The Waiting Begins.

The waiting begins.

Since we last met there has been more paper work then anything else.

We were got the house loan pre-approval with no problems. Then we started signing the first wave of papers. The WB-11 Residential Offer to Purchase, the Construction Agreement and the Description of Materials and Specs. After that we started writing checks to who ever wanted them, all were put in escrow.

Then we waited a couple days for those same papers to be signed by Kevin of Ambiance Homes. Monday we got the word that all was good. WHOO HOO!

Now HE has all sorts of paper work for the city, surveyors and other people will tramp around the lot and in a 10ish days they start to dig The Hole, which is called the excavation, by the builder (they are so exact)!

We were told that we will know a couple days ahead of time in case we want to come watch. OF COURSE - WITH A CAMERA!! It's looking like around Feb 5th will be National Excavation Day.

Everything else has to be decided on within thirty days so Kevin can order materials and so forth. So Sunday we went appliance, "window" shopping.

After scouring Consumer Reports and looking at many opinion websites we went to Sears to look at Kenmore's and picked out what we wanted. One of the things we (OK, "I") wanted was a side by side refrigerator. Columbus softens their water so upon tasting said water and going YUCK, I wanted something that had filtered water. A side-by-side was the ticket.

HOWEVER - there are always tradeoffs. You get less space in a side-by-side but DJ said that was a good thing. After all, 80% of our space is used up with Barbeque sauce , Ketchup, and 50 assorted other condiments (Did you know that Worcestershire Sauce is basically anchovy ketchup). No real food is actually in our refrigerator. Perhaps smaller is better.

One thing I was warned about was a person where I work had a house built and had a Side-by-side installed. All was good for a month. Until, her husband spilled something and it dripped all over. No problem right?

WELL - she opened up the door and went to pull out the trays. OH OH!, the door was against a wall and could not open any farther, yet, the trays could not come out because they would hit the door. OH MY!!.

We both laughed at the story and as the story teller exited my cube (I'm not a free range human, I'm cubed) I QUICKLY got out my floor plans.

As you can see I don’t THINK I we have a problem.


So now we wait for Excavation.e

In the meantime we decided to upgrade to a Rheem furnace. The default furnace sees to be Goodman's and as we were looking into "stuff" we found that Goodman's basically suck! For $500 more we can get a much much better heater.

Some other things we wish we would have done. Take note. Take photos our your current house when it is having a good day. Down the road you will want those photos. This is the best one so far.

I'm sure Marcia from Century 21 Tri-County Real Estate would be rolling over in her grave . . . . . . if she was dead, but she is alive and well so we don’t know what she is doing.

At least any buyers will know that the house as not been on the market for 8 months! That is the nature preserve back there in the back yard. Anyone? Anyone? Only $214,900! In the City of Madison, on a Nature Preserve with major shopping five blocks away and schools near by!

So we're a little in limbo. We have to decide on the inside stuff like flooring, cabinets and trying to coordinate colors with everything. DJ turned to the HG forum and got the answers.

Here was her question.

Our builder needs us to pick out our cabinets, carpeting, flooring ideas soon. We will have an open floor plan with cathedral ceilings in the living/dining/kitchen area. My question is do you go light or darker with colors?

I've noticed that a lot of newer houses have white trim. But we were thinking we would have wood color trim. Our kitchen cabinets will be maple--a light color, but not TOO light.

Is there any sort of rule of thumb as far as color schemes in an open floor plan with high ceilings. I am totally lost on how to coordinate everything. I appreciate any advice....HELP where do I start??

And the main answer was.

"I think your wood trim should match any hardwood flooring you'll be putting in. Flooring choices is where I'd start. First. Coordinate your tile and carpeting with the hardwood. Next I'd choose the kitchen cabinets/bath cabinets and countertops. Then I'd concentrate on the finishes of the door handles, faucets, cabinet hardware. Paint would be last on the list... After furniture/fabric choices. This is hard to do sometimes because builders want your paint colors NOW. This is the reason you see 'builder beige's lot in new construction .It's easier to paint it all neutral until you have your home set up.

Don't you just love the internet??

So that is where we stand.

Until next time
Rod and DJ - cheers

Bonehead Blunder and The List! Chpt #7

Among this blog you will see photos that I took from our backyard looking into the Nature Preserve Sunday! Just thought I would put MORE pretty pictures to brighten things up. Like this one of our squirrel family. Click on the photo to enlarge.


PART 1 - Before the Final Meeting with the Builder!

PART 2 - After the Final Meeting with the Builder! is lower on this page

A funny thing happened while thinking of all the things we had to do to sell our current house and build another house.

