Feng Shui Issue Rears Its Head Again

I got a call today from our builder's sales rep. I was pretty sure I knew that she was calling to tell me that she learned about me inquiring about building a pool during the construction process. By the way, we won't be doing that because they don't do it and it would be mega expensive even if they did allow it.

Instead, she hit me up the side of the skull with bad news. Really bad news. She said that during corporate's attempt to get a permit on our corner lot, the house must face the street to the West and not the street to the North. As I mentioned before here, our very first question about the lot was the ability to face the house North and they verified that we could. In fact the address dictates the direction by reference of the street name. That is all over our contract.

I was so shocked at this unexpected turn of events. I expressed to her that we had made it crystal clear from the start how important Feng Shui is to my wife. I had even told them the story about having to walk away from the house in Forney because of a similar issue.

I called Fiona and explained to her what was going on.

We have put the ball back in the builder's court to do whatever they have to do to get this house positioned the way that we agreed to. I know it can be a long shot when dealing with permits but we have to try. If they can't do it, we want a real reason, since it will mean we would have to terminate the contract and be out time off from work, daycare expenses and other expenses and time from all of the back and forth that goes on.

Contract Submitted

We have reached the point of no return. The contract on the land and the build was submitted earlier today.

I mocked up the wood floor coverings in photoshop and sent the photos and video links over to my dad. He said everything looks good. To create the illusion of a larger family room, we have decided to replace the tile in the nook with wood flooring. Here are some mockups of the wood flooring.

Later in the evening we drove over to the neighborhood and made notes on landscaping. We are curious of how many trees we can have and  what restrictions the HOA has on plants and other landscaping.

Preliminary Documents, Contract and the Sales Rep from Hell

I spoke with the new lender early this morning. He said everything is looking awesome.

My wife and the realtor met me over at the builder's model home/office to go over the contract and all of that preliminary stuff you have to go through. I asked a couple of questions that really fired up the sales rep.

I don't know what her damn problem was. She was very short and it was escalating so I snapped her back into line with a simple statement, "Look, we're just asking some questions." We hadn't seen a model of our house yet, and wouldn't for a few more days. In fact all we had seen was the office we were in with her and a few brochures that she had emailed to me. With a sample question of would we be able to add things like an extra plug outlet, she snapped "NO!". She was very defensive, abrupt and just right out rude.

I figured out some of it later on. She was upset that we had brought the realtor with us, she was using a PC, and her printer was giving her fits. I didn't care what her reasons were but she didn't have to be so rude.

Anyway, she was super fussy and in a hurry for us to sign. I had to get assurances from her that I would have more than the time in her office to read everything in the contract. She was sort of resistant with comments like take it or leave it. The realtor was able to intervene and get an answer that the contract would not be submitted to corporate until next week.

I pulled my wife and realtor aside so we could talk in private about the sales rep's overall attitude and the bad impression that she was giving us. We were encouraged to look passed the attitude she was displaying.

The realtor had to leave early to honor an appointment and my wife needed to get our son home for lunch. I stayed to finish the paperwork and try to warm that old lady up. In the end she had lightened up quite a bit.

The sales rep gave me a sold sign to stick in the yard. Here's a photo of that.

Enough on that! We have to go to decide on all of our color options by February 1. I booked an appointment with the place that provides that service for January 27.

I spent the late evening going through every document to read all of the applicable fine print. Everything seems to be ok. I have a question about a couple of small things. I just have to wonder if my questions will bring out the fangs again. Time will tell. Time will tell.

The Fat Plat

I contacted the home builder this morning to let her know that we are interested in one of the lots and we want to secure it as soon as possible pending it is facing the correct direction and is as appealing in reality.

The realtor wanted to meet everyone at the builder's site in the afternoon but I didn't want to wait that long. Then, we found out our builder POC has the next two days off. She did get back with me to let us know that since it's a corner lot we can face either street North-West or North. One other thing the realtor told us about was that this particular builder will put 1% of our base cost towards closing charges. They have an additional incentive today to add another 2% off the base cost of the house.

I told her we could wait to meet in a few days but I want to secure the lot today. She confirmed that we could do that. So, I drove home to pick up the wife and kid and we drove over to see the lot. I had Fiona get out and put a compass on it to be sure she was happy with the direction.

Everything worked out. We drove around the corner and placed a deposit to hold the corner plat that we like so much.

While we were there, we were given their preferred lender contact details. When I got back to work, I called this new lender for instructions and did the online application.

So, that plat is being held for us. I'm going to try to get at very least a pre-qualification letter from this new lender so that we'll be ready should we decide to get a contract down.

Now let me talk about this fat plat. I'm calling it that because the lots in the same area and same price are skinny. I used two methods for measuring the difference. The first was Zillow and I don't know how reliable it is. They claim our plat is 155% larger when compared to the surrounding plats. I did my own measurements from satellite photos and some geometry. I cam up with 187% larger when compared to the surrounding plats.

In either case, the extra space and it being a corner lot will make this plat very desirable in decades to come.

I am eager to see what rate this new lender can get for us, because the first lender seems to be high for our situation when compared to the average market rate.

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.