Closing Day 2014

We have so many reasons to celebrate. First, I must say Happy Anniversary to the man of my dreams! Seven wonderful years and many more to come. It takes a special man to put up with me, and he does. He was made for me and I appreciate everything he does for me.

Two years ago, we closed on the sale of our condo for our 5 year anniversary. Today, we celebrate seven years by closing on our construction loan! YAY!

The surveyor told us he would be out to the lot today to mark the house corners. Well, he surprised us last night.

An Update on New House Construction

I’ve been bad about providing updates on the construction of the house, so you’ll get an earful with this post, and then I will do a better job with the updates.

Building a house is a long process. I honestly did not think it would take this long. And we are still only in the planning phases! A co-worker of mine built a custom home and she gave me the best advice… it’s never too early to start the process.

I talked to her back when we were just looking at land. I wanted to pick her brain about the entire process. She said she spent three years working with her builder before they even broke ground. Looks like we are on the same path!

We had always toyed with the idea of building a house large enough for my parents to move in with us, and to have more kids. I researched floorplans and found one I loved and modified. I submitted my floorplan to a couple builders with our budget. Many told us it couldn’t be done.

Original Floorplan altered to meet our needs

My package I sent to builders included everything! What paint colors I wanted, cabinet details, flooring, brick colors, etc. I learned a small fact about the amount of corners on your house adds cost. My floorplan had A LOT of corners, so I went back to the drawing board.

A little less corners, but still too many.

I revised my plan to something that was totally me. I designed my house! (The pictures I have posted are NOT our final house plans. We started from scratch on the final design.) I wouldn’t have to pay an architect for something... however, that thought became invalid. A builder we were talking closely with provided us the name of three draftsmen / home designers. I called each one of them.

Pre-Planning

The first guy just told me his price and told me to stop by his home office at my convenience. His price at $0.90 per square foot scared me away and I never met him. The second guy named a similar price, but he gave me feedback to my design without having to pay him. He was not tactful in the way he delivered his comments, and at one point I silently cried on the other end of the phone, but I listened to his criticism and made some changes. The third name on the list, was a woman. I immediately liked her and her price. She charged $0.35 per square foot and knocked it down to $0.30 if you used one of her preferred builders (which we were). She took my design and made it better! She added things I did not think about. She used my pictures of things I liked, and incorporated them. Things I didn’t even know were important for her to know, she used. I showed her the outside of a house we liked and told her I knew our floorplan was not the same at all, but if she could make it look like that in some way, I’d be happy.

Exterior we liked. House too big.

And she did! And guess what the cool part is? She does it all by hand! She does not use a program. I did not realize this until after the fact. At least the changes I asked her to make were small! But, wow! Her skill blew me away.

Getting the final prints from her did take longer than expected. She had some family issues come up and that caused a delay. But the product that she gave us was worth it. We met with her the first week of January, and didn’t get our final prints until May 30^th. However, we had seen the 1^st revision on February 5^th and the second revision the week after. But we were anxious for the builder to get his hands on it to make us a budget quote.

Porch style we liked.

 We met with the builder on June 4^th and he made mention he hoped our budget grew! We had wiggle room, but it didn’t grow. We left that meeting with a promise to get us a detailed budget we could take to the bank “soon.” Two days later, I emailed the builder to clarify his definition of “soon.” He stated it would be “at least a week or so.”   I counted down the days. My mom was placing bets on when the builder would call. I was hopeful. The builder had been so attentive with helping us stay in contact with the designer and her progress, that I knew he would be working hard to get us correct estimates.

In the middle of waiting, I contacted our HOA office. We had a problem. I was originally told that I could pick a builder not on the approved builders list for the neighborhood and get the new builder added easily. I was calling to tell the HOA who I selected as a builder and was told I could no longer pick someone not on the list. I thought I had clout; I thought my builder had clout. I contacted the builder to use his, and he was later approved to build in the neighborhood. Crisis averted. The HOA office just needed him to provide some paperwork.