We made a financial Bonehead Blunder. WHAT? We forgot to add in the commission to the real estate agent? OOPS!

Now for many of you this might sound like we do not know what we are doing. And it sounds like that to us also. Remember, even though we own a home it does not mean we have actually purchased a home . . .at least in the normal manner of speaking.

We purchased our house from DJ's parents and basically signed a paper on a land contract. No need to agents and so forth. We have never purchased OR sold before. It's pretty much learn as we go.

No worries though, we have the commission covered. However that does put the willy on a few "tweaks" we were looking into having and will now have to put off to another time (for The List).

Remember The List? The List is what you will need to create when you move into a house of all the things you want to do . . . later? If you don't have The List you will do all of those things a month before you move out and THAT sucks. We wish we had made The List when we moved in. But, alas. Move on.

So this week our virtual list has us having 5 rooms and ceilings painted, a hallway and a basement floor. Then we're having a pocket door looked at for repair. It seems that in 1965 when this house was build some stoned out contractor thought making a pocket door PERMANENT was a bright idea. We would have Josh, our fix-it guy son-in-law do it but since he has two jobs, is working on HIS house and since we have OTHER projects for him we are getting somebody that has worked on them before.

Saving time.

Then Thursday we're having the Measuring Guy measure (thus his name) our bathroom for a little remodeling. Josh and I are going to demo the bathroom and they will reinstall everything during the day.

We also decided that we would indulge in the ultimate decluttering tool. A dumpster! How cool is THAT! That just takes a load of trouble off of my "sneaking crap into the garbage" every week. They are not that expensive actually, $140 for a week and $38 a ton of junk!

In other news and jumping ahead five months we have been working on landscaping and have decided (at the moment) on trees and shrubs.

Having the main viewing area facing due south creates a small problem in summer. Like the sun room reaching over 2000 degrees. So the first order of business was planting a shade tree . . . but which one and where.

We decided on an Autumn Blaze Maple. This is a cross between a Red Maple and a Silver Maple. It grows as fast as a Silver at 3 feet per year but has the branch strength of a Red. The color is outstanding in the fall AND is basically seedless.

This will go in the back west area to catch the late afternoon and hottest sun.

In the back east we have a different problem being off a golf course.

Knowing from experience how badly hit golf balls fly I THINK that most FAST moving poorly hit balls will be low to the ground (they will need to mbe hit off the toe of the club) if they are flying towards our house. Thus, we are making a corner with three Common Lilac shrubs with a spring Snow Crabtree in the center. This will give us beautiful purple and white flowers in the spring. It will also act as a small fence for golfers that want to wander into our yard (which I really do not mind . . .being a golfer myself).

I wanted a Birch but the area is poor for Birch who likes shade.

In the front yard we want a Prairie Fire Crabtree which are outstanding color-wise ( we have one in our current back yard). Yea - Columbus is known as the Redbud city but I'd like something a little less delicate but with the same look.

The daylilies which were planted at the old house by DJ's mom will come along with us. At least SOME of them. We have hundreds LOL.

Personally I think people plant daylilies wrong. I say clump them into one area giving a large BLAST of color as opposed to have them in little groups or along fence lines.

PART 2 - After the Final Meeting with the Builder!

OK - not final at all actually. Just the final meeting to cement (so to speak) the final tweaks for the house. And even now we are having a NEW final tweak. The furnace.

But backing up a tad .

We met with the Dream Team for the semi-final solidification of what the new house plans will be. We took away a couple more things to save a dime here and there and got an estimate on how much the brick would cost (about $19 per square foot - those feet add up!!!).

Now the smaller details are emerging which we really don't have a lot of say in, such as where the house will sit on the property and so forth. We will pay a $15,000 as a deposit and it'll be put in escrow.

Other things we agreed upon is that all decisions will be made within 30 days to give the builder time to order . . .stuff.

THIS is the fun part - siding colors, types of washer and dryers, lights, hardwood floors, carpeting cabinets and so forth. We have allowances for all and should be able to be within budget on all. Keven said the allowances were what the house we toured and loved had in them. Take that exact "stuff" and put it in our house and it would be within our allowance.

HOWEVER - We took a final tour of our "model" house last weekend and DJs dad (living survivor of the USS Indianapolis) spotted the furnace and said "look into that furnace".

We did and found some interesting things.

BUT FIRST - another photo from our backyard. We had a flock of perhaps 20 Cardinals (not the religious kind) in the back yard but I could not get a shot at them (with a camera).


Back to reality.

When you buy a car it comes with tires that, while they will keep you safe, they are not the first choice when it comes to buying NEW tires. They are the cheaper tires that all car manufactures put on their cars.

