Update!

I have been waiting for my appraisal to come back before I updated, but it is taking a long time. So, as of now everything is in limbo until it comes back, so all the loan paperwork can be finalized.  We're hoping it hurries up, fall is creeping closer and closer, bringing with it the inevitable rain!

We did change a few things. The first is we decided to upgrade from the round doorknobs to the lever type, which cost us $100, good deal I think! Next is we changed the vinyl flooring that will be in the bathrooms and laundry room, picture will follow. Lastly, we changed the laminate counter tops to a new black kind they just got in, unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of it.

The wood flooring we choose for all of downstairs minus the living room. The one with the pink sticker.

Getting Closer!

I haven't posted in a long time because nothing much has been happening. We submitted all of our paperwork for the loan and were approved. So, we just placed our home order with all of the upgrades, colors and options we want. We decided to go with white cupboards, stainless knobs, Shaw linen carpet, Asheville hickory wood flooring in the kitchen and dining room, stainless steel appliances and laminate countertops for now. We did get a really affordable quote for granite in the kitchen from a local company, so if we have enough cash left over we will order that as well. Otherwise we will do it sometime in the next year. We ended up adding the side garage door as an upgrade and the upgraded front gable and wrapped posts to make our HOA happy. We still haven't found a mason for the fireplace, that is my husbands job and he is slacking.

Here is the only picture I took of some of our selections. White cupboards with knobs, vinyl flooring for bathrooms and laundry room on the left, and the temporary laminate countertops at the bottom right.

At this point we are waiting for our appraisal to be completed. Then we can do our first draw on our loan to get the utilities trenched and the pad cut for the house. We were told the appraisal process usually takes about two weeks to be completed. Hopefully, everything goes quickly so we can get to building our house. We are hoping to be in it before the end of the year!

Getting things in order...

We met with Adair again today, found out that the bid for the excavation and utility trenching will be $10,000.  Which is way higher than we thought, but our lot is more complicated than most as well. For one we have the 122 ft long easement to bring the utilites down and we have to have the guy cut across the asphalt to bring all of them to one side of it then patch the asphalt.  Then, our soil has a lot of clay, so the excavator needs to fill the pad with 2 ft of shale so the house doesn't shift.  All of this adds to the cost of our build.
We are still trying to find a mason to build our fireplace, so we are unsure of how much extra that will cost us as well. Adair does have a special discount for military members that gives you $2,500 of upgrades on the home.  So, we are trying to best decide on how to spend that. So far, we have decided to upgrade the appliances to stainless steel, add a side garage door, and add hardwood flooring in the kitchen and maybe the dining room as well.  That should use up all of the credit.  We originally wanted granite countertops throughout the house, but we have decided to shop around for granite on our own to see if we can find a better deal. More on that later.
Our next step is applying for the construction loan. We are waiting on Kevin's next pay stub and then we will submit the application to Adair Financial.  Hopefully, the process will go quickly and not take too long. We want to make the most of the spring and summer weather for building.  If they start right away then we should be in the house by September!

Here is a drawing of our lot with the house situated on it. This is what we are handing over to the city with the permit application. I LOVE how big our backyard will be!

So it begins...

Today we had our first site walk through with our Adair person Johanna. We staked out the spot where the house will be and then tweaked it here and there to find the perfect position for our dream home. It was an exciting activity to be able to stand back and look at the property and see just how big the backyard and side yards will be once there is an actual house! We've been dreaming about this for so long and now it's finally becoming a reality!

Our next step is to start the construction loan process and the utility trenching. We have a flag lot and the lovely developer decided not to bring the utilities all the way down the 122 foot easement to our lot when he paved it. So, we have a bit of a headache with getting them to the site. Johanna is doing her best to help us out by getting bids from excavators and people to connect the utilities for us, I think she sensed how frustrated we were with that aspect of the build! I would love to get past this part and get to the foundation pour already, but first things first.

Next week we are meeting with her again in the office to fine tune the prices on the additions and accesories we want for our home. Then we will contact Adair Financial to start the loan process. According to Johanna, that process may take a few weeks to go through. So, in the meantime I'm afraid the only info I will be posting may be about the utilities. This is the boring part of the blog, the waiting game... I will leave with a few pics of the lot.

We chose the traditions 2432 plan, we feel that it best suits our growing family and being a two story gives us the most useable yard space. Our lot is shaped like a slice of pie, with the point at the far end, where our back yard will be.

In the picture above I am standing at the point of the lot facing the easement, all of the mowed area is ours.

In this picture you can see across the front of our lot. You can see the trash and yard clippings the lovely neighbors have been dumping on our property (more on that later).

Hopefully, I will have more news on our build soon! Thanks for reading!