Two Weeks

The foundation has to sit for two weeks before the framers can start. In the mean time we're reviewing some things that we've been talking about with Dave and beginning to make some decisions on finishes.
Some things that we're going to do:
Add permanent escape ladders to one of the 2nd floor bedrooms and the bonus room.
Add a gravitational hot water loop so that we will have hot water as soon as we turn on the faucet, even on the 2nd floor.
Add network cabling to most of the rooms in the house, including the garage.
Place under-cabinet outlet strips in the kitchen so there are no outlets on the walls.
We're also trying to decide what the hearth room wall with the fireplace will look like.
And finally, we've decided to go with a geothermal "ground-to-air" heat pump for heating and cooling. As a side benefit, there is an adapter to push excess heat into the water heater to reduce the cost of heating that as well.

Foundation

Foundation 5
Originally uploaded by lander_quill

Not only did they put the forms up on Wednesday, they also poured the foundation on Wednesday as well. I'm not sure how long the foundation has to set before we can move on to the next stage but Dave told us that as soon as the foundation is poured he's going to have us start making some decisions. I can't wait!

Snow, Snow, Snow, Snow

It snowed 4 inches Thursday and it's going to snow about the same amount tonight. It's was also about 10 degrees out this morning. Dave said that the plan is to put the foundation forms up on Wednesday and pour on Thursday. In order to offset the longer set time in the cold, they will add calcium chloride to the mix. I've done a little reading on this just to see what the effects of adding this are. Apparently the concrete has the same strength with this as without, it just sets faster.
Let's hope that the weather holds out after tonight so that they can do the work needed later in the week.

My, What Big Feet You Have

Footings 3
Originally uploaded by lander_quill

The footings were dug and poured yesterday. It's kinda neat to see their placement as it compares to the houseplan. All those squares and circles are starting to make sense now.
They covered the footings with hay, I'm guessing to help keep them warm until they dry.
To add to the fun, it snowed about 4 inches today. I have no idea what this will mean for the foundation guys as I havn't talked to Dave to ask him.
More pictures on Flicker that you can link to from the right.

Compacted Soil

Compaction 2
Originally uploaded by lander_quill

Went out to the lot today and watched them compact the new dry soil. The engineers have been measuring the compaction rates and are very pleased with the results. They want a measurement of 90 and are consistently getting over 105.
I have no idea what that is but they are very happy with it.
It was 36 degrees when I was out there at Noon. Hopefully the weather holds out so that the footings can be poured this week.

That's What She Said

The diggers scooped out 4 feet of wet goop from the already existing hole and found that the earth was hard underneath. This is excellent because it means that we will be starting with a solid base on which to lay the dry soil on. As they lay the soil and compact it, an engineer will do a compaction test at each foot to make sure all is as it should be. Once this is complete, a final analysis will be done to determine if there is still a need for spread footings and additional tile work. If not, the overall improvement costs will not be as high as first estimated.
Tomorrow they should be done with filling and the foundation guy can begin the work of pouring the footings and then the foundation.

Happy Thanksgiving

What a great way to go into the Thanksgiving holiday! The new engineering firm finished their research on our lot and said that they could find no plausible cause for the water other than the pond. They said that this area of the development was a "cut" or high area (as opposed to a low area that was filled.) The development company has authorized them to reconstruct the pond with an impermeable liner in the spring.
There will need to be a few things done to improve the excavation so that it can be built on. Part of this is replacement and compaction of dry soil. Another part is to use a spread footing and a more extensive tile system as insurance.

We have asked our builder to find out what assurances we will have, preferably in writing, that if we have water problems in the future that the developer will take care of them.

As long as the answer to this is acceptable, work will begin on the foundation on Monday.

Yea!

Engineers Galore

Our builder had a meeting with the land development company on Wednesday. They are going to hire another geotech engineering firm to do a comprehensive study of the lot and determine definitively if it is the pond that is causing the wetness. If it is, they will either fix the pond or they will fill it in. They have also offered to pay half of what the cost of what the additional waterproofing will be on the house.
As I stated before, if it turns out that it's not the pond and it's a water table or natural spring, we'll have to locate another lot.
Sigh.

Wait...Some More

Well, we still have nothing more than a hole in the ground. And one section of it is still damp. Our builder, Dave, is in the process of working with the land development company to see what help they are going to provide.
I'm hoping that we hear back today about stuff but I'm not holding my breath. I just hope that we get something resolved this week.
If we stick with this lot (that's right, there's a possibility of moving to a 3rd lot) we'll have to do quite a bit of work to make sure that some time in the future we don't get water in the basement or have settlling problems with the foundation. The engineers say that they can engineer around this and make sure the house is ok but it will just cost money.
The biggest thing that I'm concerned with is that if we have to fork over more money for waterproofing we won't be able to do the Geothermal (or ground-to-air heat pump as it's called).
As Dave has told me, "A week won't make us but it could certainly break us." Meaning that taking a week longer up front to do thing right won't hurt us but if we don't take the time now, we may end up paying for it in the long run.

