It has begun!

After our meeting with Eric and discussion of the timeline we were just waiting for the digging to begin at our lot. It was planned for Monday but there was some raining so instead they dug on Wed July 20th. After digging the hole the plan was to pour the footers so that the concrete could dry and then in the coming week they can place the basement walls. We went by the dig almost everyday lol mostly because we are very excited but also so that we can take pictures of each step. Karina is able to go during the day and on one of the trips she actually met the city inspector Tyrone. Everyone has been nice to her as she has stopped by the site and they've reassured her that they will do a good job.

 Hole with the footers in place

8 foot Basement walls hanging out at the site.

One thing that came out of our meeting with the construction manager was another good piece of advice for you guys out there thinking of going the new build route with a big builder. We knew that Fischer Homes buys foreclosed properties or projects that were planned but no longer have the funding. However, what we didn't ask specifically was if they bought the lots and were JUST the builders or if they were taking over the entire project to do the building and also becoming the developer.  When we went to our meeting we asked Eric about the fence and light and he was the one that brought up the builder vs developer issue, we had not heard anything about this previously and honestly didn't know to ask such a question. We were told that there was no HOA planned for now but that there could be one in the future. Now I'm not saying Fischer was withholding information but I am saying that they were not forthcoming with this information when they told us about the lots and that they had acquired them. This is important in our case because there is a fence between the elementary school and the cul-de-sac where the houses are and it has multiple slats missing. To be fair, Fischer did repair parts of the fence but people who are looking for a shortcut around the train tracks remove them to pass through and have done the same with the repaired slats. There is also a light in front of our house that has some graffiti on it and the concrete pillar is broken. Since Fischer is not the developer then technically they are not responsible for repairing the fence or the pillar. They are able to just build the houses and go. We are waiting on an answer though about if they are going to repair the light and information about who actually owns the fence since we are planning to use a side of the fence when we do a perimeter fence around our house. We are hoping that once the houses are there people would be less likely to remove slats from the fence, especially the ones that lead them into our backyard.

In this picture you can see the fence. The old fence is the darker unpainted wood while the new slats that Fischer put in are the unpainted oak colored slats. It runs along the entire border between the school and houses.


Advice!
-Ask who is the builder and who is the developer
-Ask who will maintain any shared amenities (fence, street lights)

And we're off!!!!

So a few things have happened since the last post. We were waiting for our loan to go through so that we could prove that we had funding for the house. This had to happen before things could start to move. The builders have to have proof that we can pay for the house before they start building so that they're not on the hook for the house when it's all said and done. We close once the house is finished which we learned this week should be before Thanksgiving (fingers crossed!).

This week we met our construction manager Eric. He was friendly and we felt very comfortable leaving the most expensive thing we've ever bought in his hands. He went through the blue prints, the site plan, and the construction process with us. About 75% of it was OVER our heads LOL because we have no experience or knowledge base when it comes to construction. But he tried to explain it as simply as possible which we appreciated.

They were initially planning to start digging this past week but we had two big trees in the middle of our lot and they had to remove prior to getting started, which we were very sad about. After the digging they will place the footers, pour the walls, fill in the garage floor, frame, electrical, plumbing, dry wall, then the rest of the house.
We went by to check out the lot now that the trees are gone, snapped some pics that really show the depth of the lot. If you look closely at the pic, the two pink lines sprayed on the curb show where our property lines are and then they flare out and go all the way back to the tree line in front of the railroad and to the fence. We will have some grass to cut even after the house is on the lot.

Here is our lot without the trees :(

 Pile of wood that used to be our trees :(

This is what the lot used to look like!