me to seriously question whether I wanted to continue with the building process. This loan is a one time close construction loan with much, much better terms than our other option(s).
So now we meet with the builder tomorrow afternoon to finalize some changes to the floor plan. Then we submit it to the designer, get the appraisal, close out the construction loan and start building. The builder expects to begin in 1 month!
We are excited to get this show on the road. In the end, we could have got a much larger house if we would have bought a previously lived in house instead of building, but we both agree that it wouldn't feel like "our" home. We don't know why we can't shake that feeling, but ultimately that was a large part in deciding to build a more moderately sized custom, well-built home that we are the first owners of. Plus, after learning about the new framing and energy certifications that have been implemented in the past few years, I couldn't make myself comfortable not building a custom home that meets those standards and is of that quality. This way, I know I have an energy efficient home built the way I wanted and won't have any surprises that you typically find after you buy a previously owned home.
So now we meet with the builder tomorrow afternoon to finalize some changes to the floor plan. Then we submit it to the designer, get the appraisal, close out the construction loan and start building. The builder expects to begin in 1 month!
We are excited to get this show on the road. In the end, we could have got a much larger house if we would have bought a previously lived in house instead of building, but we both agree that it wouldn't feel like "our" home. We don't know why we can't shake that feeling, but ultimately that was a large part in deciding to build a more moderately sized custom, well-built home that we are the first owners of. Plus, after learning about the new framing and energy certifications that have been implemented in the past few years, I couldn't make myself comfortable not building a custom home that meets those standards and is of that quality. This way, I know I have an energy efficient home built the way I wanted and won't have any surprises that you typically find after you buy a previously owned home.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
The roller coaster continues!
So as I've stated in previous posts, there was an error on my credit report and they were waiting on this to be clarified before they would give me my pre-approval letter for the construction loan. Around 3:30 PM I sent a quick email to the lender and asked if I could have the phone number to the credit bureau so I could get a status updated since we hadn't heard anything about it yet this week. He then replies and said the he actually has been working on that for the past hour and would let me know. Then things get crazy...
At 4PM my builder calls me and tells me that the lot that we have a hold on could be gone by 10am tomorrow morning! These remaining lots in this subdivision have sat untouched and without any offers for the past 2-3 years. Now the owner of the land lets him know that they are using the "24 hour notice" that we had when we put a hold on the lot to where we either have to buy the land or it will be bought by someone else since we hadn't done a contract yet. Basically, one of the national homebuilders around here (Maronda Homes) contacted them and they want to buy all of the remaining lots (about 10 of them) that are left in the subdivision...
So at this point, we can't come up with a contract because we need the pre-approval. I then talk to the other lender who had already pre-approved me for a less appealing loan and he says that when he pulled my credit report that the error the other lender saw was not on his report. He offers to email it to me and was completely cool and urged me to go with the other lender because the loan is that much better. He emails me the credit report which I then send off to the lender we have been waiting on who at the same time also received the revised credit report with the error corrected! He then sends it off to the underwriter....who is no longer at work. So he had his staff promise to hand it to the person the moment they walk in the door tomorrow morning and we are hoping for an answer and pre-approval before 10am. The land contract is already filled out and ready to be sent the moment we get the approval. If not, then we potentially lose the lot and have to find another one. Problem is, we've kept our eyes out for affordable/nice lots in the area because this lot isn't exactly our dream lot, but nothing is available/affordable. I have no idea what we will do if we lose this lot since there aren't really any other options at this point that we are happy with.
We are also meeting with the builder tomorrow to go over more floor plan and proposal things.
I will update tomorrow with the outcome...wish us luck!
At 4PM my builder calls me and tells me that the lot that we have a hold on could be gone by 10am tomorrow morning! These remaining lots in this subdivision have sat untouched and without any offers for the past 2-3 years. Now the owner of the land lets him know that they are using the "24 hour notice" that we had when we put a hold on the lot to where we either have to buy the land or it will be bought by someone else since we hadn't done a contract yet. Basically, one of the national homebuilders around here (Maronda Homes) contacted them and they want to buy all of the remaining lots (about 10 of them) that are left in the subdivision...
So at this point, we can't come up with a contract because we need the pre-approval. I then talk to the other lender who had already pre-approved me for a less appealing loan and he says that when he pulled my credit report that the error the other lender saw was not on his report. He offers to email it to me and was completely cool and urged me to go with the other lender because the loan is that much better. He emails me the credit report which I then send off to the lender we have been waiting on who at the same time also received the revised credit report with the error corrected! He then sends it off to the underwriter....who is no longer at work. So he had his staff promise to hand it to the person the moment they walk in the door tomorrow morning and we are hoping for an answer and pre-approval before 10am. The land contract is already filled out and ready to be sent the moment we get the approval. If not, then we potentially lose the lot and have to find another one. Problem is, we've kept our eyes out for affordable/nice lots in the area because this lot isn't exactly our dream lot, but nothing is available/affordable. I have no idea what we will do if we lose this lot since there aren't really any other options at this point that we are happy with.
We are also meeting with the builder tomorrow to go over more floor plan and proposal things.
