Foundation complete

The foundation is complete! As you'll see below we went out there today to walk the new foundation and take some photos. It's all very exciting, but we had to whip out a measuring tape. When just looking at a foundation it all looks so SMALL, but it's deceptive and after measuring and comparing with the plans, looks like everything's about the right size. Weird!

Here's our front steps. They sprayed the bottom and some of the brick around the base, presumably to indicate where the dirt has to be backfilled to.

Some kind of drainage solution from the foundation. I assume these will be buried in the end.

A view of all the supports in the center of the house.

They're placed gravel into where the garage will be.

This is our well pump house, tipped over so they can replace the pump with a new one. There was nothing wrong with the old one, but we wanted to make sure it could support a house of this size. And it was old. And we like having running water and stuff.

Better view of the entire foundation. This is the 'high side' of the house.

Whoa. They dropped off the trusses up at the front of the property and it looks like one whole pile slipped off the rest. Bad delivery guy!

We're going to send photos of this to the builder, who I assume hasn't seen what they did yet. Some of this lumber looks like it's being bent pretty good, I'm not sure if it'll be usable or if they'll have to get some new trusses out there to replace them.

Hello, foundation!

The masons are hard at work this week, laying brick and block onto the concrete poured footings. You can see the start of the shape of the building. The bricks, which appeared to be more of a red color than we thought, are apparently only red on the sides that are not visible to the outside. So the outside wall appears to be the more 'sandy' color that we like.

One of the corners is where the master bedroom will be and we were a little shocked by how small that space seems to be within the foundation. It always amazes me how deceptive that can be, how an area laid out on the ground seems tiny, but when you erect walls around it, it seems spacious.

Anyway, this will be the last update for over a week since we're heading to Orlando for a much needed vacation next week. By the time we come back we expect they will be done with the foundation and moving onto framing. Exciting!

Footers poured!

Looks like concrete footers have been poured. You can see them in the photos above, inset into the dirt channels that they dug. I'm sure the layout of all this makes sense to someone.

You can also see the bricks and blocks that have been delivered and unceremoniously dumped all over the freakin place. The cement blocks will form the actual support for the house while the bricks form a nice 'curtain' wall around the exterior of the foundation so you won't see the blocks.

My assumption is that they're waiting for the cement to cure at this point before proceeding. Next photos will likely be next week at some point before we take off for Disney!

Broken Ground

Yes, they've broken ground on the new house. What you can see here is the bobcat they've been using to dig into the ground where the concrete footers will be. The little piles of dirt are around the holes they've already dug and this was about halfway through.

The big giant mound of dirt to the right of the photo is the results of the 'scraping' they did to even out the land. Not sure where they're going to put all that dirt when they're done. I have suggestions for them if they need ideas. :)

Today the county is expected to show up to approve the holes for the footings. Next week our builder (Brian) expects to be pouring the cement and starting on the brick curtain (the brick walls that form the outside of the foundation).

Closing time!

Yes, after much going back and forth and frustration and some cussing, we're going to close this Tuesday. Hopefully everything goes well and then they can start building!

Hopefully I'll have more than just text to put on this blog before too long.

I guess we can have a new septic.

The county health inspector came out yesterday to decide whether we can have a new septic system for the new house and everything went fine. He identified everything with little flags and left to write up the permit. One fewer obstacle in our way.

Today the bank sent out a guy to inspect the property as well.  He'll give the bank a valuation of what the house will be worth once it's built, including the value of the property and such.

The photo above is a picture of where the house will be. I'm not sure you can see the little orange flags that show where the house corners are, but this is a 'before' shot for later comparison.

The Abigail

For those interested, here's a link to the house plan we chose. It's called the Abigail and the company is Schumacher Homes. It may force you to toss in a zip code before looking at the house plan, you can put ours in there...27526.

Keep in mind that the photos seen here are model homes that have ALL kinds of upgrades that we won't have. But you can get an idea of the rough layout, which we didn't change very much.

The Abigail

Pre-Construction Meeting Success

Last friday we had our pre-construction meeting. It took like...5 freaking hours. We had to go through every choice we've made thus far in fine detail and had to make about 4 new trips to their design building to solidify choices. We also nailed down specifics regarding some choices that were still up in the air.

So there will be a 'wet room shower' with no doors and Dawn wanted a fancy rain head and hose thingy. We also nailed down details for a granite counter in the master bath and vessel sinks and wall faucets, since counter mounted faucets might not fit back there with the vessel bowls.

We had also gone out to choose certain appliances. They're going to install the dishwasher, the double wall over and the cook top for us, so we had to choose exact models for their plans. We made out well with that, since Schumacher has a good deal with Sears and we got nice Kenmore appliances at a discount.

