44 Days and We're Getting Electricty

We had our meeting with Joe Electricity Wednesday and I have to wonder if all of the contractors that Kevin Builder Guy hired came from Best Buy. They are all so young. The GOOD news is that they all know what they are doing. Is it me? Am I the one getting old and all of a sudden people under 30 seem young. NO NO!! that can not be it.

One small thing that changed is that with adubya's comment about the two tiles looking like fallopian tube we will not be putting them in. It's not that HIS comment means that much but now every time we look at them all we see are fallopian tubes.

Speaking of fireplaces we had our first peek at the installed box.

Pretty exciting!

The house is coming along with plumbing installed and now electric. Our meeting was to go over where the sockets and switches would be. WOW - so many!!! In 40 year old homes you have one switch for the over head light and that is about it.

This house it seems there are switch's EVERYWHERE!! Not that it is a bad thing but it seems like a lot. Plus fire place switch's, sconce switch's pendent light switch's and so forth. Here is a list of the lights that are NOT ceiling pocket lights (of which there are 10??). We need to pick out each of these.

Master bath - Wall mount above sink - 42" wide mirror below
Master bedroom ceiling light or fan or fan/light combo
Master bedroom closet - ceiling mount fluorescent
Laundry room ceiling mount
Kitchen pendants - 2 sloped ceiling mount - minimum total chain and fixture length of 54"
Dining room - minimum total chain and fixture length of 60"
Foyer light - sloped ceiling - maximum total chain and fixture length of 27"
Main bathroom - Wall mount above sink - 36" wide mirror below
Bedroom #2 ceiling mount light
Bedroom #3 ceiling mount light
Stairwell wall mount sconce
Front of garage - 3 exterior wall mount fixtures
Garage service door - exterior wall mount fixture
Deck - 2 exterior wall mount fixtures
Basement door - exterior wall mount fixture
Optional family room ceiling fan
Optional basement bathroom above sink

YIKES! can we do it for $1000 or less????

It's now been 44 days since they dug the hole and things are really moving along. This is a shot of the front of the house.

3200 feet of usable space (includes the non-finished basement).

In inside upstairs is looking great. This is from the front doorway looking towards the kitchen and breakfast nook.


On thing we are so thankful for is having a competent builder. Kevin from Ambiance Homes 608.225.4594 is one of the good guys. I don't complement unless they really deserve it and I would not complain unless it is really justified (Drexel Interiors of Madison - NEVER go there, worst customer service I have ever seen and I'm NOT talking about ONE instance . . . .DO NOT get me started, freaking losers . . . grrrrr).

SO! So far so good!! DJ and I read forums and hear so many horror stories that can be so avoidable. For instance. Having the applianceses arrive three months early and being stored in a doorless garage.

Or having the framers tell you that if they break a tool during the framing process they will buy another tool and charge YOU. Windows being put in the wrong places. Sites that are just a mass of clutter and litter. Not mud but bottles, junk and crap everywhere.

I think this is a sign of workers that just do not take any pride in their work. I know our framers would sweep the house every night before leaving and pick up the area around the house. Now I'm, not a stickler for this sort of thing but it shows me they care.

Yea- building is messy but having litter all over is just sloppy workmanship.

Another thing I read about is General Contractors (GC's) that are not really "into" communicating with the customer. Try to get a hold of them and and MAYBE they will get back to you a week later.

We feel lucky! The nice thing is that although there are three of four builders in our area, most homes that are being occupied are the ones Kevin is building. The other spec homes all have design flaws with odd layouts and needless extras. Our neighbors home is one that is "non-standard" that was built by somebody else and it is a beauty!! AND as luck would have it, they are great people!!

The schedule is now to have insulation put in next week and I think they said brink also starting next week. The siding will be put in sometime in the next two weeks also. GULP!! All of these choices are now about to show up for real.

We're worried about the brick choice. It is hard to get a handle on what it will look like.

Then of course there is our CURRENT house.

We had a successful Open House and one second showing but the woman who LOVED the house had a husband that was NOT in love. O'Well. No stress YET. MANY MANY great comments about the house with two more couples interested but not biting yet!

We're still the best priced home in the area. Every other house is more expensive and not as nice while the houses in our price range are not as nice with poor locations.

