Thursday, September 09, 2010
Tales from a Crazy Woman
Okay, so I haven't gone insane yet, but I can easily see how the home-building process could drive a person whacko. We're still in the process of trying to get our house packed up, move stuff to my parents' house, etc., and although that is all consuming...the part that has been most frustrating has been trying to buy land. We first made an offer on a less-than-an-acre lake lot in Dogwood, but found out once the counter came back that we probably wouldn't be able to get a treatment plant/septic system and a house on the lot. Move on to Plan B...we looked at five acres in Dogwood and made an offer on it, but after talking with my dad and others, decided not to counter because of the expense of the dozer work that would be involved to get the land ready to build on. Plan C...found another piece of land and made an offer on part of it after we were told the owners would be willing to subdivide. However, we found out today that the owerns decided not to subdivide the land after all and would only sell the entire thing. So, we're now back to square one and will have to explore our remaining options. Quick question for all of you who built your home...tell me your top two best choices you made in designing/building and what two or three things would you do differently?
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3 comments:
Hmm. I know we wish we had looked at a number of builders/contractors. We loved Graham because he paid a lot of attention to detail and had a lot of his own ideas and took our ideas seriously. But at the same time we never looked at anyone else who might have gotten the job done quicker...but maybe not better. Look at houses that they have built (inside and out). The only reason we rushed him was bc we were living with our inlaws. We made a lot of quick decisions simply because we were in a rush and I was due any day with mc...but she came anyway and everything was still ok in the end/ looking back.
#2. Generator. Best thing we bought. Have it connected into your power so when the power goes off it only has a 2 second delay before the generator kicks on. It is worth EVERY penny. The big kahuna--one that runs the entire house--not just the ac. After hurricane Katrina, we said we would never go without power again. Now the entire neighborhood uses our fridge when the power goes out.
#3. don't get Viking appliances. They aren't all they are cracked up to be. And fixing them is a nightmare. We have 2 freezers so in case one goes out we still have a back up and don't lose anything.
#4. I'm glad we paid for a lot of stuff up front. (land lot, appliances, furniture, decorating, light fixtures) that way the house note is lower in the end.
#5. eplans.com. We found exactly what we wanted through that website. Had the plans before our builder could even ask for them. Awesome.
Good luck!!!
Sorry for all the comments! P.S.
Decide on what's important to you and where you want to splurge first (for us it was a movie room and kicking shower/bathroom) but we had to remind ourselves when it came to the other rooms that we had to give. We had to go for the not so expensive light fixture if we REALLY wanted built in stereo speakers throughout the house. Ya know?
And once you decide what you want, don't change your mind! Or at least don't give in. If you make a mistake, well, it's a learning process!
Thanks for all the good info, Carrie!
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