There are lots of things over the past few weeks I have thought to myself, “I need to blog about that”. I usually do not get around to it. I will attempt to rectify that here.
~ House Decisions and Finances ~
Decisons:
We tried to make as many decisions as we could well before we needed to. Some even well before construction started. We figured it would reduce the stress of making the decisions later and avoid delays due to last-minute decisions. Guess what, we were wrong! Maybe not completely wrong, but wronger than expected. What we did well ahead of time was to lay out what we wanted in our house. We ran each item through a matrix comparison so the most important ones bubbled to the surface. When the time came, if we had to make a decision on being able to have X or Y, we would refer to the list and find out which one had the highest level of importance and it got precedence. This would help take out any spur of the moment, wishy-washy decision making. For example, we wanted a walk-in pantry and a kitchen island. After the matrix it came out that the walk-in pantry was more important. So, if funds or house layout only allowed for one, we would opt for the walk-in pantry.
The ones that were based on house design were easier since all the design work was done before construction started. The real problem came when construction began. Since construction is obviously not done all at once, but rather though a step-by-step process over 4-6 months, it is harder to make decisions. You could opt for an expensive option (A) in construction early on, and a month later be faced with another expensive option (B). Maybe (B) was more important in the matrix, but since it happens after (A) it is likely too late if (A) is already set in stone (so to speak).
No matter how good of a handle you have on your house vision and the cost of various items and pieces of construction, things are going to change. And with change comes variations in the vision. And with variation in the vision comes decisions at times when it’s difficult to make them. So in a nutshell, no matter how well you plan so you can avoid the hard and troubling decisions… you will have to face them anyway.
Finances:
Making all the decisions can be maddening but all the financial issues can be flat out depressing. Let me start by saying that Melanie and I are not extravagant people. We like fairly simple things. However, as we have found out time and time and time again during the building process, the things we wanted were just too expensive. Here are some examples:
| What we wanted | What we ended up with | Why? |
| Shaker style interior doors | More traditional, hollow-core doors | Because our selection was solid wood (had to be), less common and probably not mass produced. |
| Solid surface counter tops | Laminated counter tops | We were hooked up with a guy who did granite, but even with the good deal he was going to give us, it was $3,400. The solid materials like Corian and the many variations were all 2-3x as much as plain laminated. |
| Brick | Siding | I do not remember the quotes for brick, but it was like 3-4x as much as siding. |
| Energy efficient insulation and windows | Traditional insulation and windows | Although the government offered tax deductions for certain energy saving features of a house, they were too expensive up front to consider. It is sad to say, but it would take so long to recoup the initial cost of the materials that it is not worth it. They need to get the prices down first. |
| A 100% completed house when we moved in | An 85% completed house when we moved in | To save money we are going to do several things ourselves:
In addition, we left the basement only roughed-in. We will work on finishing that space later. |
house+88 acres $X
house+20 acres $Y + separate 68 acres = $Z
Theoretically you would expect $X to equal $Z because they are the same thing, a house and a total of 88 acres. But they are not!!!! Hold on to your hats… $X is $133,000 less than $Z!!!!!! Is that crazy or what? Since in the end it will cost $Z to buy the land and build the house, but we are appraising $X, the bank is giving us $133,000 less than what we need!!! I understand why, it has to do with comparable house sales and resale ability, but it still boggles the mind. Silly number crunchers! Luckily we had funds from the sale of the house in Florissant, MO, which we have used already to pay down the land loan. We have what we hope to be enough in the bank to make up the rest. Problem is that there are a lot of side expenses. We may be moving into the house with only a few cents to our names. We may have to bathe the baby in the pond, feed him wild plants growing on the land and hunt animals for hides for clothes! :o)
New House Chronicles
As I mentioned in an earlier blog, the progress on the house we can show you will be limited since all the work currently being done is inside on the guts of the house. Does not make for pretty pictures. Plus since there are not any lights in the house yet and since I do not have a flash or light on my newer digital camera, the pictures inside end up dark. I need to take my older one which does have a flash. Here are some of the latest pictures which do show some of the small changes.
They hung the garage doors:
(talk about an optical illusion! the siding makes the right side of the picture look like it slants up!)
Wood Burning Stove Stack:
Exterior Doors Were Hung: (they will later be painted to match the garage doors)
Showers (main bath / 2nd floor):
Stairs: (going down and up)
Soaking in the Tub? (Not yet. On this chilly day, Melanie is just dreaming of it! This is where our new jetted claw-foot tub will go. )
As usual, there are more pictures on our flicker site.
Continued in next bl0g…
