Cabinets are installed

Our cabinet installation was completed Monday before Thanksgiving. The siding guys have stopped by to get rough measurements for the soffit and facia. Trim and closets are next.

Things are moving fast

I haven't been very good at posting lately, but once you read all that has been happening, perhaps you will understand.

Over a month ago we began considering that it might be in our best interest to finish the bonus space above the garage. What was originally going to be about 400 square feet, became over 900 square feet as we changed the plan to better compensate for the slope of the lot.

This required us to go back to the credit union to discuss further financing, since the cost increase would be significant.

our credit union quickly realized that finishing the project was best for all involved. Had we only completed the original house, we would have only about 10% equity in the house and therefore have to pay PMI. Since the finishout adds more value than cost, we will have about 25-30% equity in the house and not need PMI. This also will put our cost per square foot $10-$15 below the current market selling price.

Since that time we have been making all of the necessary decisions to finish the bonus, which will include my office, a guest suite with a small private bath, and a 17' x 23' media room.

As you can see in the picture, our brick is almost finished and our front door has been installed.

Electricians, Plumbers, Roofers, Doors, Bricks, Fireplaces and more A/C October 8, 2008

A lot has happened since I last posted, and trying to keep up with it all has a lot to do with why I haven't posted. Today has been a flurry of activity at the house. At one point we have had Plumbers, Roofers, A/C installers, Fireplace installers, and a guys working on drainage - all at the same time.

Our front door has finally been delivered from Canada, (pictured) and should be installed by the end of the week. Now we've got to figure out what color to stain it.

Hopefully more soon.

Dump Trips, A/C, and a bigger house - September 21, 2008

The Picture above is of our living room, taken from near the front entry.

This week was pretty slow around the job site. Nothing happened from Monday through Thursday. Kris and I spent Friday hauling off our 4th trailer load of scrap materials to the dump. Our electricians were finishing another house for our builder and the A/C guys were not available until Friday Afternoon.

Terry Davis with Chenal Heating and Air. came by to plan their attack. They will begin the installation tomorrow.

Meanwhile, we have submitted the drafts for the bonus space to our credit union and an appraiser. Our original plan had a 375 square foot bonus room above the garage. After the trees were removed we did the final elevation and our slope was greater than it originally appeared. It made sense to keep the bonus area on the main floor, and take advantage of the opportunity to get a lot of extra space for minimal cost.

Our original plan was to finish this area out as we needed it, but since it is on the main floor it needs to be insulated, and code requires us to put a ceiling in the room. We will also need to run the rough electrical before we do the ceiling....you can see where this is going.

With all of these requirements, we are little more than paint and floors from finishing the whole thing, so that is what we will be discussing with the credit union this week.

We still think that a 2600 square foot house is way to big for 2 people, but our mothers are probably hoping it will inspire us to fill it with grandchildren.

So this week is dealing with the bank, getting A/C installed, and hoping that the roofers and electricians are available soon....oh yea, and we also have jobs.

We Have A Roof ! - September 8, 2008

Our framers have been hard at work and today the roof is on. We're finally able to see the size of it, and it's much larger than we originally thought. Windows could come as early as tomorrow.

Getting the Roof Built - September 4, 2008

The rain from Gustav is mostly gone. Today we had some light showers and the temperatures stayed in the low 70's allowing the framing crew to get back to work.

Our framing team believes that they will be able to finish by Wednesday of next week, but we've learned that all schedules are subject to change.

Rain, rain, and more rain - September 3, 2008

There's nothing new this week. The remnant of hurricane Gustav has dumped 7 plus inches of rain on us.

The picture above is taken on the garage floor looking through the side wall.

The picture to the left is of the stairs leading up from the garage.

Hardwood, Tile, and Carpet - August 30, 2008

We spent some time this week at flooring stores. We spent HOURS this week looking at flooring and Countertop tile. We had a good Idea of what we liked, and did not have any trouble deciding on the tile or carpet. The hardwood floor would have been easy if we didn't have this thing called a "budget." We think that we've found a hardwood that will work. Our builder uses ProSource. ; and while we shopped around they have provide us withthe best pricing and great service. Stephanie has been our sales representative. She has great product knowledge and worke with us to find good products that meet our budget.

All Walls are framed - August 29, 2008

As the sun began to set tonight all of our walls have been framed. We even have stairs now! We were getting tired of climbing up the wall and crawling through the window. We have only a couple of small adjustments to make. Our builder noticed that our original design on the pantry wall needs to be shifted about 6 inches, and we had to make a change to the bedroom wall height so that we could accommodate the 12 foot ceiling in the living room. All in all the process has gone very smooth. It has been less than 40 days since we broke ground and should be in the dry before to long. Hurricane Gustav should make landfall by Monday morning, so we could be receiving a lot of rain as the week progresses.

Framing the Garage - August 27, 2008

The Framing is moving along quickly. There's not much to explain here, but I thought It was good to see the progression.

We Have A Slab - August 25, 2008

Finally the rain has subsided long enough to pour the slab. The concrete truck came early this morning. Framing on the 2nd half of the house could start as early as tomorrow. The framers are still hard at work on roof of the 1st half of the house.