Part of my mom’s bet was that I couldn’t contact the builder in order for him to meet my date I picked. And I didn’t. I just contacted him about the HOA issue to see if he had submitted his paperwork to the HOA office. He immediately called me and said he was working it and was sorry he was taking so long with the cost estimate. His office had just moved and he had no good excuse. This was June 30^th. He asked if Mr. JCrew and I had any plans for the July 4^th weekend. He had a few numbers to finish up and then we could meet. I said we were available all weekend. He then left it that he would call to let us know. We never received a call. I even emailed July 3^rd to clarify what he meant by asking if we were staying in town and that we were still available to meet. I have still not ever heard back from that email.

I was disappointed, but quickly moved on. We had our back up builders waiting in the wings to talk to. And they were already on the approve builder’s list. Our first builder led us to our amazing designer, so if that was his role in the whole process, I am grateful.

The next builder on the list we called was able to meet with us on a Sunday. We met with him and his wife on July 13^th and they have already impressed us. They were going to a home building convention two days after we met, and they were already promising to tell us if they could build our house within our budget within two days. I did have to email them to ask, but we got the green light. With a few changes we had mentioned at our meeting, they could build our house within our budget. He then gave us a realistic time frame of 3-4 weeks to generate a detailed budget we could take to our bank. Mr. Crew is getting anxious because of rates. We’re really in no hurry other than we don’t want to miss out on interest rates.

So, here we are… in the 3-4 week waiting time period. We have already had multiple accounts of communication so, we know they are working. I am considering it a birthday present. I don’t want to be anxiously waiting. I just know that I will not hear from them while I am still 31. It helps me stay mellow.

As time is passing, I am looking at more and more details and finalizing selections. As I’ve looked more into pictures the builder provided, the more I find out how much I like him. He built a showcase home in the 2010 Parade of Homes. I didn’t know it was his house until I saw pictures. I took a lot of pictures at his showcase home and put them in my package as things I wanted in the new home. I don’t know if he recognized his house or not. But to me, it’s another “God wink” that we are in the right direction.

We selected our lot in March 2013, and here we are July 2014 and still have not broken ground. There are so many things that pop up. I thought I was prepared and had planned for it all, but it is a learning process. I hope I haven’t bored you with details, but it’s where we are in the process for now.

We’ve never had a hard timeline, and for that I am grateful. Everything that is happening is happening with a purpose. The purpose may not be known, but we will see it eventually. 

Addition to the Current House

Two weeks ago, I shared the floorplan that I would use if I were to build me “dream house.” The idea of a dream house comes from two situations: I have a desire to have more children, and a desire to take care of my parents and in-laws.

Taking in my parents is not a problem in our current house, but it would mean that a third child would not really have a place to sleep.

Floor 1 Bedrooms

So, I toyed around with more ideas to alter our current house. Keeping my parents on the main floor, I would give them our Master Suite. This meant, I needed to create a new Master Suite. Our attic has plenty of room!

Master Suite Floor 1

Upstairs we currently have a bedroom and a bath. We could easily make this our master suite. It’s not a problem. We’d just lose the playroom that it currently is.

Current Upstairs

That option is fine, but my creative juices were going. I added a bedroom and a closet upstairs. The bathroom would not be directly connecting to the bedroom, but you could access it through the closet.

There are several layouts that have you go through a closet before you reach the bathroom, so this did not sound like a bad idea.

During the addition, I would change the roofline, too!

East Side - Master Bedroom Windows

I’d add windows to the playroom. Turn the existing closet into a hallway. Convert more attic space into storage space.

My estimate for the addition is around $50,000-60,000. Cheaper than building a new house. However, we’d have to look into the construction of the house to see if the structure on the first floor would support the second. I think it would, but we’d need an actual architect/draftsman to confirm. (I just play one on the blog!)

West Side of House

It doesn’t fix the issue of a longer driveway, but there are ways to think outside the box on that one.

Hope you’ve had fun looking at my floorplans. I can come back with more if you want. I always think it’s fun to work with floorplans. I remember it being my favorite assignment in my middle school shop class. 