When all was said and done, we signed the document. It's now cast in stone. Any chances we want to make to the house at this point will require change orders and fees, because as soon as the bank says 'Yes' to us, they'll start doing the CAD stuff and ordering materials to start construction.

They've already forwarded the information to the bank and the bank has been in contact with us. I'm sure they'll need a hundred more documents, but at least the process is moving forward. Once they say yes, we'll get a closing date. Once we get a closing date, the house will likely be built within 6 months of that date.

Exciting! Scary!

Bank update

News!

We're switching banks from SunTrust to Federal Savings Bank. The reason? Our house company told us that SunTrust has a bad habit of not paying out if there's a lien on the property and apparently lots of sub-contractors put a lien on as matter of course until they're paid. Leading to all kinds of nastiness. SunTrust doesn't pay Schumacher, Schumacher doesn't pay the subcontractors, and the lien never gets removed and everyone's unhappy. Screw that.

So we've gotten pre-approved from Federal Savings. In fact they said we're 'Well Approved'. How about that!

Perc Test Here We Come!

We've got the actual perc test application into Harnett County, so now we wait 7-10 business days for some guy to come out and test our soil to see if we can have a septic system on a plot that already has two septic systems and so is perfectly able to have septic systems. Whatever.

We also got the actual CAD plans for the house from Schumacher. It looks great, though there's an awful lot of brick in places for elevation adjustment. I'm sure we're going to be paying a lot of extra for brick.

I'd upload photos of the plans, but they all have copyright and warning notices all over them, so I'm unsure if we should be uploading them. But presumably, if the perc test goes fine, then we go to choose colors, tile, cabinets, etc. and have out pre-construction meeting where we'll get the bad news about how much it'll cost to prep the site...and then it's onto the bank bullshit!

Second site walk complete

After a week at the Outer Banks, our builder Jay came by for another site walk today, this time at the new location (henceforth named Site B). After much discussion we've decided we might even like this new site better for the house though we may just be convincing ourselves of that.

The walk went fine, we're a whole lot closer to the well and power in this new location, though there are water lines that will need to be moved, so it will be a wash. We still have elevation issues, but that's probably normal. All in all, it went well and he didn't see any issues.

Now onto the perc test from the county! We had to cancel the previous one completely, which means we are waiting for a check for our $750 back...and we'll have to just pay it again tomorrow. Yay.

Also ordered a well water test kit today. I wonder what we'll find in our water.

First big glitch

Well, we've hit a snag. Schumacher doesn't seem that confident in us using SunTrust since apparently they won't release funds if there's a lien on the property, but it's normal for subcontractors to put a lien on until they get paid. So we started talking to the preferred lenders they gave us and that's when we hit the snag.

Apparently the bank won't approve a loan on a plot that will end up with two houses on it. This never came up with SunTrust, so they didn't know about the second house. In their opinion it results in an 'unsellable situation' if they need to get their money back on a plot with two homes. This, of course, is total bullshit. It's not like two different families are going to live in these houses, one is going to be a guest house and we're hardly the only people with that situation. But apparently we won't get a loan unless we agree to gut the other house, remove all the plumbing and kitchen stuff and make it pure storage, like an outbuilding.

Screw that. Who are they to ask us to destroy a perfectly good house? Even if we were willing, imagine the labor of having to remove all toilets, tubs, sinks and plumbing? I'm tired just thinking about it.

After much debate, we decided we need to move the new house site. Fortunately our land is divided into 5 plots, so if we build on a plot that doesn't have a house then the bank should stop being dicks about it. So we're back to square one, we need to go identify a new site, have the builder out to stake out the house again and so on. But at least we can probably put a hold on the perc test and not have to pay another $750 since they haven't come out yet.

I doubt this will be the last time we are pissed at the bank.

Site walk complete!

Last week we met with our personal builder, named Jay, out at the new home site. The purpose was to perform a site walk, which gives him the information needed to create a plan for where the house will go, how far utilities will be from the house, and make certain we obey codes related to property line setbacks.

Things went well overall, we had already picked a spot for the house and it works fine for them. The elevation changes were more drastic than we thought, which means we'll have about 6 feet of brick foundation at the low point. That might add to the cost, but we'll also be able to get underneath the house easier if we need to.

Everything else was fine. Jay doesn't think we'll need to get gravel for a construction driveway, but the money we saved there will probably just go towards other things they forgot to spec out, such as drainage systems. Oh, and we were off on our guesswork for the distance to the well. We'll have to see how all that shakes out cost-wise in the end.

Next we go to the county to try to get a health permit for a new septic tank!

The project has officially started. We had to ride the mortgage guy pretty hard to get him to send a single letter, but in the end we got it and signed a contract with Schumacher Homes to build a new house!

Stay tuned for further information, we expect them to contact us within a few days to take the next steps.