Framing Continues, Rain Delays Slab - August 23, 2008

According to the National Weather Service, we have had almost 3 inches of rain in Maumelle in the last week. It seems more like a foot. The off and on rain has delayed the pouring of the garage slab, so the framers have been working on the half of the house that is not over the slab. It really looks strange. Most of the rooms now have the walls framed and the ceiling rafters above them, so we are able to get a real feel for the size of the rooms. As I write this the forcast is mixed, and the remnents of hurricane Faye are still over Florida, threatening to come our way. Hopefully we will have enough dry weather to get the slab in this week.

Termite Treatment - August 18, 2008

If the weather holds out we'll be pouring the slab. Keith Robinson with Optimal Pest Control Optimal Pest Control came out today and treated for termites where the slab will be poured. He sprayed a hundred gallons of liquid that sends the bugs to termite heaven or termite hell, I'm not sure what happens to termites when they die - never thought about it until just now - either way, their death is on Keith's conscience not mine, I wasn't the one who poisoned them.

He did do a great job and is a very friendly gentleman, not to mention he has a cool truck with scary black widow spider on the side.

Framing in process - August 14, 2008

Our framers have been working just over a week and it is starting to look like a house. The high heat as broken, but we have had some rain but progress is moving along at a very fast pace. It's amazing how quick this process happens. Just a day before this picture was taken, only the small wall shown on the lower right hand part of the picture above had been erected.

Foundation is Complete - August 8, 2008

Laying the blocks for the foundation took less than 3 days. The heat has been above 100 degrees, and when the blocks were moved to make way for the footings they were put at the far end of the lot. This made for some hard work for our block team, but they got the work done. The framing is next.

The footings are Poured - August 1, 2008

The lot clearing went very fast, and we were excited to see the foundation materials arrive just a couple of days later.

Unfortunately, the foundation materials were delivered before the footings had been poured and the delivery guy put them right in the middle of the house - where the footings had to be poured. It was a simple mistake, but by the time it was discovered, the materials were moved, and the footings guy had a chance to get back, we lost about a week. (see lesson 1 from Spring '08 posting.)

Finally the footings are poured and we are ready for the foundation to be built.

It Begins, Clearing the Lot- July 23, 2007

While we closed on the construction loan on July 3rd, it took some time to actually break ground.

We first had the final elevation surveyed, and had to make some further adjustments to the elevation of the house.

House Building Trivia -
Q: Once the money is in hand, what is the first thing you must do to begin construction?

A: Buy a water meter (at least in Maumelle.)

Once we had purchased our water meter, we took our proof of purchase to city hall to purchase our building permit, and finally broke ground on July 23rd.

The entire process of cutting the trees and preparing the ground to dig the footings took just a little of 24 hours. We were amazed. Hats off to Mark Pruss, Inc. for a great Job, in heat that was over 100 degrees.

Securing Financing and studying law -Spring 2008

As a late winter system in early march laid a beautiful, if short lived, blanket of snow on our lot, we were getting ready to break ground.

We secured Kyle Holloway with Synergy Development to be our builder (www.synergybuilthomes.com. We'll write more later about our process of picking a builder.)

We had been saving our money for the down payment and we spent March going back over every detail of the plan to make sure we had the plan exactly as we wanted it so that we could break ground as soon as financing was complete. Our goal was May 1st.

We went into the finance progress quite confident. We had worked to insure our credit was strong, we had cash in the bank, as well as equity in the lot, we had paystubs, asset documentation and bank statements gathered, and we had previous reassurances from our lender that there would be no issues.

During the Process of getting loan approval we had to submit the final plot plan that, among other things, shows the house fits on the approved building area of the lot. It was at this point that we learned first hand...

HOUSE CONSTRUCTION LESSON 1: Expect Hic-ups in the process.

Our house did not fit. The last changes we had made to fit inside the lines of the house were not accurate. As luck would have it, the change would not be easy. We evaluated every option, from major modifications of the plan to starting over from scratch, finally we decided to ask the city for a variance, or an exception to the rule. This decision would postpone construction for at least another 3 weeks as we went through the process of approval and it was very possible that we would be turned down, and be back at square one. Fortunately we were able to convince the city that our lot provided unique circumstances and we were granted the variance on May 22....3 weeks behind schedule.

With our variance approval in hand we turned in the last of the documents to our bank only to learn....

HOUSE CONSTRUCTION LESSON 2: Shop for your construction loan, no matter how much you like your bank.

What we did not take into account is how much the lending market had changed in just one year. Because we had a good relationship with our bank, we chose not to shop for the construction loan. We won't bore you with the details, but after much delay and missing our goal for breaking ground, our bank offered us a construction loan that we found undesirable.

So we hurriedly contacted other institutions to secure a loan that we could live with. Joan Pruitt at Telcoe Federal Credit Union was very helpful in the process and has been very easy to work with (www.Telcoe.com) We finally closed on our construction loan on July 2nd.