Signed, Sealed, and.......

It's been a few weeks since the last post. Lots of small developments going on.

We signed our contract with Wayne Homes to be our builder. Before doing so we went through our choices of options with our rep Tory and made a few changes. We decided that we liked the stone fireplace in the family room, and would eliminate the French doors we had planned to have there. There's not really adequate room for both without looking odd. We were very excited to have a third garage bay for lawn equipment (and man toys) as part of their Summer Sizzle promotion. Anyway, we walked out of the office with a big book which tells us what to do and when to do it and what to expect in the process. Being a geek, I scanned all the pages, created a PDF, and now we have the book on our iPads. Very handy.

Rounding up bids for all the infrastructure needed has been a challenge. You definitely have to take the initiative and keep calling people if you want results. I am on my third well driller - hopefully we'll meet this week. The first guy I called won't return calls and the second never showed when promised and never called. I've made progress in talking to the gas company and it looks like we'll be able to get service from the gas wells already on the property; we'll just need to pay for the hookup and the line to the house. I already have things lined up for the excavation, septic and site prep. And then there's the electric....

I called the power company to see why I haven't heard anything from my inquiry about a month ago. The guy said that the info was incomplete, and that I was on the "slow track" for getting things done. To get on the "fast track" I had to make a couple trips out to the pole to find a number on a little metal medallion. I was then informed that I couldn't receive a site visit until my prospective lot was "staked out" so the field man could see where we wanted service. I told the phone guy that I lived on an 87 acre farm and the field guy would have a zero chance of driving by and seeing the lot without my help. That didn't help...

The next day I staked out my lot as I had promised with bright orange plastic stakes. After 2 weeks I called the power company, gave them my order number, and was given the name and number of an engineer who was responsible for my area. I left a message for him. I'm not sure why it took 2 weeks for them just to give me the number of the guy who could actually do something. Anyway, fate (or the hand of God) intervened and I got a call later that day from the field guy who was in the area on an emergency and had about 15 minutes to stop by and talk with me. He was completely the antithesis of the rest of the company - he was helpful and cared. He gave me a ballpark estimate of what it would cost to get service to the house - an estimated 1100 foot distance. It's a lot more than I was expecting, and it doesn't make much difference whether you go underground or use poles. We'll definitely opt for the underground option since we have a lot of trees which could fall on above ground lines.

We went to another open house - this one we were keenly interested in since it was the same model of home (Montgomery) that we are building. After a 2 hour drive to the hills of West Virginia - and some head scratching - we found the place. It was very helpful to stand in the various rooms and get a better idea of the size and how our furniture might fit. After looking at the great room we resolved what to do with the TV (mount above the half-height fireplace). We also got some great ideas about using pocket doors in the Master bath and closet. There were some other small tweaks that we liked as well - definitely worth the trip and exciting!

Lastly, we talked to the Wayne Homes people and scheduled our "colors" meeting. This is where we make all of the detailed decisions about colors, door handles, carpeting, floors, etc. Once this is done they will create some blueprints and two weeks later we will have our Lot Meeting. At this meeting they visit the site, finalize the placement and orientation of the house according to the slope of the land, where you want the septic and the well to be, etc. You then go back to the office and do some more final planning. This meeting is basically an all day affair.

As you can see, the details to take care of seem endless. We keep reminding ourselves that it will all be worth it when we are sitting in our beautiful new home in the Spring.

Until next time...

Wayne Homes Open House

The Open House...

We've been keeping our eye on upcoming open houses listed on the Wayne Homes website and had the chance to attend one this weekend in Eighty Four, PA. We had a nice 90 minute ride on a Sunday afternoon to get there. It's a great idea to show a home that's still under construction to get a better idea of what goes into a house. The flooring had not been installed yet, so there was no danger of messing up carpeting.

We found the visit very helpful even though the model wasn't the one we were interested in. We got a good look at the basement and the difference the glass bricks make in brightening things a bit. We were also able to get an idea of some dimensions for rooms. The brick fireplace in the great room was very impressive. We liked what we saw in terms of workmanship and looks. The house wasn't representative of an "average" house, though. The owners had opted for a ton of upgrades and changes - making the home much more expensive than the original base price. That seems to be a temptation when dealing with a builder who will let you add all kinds of custom touches.

More Developments

Well, we heard back from two lenders this week and and got pre-approved! We were struggling with how long to wait before moving forward, but decided we'd start the process now to give time for our infrastructure (septic, road, electric, gas and water well) to be squared away. Another factor in the decision was the impending expiration of the special incentive offers Wayne Homes had going on. They offered you a choice of one of four different upgrades at no cost if you meet a threshold of upgrades that you're paying for already. We had our eye on a third garage bay - we thought this would be great for lawn equipment, future ATV, etc, without needing a storage shed. We contacted Tory and, after checking, she said we could still lock in the incentive although not actually signing until a couple days past the deadline. Great news!

Now that we are getting ready to sign with Wayne Homes and start the construction loan process, it's time to get busy! The construction loan requires written contracts with estimates from the contractors we get for all the infrastructure.

More on those gory details next time....