A Ha! Done! Finis!
We closed on the new construction home loan today, after an hour of signing and initialing over mind, body and soul to the bank. :) Well, at least that's what it feels like. I half think they hire a private investigator to find out everything about you before agreeing to lend that much money out.
But nevertheless, we are done with the paperwork and down payment on the new house, and Kai will work on gathering up the Deed and permits this week so he may hopefully break ground shortly thereafter. The ground is fairly saturated from all of the melting snow and ice, plus a tremendous thunderstorm last night. Hopefully that will clear up soon.
Brian twisted my arm and we celebrated with a slice of cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory. Yum. I managed to save some to share with the kids too.
And in other officially official news, we also finished registering Jacob for the Before & After Care program at his future school district. Registering for actual Kindergarten will come in another month or so. I feel so relieved to have at least this part of the process done, and to know that because we were able to get him in to these programs, he will be able to stay at his school the entire time and not have to get bused to another place until we can pick him up. I think although Brian has been trying to hype up riding the bus to school to him, Jacob was still showing some anxiety about it; plus, keeping him in the same building will be much more similar to what he does now.
We are (slowly) making progress on getting our current house ready for the market. I'm excited - things should start to get pretty busy for us now!
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Holy cow, this paperwork takes for.ev.er. A few more signatures and faxing back and forth; and the bank's appraisal of our plans done, and we finally have a closing date in place - Feb 28th. Assuming the build takes the full 6 months to complete, that puts us closing and moving in August - right in the midst of starting Jacob in Kindergarten. That'll be hectic and unfortunate, but I guess it could be worse.
In the meantime, we met with Kai again this weekend now that the ice has all melted away so we could look at our lot and agree on house placement and spacing. We also finalized some elevation drawings - I feel pretty good with the changes, which gave it some character, but the key will be choosing the colours and finishes. We've been saying we wanted a red house, but it has to be the * right * red so that it doesn't look too much like a barn. Already the neighbourhood is full of blues and greens, so we want to stay away from those; these kinds of neighbourhoods look best when there is variety.
In the meantime, we met with Kai again this weekend now that the ice has all melted away so we could look at our lot and agree on house placement and spacing. We also finalized some elevation drawings - I feel pretty good with the changes, which gave it some character, but the key will be choosing the colours and finishes. We've been saying we wanted a red house, but it has to be the * right * red so that it doesn't look too much like a barn. Already the neighbourhood is full of blues and greens, so we want to stay away from those; these kinds of neighbourhoods look best when there is variety.
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| Brian helps Kai Yu measure out the house |
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| The kids took advantage of plenty of open space |
Sunday, February 13, 2011
All loan paperwork is in and signed, and we are just waiting on the underwriters to finish doing their thing. We received an email that they may be completed and ready to close on the loan by end of this week - which is about 1-2 weeks earlier than they anticipated. Ugh - legalities! Once that is closed out we can finally break ground.
We are also hoping warmer weather this week will melt the half-foot of ice that has been covering most of the area and we can visit our lot with the home builder and make sure we all agree on house placement.
Since we are on a corner lot, and we will have a public sidewalk to the left (west) of the house, it will give the appearance that our lot is slightly bigger and we've discussed shifting the house this way slightly to give us (really - the dog) a little bit more room for the fenced-in yard. But, we don't want it to look lopsided either, so we'll see what Kai suggests.
In the meantime I have been frantically trying to figure out all this Kindergarten registration and before/after care for Jacob in this new school district. I can hardly believe we are dealing with this already! It's a little tricky working with registration when you don't have an established address yet. On the plus side, getting all the paperwork needed for the schools (and the loan) gave us the opportunity to go ahead and see our future full street address and number. It was pretty exciting to see it on paper and think: That's going to be our NEW home!
We are also hoping warmer weather this week will melt the half-foot of ice that has been covering most of the area and we can visit our lot with the home builder and make sure we all agree on house placement.
Since we are on a corner lot, and we will have a public sidewalk to the left (west) of the house, it will give the appearance that our lot is slightly bigger and we've discussed shifting the house this way slightly to give us (really - the dog) a little bit more room for the fenced-in yard. But, we don't want it to look lopsided either, so we'll see what Kai suggests.
In the meantime I have been frantically trying to figure out all this Kindergarten registration and before/after care for Jacob in this new school district. I can hardly believe we are dealing with this already! It's a little tricky working with registration when you don't have an established address yet. On the plus side, getting all the paperwork needed for the schools (and the loan) gave us the opportunity to go ahead and see our future full street address and number. It was pretty exciting to see it on paper and think: That's going to be our NEW home!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Just because I haven't updated in awhile...a quick check-in.
We are continuing to work with Kai and David on the floorplans, and we think those are done. Next came specifications and pricing and contracts. We finalize the contract with the bank tomorrow, and in about 25 days all of that paperwork is hopefully done and we can finally break ground!
It was becoming painfully obvious already the extent of decision-making that will need to get done in the future months as we reviewed and made some changes to the specs. Luckily for us Kai is very patient and is quite willing to work with us for what works best for our family.
We are continuing to work on elevation options as well (exterior design). We are working within a Craftsman style home. Although quite a few of the other houses in the area are already this style, I'm still a fan, as I think it brings a simple and cozy feel to the overall home. Brian and I went and toured some houses in the Village of West Clay area for some ideas. I'm sure we looked incredibly suspicious cruising slowly through this neighbourhood and periodically rolling down windows so I could snap a few photos! There were many amazing homes in this area, but of course, we were only looking for a few with some specific design elements.
