Long overdue update

Some use a blog is when I don't keep it updated.

Let's fast forward from last time.

-land loan was closed back in December as planned
-started making payments the next month*
-more back-and-forth with the architect
-final sign-off by us on the plans
-paid the architect for the remainder
-Dawn and I are going to pay off the land (hopefully) before we start building so we have the land as collateral and have that much less to roll into the construction loan


Notes:
* The lady at BB&T was plain wrong on a few accounts: The length of the loan; the percentage of the down payment needed for the loan; and the interest rate. All of those made for a higher-than-expected monthly payment. That said, we may not be going with them when we move forward with the construction loan...


Current Costs
---------------------
Building Your Own Home For Dummies - $19.95
Perk test - $350
Survey - $1855
Appraisal - $250
Architect - $1500
Closing costs - (need to look those us)
Architect balance due - $2438

This plat's for you

So the original date for the closing has come and gone. Turns out the seller could not make it.

At this point, though, we have confirmed 02 December at 11am for the closing at the lawyer's office.

They also requested to have the plat this week, so I dropped it off at their office Monday afternoon.

Hopefully I will have some good news after the meeting on the 2nd...

Current Costs
---------------------
Building Your Own Home For Dummies - $19.95
Perk test - $350
Survey - $1855
Appraisal - $250
Architect - $1500
Closing costs - TBD

Quick update

I finally managed to get back to the architect with the minor adjustments for square footage.

Also, I talked to the seller of the land this evening and he is checking on his availability for closing. We are aiming to get to the lawyer's office and bank Nov 21st or 22nd.


Current Costs
---------------------
Building Your Own Home For Dummies - $19.95
Perk test - $350
Survey - $1855
Appraisal - $250
Architect - $1500

And the hits keep coming!

So Dawn gets a call from the lady at the bank this morning.

Apparently the bank gal was wrong on several different things.

We have to have 35% of the loan amount as a down payment. We were told 25% by the same lady several months back and that was what we had saved up. Now we are rushing to get the other 10% within the next week or so, which is when we were planning on closing.

She was also wrong on the term length. We were going to go for the 15-year length, but now she says they only offer 10-year terms.

She should be fired.

She did offer to not charge us for the appraisal. Gee thanks.



Current Costs
---------------------
Building Your Own Home For Dummies - $19.95
Perk test - $350
Survey - $1855
Appraisal - $250
Architect - $1500

Weird month

So the land purchase almost fell through, but my wife managed to get it back on track with some persuasive tactics. I won't go into details, so I'll just say the bank has everything they need at this point. All that is needed is for us to close on it.

Well, and start making land payments.

In an effort to shrink the square footage of the house we have a couple of minor adjustments but I have not had the time to get them down on paper for the architect. I need to square away a few things with Dawn first.

Also, with the survey we received an "official" plat. It's basically nothing more than a nice copy of the survey boundaries on a big piece of velum paper. And it smells funny. All that said, I'm including it as an item in the survey costs.

The survey was also sent to an appraiser. This is part of the bank process. There is a new line item below for that, too.

Current Costs
---------------------
Building Your Own Home For Dummies - $19.95
Perk test - $350
Survey - $1855
Appraisal - $250
Architect - $1500

Survey says... ding!

We got word that the survey was done. So the totals below can be updated a little now.

We also heard from the gal at the bank that they were waiting on the seller for the land. We had a hand-written note from him, but I guess that wasn't good enough. But that's getting ironed out soon, hopefully.



Current Costs
---------------------
Building Your Own Home For Dummies - $19.95
Perk test - $350
Survey - $1855
Plat - tbd

Short update but a lot going on

So we met in-person with the architect last week. We got reasonable explanations of the spiral slide and some other things.

There were maybe a half-dozen things we wanted changed, and none seemed major at this point. From everything I have read, it is MUCH easier to make changes at this time than sometime after the ground is broken.

There were also some points of clarification from the architect. He gave us some ideas on windows, so I think we are going to go check out some window displays.

Dawn also got word from the surveyor that he was "done". Apparently we have to go somewhere to pay for it, though I'm not sure exactly what it will cost. From there, I have no idea. The plat, I suppose? But is there a delay from the time we pay for it before it gets "in the system"?

Also, the bank has everything they need at this point, from what I understand.

Things are cruising right along.


Current Costs
---------------------
Building Your Own Home For Dummies - $19.95
Perk test - $350
Survey - tbd (estimated at $2000)
Plat - tbd

Plans look good!

So I printed out the plans and took them home. Dawn and I looked them over, and a lot of the things clicked into place. I wasn't sure how the elevation lined up, for example, with the playroom over the garage, that sort of stuff.

The square footage is a little over the range we were shooting for. I did see one spot that can be lopped off (i.e., not heated), so that will cut some out. But overall I'm not sure how easy it is to "shrink" the plans, especially since you have standard hallway widths and whatnot.

I'm trying to find a place to print the plans out so they will be manageable. Having to piece together 16-sheets of paper isn't really practical, and I don't have a large format printer available.


Current Costs
---------------------
Building Your Own Home For Dummies - $19.95
Perk test - $350
Survey - tbd (estimated at $2000)
Plat - tbd

Update on the plans

The architect got back to us late yesterday with an updated plan. It was based on the feedback we shared. He was able to include the following:



Yeah.

Dawn wanted a slide from the playroom on the 2nd-floor to the main floor.

I've tried to talk some sense into her, but she's not biting. I secretly hoped that the architect would come back and say "Gee, sorry, but building codes don't allow it," but oh well.

Anyway, we'll mull over the plans and shoot back whatever feedback is needed. This is an iterative process, and dealing with email and phone (i.e., not real-time as the architect is doing his thing) adds some delay, unfortunately.

The PDF versions he is sending are pretty large in size, but I found some cool software that will tile large PDFs. The house plans, for example, can be printed out on 16-sheets of regular A4 paper.



Current Costs
---------------------
Building Your Own Home For Dummies - $19.95
Perk test - $350
Survey - tbd (estimated at $2000)
Plat - tbd

Feeling kinda perky

So Dawn called me all excited this morning--she got the results from the perk test. Turns out it did perk for a 4-bedroom house.

Phew. One small thing out of the way. Now we're sending in the surveyor.


Current Costs
---------------------
Building Your Own Home For Dummies - $19.95
Perk test - $350
Survey - tbd (estimated at $2000)
Plat - tbd