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.
I scheduled a walk through the model for 11:30am this morning.
I cued up yesterday's 2 hour recording of our meeting so I could take notes. It is strictly for that purpose. So, there I was taking notes when in the recording it got to that part where we excused ourselves briefly from the sales rep's office.
While we were out, a contractor/builder came into her office and he asked her why her window was open because it was cold outside. She claimed she was so hot and referred to us as that couple with the noisy child and realtor who is giving out wrong information. Then she said, "I hate people." I couldn't believe my ears.
I can never do anything with this recording and I won't but anyone could have heard this from the hallway just outside her office. I was furious and only had 10 minutes before I had to go meet this lady to do the walk through.
I was pretty stern when I showed up. Not the normal cheerful person I normally am. I wanted to send a clear message that I was there to take care of business and I wasn't in the mood for whatever she wanted to dish out this time.
I followed her over to the 80% finished model. I couldn't find anything strange. I did make video for my wife since she was unable to make it out.
Model house #1
So, Monday the contract will be submitted to their corporate office.
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.
