We have worked for a year and a half to get to this point...we have official plans!!! And they are amazing! Our application for our building permit will be submitted tomorrow and two weeks from now we should be breaking ground. More to come...
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
So our contractor told us that a surveyor would be going out to the lot to stake out the house. We got to the lot and this is what we saw:
If you look in the far corners of the picture, you will see three little stakes (the fourth didnt make it into the picture). Dont get me wrong, at least something is happening, but come on, four stakes?!?! I expected there to be a little more definition to the house so I could sort of see how its going to sit on the lot. Regardless, its progress, hopefully in the next couple of weeks the permits will be issued and we can really get started.
If you look in the far corners of the picture, you will see three little stakes (the fourth didnt make it into the picture). Dont get me wrong, at least something is happening, but come on, four stakes?!?! I expected there to be a little more definition to the house so I could sort of see how its going to sit on the lot. Regardless, its progress, hopefully in the next couple of weeks the permits will be issued and we can really get started.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
The "Lemire Ranch" From The Beginning
While John and I were dating one of the things we both agreed on is that one day we would like to build a house. This is the story of our home construction project from the beginning.
In March of 2008, John and I were at dinner with our friends Matt and Missy. Missy mentioned that she knew someone who had just purchased a lot on Lake Wheeler that he found on craigslist. At the time we lived close to Lake Wheeler and wanted to continue to live in the area in the future. I had never thought of looking for property on craigslist, but that night when we got home, I did just that. I found a two acre lot and met with the owner later that week. He brought me a copy of the site map and covenants, and we found that we could build our dream house with little to no restrictions. The land was more than we had planned to spend, but with a little convincing on my part, in May of 2008, we found ourselves closing on the lot. Our timing couldn't have been better because the week after we applied for our loan, the bank terminated their lot loan program because of the economy. This is us on closing day:
Over the next year, we casually looked at plans, went to the parade of homes and talked to friends who had also built their homes. I found a house in the parade of homes that I immediately fell in love with and thought John might love as well. We agreed that the exterior of the house was perfect but the layout needed some work. We contacted our longtime friend, Corey, to help us with drawing the house plans. After several drafts, we finally agreed on the layout. This is the house from the parade of homes that ours is modeled after:
We thought the hard part was finalizing the plans, then we started talking to banks about a construction loan. While we had amazing time with the lot loan, our timing on the construction loan couldn't have been worse. We have found that acquiring a construction loan in 2010 is almost impossible. It doesn't seem to matter how high your credit score is and how little debt you have, if you don't have cash to bring to the table at closing, you cant get a construction loan. Construction loans are very risky to a bank and the only way to convince them that you are going to complete the project is put your own cash in it. We have finally worked out the construction loan and officially closed last week. The next step is pulling permits. The engineer that is reviewing our plans should be finished with them in a couple of weeks and we hope to begin by the beginning of August. We will post updates often as things begin to happen. For now the lot looks like this:
In March of 2008, John and I were at dinner with our friends Matt and Missy. Missy mentioned that she knew someone who had just purchased a lot on Lake Wheeler that he found on craigslist. At the time we lived close to Lake Wheeler and wanted to continue to live in the area in the future. I had never thought of looking for property on craigslist, but that night when we got home, I did just that. I found a two acre lot and met with the owner later that week. He brought me a copy of the site map and covenants, and we found that we could build our dream house with little to no restrictions. The land was more than we had planned to spend, but with a little convincing on my part, in May of 2008, we found ourselves closing on the lot. Our timing couldn't have been better because the week after we applied for our loan, the bank terminated their lot loan program because of the economy. This is us on closing day:
Over the next year, we casually looked at plans, went to the parade of homes and talked to friends who had also built their homes. I found a house in the parade of homes that I immediately fell in love with and thought John might love as well. We agreed that the exterior of the house was perfect but the layout needed some work. We contacted our longtime friend, Corey, to help us with drawing the house plans. After several drafts, we finally agreed on the layout. This is the house from the parade of homes that ours is modeled after:
We thought the hard part was finalizing the plans, then we started talking to banks about a construction loan. While we had amazing time with the lot loan, our timing on the construction loan couldn't have been worse. We have found that acquiring a construction loan in 2010 is almost impossible. It doesn't seem to matter how high your credit score is and how little debt you have, if you don't have cash to bring to the table at closing, you cant get a construction loan. Construction loans are very risky to a bank and the only way to convince them that you are going to complete the project is put your own cash in it. We have finally worked out the construction loan and officially closed last week. The next step is pulling permits. The engineer that is reviewing our plans should be finished with them in a couple of weeks and we hope to begin by the beginning of August. We will post updates often as things begin to happen. For now the lot looks like this:
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