I will update tomorrow with the outcome...wish us luck!
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Picture time
Alright, so after reading other peoples posts during the home construction process I've decided that my blog is getting boring due to lack of pictures. There isn't much to show, but here we go!
The is the outside of the house we are designing...excuse my lack of drawing abilities. It is hard to tell how it looks because of my drawing, but the garage sticks out a little and there is a front porch over the entry and across the front of the house. I added the dome shaped window which is a change from the original plan because it is a 2-story foyer as you walk through the front door and thought it would look nicer. I will probably have them do stone around the dome window, shaker siding on the left upper section by the left two windows, and brick on the entire garage section. The subdivision requires a brick wrap on all houses. On the porch, I have stone bases drawn in there before the column continues up. Who knows, this all could change, but that is the plan for now.
The floor plans are still being tweaked or I would throw those on here too. Once I get them done, I will put them up. I am waiting on the builder and designer to work some issues out that I am not too happy about.
As for the status of other things, we are still waiting to hear from the credit bureau on the mistake they need to fix for us to get approved and we are meeting with the builder Friday to iron out more details and possibly go over the contract.
So there, we now have pictures and I feel that the blog is extremely exciting to read now...extremely. Alright, maybe not, but it will work for now!
Alright...this is the lot we will be building on. We are getting a GREAT deal on it. It costs about $15000 less than any other lot in this area of the same size. That gives us extra money to throw at upgrades as we are on a pretty tight budget thanks to my student loans. The lot is tucked in the back of this established custom built neighborhood and I guess nobody seems to look back there. It is on a quiet cul-de-sac side street. The lot itself is not in the cul-de-sac. The only thing we aren't crazy about is the fact that there is a "salt dome" in the background for the county we live in. However, the plus side is that there will never be anyones house in the backyard and the only time it will be annoying is occasionally during the winter when we are getting snow (which isn't terribly bad in this area). The lot tends to slope up in the back and then dip back down again. When they start digging, he says he can create another hill at the very back to help block some of that out. We can plant some trees on top of that to block out the dome behind the property. The county also has a huge fence back there so we don't have to worry about fencing that section in at least.
The is the outside of the house we are designing...excuse my lack of drawing abilities. It is hard to tell how it looks because of my drawing, but the garage sticks out a little and there is a front porch over the entry and across the front of the house. I added the dome shaped window which is a change from the original plan because it is a 2-story foyer as you walk through the front door and thought it would look nicer. I will probably have them do stone around the dome window, shaker siding on the left upper section by the left two windows, and brick on the entire garage section. The subdivision requires a brick wrap on all houses. On the porch, I have stone bases drawn in there before the column continues up. Who knows, this all could change, but that is the plan for now.
The floor plans are still being tweaked or I would throw those on here too. Once I get them done, I will put them up. I am waiting on the builder and designer to work some issues out that I am not too happy about.
As for the status of other things, we are still waiting to hear from the credit bureau on the mistake they need to fix for us to get approved and we are meeting with the builder Friday to iron out more details and possibly go over the contract.
So there, we now have pictures and I feel that the blog is extremely exciting to read now...extremely. Alright, maybe not, but it will work for now!
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Still waiting
We are still waiting on th credit bureau to correct my credit report. I hope it is resolved very soon. I am anxious to get things started. We really need to break ground by mid to late March to stay on schedule.
Anyways, on a non-house related note, I have some fun news for myself. Unfortunately, two of my colleagues at work recently announced that they are moving about 2 hours away and will no longer be with our physician group in our ER. However, at the same time that they announced this, one of my buddies from undergrad called me up and asked if our group had any openings! He has been working in an ER (he is also a Physician Assistant) near Chicago and is wanting to move back home to this area. I spoke with our head physician and he is setting up an interview for him! It would be fun to have an old friend join our group. On top of that, we are both huge Cincinnati Reds fans and on our off days could take off and take in some afternoon games during the week. What is even more exciting is that he says he wants to build a house as well and is going to look at some lots by our lot. If he is hired fast enough we are going to try to talk the owner of the land into getting us a discount package deal. Same for the builder since business is slow.
Anyways, I hope to have some good news in the next few days. If anyone knows how long it takes the credit bureau to correct your report, please let me know!
Anyways, on a non-house related note, I have some fun news for myself. Unfortunately, two of my colleagues at work recently announced that they are moving about 2 hours away and will no longer be with our physician group in our ER. However, at the same time that they announced this, one of my buddies from undergrad called me up and asked if our group had any openings! He has been working in an ER (he is also a Physician Assistant) near Chicago and is wanting to move back home to this area. I spoke with our head physician and he is setting up an interview for him! It would be fun to have an old friend join our group. On top of that, we are both huge Cincinnati Reds fans and on our off days could take off and take in some afternoon games during the week. What is even more exciting is that he says he wants to build a house as well and is going to look at some lots by our lot. If he is hired fast enough we are going to try to talk the owner of the land into getting us a discount package deal. Same for the builder since business is slow.
Anyways, I hope to have some good news in the next few days. If anyone knows how long it takes the credit bureau to correct your report, please let me know!
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