Water in the Hole

As I mentioned in my last post, when they dug the hole, the bottom of it was rather wet. Dave went out there this morning with a geotech engineer to look at it. They took a soil sample and looked over the entire layout. From the sounds of it, the engineer wasn't overly concerned. He's going to write up a report and get it to Dave by tomorrow morning with his recommendation. Dave believes that it may be the frog pond behind our lot that may be the source of the water. He talked with the land development company about it and they are "extremely receptive to assist in any way they can." They are going to send out their engineering firm tomorrow or Wednesday to assess the lot, the pond, etc. to determine what the problem might be and what they can do to remedy.
Even between yesterday and today the ground had dried out noticibly. So in the mean time, we're going to let the ground dry out and wait.

Holy Excavated Dirt, Batman!

Excavation 1
Originally uploaded by lander_quill

The permits from the city came in earlier than they had said so Dave fired the start gun and things are off and running. The excavators were suppsed to start digging either Thursday or Friday but they had problems with one of their pieces of equipment. Fortunately, the owner of the company said that he'd come out and dig the hole on Saturday.
We went out and watched him dig for a little while and then came back when he was finished. We noticed that the bottom of the hole had ruts from the Catapiller about 1 1/2 feet deep. He said that he actually had gotten stuck at one point and had to rock himself out.
He's not sure why it was so wet. He's recommending that we get the soil tested, which will delay pouring the footings. Surprise, another delay. Hopefully it won't be too long and they'll be able to get the foundation poured next week. Keep your fingers crossed.

Stakes Anyone?

Survey Stakes 7

Today the surveyors were due on the lot to stake out the house. Dave got to the lot a little bit after they were supposed to be there and found that they had come, done their thing, and left already.
Dave looked everything over and it all looks good. He explained what all the markings on the stakes meant and what the result of the survey was. The good news is that the front/side of the house will have 7 feet of the foundation exposed so we can have a daylight basement on that side of the basement. The driveway will rise a height of 3 feet by the time it reaches the house.
I posted some pictures of the lot with the stakes on it.

Cabinet Doors

We've been tasked to pick out the design of the cabinet doors for the kitchen. Once this decision is made, 1 door will be ordered and given to the interior decorator. From that door, and an interview, she'll know our style and begin shopping for elements of the house. So, no pressure on this decision.
We are going with Crystal Cabinets. As I've stated before, we're going for a "Craftsman Style" house. Based on that, Dave the builder (no relation to Bob) suggested that we avoid miter cuts (45 degree joints) and stick with box cuts (90 degree cuts). Along with the door design, we need to decide on wood and color. We like the look of both the Red Oak and the Alder, which is convenient because those are both the least expensive woods available (inexpensive, not cheap, is our motto.) If you look at the featured home on Thomas David's web site, the kitchen cabinets in that house are Alder.
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Ready...Set....GO!

We closed on the construction loan yesterday afternoon. The new lot is paid for so Dave was able to get the survey. He ran over this morning to apply for the permits. Right now they estimate 3 weeks for the permits to be issued. In the mean time, the surveyers can get out to the lot and stake the borders. Dave will also be able to figure out the elevation of the house. The land slants from the back 186th street-side corner down to the front Nina street-side corner. Hopefully this will mean that we can have a side-daylight basement window.
We were excited during the signing of the documents all the way up to the "Truth in Lending" document. That's the one that says how much money you'll have paid the bank at the end of your loan. Wow! I really didn't need to know that number.

Assessment Finally In

The bank's assessment of the plan finally came back today. We were hoping that it would be more than 5% of what the cost was so that we don't have to bring any money to the closing. The final number came back in at almost $30,000 above cost so we are well above the number that we needed.
That is such a relief. Now we can continue to squirrel our money away in savings so we have that much more to add to the down payment.

2 Green or not 2 Green?

We started looking at geothermal heating and cooling. Here's what we found out:
Geothermal involves the use of wells on your property, piped into the house and into a heat exchanger. The system uses no gas, it is all electric. For our house we would need 5 or 6 wells. Upfront cost is as much as twice the cost of traditional systems. For our house a conservative number would add $10,000 to install a Geothermal system.
Payback on heating and cooling costs is about 3 to 5 years. For the 5 year estimate that works out to a savings of about $166/month. (These are all estimated numbers.)
There is no outside unit for this setup.
The only down side, apart from the increased up-front cost, is that the heat exchange unit seems to only last about 15 years.

I have set up a poll on the right side of the blog to get people's opinions. Please feel free to comment on this as well.

Loan Application

We filled out the official loan application papers for the construction loan on Friday. We had a brief scare when we saw the "monthly payment" We had done the calculations on our own and thought we knew what number to expect but when he told us that the number he showed us was without taxes included Jill and I both just about fainted. It took me a couple seconds to realize that the number was based on 100% of the construction loan. Once our down payment generated from our current home sale was added into the mix the number came back down to what we were expecting.

Of course we're still waiting on the assessor to come back. We're hoping it comes back Monday. Keep your fingers crossed that it comes back 5% above cost.

