Building a Home

My wife and I are in the process of building a home.  We were married about 18 months ago, and currently live in my home where I have been for 22 years.  Things are tight and we're in need of space.  This small home was perfect for me, but it just doesn't accommodate our lifestyles today.

We're also in need of a better location.  Her daughters attend schools in a district approximately 30 minutes from our home, and the traffic is not light. 

I have managed to accumulate things through the years.  We now have three cars (for two drivers?), three motorcycles (for one rider?!?), a ski boat, a motorcycle trailer, a fish, and four dogs. 

So, in no particular order, we needed a lot more space in a specific school district with a fenced yard.  With the real estate market in shambles, we were positioned well with adequate down payment funds to look for existing homes as strong buyers.  We looked at dozens of homes using on line resources, and toured several of the houses that seemed as if they met our needs.  In the end, we found a floor plan we liked, but not in the right location.  We found a few homes we liked in the right location, but always lacked whatever it would take to lead us to make an offer.

We also found a neighborhood with large lots, perfect location, and reasonable rules on fencing.  The lots were owned by a builder who preferred to build for us, rather than sell a lot to us out right.  We spent hours in his model homes that were built, or being built, on spec.  One was nearly finished, and magnificent.  Another was framed and under roof, and the craftsmanship on the framing was amazing.  At that point, we thought strongly about this builder, and set about putting together a floor plan that met our needs.

As we thought about floor plans, we had a few basic parameters from which to work.  We wanted a great-room arrangement with no traditional living room.  We wanted a first-floor master suite.  We wanted a space where dogs could be isolated while we were gone.  We wanted plenty of light to enter the home from all four sides.  I wanted an over sized garage.  My wife wanted a loft where the girls could entertain.  I believed our budget dictated a limit of 3,000 square feet.

Using these parameters we searched through two or three floor plan books that we purchased at a local book mart.  As can be expected, most plans are aimed for the 90th percentile, and none came with a space to isolate dogs or a particularly over sized garage.  We dog-eared three plans that came close, and took them to an architect.

The builder's architect was an old racquetball foe, so we already had a good relationship.  Using our plan books and parameters, we made several revisions to preliminary plans through the ensuing months, and eventually landed on something that met all of our needs.  I thought there were a couple of awkward aspects of the plan, but trusted the architect to do his work.

As we started to work through the contract, we began meeting with some of the vendors that would be involved.  At some point we made a verbal commitment to the builder, and by early June, 2009, a hole had been dug on the lot we had chosen.  Yes, it is true, the contract was not signed, and no down payment had been made (other than an initial check to the architect).

The "hole" represented an end point to much of the planning process, and a beginning point to the next part of this odyssey.  And though there was no ink on paper at that point, the hole also represented an emotional attachment to the project, and somewhat of a moral obligation to see it through.  It made me nervous.