Still it sure would be nice to get THIS side of the deal done.

Interest rates.

I have been charting mortgage interest rates sine we were approved. The 30,45 and 60 day lock rates and noticed something.

While the 30 and 45 day rates are ALWAYS the same. The 60 day seems to be like a teaser. It seems to bounce UP for a day or two and then comes back in line. Almost like they are trying to coerce you into a panic so you will lock in. Then they lower it.

Here is my graph.
So even though we can lock in in six days I'm waiting. The move still looks like it might fall but I think we're in a pretty steady range from 6.125 to 6.25.

That's it for now, see you next time.

Rod and DJ

Timeline So Far

So - where are we in this adventure.

The current house is getting regular drive buys with people stopping in front and taking numbers but only one showing so far and we have heard no results. No worries and not much more to tell.

The New house is finished framing and had the basement cement poured a day ago. For the first time we could see the size of the rooms and it was all good. The fire place was all framed out and it is actually starting to look like a home. Windows and sliding doors are now in and the insides are now protected from the elements.

In the meantime I fractured my left patella (broke my knee cap) when I slipped on a bunker taking a photo and I have a huge brace for a while on my leg. You can see my impact spot and hopeful I can get a photo of it this weekend. Here is the x-ray of my knee. The fracture is on the left side of the knee cap.


The GOOD news is my knee cap worked perfectly as a bumper as it is designed to do.

We received two tiles yesterday that will decorate our fireplace and soon we will have to look into the actual tile.


I guess plumbing starts soon and am not sure WHAT happens next. No real good photos of late as the weather has been off and I could not see anything mammoth to show.

So - here is a time line (sort of) of the progress so far.

Click on the photo to enlarge. I think I will put these on a separate page with dates (once I find the date).






talk to you later Rpd and DJ

YOU ARE FREAKING KIDDING ME BLOG

So many great things are happening that it was only a matter of time when something was going wrong. I mean so far we had been batting 1000% so it was due!

But this is not an entire YOU ARE FREAKING KIDDING ME BLOG, as there is lots of good stuff happening with the building site. I'll have more on that later . . . but first you must endure THIS.
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Everything was going swell. We were having our first showing Monday and we were spending Sunday tidying up (already pretty clean) and all was well.

Except DJ noticed that there was a ton of water flowing OUT of a drain in the floor. This happened less then a year ago and we called Rotor Rooter and he came and fixed the problem. You see the drain pipe goes very close to a maple tree and he was worried that the pipe was broken, but it was only roots.

All was cleared out and we should have no problems for at least another four or five years.

Last weekend DJ was doing some laundry and noticed the drain was wet, hmmmmm! But thought nothing about it.

Today she notices a LOT of water coming out of the drain and I hobble down (hurt my knee earlier) and we stare at the water. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT!

We ponder this for a while when she notice's the FOR SALE sign in the front yard and off hand says "isn't that about where that pipe is?"

I stare in disbelief at the sign. I play back how I watched the guy struggle with the frozen earth as he pounds his post smashing thing into the ground. NO WAY I say to myself.

I take a tape measure and measure the drain in the basement from the wall twelve feet six inches. I go outside and measure the sing from the corner of the house, 12 feet six inches! NO FREAKING WAY!!

This has not been confirmed by outside sources YET but I bet he damaged the drain pipe WHICH MEANS they will need to dig up our yard. ARG!!!!

NOTE - this is from the NEXT day - We called Rotor Rooter (RR) and they came and it was just roots and a bad coincidence. The OTHER people only punched a hole through the roots while RR completely scraped the pipes. PLUS - on the good side RR is a MUCH MUCH cleaner process. They have older equipment which is more dangerous, bigger and heavier BUT, cleaner!!

So now we're set to go, Every room has a different smell we have cookies ion the oven and a fresh pot of coffee!

NO NO not really - we did tour a house that did that once, they had EVERYTHING. Every room had a candle, they really did have fresh cookies AND a fresh pot of coffee!

So that is the news on the OLD house. The NEW house is a different story - WE HAVE A ROOF!!

I would go into details as I'm already bored with myself but it's looking more and more like a house.

I even had a friend of mine looking at it and we walked up the 16th fairway and both agree that it would be a very bad toe shot to hit our house from the tee.

