The three estimates have come in and we have chosen a builder! There was a very big range between our high estimate and our low which was very interesting, but in the end we are excited about who we chose. Right now a lawyer is taking a look at the contract to make sure everything is kosher. The next step is securing financing!
We have a tentative start date of August 1st. The next month will be spent working on the financing, picking out all of our fixtures and trying not to fight haha. ;) I'm guessing we will agree on most items- but you never know what silly thing one of us will feel strongly about. I'll post more about what we choose as it happens.
Exciting stuff!
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
The Waiting Game
Eric and I are currently in the biting-our-nails part of this adventure: the plans have been sent out and in about a week the bids from the potential builders should start rolling in! I have already met with two out of the four potential builders at the house this week. I've liked both so far, so I guess in some ways it will come down to the $$.
Pretty soon we will find out if our last minute add-ons pushed us into the "what were we thinking?!" category, or if it will be more like "oh, we can SO do this!" Fingers crossed!
It's been really nice being back in the house this week. We have had a tenant in there for almost a year, so it has been quite some time since we got to see the inside. I still do dreamy drive-bys about twice a month, so it's a real treat to go inside. Luckily, I still love the place even on the inside. The only worry routing around in my head is the mosquitoes! Oh man, they are so bad!! Thank goodness we decided to go ahead with the screened-in porch (rather than adding it later) because we are going to need it! Hopefully we figure out some kind of solution for the kids so they don't get eaten alive when they are playing outside.
While we wait to hear back from the builders we are also waiting to hear from the City of Austin regarding the demolition and building permits. Our architect was able to submit everything last week- hopefully all of the horror stories we have heard of 4-6 month waiting periods won't apply to us!
Here's to waiting and hoping!
Pretty soon we will find out if our last minute add-ons pushed us into the "what were we thinking?!" category, or if it will be more like "oh, we can SO do this!" Fingers crossed!
It's been really nice being back in the house this week. We have had a tenant in there for almost a year, so it has been quite some time since we got to see the inside. I still do dreamy drive-bys about twice a month, so it's a real treat to go inside. Luckily, I still love the place even on the inside. The only worry routing around in my head is the mosquitoes! Oh man, they are so bad!! Thank goodness we decided to go ahead with the screened-in porch (rather than adding it later) because we are going to need it! Hopefully we figure out some kind of solution for the kids so they don't get eaten alive when they are playing outside.
While we wait to hear back from the builders we are also waiting to hear from the City of Austin regarding the demolition and building permits. Our architect was able to submit everything last week- hopefully all of the horror stories we have heard of 4-6 month waiting periods won't apply to us!
Here's to waiting and hoping!
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
First Official Delay?
Ladies and gentlemen, I think we are in the midst of our very first delay!
One of the items that I felt very strongly about that we addressed recently with our architect was regarding a step out of our back door on to the patio. As drawn, there would be one step out of the back door down to the patio. I am really hoping that we use the patio and outdoor space as an extension of the living area of our home, so that step was majorly worrying me. It was so easy for me to picture people tripping going in and out of the house. So, I asked our architect to raise the patio to get rid of the step. We were ok with that making the ceiling a little lower- to us, it was worth it to remove the fall risk.
What we didn't realize was that changing the height on that patio meant contacting the structural engineer again. We are currently waiting to hear back from him, and our original hope of sending out the plans for bidding April 1st has obviously been put on hold.
So, we wait!
Thursday, March 21, 2013
And so it begins....
Last night we met with our architect, and today we got about 6 different emails from him asking us what direction we want to go regarding certain topics. Thankfully they were pretty easy design decisions. Today we decided:
- The crown molding style
- Door/window trim style
- Ceiling fan removal on front porch
- Retain exhaust fan in master bath
- Counter type in kid's bathroom
- Window type
- Base board style
All of that on our first real day! So far we are so thrilled with the vision- we can't wait until it is a reality!
Crown molding:
Window trim/base boards:
- The crown molding style
- Door/window trim style
- Ceiling fan removal on front porch
- Retain exhaust fan in master bath
- Counter type in kid's bathroom
- Window type
- Base board style
All of that on our first real day! So far we are so thrilled with the vision- we can't wait until it is a reality!
Crown molding:
Window trim/base boards:
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Here we go!
