Woohoo!! We have learned the virtue of patience already with the building process and we haven't even broken ground yet. Here is an overview of the process it took to get where we are today...
Right after we got engaged, we came up with a 5 year plan to save as much as we possibly could in order to build our dream house. Over the years I spent MANY hours looking at house plans and designing one that works for us.
October - I finally got the plan to a state that I really liked and met with a few designers to make it official. We decided to go with Jennie Jones and she ended up making a few tweaks (love the screen porch she added off the master) to what I gave her, but kept the majority as is.
January - The official house plans were finalized. We also meet up with Jeff and Ginger Treglown. Ginger is also a Regions employee (which is how we were referred to them) and Jeff owns his own construction company. Thank goodness because we were HIGHLY impressed with them. Not only does he build gorgeous custom homes (we were in awe of their home the first time we met up), but he was reasonably priced and to top it off a good Christian who also builds homes on mission trips. We knew right away that we felt comfortable with them.
February - This is when we were waiting to hear back on bids for the construction of the home. We actually contacted three or four different vendors and was disappointed at the lack of response from all but Jeff. We thought contractors would be jumping at the chance and quick to respond, but that shows how much I know. During this time we also went through the process of contacting various banks in the area regarding construction loans. Way back when, we figured we would owner build and act as general contractor as it is an obvious way to save some money. Well it turns out that since the housing bust a few years ago, NO banks are willing to do owner builder construction loans. Not only that, but the whole construction loan product is VERY confusing and can vary widely depending on what bank you talk to. We also had the land surveyed and then deeded over to us.
March - After receiving our bid back from Jeff and going over our different options (how much to finish/what types of finishes, etc), we signed a contract with him. At this point we had narrowed down our banks to BBVA and Regions as they were one of the few that had a "Construction-to-Perm" loan that only required one set of closing costs as opposed to two. We did the initial paperwork with both, but decided to go with Regions as they allowed us to lock in our permanent interest rate at the beginning and with elections coming in November who knows what might happen to rates. During this time we were able to get an address set up (keep in mind a "Moody" address).
April - this month was spent basically waiting. We had filed all of our paperwork needed for the construction loan and for builders risk insurance. We ran into a bit of a hiccup when there was a lack of comparables in the area based off our house plans and property. Luckily we knew this would probably be an issue and the appraisal came in not TOO much lower than our estimated cost to build. However, it did mean we would have to put even more than the 25% down payment that was required.
May - Finally everything was approved and we have a set closing date on the construction loan of May 9. When we arrived at the lawyers office, it was obvious that things were not as they should be. Long story short, Regions had not discovered until then that the property deeded to us was actually part of the collateral under Mimi and Pop's HELOC. More paperwork to release our section of the property was underway and took about a week to complete. May 17 we were able to actually close and sign our lives away document after document. Following that, Jeff started the process of getting our building permits. He was able to get the sewer, but not the actual building permit.
June - Our property seems to be in no-man's-land. There were no issues getting our Moody mailing address set up through St. Clair County. We were under the impression that our land was in an unincorporated part of St. Clair County, therefore not in Leeds or Moody. Well, it turned out that the property is considered to be in Leeds, which in turn caused delays getting the building permit. The Leeds commission told us that there would be delays and we would not be able to get a permit for various reasons:
- They would have to wait and present our "case" in front of the planning board meeting which only meets once a month
- The property had to be at least 3 acres as it is considered to be Agricultural property (even though cows haven't been on the property in YEARS) and our section was 2.86 - we were a measly 0.14 acres off COME ON! So we would need to get another survey done.
- Our other option is to request to be deannexed, which they estimated to take 3 months or more.
Overwhelmed by the thought of having at least a month or more delay, admittedly sent me to tears. My sweet husband calmed me down after a bit so we could figure out our best plan of action. We were VERY fortunate to discover the husband of a friend I play bunco with is actually on the Leeds planning board. So once we found that out, Gabe had a long conversation explaining the situation and discussing the fastest way for us to get this stinking permit. Brett did some digging and he said as long as we had the property show 3 acres, we could get the permit without any other delay. Since the property lines only had to be moved a few feet to get that extra .14 acres, that was very quick to get the survey updated.
Today we found out that Jeff has the building permit in hand. Hallelujah!! Jeff also met with the excavator at the property, so we are finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. I completely realize that this is just the beginning, but am thrilled to finally be where we are. I am going to attempt to document the building process here, so years later I can remind myself how all the effort and stress was so worth our dream house!
