Week 3 - Day 5

End of week 3 and we have indoor plumbing! Our shower, and tubs are also completely installed! Most of the plumbing is plastic, with copper only on the ends where the shower connects. A few pictures are attached, showing the tub in the kids bathroom and washer dryer plumbing

Week 3, Day 3 - Roof!

Wednesday we have a roof (post is a bit late)! It was all put up in one day and now finally it really feels like a house. We can "see" each room and its starting to feel real! Pictures show the front view (it actually looks like a house!), Our master bedroom, view from our bedroom, and the top view of the garage.

2nd story!

In one day the floor and the walls of the second story are up! 2 weeks and 1 day after signing papers we have the entire "structure" of the house in place. Still no roof, but maybe tomorrow? We are excited the walls are all in place as my dad is visiting this weekend and we can show him what the house will look like! We also signed the first round of papers with the bank for closing the deal, we should find out our exact move in date in about a week! We will be in very soon! Enjoy the pictures! (front, master bed, top of stairs, and back!)

First Floor Framed!

The entire first floor, inside and out, has been framed! I have a clear office as you come in the front door to the left. Straight ahead is the great room - living, dinning, and kitchen! Pictures include outside views (front and back), my office (with the bay window), and kitchen (do you see the pantry in the corner!), and view from top of stairs (no second floor yet!) Hoping the second floor gets done soon!

Major Progress in one day!

Week 2, Day 3: We seem to be on the exciting part of the build as things are moving fast and it appears they will keep moving fast over the next few days! Today the windows arrived, the floor was built, the first story walls were built (with windows in them!) Most of the walls were not put in place yet, they are laying down where they will probably be put up tomorrow. The front walls are up as you can see in the picture. It is starting to look like a real house! Stay tuned, more should be coming real soon!

Lumber Arrives, Pipes to the street in!

After a few days of nothing happening at the house (something about wanting to make sure the cement foundation is solid before moving on...) Today we drove by to see a dramatic change! Pipes had been run from the street to the house, the dirt was pushed back around the foundation, and lumber had been delivered to the site! Tomorrow it looks like we will have some walls going up! Very excited to see it then! For now, enjoy the pics of the foundation!

Foundation!

Day 4 of week 1 and we have a foundation! Structure was built and cement poured all in one day! They are moving fast, can't wait to see how quickly we can move in!

Excavation Done!

Technically its Day 4, but there was a weekend in there so this would be Business Day 2. On Monday there were already orange steaks in the ground marking the outline of our house! Tuesday we drove by and were surprised to see they already had dug out the hole to lay a foundation in! Moving very fast! Could we have foundation laid by the end of the week? Stay tuned!

Day 0 Picture

Here is our "House" the day we signed papers... I think we cut a bit of the right side and have some of the neighbors property on the left... hard to tell when its just land... but you get the idea.

Signed Papers!

Today we signed the papers on our home. Our 2 years of renting and working to pay off debt have finally paid off (Thanks Dave Ramsey)! We have paid off over $40,000 in debt working extra jobs and cutting the budget every way possible in order to get back to a position where we can buy a house! We decided we wanted to build a house so we could get exactly what we wanted. We ended up working with four different builders before we committed to the winner.

1. HiLine Homes - Our first builder we checked out, almost went with them too. They had great floor plans, great customer service, great prices... the only catch was we needed a 15% down-payment in addition to closing costs! That would come to about $35000. We didn't have that, and saving it would have taken us into next summer before we could move in! (over a year)
2. Adair Homes - Great floor plans, average prices, but very slow on responding to our questions, and even after many request, not really willing to give out prices until we were 100% committed to the house, lot, and everything. We weren't to comfortable with that.
3. Hayden Homes - Great financing options here! Only required about 3% down, much better than the 15 from HiLine! We even found two floor plans that looked really nice. But when we walked through a model home we found the kitchen to be very small, in fact, many of the rooms were much smaller than the competitors for the same price
4. AHO Homes - We originally found a one-store plan that we loved, but when we saw the model we decided against it. But the surprise was falling in love with a 2-story home! 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bath, and a bonus room (and a kitchen many women, including my wife, would kill for!) We were sold on it! And with zero down financing (due to equity in the home once it is built!) we decided to apply for the loan!

So we contacted a bank that AHO homes suggested. We filled out th application on Monday and were told we would have an answer by Thursday. On Thursday we were told we would have an answer by Friday at the latest. Monday was a holiday and the bank was closed. Tuesday we still hadn't heard anything. Sometimes I think it would have been better for him to say 2 weeks and have an answer in 9 days rather than say 3 days and have an answer in 9 days. Either way, on Wednesday we received word that our loan had been approved! We were getting a house!

Click here for floorplan! (we are getting the optional kitchen with island!)

Two days later we met with AHO homes and signed the paper work. They estimate it will take about 10 weeks to build! I will try and keep this blog updated with pictures as the house is built! We are told our foundation may be laid with-in a week!