I won't get into hurting my knee on the golf course, but landing with every pound of my body weight on my kneecap sort of does a number on that knee!

SO - here are the new photo's.

This was taken from our neighbors balcony. They have a BEAUTIFUL house. We sort of feel like Cousin Eddy (from the movie Vacation) moving next door.

taken from the study - if you look REAL close you can see a big smile on DJ and a worried look on Blake as he is always confused now!

This is DJ's dad who I MUST say - is a living Survivor of the USS Indianapolis "The Worst Naval Disaster in US History" and his friend Charlotte.


Looking from 16th tee. You can see the cart path.


And looking back from the dogleg on the 16th.




Rod and DJ - later gator.

Skeleton's in the Closet!!

For the first time in this experience I think the house is WAY too small. I know it is only an illusion but now I see what others are talking about.

I was prepared for the excavation to look small, no problem. I was prepared for the foundation to look small, no problem.

But last night as I walked around the skeleton of our house I was filled with dread - it was WAY WAY too small. Had I made a horrific mistake?? My gosh, the computer room is the size of a walk in closet!!

I had to remember that I knew what the house was going to look like, we had toured a model of THIS house and we actually made one room BIGGER. So what was happening HAS to be only an illusion. Our house is having fun with me. House's do not get to play a lot and during this process I think they are enjoying themselves.

Can you blame them? I mean they have perhaps 100 years of protecting coming up, why not let them have their fun.

As we were walking up I turned around and there was Jenny (left) and DJ (right) and Blake (down) behind me so I had to snap a shot of my three loved ones!

Blake was pretty unsure of the ramp to the house as he had never been on a ramp, there is always a first time. HE did not understand the concept of ramps I guess.

I walked around to the golf course side of the house which was SLIGHTLY muddy and took this shot looking back.

Another calming thing was looking at the tee area I don't THINK we are in harms way . . . much. I go back and forth on this subject.

Wednesday and Thursday the roof goes on and that will chance the entire look of the house.

Things are moving right along.

Now if we could get some action on our CURRENT house. I have heard that if you bury Saint Joesph upside down facing east your house will sell faster. I think this is rather cruel. The thing is that he WANTS to get out of the ground.

I looked up to see what was up with Saint Joesph hand I find out he is the patron saint of Universal Church, unofficial patron against doubt and hesitation, patron saint of fighting communism and patron saint of happy death.

Roman Catholics also believe he prays especially for families, fathers, expectant mothers (pregnant women), travelers, immigrants, house sellers and buyers, craftsmen, engineers and working people in general.

WOW - dude, you got your finger in everything.

I still think it is cruel to bury him in the ground MAKING him work to get out. SO! Instead I have my cat buried facing North in the backyard as my good luck charm.

On a side point we think we will sprinkle Dixie's and Snickers ash's over Gabby so she will have company when we move.

Come back soon for exciting photos of our house getting a cap!

Rod and DJ.

First Floor Walls and a Fire Place Decision

YUP - we now have a few walls and the place grows like a mushroom. HOWEVER - I see some potential problems. For one thing now that I can see where the windows are all of a sudden I can also see golf balls flinging our way.


As you can see we have a sun room/dining room that juts out towards the fairway. When I was looking at the house before it was a house I thought it would take a real bad shot to hit us!

Looking out the window DJ is looking out of in the above photo - there is no problem.


However - looking out the other window


I'm a little more nervous as the tee box is that little brown area 40 yards behind those two left trees. I intend on putting in 4 or 5 Birch trees and lilac bushes in that direction but just like those four other trees . . . it might be a while before they are stopping balls.

Still - looking from the other side of the fairway it WILL take a bad shot and since this is the 16th hole and MAYBE the real bad golfers only play nine holes AND since the Community course is cheaper and in the same area . . . . . maybe we'll only get the good golfers LOL . . maybe.

OK - I'm dreaming.


Looks small doesn't it. Our house is the same size as the house on the left. MUST be an optical illusion. Plus the no roof thing and so forth. Still, the tee box is that brown area inline wit hte green house. MAYBE we have a chance!

Then there is the fireplace decision. I have been reading a very good forum on fire boxes and they were steering me away from Lennox. They are builder boxes. Very low efficiency and just look sort of bad.