The Goodman furnace which was goign to be installed is like those tires. It seems they are the first choice for most home builders but they are not the best choice. Especially if you live in Wisconsin.

In fact among HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning) installers they have a rather bad reputation.

One review stated " Goodman gets the worst marks among the furnace installers and repairmen we interviewed and those who post to HVAC-Talk, an online consumer forum. Professionals blame this on craftsmanship and an unfriendly design, making Goodman more difficult to service."

They are ranked lowest on Consumer Reports .org and searching the internet I found the number of grips about Goodman to be . . robust!

One of the problems mentioned more then a few times is the fact that Goodman (who owns Amana) will sell to anybody, whether then have a clue on installing or not.

I also found that most furnaces use the same parts from the same manufactures, it's just how those parts are put together that counts.

We're looking into a Rheem.

So - now we are going back the bank to talk about the loan and so forth. Then back to Marcia, give SOMEBODY $15,000 and sit back and see what happens.

Kevin says after he gets the cash it takes a week or so for permits, surveying and other paperwork. Then the hole is dug, we drink Champaign and then pour cement (well, WE'RE not pouring the cement, not in our drunken state).

The cement sits for a week to harden (did you know the cement in the Hoover Damn is STILL drying, thank god we don't have to wait 70 years, that would really add to the cost!).

After a week they backfill (pour dirt around the cement) and then the action starts!

We're looking for Late May to move in.

Of course there is the current house to consider.

ANYWAY - that is where we stand in this long winded blog.

One more photo. That looks like a Yellow Finch right? Why is he still here. We have had 20 of them on our feeder in the summer. FLEE little bird - go where it is warm!!


Rod and DJ - until next time!

Cheers

Leaning on the Finiancial Sides of the Box. Chpt #6

What started out as purchasing a $230,000 house has turned into building a $253,000 house. Yea - we're leaning on that financial box. I hope the sides are sturdy because we're both leaning hard. But so far we're keeping both feet INSIDE that box . . . . . . . so far!

Reality is setting in financially as we met for a semi-final meeting Friday AND made finalization on spending MORE money to get the current house ready for market.

Friday we met with the Dream Team (Marcia Merrill our agent- Century 21 Tri-County Real Estate (left), Kevin Kleckner - Ambiance Homes, the builder (right) and Jon Meister, Starritt Meister Realty (middle), his agent) to go over exactly what we wanted. As we were going into the office Marcia (our truely wonderful agent) stops and say's "you know your taxes will be about $6000". We both go "OK" and make a "yea, we know" reply and as she turns around we give each other wide eyed horror look. YIKES

As you remember we are building a semi-custom built home from basically a model. Except we wanted a few tweaks.

The main customizations were:

1. sunroom/breakfast nook needed to be 4 feet larger,

2. Three windows needed to me installed on the sides of the house. I can not fathom a house with no windows on the sides, might as well live in an apartment if you can not get cross ventilation. $1350ish

3. More brick. We did not like just having a few slabs of brick on the front of the house, it looks fake (which it is). Why not have that brick turn the corner of the garage wall and extend towards the front door. YEA - it'll cost an extra $5000 but will look great.

Those were the MAIN concerns along with the actual "elevation". Not sure WHY it is called elevation when you are talking about what "look" you want the house to have. As you will see in the previous blog, there are three "elevations" and the one we wanted is an extra $4,500.

So we went over everything including many little things, like where to put the outdoor faucets (back left, front right) and the need for an outdoor electrical outlet on the roof (Christmas decorations - bet many people do not think of THAT one). And we would like a 2 foot overhang in the back instead of the standard 1 foot or 18 inch's.

So with that it was back to the drawing board for more final numbers.

For all you guys thinking about building a house there are MANY things I am leaving out. Placement of electrical outlets, placement of windows and so forth, it is amazing how many details there are. I'm a computer programmer and know all about details in MY line of work but I took everything for granted in a house.

Remember - EVERYTHING needs to be placed. There are a lot of default things but you will still be asked if you want something different. Light switch here? here? higher? lower? on this wall? on that wall?

It's like we're in Dr. Suess land.

SO now we wait again.

MEANWHILE - back at the ranch we got our estimate for having five rooms and ceilings with a basement floor cleaned and painted and many holes patched from old curtain rods. YIKES.

We also got the estimate for having a new vanity, flooring, counter top and faucet installed in our bathroom, YIKES.