My Dream Job - Build A House

I went on a project hiatus back in February and filled my time working on a BIG project. I had discovered that I love the planning process just as much as I enjoy the project coming to fruition. To help me get through a necessary hiatus, I took on a project that involved a lot of planning, but it would be something I may never see. 

I designed my dream house, and it was so much fun. I lived and breathed this project for months. I created a package to show all the details and even made multiple floorplans. I didn’t have the right computer tool like an architect has, but I came up with a cool floorplan.

I used www.floorplanner.com. It’s free. It even creates a 3D view.

The 3D view helps you get a visual on hallway openings, door placement, window placement, etc. Some of those details are hard to see on a 2D drawing.

The only thing I wish is that it would create an outside rendition. All you have to do is tell it what type of house you want it to look like (Tudor, Craftsman, New American, Cottage, etc), and it would change the style of the exterior.

That was the main reason I used www.floorplanner.com because I thought it would. Oh, well.

Today I’ll share pictures of my dream house. This house has five bedrooms and six bathrooms. Enough space for three (or more) kids and my parents.

My current house is perfect in a lot of ways. It won’t be too big when my family is grown and left me, and the layout is what I fell in love with. Tudor is not my style of house, and the driveway could have been longer, but that’s all I’d change.

The dreamhouse’s garage is huge! Empty, it could fit five cars in there! I even added a small garage door to the back side so that a riding lawn mower could enter the backyard through the door instead of going the long way around.

And the driveway was long enough to hold six, possibly nine, more cars. With more kids and parents living under one roof, you need a place for the vehicles. (Looks excessive, but I was anticipating friends’ cars.) It looks junky when you have cars lined up outside your house 24/7, and it's a neighborhood covenant of ours not to have cars parked on the street overnight. I also added a semi-circle driveway in front of the house.

Originally, I had planned for the driveway to look like this:

I calculated the size lot I would need for this configuration and realized how hard it would be to find the perfect-sized lot to accommodate.

I had even gone so far to design the landscape already! That’s one of my favorite parts. I try to envision the views from inside that I want to create. I also took into consideration what views I wanted to take advantage of and what I wanted to obstruct. Of course, the landscaping is best done when the lot is chosen. I fictitiously picked a lot and designed according to it. Flipping the floorplan was the main change. You'll notice the flip in all the comparison pictures.

Since floorplanner did not come up with an outside sketch, I had to create my own.

That was the hard part. It was so hard to make it look like I envisioned.

Here was an actual picture that looked like the look I was trying to go for. Not the color, but the look/style.

Until I found this design, and knew this was the style. It was the only one Mr. JCrew and I could decide on. We liked everything about it.

Even the mix of stone with the brick. I like brick; Mr. JCrew likes stone, so this was our compromise.

Mr. JCrew and I came up with guidelines that a dreamhouse would have to fill:

• More bedrooms to accommodate more children
• An In-Law suite located on the first floor
• A larger shower than we currently have
• A space for all of Mr. JCrew’s books
• A wrap around porch
• A larger garage and a longer driveway
• Tornado Safe

I found an existing floorplan and made my tweaks. I used eplans to find a floorplan to modify. 

Finding a floorplan with an in-law suite is not impossible, but finding one with the suite on the first floor is!! Parents are older; they cannot be climbing stairs to get to their space! So, I looked for floorplans that had a guest bedroom on the first floor that I could convert: or space that allowed for an addition to be added easily.

The original floorplan had 15 exterior doors! That is WAY too many doors to be checking at night before going to bed! I eliminated 9 of those doors.

Mr. JCrew and I both want to be available to take care of our family and friends. The in-law suite would be for my parents, but we could take in anyone and everyone that needed it. I turned the extra bedroom on the first floor into a suite.

I almost added a kitchenette for the suite, but I wanted meal times to be a time of gathering. The kitchen and dining room would be able to accommodate everyone and no one would be eating alone. The openness of the kitchen to the family room is my favorite part of the house.