Front Door Example

Front Door Example

We thought we'd share some choices that we've made already. One of these is the front door. In maintaining the craftsman style of the house, we've decided to nail this point home from the moment you see the front of the house.
This is a sample of what the front door will look like. I'm not sure of the exact shade that we will go with but I'm pretty sure it is going to be oak.

Draft of house

Draft of house

Here's a picture of what the house is going to look like. Almost. Since we changed lots, the house is actually going to be flipped so the garage will be on the right and the front porch will be on the left.
The style of the house is craftsman. The house color is in question right now. There is one particular shade of green that we believe will look good but we need to finalize this decision. The trim work around most of the house will be white. The front porch will be all exposed cedar.
We are thinking about having the front porch cement colored and waxed. The fear we have of waxing it is making it too slick in the winter. It looks REALLY good though. This may be a case of form over function.

Waiting

We were warned that there would be a lot of waiting during the house building process. That is completely true. Last week we were waiting for the subdivision's development company to approve the house plan. We were a bit worried because our house does not have a full brick or stone front and the covenant requires it. Out builder, Dave, reassured us that he had driven through the subdivision and there were a number of houses that did not have a full brick front. Sure enough, the development company came back and approved the plan.
Once that approval came back, we turned thing over to the bank. Now we are waiting for their assessment of the plan. We are hoping that they assess it at 5% above the actual cost. If it is, we won't have to put any money down for the construction loan.

I love waiting.

Pictures up

I have put a link off to the right to the pictures that I've taken so far.
Currently, there are pictures of the floorplan and of the lot.
I'm going to try to keep these pictures updated so check there often.

How many stories do you want?

The first big decision we had to make was whether we were going to build a Ranch style or a Story and a half. Our main driving force was that since this house is going to be "the last house we every buy" we wanted to make sure that the master bedroom was on the main floor. This way, when we get old and break a hip, we won't have to go up and down stairs.
We decided on the story and a half. We did this mainly so we would have some bedrooms that weren't on the main floor. This inadvertantly made it so our daughter has her own suite upstairs. She's not spoiled at all, is she?
I'm going to try and post pictures so you can see the floor plan.

Lots of Lots

In our infinite wisdom we decided to try to get ahead of the game and purchase a lot before we had a houseplan. We found a great corner lot (because we wanted a "side-load" garage) in the Millard Park South subdivision. We purchased it in April 2007 and figured we would start dumping money into it because every dime we put into it now could be used as part of the down payment on the mortgage. We purchased the lot for $30,950 which was a pretty good price for the lot, which is a little over a 1/4 acre in size.
Fast-forward to September, after we have made all the big money decisions on the house, the bank tells us that the subdivision won't support the house so they won't be able to loan us the money for the full amount.
Crud!
We have two options: 1. Change the plan for the house to decrease the amount it will cost or 2. Sell this lot and buy another.
We decided to go with option 2 because we really like the layout of the new house. This of course is not as easy as it sounds. We still want a corner lot that allows us to have a side-load garage, we want the driveway to face at least partially South-West and we want the back of the house to face as much East as possible. Tall order.
Fortunately, with the assistance of our builder Dave, we were able to locate a new lot. This one is even further West than the other lot which means an even longer drive to work for Jill. She has said that she'll cope and says it adds about 10 minutes each way to her drive.
We have put an earnest deposit on the lot and have signed a purchase agreement so once we close on the contstruction loan, the lot will be ours.
The new lot is in West Bay Springs, a lovely subdivision with several beautiful ponds scattered throughout it. The new lot was $39,000. Just a little more than the old lot but not too much.
Of course, we still have the old lot in Millard Park South that we need to sell...
If you know anyone who's looking to build, let me know we have a lot "priced to sell".

Thomas David...doesn't he make hamburgers?

When we decided to build a new house we wanted to make sure that it was OUR house, meaning we wanted to have complete control over every little piece of the house. Since we don't know anything about building houses that means very little.
What we did know was that we wanted a floorplan that we chose instead of just choosing from a handful of floorplans. We looked at floorplans on dozens of web sites and went through a seemingly endless number of magazines looking for the "right" floorplan. We had seen a house with a nice open living area where the living room, breakfast nook and kitchen were open to one another but still felt like they were their own distinct rooms.
Finally, we went through the Spring Parade of Homes and came across a house that we really liked. It wasn't really the house itself, or the floorplan, it was just the way it was built and the little things about the house that said that this builder cared about what he did.
Enter Dave. We met with Dave, of Thomas David Fine Homes and instantly clicked. He seemed to understand exactly what we were looking for and drew up a floorplan based on our multiple converstations that we love. We've already run into a few snags in the pre-construction process but with Dave's advice, we've been able to deal with them relatively stress free.

About this blog

So, Jill and I have decided to build a new house. Our current house is OK but there are too many little things wrong with it for our liking. I think the hope is that with a new house we'll have a clean slate and we'll feel compelled to keep it in good condition. Also, the thought is that this new house is going to be the one we live in for the next 30+ years.
We'll be posting comments, pictures and progress info as we go along so hopefully this will help document the house building process.