I spent the weekend in the garage filling boxes with toxic chemicals as it seems the past owners (DJ's parents) loved to collect insect killer and others scary stuff. Six box's worth. Problem is Clean Sweep is closed until May so we will have to have them in the garage during showings. Hmmmmmm

We also fixed lots of little things that we could live with but were to lazy to fix. . UNTIL NOW! DJ spent time decluttering hampers and closets and getting extra cooking things we never use out of the way. She also spent time in the basement getting 40 tons of unused camping equipment put away.

It's all coming together slowly.

Suggestion - make a list of all the little things you have to do. If you keep everything in your head it becomes just a HUGE mess but a list keeps it all on paper and you can see progress . . . . not that we did that but it would be a good idea! DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO!

So that is where we're at. Doing STUFF in the house and waiting for final building stuff.

OH - one thing we're waiting on is how much of a down payment we will need to make. It was suggested that it would be in the <$15,000 range YIKES but doable. All I know is that the first day they start to dig that hole we are opening some Champaign to celebrate! AND I'LL HAVE PHOTOS! They expect to have the house build late May depending on weather. And I have not even TOUCHED all my thoughts on landscaping. Did I mention I want to plant an Autumn Blaze Maple (2003 Urban Tree of the Year).

OH - I have ideas baby!!!

If you want a REAL good book on gardens and landscaping I picked this up at Half Price Books for $6 (great deal, $14 on Amazon). It’s called Home Landscaping, Midwest Region, Including Southern Canada - by Creative Homeowner. You can find this for all regions. The reason I like this is shown on this page.

It tells you exactly what flowers/plants they use, how many plants and lots of great ideas. Each idea will be for full sun and then the same idea but with shade plants and so forth.

For me it is exactly what I was looking for, no more random flowers in random places.

More later this week.

Building is MUCH more fun then selling!

Rod and DJ.

How Much is that Puppy in the Window? Chpt#5

WELL!

We got our Construction Proposal, Specifications and Optional Changes for our new house. CHING CHING!! Yea - nothing is cheap is it.

Our first decision was to finalize WHAT the house would look like. The builder gave us three choices that would go with the plans, each about $2000 more then the next. Here were our choices and our thoughts.


This was the most expensive of the three plans. What we did not like from the get go was the faux window things on the roof. Why have them if they are not useful.

This was the least expensive. What none of this drawings have is the front porch railing which actually is a key in our final decision.

This was in the middle and was our first choice. However, once we let things settle in and visualized the front porch railing we both felt that perhaps the front was too "busy". Just too many things going on with the duel window and railings and the roof peak. Then if you add landscaping in front it would just get too active.

We picked #2 which as luck would have it, was the least expensive.

Then it was time to play with a new software toy. I had downloaded the Imagine Pro Suite, a Full-Featured Home Design Software.

After downloading (takes a while . . it's HUGE). I spent about 40 minutes playing with it. Remember, this is 40 minutes from the time I clicked start for the first time. There are MANY MANY things I can do with landscaping, Interior and exterior design but all in good time.

Just playing around and I have already changed the roof and other things as I was just taking the program for a test drive. It does give you a clue though.

Anyway there were more important things to consider, the Optional Stuff.

For instance, The two car garage with a 1 car storage area. The original plan had no outside service door, $600!

Concrete patio at rear of home $6 per sq foot.

Transom windows in the three bedrooms. Here is the thing with that. The three bedrooms all have windows but ONLY front and back. None on the side of the house, meaning no cross ventilation. $1350.

Three glass cabinet doors in kitchen $450

Install laminate bar countertop with small overhang on half wall above kitchen sink $275

Frame, drywall and install rough plumbing basement $1000

Brick per square foot, add $22 per foot, we’re thinking $2000

Install stone cap on brick posts $300

And so forth.

We have a $1000 lighting allowance, a $2000 Appliance allowance for Refrig, Stove Dishwasher and a $5500 flooring allowance.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch we're trying to get the CURRENT house ready for sale with a Feb 1st-ish date.

We are getting five rooms panted, redoing the main bathroom with new floor, vanity and lighting along with decluttering and tossing "crap" into the garbage and getting rugs cleaned.

So far we're liking the BUYING part of this process more then the SELLING part.

OH, and the BUYING part is about $10,000 more then we expected because the lot is $10,000 more then we thought.

Still, we're not totally outside the financial box yet. Yea - we're leaning on the side's of that box but have not stepped outside yet. Of course, when buying, who does not take a step our two outside of it.

In other news we see that a home 5 lots away is selling for $450,000 - YIKES!! It's nice to have the least expensive home in an area, it'll bring up the price of our house.

We have a meeting with the builder Friday to iron out the details!

I'll get back to you with the finals.

Rod and DJ.