We are a little more than three months away from our tenant moving out, which means it is time to start getting serious about our remodel! Tonight we met with our architect for the first time in almost 5 months and discussed with him all of the things we have been mulling over during the break. The bad news is that we added at least $20K in things we want, but the good news is that we were able to increase our budget by putting off the remodel for a bit. Now it's looking like in addition to the kitchen remodel, master addition, second floor addition (2 beds/1 bath/ game room/ laundry) we are going to try to do a first floor bathroom remodel, refresh the second bedroom on the first floor, and screen in the porch. Yay! Now the whole house will be fresh and new, with tons of great spaces for our family.
It was a great meeting, and while it got our heads spinning with all of the decisions we are going to have to make in the near future (door knob styles? 1 vs. 2 lights over our large dining room table? etc.) it got us very excited to get this process started and it also alleviated a few worries we'd been having about the plans (like adding a skylight in the stairway so it won't be a dark, interior space).
We've been hearing rumors lately about the permitting process in Austin taking up to 6 months, so we better get cracking! As soon as our tenant moves out we will be paying two mortgages until the construction is done- eek!
It was a great meeting, and while it got our heads spinning with all of the decisions we are going to have to make in the near future (door knob styles? 1 vs. 2 lights over our large dining room table? etc.) it got us very excited to get this process started and it also alleviated a few worries we'd been having about the plans (like adding a skylight in the stairway so it won't be a dark, interior space).
We've been hearing rumors lately about the permitting process in Austin taking up to 6 months, so we better get cracking! As soon as our tenant moves out we will be paying two mortgages until the construction is done- eek!
Sunday, September 30, 2012
No Rush
The great thing about having a tenant in the house is that we don't feel a huge rush to get going with construction. In fact, we recently decided to extend our tenant's lease another 6 months since things are working out so well with him. Technically speaking, the house doesn't need to be finished until it is time for the kids to go to kindergarten (so they can go to the good school there) so we have a little bit of time before we really need to start construction.
Things are still chugging along, though! Right now we are waiting on plans from the structural engineer and then I think the architectural phase will be pretty much complete! I guess we'll just sit on the plans for a little bit until it is time to pick a builder. This blog might be a little dead until that time, but check back in a few months when we start going down the road to choose a builder and start picking out everything for our dream house!
Things are still chugging along, though! Right now we are waiting on plans from the structural engineer and then I think the architectural phase will be pretty much complete! I guess we'll just sit on the plans for a little bit until it is time to pick a builder. This blog might be a little dead until that time, but check back in a few months when we start going down the road to choose a builder and start picking out everything for our dream house!
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Last Minute Changes
What do you do when your architect tells you he is 98% done with the plans? Well, ask to change something, of course!
It recently occurred to me that the way the plans were drawn, our staircase would basically be just a hole in the wall between the dining room and kitchen. No fancy railing, no cool architectural details. The more I thought about it, the more it bugged me. The staircase already won't be very "cool"- since it is located in the middle of the house there won't be a whole lot of light because there won't be any windows in it. Thankfully there will be a window at the top of the stairs and a hanging light fixture on the landing, but I really wanted some pretty detail.
Luckily our architect is awesome! Despite being 98% done with the plans, and despite having to move the refrigerator over a foot and reduce the counter space by a foot, he was able to make it a little more open and add in a couple exposed stairs at the bottom. We'll also have some exposed railing "after the turn" and with the newly exposed steps, it should look fabulous! It will look similar to this photo of a house he did in the past:
It recently occurred to me that the way the plans were drawn, our staircase would basically be just a hole in the wall between the dining room and kitchen. No fancy railing, no cool architectural details. The more I thought about it, the more it bugged me. The staircase already won't be very "cool"- since it is located in the middle of the house there won't be a whole lot of light because there won't be any windows in it. Thankfully there will be a window at the top of the stairs and a hanging light fixture on the landing, but I really wanted some pretty detail.
Luckily our architect is awesome! Despite being 98% done with the plans, and despite having to move the refrigerator over a foot and reduce the counter space by a foot, he was able to make it a little more open and add in a couple exposed stairs at the bottom. We'll also have some exposed railing "after the turn" and with the newly exposed steps, it should look fabulous! It will look similar to this photo of a house he did in the past:
*Incidentally we also really love the cabinets in this kitchen and the counters, lighting and drawer pulls!
The next step is getting a structural engineer involved (they are meeting on Thursday!) and then we will send the plans out for bids! This feels a little bit more real each time we see a new plan or talk about specifics. Crazy to think we will most likely be all settled in by this time next year!
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