Mendota direct vent fireplaces are the way to go and not THAT much more expensive. They look awesome and have won all sorts of awards. Plus with Lennox you have to add a blower kit and ceramic bricks which is an extra $500. With Mendota they are added in already AND better. Lennox has Off, Low and High, Mendota is variable.

Look at the differences and remember that Mendota's are 25% more efficient then Lennox.

Mendota

Lennox

Another thing I learned was that it takes 15 to 20 minutes for the fire to really start to work. I would turn on fire places and be totally underwhelmed with their weak blue flame. HA - It takes time to get the logs roaring and the system working correctly.

it also takes 5 hours the very first time you turn in on to get all the garbage burned (oils and so forth).

I also did not know that ventless fireplaces were illegal in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

SO we're going with a Mendota DXV35.

More photos in a few days!

Rod and DJ

Basement! We have a Basement

Yea - pretty exciting. We drove to Columbus and as we crested the hill there was Kevin talking to a framer (now known as Adam Work Man and Kevin Builder . . . . if you do not watch LOST you missed the humor).

Our first sunset . . .except I think the sun will be further to the right in sumer.

Adam Work Man and Kevin Builder - by the way - Speaking of Kevin and Ambiance Homes, I honestly do not think we could have been luckier in picking Ambiance. I have read so many bad stories about builders that are there to make money and have zero bed side manner but Kevin is the perfect blend professionalism and normal guy.

He's a good guy that I can tell he just likes building and doing it right! He actually listens and SO FAR has put up with my thousands of questions!

The basement

basement - otherside - I guess they will fill in more dirt on the left side to keep the water from next door over there!!

NEXT - The 1st Floor WALLS!

Walls - We Have Walls

As you can see the framing has started. Pretty freaking exciting. However looking at the photo does raise one worry. Our new neighbors sent some photos yesterday of our site and one photo had a disturbing site. Here is the photo, seems innocent right?

Look closer - our builder is not even providing these guys wit ha ladder. They are forced to stand on the back of the "new guy" to get to the top for nailing. Just trying to save some money I guess.



JUST KIDDING - Our builder is doing an awesome job and we could not be happier - although he is probably getting tired of ME asking him questions!!

AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON FIREPLACES!

This whole home thing has me in Mr. curious mode.

Looking at the plans it says we have a Great Room. I've never had a Great Room. I've had some pretty good rooms but never Great. So I had to find out why what I would call a living room is now called a Great Room.

A Great Room combines traditional roomspaces (family room, living room, study, etc.) into a singular unified space. Different great rooms combine different functions,. some incorporate a reading area, thus bringing the traditional study function into the scheme, while others may forego this function. Some great room designs incorporate the functions of the traditional dining room as well. So I figure a Great Room is a default name for, large area in the house with a TV.

But looking deeper, why not call it a Living Room then.

A living room is also called a sitting room in the UK and a lounge in Australia and is a place for entertaining guests, reading, watching TV or other activities. It also used to be called a parlor. But then there is the Family room.

Oddly there is a heated debate over the differences between Family and Living room. In homes with both the Living room is the more formal room. In homes with ONE room the family room is normally adjacent to the kitchen. Often the family room has doors leading to outdoor living areas such as a deck, garden, or terrace.

So - with that mystery solved another one came up. Out new neighbors sent some photos yesterday of our site and one photo had a disturbing site. Here is the photo, seems innocent right?

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OK - fireplaces.

We're suppose to get a Lennox so - being an obsessive kind of guy I started to look into Lennox's fire box's and found that Lennox, a few years ago purchased a number of smaller companies and by doing so their fireplaces have been going down hill. The gas Direct vent box we were suppose to get is basically a builders box. Nothing special.

I learned to stay away from Lennox and majestic fire places as they tend to be inefficient and just do not look very real. What you want is a Quadra-Fire or a Heatilator (same company actually) or Mendota's are the Cadillac of fireplaces with Cadillac.

With that said we're looking deeper into fireplaces and need to talk to Kevin (builder) on what will fit and how much we can afford.

As for our present home is listed on MLS. Here is the link!

We now come home after work, take off our shoes and stand in the middle of the living room not touching anything and not getting anything messy.

Here is a photo of Sierra (the kitten) conforting Blake (the Corgi) when he gets worried about moving.


