Must be a sign

I am not usually very superstitious, but last night I think we got a sign that moving out of our current house was the right decision. My wife and I were working on packing up more things when we heard a loud crash. We looked outside and saw a bunch of siding laying against our house. We figured it was the neighbors since they had just stripped all of the siding off of their house. Soon we realized that it was the color of our house and had to be part of our house. Yes that is right part of our house fell down last night.




I figured that it had to be from where we had ripped up the deck and must of knocked something loose, but it wasn't. The siding that fell off was basically the top half of the back of our house. Meaning it would have happened no matter what. It is strange how things work out. Here we are working on moving out of the house that I have lived in for 25 years and of all times for that siding to fall off it happens now. It is almost like the house knows what is coming and has decided to give up the fight of staying together.

Roughed in bathroom

Went out to the home-site last night to see if anything got done yesterday. Looks like they got the bathroom in the basement roughed in. Actually I don't know for sure that it is the bathroom. It looks like it is the sump pump and ejector pump for the septic system. At any rate the plumber was out and did his thing yesterday. I know that it seems that my builder had told me that it may have to be inspected by the county at this point before continuing. Here are pictures of the plumbing that was put in yesterday.





Last night I also continued planting the pine trees I had gotten. If anyone is looking at planting several pine trees for privacy or wind/snow break I suggest contacting your state's department of forestry. I have 680 feet of open property line that I am trying to plant a wind break on. Plus I will be planting them along the drive. I don't want to plant them until I am sure that they won't be run over. So over the last two nights my father-in-law and I have planted about 100 pine trees. Now I only have 100 left. As I mentioned before I highly recommend getting trees from one of your state's nurseries, it is much cheaper than buying them retail. My 200 trees are 3 year old white pines and I paid about $121.00 for all of them. Here I am planting the trees.




New stone was also put down on the drive. I thought they were going to try to wait until after the concrete floors had been poured, but I think it had gotten so bad they couldn't wait. I just hope that when the next concrete trucks come it doesn't look like it did 2 days ago. It is still pretty rutted up even with the new stone down.

Basement walls poured

On Monday this week they got the walls poured into the forms. It was a pretty nasty day for pouring concrete, but I am glad that they got it done. We were a little disappointed on Saturday when they did not get the walls poured. I talked to my builder yesterday and told them I bet they wished they poured them on Saturday when the weather was nice versus Monday when it was rainy and cold. He told me that the concrete plant would not open on Saturday. We were the only job scheduled and they wouldn't open for just one job. Here are some photos of the walls once the forms were taken off.




This did not all go with out any draw backs though. Since we had the rain over the weekend we have been having an issue with the heavy trucks sinking in the new driveway. The stone that we had put down is pretty much nonexistent at this point. I think this is pretty typical though. The builder is trying to wait until all of the concrete is poured before dumping anymore stone on the drive. Here is what the new drive looks like now.

Basement wall forms set up

Things seem to be moving right along. Since the last post the basement crew got all of the forms set up. This was pretty neat. The forms consist of a bunch of large metal plates that are held together with metal pins. This allows them to pour and hold the concrete in place until it dries. It is kind of hard to visualize what the house is going to look like at this point. Here is a photo of the forms set up.

Perimeter Drain's In

Since the last post the basement crew has been hard at work. They got the footers poured on Tuesday, and the perimeter drain installed yesterday. Today I am hoping that they have gotten the forms set up to pour the basement walls.

The builder stopped by today and showed me where the electric box and meter would be installed in the house. Also we have a form from our electric utility that we have to sign and have notarized giving them 5 feet on either side of the drive. That we if there is a problem they can get a truck back to repair it without liability of damaging our property.

The builder also said they were hoping to get the basement walls poured tomorrow. If that happens then the concrete crew will be able to pour the basement floor and garage slab in the middle of next week. Also we had gravel poured over the perimeter drain yesterday. That has to be inspected to make sure the proper amount was used. We are supposed to get some colder weather at the beginning of the week. So he wants to give the concrete 4-5 days to cure before backfilling against it.

Our builder is going to be on vacation the first week in April and so this timing should work out about right. When he gets back they should be ready to start framing the house. He said the only thing he thinks he will need to get done while he is gone is maybe have the well drilled. He was going to contact the well people.

Basement is dug

On Saturday last week the basement people had a couple of guys out to dig the basement. This was pretty exciting since it was kind of the official ground breaking on the house. It looked like they pretty well had it done by the afternoon. Here they are digging the basement.



Yesterday my contractor stopped by to let me know what was going on and ask a couple of questions. He said that he was hoping that the basement crew would have the footers and basement poured by the end of the week. Also, hoping the concrete crew would get the garage slab poured this week or early next week. He said once these were complete the framing crew could get started.

He wanted to check to see if since half of the basement was going to be exposed if we wanted to add a 4x4 window in the basement. I asked to see what additional cost that would be, he said between $400.00 and $450.00. I think we are going to go ahead and do that. So far we are about 3 days into the ground breaking and $600.00 over budget. In my mind I will have to find a way to save $600.00 now. I would like to see how close to on budget we can get this house built for.

We now have a Driveway

Things really seem to be moving compared to what has been going on the last couple of weeks. Yesterday they came and excavated our drive and put down the large stones. So we now have a drive going back to where our house will be built.





This afternoon we are closing on the construction loan at the title company. Finally. It will be a relief to have that behind us. The builder came by this morning to look at the windows that we wanted. I gave him the style and the color and he was going to get them ordered. He also has gotten the building permit and had me make a copy of that to give to the bank.

Just got a call from the window people we had solid steel door picked out for the basement he wanted to know if we wanted to upgrade to a single glass door. It would cost an additional $150.00 I went ahead and did it. While I had him on the phone I asked about the window style that we have picked out. We are having grilles put in the upper half of the double hung windows and were wanting to have them at a 40/60 division rather than 50/50. He called back and said it would cost an additional $1,300.00 to $1,800.00 to make that change. I have a feeling we will be going with the standard 50/50, but I will check it over w/ my wife and get back with the window guy.

Got a closing date

Last couple of weeks have been pretty uneventful. More of the typical runaround and straightening out things that were incorrect in the first place. We had finally got the permit from the health department. It was held up by the planning and building department, something about an incorrect address. All I know is it took 2 days to get taken care of. I sent the permit to the bank and thought that was the last thing we needed to get closed.

Got a call from the bank, they needed a letter stating why my wife's income was lower last year, copy of last paycheck, and copy of current teaching contract. We had already discussed that she was on maternity leave for a portion of last year and I had given them a copies of the last 4 paycheck stubs when we started this process, but if this will get it done then that is pretty minor.

I got my wife's information to the bank and low and behold now they need a shared drive maintenance agreement that everyone that lives along the drive sign. I typed this up and had my mother-in-law, father-in-law, brother-in-law, and sister-in-law sign it. I have sent this to them and hope that it is the last thing they need.

From the builder, he says he is getting the subcontractors lined up and getting ready to have the drive cut in. The drive should get cut in next week. He also called yesterday and was talking to the window people and wanted to know what color we wanted. He wanted to order the windows. I told we would have together this weekend and finalize the window styles and colors.

The bank called this morning and we finally have a closing date. We will be closing this Tuesday at 4:00. We will be paying my in-laws for our 5 acre lot and our closing costs. Not sure what the closing costs are at this point. The money for our land will be considered part of our down payment on our construction loan. We will putting 15% down on the construction loan and then bumping it to 20% on the final closing on the house to avoid mortgage insurance.