We also went to our first Home Show Expo today, and managed to get a few ideas about what we do and don't like. I think the more we research ahead, the "easier" it will be when it comes time to make the final call.
And in the meantime, we are continuing to get our current house prepped for the market!
We are continuing to work with Kai and David on the floorplans, and we think those are done. Next came specifications and pricing and contracts. We finalize the contract with the bank tomorrow, and in about 25 days all of that paperwork is hopefully done and we can finally break ground!
It was becoming painfully obvious already the extent of decision-making that will need to get done in the future months as we reviewed and made some changes to the specs. Luckily for us Kai is very patient and is quite willing to work with us for what works best for our family.
We are continuing to work on elevation options as well (exterior design). We are working within a Craftsman style home. Although quite a few of the other houses in the area are already this style, I'm still a fan, as I think it brings a simple and cozy feel to the overall home. Brian and I went and toured some houses in the Village of West Clay area for some ideas. I'm sure we looked incredibly suspicious cruising slowly through this neighbourhood and periodically rolling down windows so I could snap a few photos! There were many amazing homes in this area, but of course, we were only looking for a few with some specific design elements.
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| A house in progress |
We also went to our first Home Show Expo today, and managed to get a few ideas about what we do and don't like. I think the more we research ahead, the "easier" it will be when it comes time to make the final call.
And in the meantime, we are continuing to get our current house prepped for the market!
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Today we met with Kai Yu and his associate, David, again to go over the basic floorplans again. What is especially great (and relieving) about working with both Kai and David is that they think of options and concerns that we would never think of - and are not afraid of challenging us or working with us to tweak the plans. Brian are both glad that, as builders, they are not just going to do whatever we ask them to if it doesn't make sense design-wise or living-wise. Heck, we aren't the experts and have never done this before, so having them walk us through these changes is very nice. Probably the biggest stress-point of this process will be committing to design details and then second-guessing ourselves. I think Kai and David will be able to help us make sure that we don't wind up doing something ridiculous that we won't appreciate later.
I think we are just about there on the basics after today. I've gone ahead and posted the pre-meeting floorplans on The Plans page, with a couple of the edits we discussed today plus these:
I think we are just about there on the basics after today. I've gone ahead and posted the pre-meeting floorplans on The Plans page, with a couple of the edits we discussed today plus these:
Changes in addition to those in red below:
- Mudroom will be 1 ft wider
- Second floor hallway will be 8 inches narrower, giving more room to Laundry Room, but taking away the french doors to Master
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
It's Official
In amongst heartache, winter weather, working and holidays, Brian and I have been diligently researching and coordinating our next big undertaking ... building a new home!
Although our little house has served us well, and has seen blood, sweat and tears as we made it our own, as well as the birth of two beautiful children, it is time for us to move forward as we head toward a new chapter of child rearing - school. We always said when we first bought this house, that 6-7 years would seem about right, and that we would move before our first child reached Kindergarten age. Well.....well, before we knew it, that time has come. Jacob will be attending Kindergarten by next August, and so the search - and pressure - has been on.
I spent some time searching current communities and homes, but after all of the work we put into this house to personalize the way we wanted (as much as could be done), I was really leaning on just building instead, and get it the way we'd hoped for right from the start. It took some nudging and convincing, but Brian finally warmed up to the idea as well and now is just as excited as I am.
Our search has led us to a new Traditional Neighbourhood Design development in Zionsville, IN called Anson. It is a brand new development based on a community concept in Stapleton, Denver, CO. We love the way the TND allow for lots of different home designs - and colours! - as well as gives lots of community space for the kids to play.
Today we put our deposit down with a custom home builder, Kai Yu Homes, to secure our intent to build and reserve our choice of lot! We have already been working with them on building designs and I believe we are very close to finalizing the basics. We have been working with Kai himself, who continues to be very hands-on and very easy-going, as he works with us through this process.
It promises to be a very exciting, and potentially overwhelming experience, as we take on our first attempt to both sell our first home, and build our next. I hope to document this process as we go and keep everyone updated on our progress!
Although our little house has served us well, and has seen blood, sweat and tears as we made it our own, as well as the birth of two beautiful children, it is time for us to move forward as we head toward a new chapter of child rearing - school. We always said when we first bought this house, that 6-7 years would seem about right, and that we would move before our first child reached Kindergarten age. Well.....well, before we knew it, that time has come. Jacob will be attending Kindergarten by next August, and so the search - and pressure - has been on.
I spent some time searching current communities and homes, but after all of the work we put into this house to personalize the way we wanted (as much as could be done), I was really leaning on just building instead, and get it the way we'd hoped for right from the start. It took some nudging and convincing, but Brian finally warmed up to the idea as well and now is just as excited as I am.
Our search has led us to a new Traditional Neighbourhood Design development in Zionsville, IN called Anson. It is a brand new development based on a community concept in Stapleton, Denver, CO. We love the way the TND allow for lots of different home designs - and colours! - as well as gives lots of community space for the kids to play.
Today we put our deposit down with a custom home builder, Kai Yu Homes, to secure our intent to build and reserve our choice of lot! We have already been working with them on building designs and I believe we are very close to finalizing the basics. We have been working with Kai himself, who continues to be very hands-on and very easy-going, as he works with us through this process.
It promises to be a very exciting, and potentially overwhelming experience, as we take on our first attempt to both sell our first home, and build our next. I hope to document this process as we go and keep everyone updated on our progress!
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| Our house will sit on this corner |
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| Our (very snow-covered) lot |
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