And one more of Sierra playing her favorite game of hide and seak.


Until next time.

WE'RE FOR SALE & Our foundation is TOO SMALL!

We went to the site Sunday to look at the backfill and took some poor photos - a little washed out I would have to say. THUS - we HAVE to go back tonight and take proper pictures.

I have read about and am now experiencing something of an optical illusion.

If any of you are out there also building for the first time you will go through this also. Your house will change sizes!!

When they excavated our lot we both said - It is so SMALL! Our house can not possibly fit in that tiny little hole. From what I have heard your house will changes sizes a number of times. Some say that when the framing starts it actually looks smaller but as soon as the drywall go up all of a sudden the house doubles in size!

One explanation is that when you are looking at the hole or foundation you are comparing it to things you see outside, the perspective is all different. Once walls go up you are comparing it to inside spaces and the house looks huge!

In fact your new house will keep changing size until the furniture goes in and only then does it settle down into its comfort zone!

All I know is that when we saw the foundation go up, it is so so small!! Our three car garage won't even fit ONE car! MAYBE I can fit the lawn mower in there but certainly not a car!!

WE'RE FOR SALE!

The long long long L O N G wait is over. Who knew there would be so many things to do. Yet the stress of cleaning and always having ONE MORE THING to clean or fix is over . . . .well . . .almost. There is ALWAYS something to clean. We both feel we now have a severe case of OCD as we keep finding things to clean and dust! OOPS - missed the TOP of the door! OOPS, that light bulb is dusty. Better polish that faucet to get the calcium deposit, ALERT ALERT - COMBWEBS in the basement!!!

We even got a little MORE anal and put all of our DVD's into a box and took the DVD rack to the basement - WOW, that helped. Declutter Declutter!!

Our plan is to have a list of things DJ and I will do when we get a showing. Each of us will have certain tasks such as wiping down the faucets, new towels in the bathrooms, vacuum and so forth. That way nothing will be missed. Our plan is to go and workout every showing so even if no one buys WE WILL BE BUFF!!

We were Dexeled yet again with a no show. When Dexel Home Interiors said we should "pick a time" and they would fix their botched job in the bathroom we picked 3:00 Friday and for the third time they missed an appointment and did not even call to say they were missing it. Grrrrrrrrrr

Does it REALLY always take over two months to remodel a 26 sq foot bathroom?

Now the wait begins. Reading house selling/buying forums we are ALWAYS seeing houses for sale with people saying "We have not even had an offer for ten months" and "we have not had anybody even look at our house for five months". Where do these people live and what is their agent DOING!!

I'm not saying that we will sell fast but, ten months? Five months without a showing?

One thing I have found interesting is the wording the agent uses when selling a house and what each word can do.

For instance "Well maintained" - seems innocent enough right? Well maintained for a savvy buyer tells him that it is an old house but it's not falling apart YET! But to the person selling the house it sounds more like a compliment.

An analysis of words show that some words are worth a lot of money while others will make the house sell faster but at a lower price.

For instance the word "Beautiful" will make your house sell 15% faster and the average list price and the effect on the selling price will be 5% larger.

"Good value" will speed things up by 5% but it will drop the average price by 5%

"Starter Home" YUCK 9% faster sale but 10% less in selling price.

"Handyman special" you will sell your home in 1/2 the time of a normal home but also 30% less.

When looking at what makes houses sell one thing is to use nouns in your ad's. Granite, Maple type words and not vague adjectives like Fantastic, Charming and Wonderful. Adjectives will typically bring down the price of a home! Nouns give people hard evidence of what they are getting.,

The sign goes up in a couple days and we will be on MLS today from what I hear.

What we need now is some major snow melt!

BUT the real fun is always the NEW house!

My latest fixation is on direct vent gas fire places. Ours will be a Lennox MPB3530. A mid range level fireplace. I have been TOLD that it under heat and physically will look too small. Well, for ONE thing it's a GAS fireplace, not a showpiece fireplace. We have seen this size in other houses and it looked OK. It's not suppose to be the center of attention.

As far as heat, I'm thinking of getting a blower kit as it would be nice to have the room heated in winter. DJ is cold nine months a year and having an extra push of warm air in the winter in the living room while keep the rest of the house cool would be sweet!

I'll have more fixations coming!

Rod and DJ