The side porch was my second favorite  part. They call it a Friendship Door. However, the original plan had three exterior doors on the side porch. You’d have to open the door from the garage, walk across the porch, and open another door to get into the house. Imagine yourself carrying groceries from the car; doesn't sound fun.

I took out the back hallway and added a door through the pantry for quick access to unload groceries. But I think I would add that hallway back in. I like it. Some may feel it’s wasted space, but I know I’d like the feel and look of it.

The Pool Bath, as I call it, had a shower. I wouldn’t ever plan on having a pool to maintain, so I eliminated the shower and exterior door in that bathroom. Showers would be in bathrooms near bedrooms.

The upstairs did not have many changes at all. There was only a shower in one bathroom, and I turned it into a tub/shower combo. I added more of a wall and door to the toilet portion of the other bathroom. Two boys would be sharing that bathroom, and if someone is using the shower or toilet, the other child can still go in and wash their hands/brush their teeth.

The front porch doesn’t look like there was much change.

1. Four sets for French doors were removed.
2. The front door was recessed. 
3. The opening to the dining room was widened.
4. The porch was extended to wrap around.

Now, I even revised my floorplan to be all on one level. I have gotten use to living on one level and I enjoy it. I like having the kids close by, especially when they are small. And if this were to be our forever home, I wouldn't be going upstairs in my old age. So, I toyed around with the idea of putting all the bedrooms downstairs. This meant we would lose the playroom (okay by me) and we'd lose the formal living room (also, okay with me). The office would then relocate to the area where the living room was and the new bedrooms would occupy the space where the study was. Doing this added about 12 feet to the width of the house. The only down-side to this floorplan in general is how wide it is! It's hard to find a lot in a neighborhood wide enough. But I still love the layout. I pretend to walk through the house all the time.

I really had so much fun planning this project. I took so much into consideration. Sometimes I wonder if I missed my calling. I get so excited seeing dirt trucks on a construction site. I even get excited seeing the road construction going on. Building a new road is equally as awesome as a new house. Especially, if you have to build it over a river!

I even took into consideration the building materials and making the house as green as possible. I would use ICF framing to ensure comfort control and strength during tornado storms. Instead of a a storm shelter, the whole house would be storm-safe! I would use brick instead of siding. It is more expensive, but less maintenance in the long-run. I would use the Icynene Spray Foam Insulation again in the attic. I would also use the automatic timers on outside lights and motion-sensor lights inside. 

Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF)

I would REALLY love to design and build a house for a builder. When I was planning my dream house, I imagined striking a deal with a builder and letting him show the house in the local Parade of Homes Tour in exchange for discounts possibly. It would be great advertising for the builder! All they have to do was execute the plan. I planned every little detail, so there would be no flip-flopping with decisions during the building process. I would LOVE the opportunity to work with a builder and use new materials and educate the community. That’s usually what showcase tours are about; thinking outside the box. I researched builders that use ICF and not many popped up in my area. However, SouthernConstruction is licensed and they are also a Southern Living builder. I like Jimmy Bryan Construction, but he's not worked with ICF. The quality of his work is fantastic and they have GREAT customer service!

I had put too much work into this, not to share. It may be a dream of mine, but maybe I can be a part of someone else’s dream, too!

I have come up with other floorplans that I may share later. This floorplan is the one I kept coming back to because I could envision how we would use the space efficiently.

The inside of the dreamhouse I envision looks the same as my house. This is home, so I wouldn't change a thing. Same colors, same furniture, same everything. The only thing I would possibly play around with was doing something different in the kitchen. I'm not a fancy person, so although my dream house is larger, it's not fancier. My home is comfortable and I don't want to take away that feeling. 

And when I say, "larger" I want to note that the dream house room sizes are the exact same as my house. The bedrooms are exactly the same size! I didn't want them to be bigger. They are big enough. The family room is bigger and we added the in-law suite and a playroom. Basically, it's the same rooms we currently have in a different layout  (combining my parents' house with mine.)

I really do get excited when any new house is being built. I don't necessarily have to live in it, just be a part of the process. A fly on the wall, even! That would be my dream job. Any local builders want to partner with me?