Rain, Rain, Go Away!

We had some serious progress happening at the house as we have gone from two trees in an overgrown lot to a fully framed out house! after the basement was poured and the first and second floors framed there was a bit of a lull as it was raining every single day for pretty much a week. Karina and I just kept looking outside with a sad look on our faces knowing that everything was getting soaked.

Of course we ran straight to the internet and searched all topics on raining while building a house and guess what....it happens all the time lol! Duh! and trees spend their entire lives outside getting wet or snowed on and they still grow...who knew?!? The wood is treated so it would take a LOT of raining to get the wood rotting. Also the insulation they use ThermoPly Blue is meant to stand up to the rain.

On a different note, we did get answers about the fence and the broken light post that is right outside our house. they do plan to replace the planks (again) once our house is built. We hope that once there are more houses in the development and the people passing through realize they are cutting through yards that they will be less likely to take out the planks. Apparently, the light post is the responsibility of the city so we will definitely be reaching out to them about getting the light fixed.

First floor framed

Second floor framed

inside shots

Bay window

upstairs before the roof

Just look at how much has been done since our first post! They cleared out some of the trees and overgrown brush in the back and we were able to appreciate the size of the backyard a little more. The thing we liked about the lot (that completely had us ignoring the train) is that the backyard was a good size. We thought that we would have more of the communal fence to use but we saw that it actually only comes to about 6-7 planks (not a lot at all) so we will likely end up fencing the entire property ourselves. Always be prepared to spend more money, Homeownership, yay!

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)

Things to think about..in other words more ways to spend $$$

Neither of us have ever been homeowners or built anything so we are certainly out of the frying pan and into the fire on this one. There are things that you don't even think about that start to come to light from other people who have built, when you're just talking it out, or Pinterest. Some of the things that we realize that we will need are:

At the lot with our fur babies: Snoopy the Jack Russell and Lucy the Pug.

1. Washer 
2. Dryer
3. Refrigerator
4. Window treatments
5. Fence
6. Alarm system
7. New locks/keys
8. Lawnmower 

These are the things that we need immediately because they impact our immediate day to day life. We need clean clothes, we need to eat and we need to block out any peeping toms and to keep our dogs safe from the train. As we started adding up costs we realized that we will likely need an additional $8-10,000 depending on the cost of everything but mainly the fence. Who knew fences were so expensive?!?! (clue: we did NOT lol). We are definitely hoping to catch a holiday sale since we will likely be done around Nov-Dec.

Because our house is likely to be finished in the winter, we will likely not be able to have sod placed. If it can't be placed then they will put down hay to keep the mud from getting out of control. This is important for us since the dogs will be going out. The other thing that can be affected by our house being finished in the winter is the fact that we might not be able to dig for the fence to be put up. We want the fence for privacy as well as to help block out sound from the train (there will be an entirely different post to discuss the train noise attack plan). 

As we have been looking around on the internet, one of the things that has been repeated over and over is the need to replace the locks after the house is finished. This is important when you have contractors and subcontractors working and many of them have keys. Since you never know who has access to your home, the recommendation is to change the locks and get new keys. We are also looking into our options for home protection and we found some wireless options that seem to have fewer strings attached than the traditional options. One of the things that we received is an August bluetooth smart lock thanks to Karina's cousin/sister and her husband. I love technology (we are definitely getting a Nest thermometer) but I can totes see the wife struggling with this one. Maybe one day we will automate the whole house...

Here we are at the lot with the fam and our first house gift the August SmartLock