House Hunting - Day 4

I started today out by checking my emails from the realtor. We had her check on about 6 properties to see if they are available. All but 2 were already gone.

Fiona decided to meet up with the realtor to go view the other houses after lunch. Meanwhile, still fresh from looking at a new home over the weekend, I decided to look into building a new home. Surely builders have to build somewhere on a regular basis.

I came home for lunch and called one of the builders and requested some general information based on our search criteria. After lunch Fiona went one direction to meet with the realtor and go look at the two houses, while I went back to work and looked at the home info that I had just requested.

It turns out that one of the two houses was a short sale and no longer available. That left one house which was older than I like and needed a lot of upgrading. I told her to pass and that I am now more interested in building.

I spent the afternoon comparing three floor plans in our budget. I will say small medium and large. The smaller one is actually the best deal in regards to the way the space is used. The medium sized house has a hallway to the rooms that cuts right through the center of the house wasting all of the space gained by upgrading from the smaller house. Then, the large one has a master closet the size of a room. Though nice for my wife's wardrobe, it isn't high enough on the list to justify so much space. Then, there is the issue with the 4th bedroom not having a closet at all. Finally, the large house has a dining room large enough to seat maybe ten people. Again, it would be nice but it's too much space in the wrong places.

There was one other plan in our budget but the layout would not work within my requirement for a recording studio. All of the walls were shared.

With a floor plan sorted out, it was time to find a plat. I was given a map of three phases. Two are inside our desired school district even if they do come with a $10,000 more price tag. Of the two, only one fits our budget.

My wife wants a house facing specific direction(s) for philosophical reasons as I mentioned before. The map showed what lots were available. The first thing I did from our lesson learned last weekend, was cross off every lot facing the wrong direction. This leaves us about 18 lots to choose from.

Really, from this we are able to estimate the cost plus a few extras like having the garage extended an extra 4 feet. I took all of this home and presented it to Fiona and she is favoring the only remaining corner lot. If they can build the preferred floor plan, we may have a good match.

The realtor wants us to meet with the builder Sunday. Though I initially agreed to a 2pm meeting, I think this is stupid. That lot could disappear in the next 6 days. So, we will talk them into meeting sooner.