Raise the roof!

Framing is progressing and as of tonight all the interior framing on the second floor is completed.  The main thing left is the exterior framing and of course the roof. 

I'm so excited about a recommendation that Henry (the guy in charge of framing) recommended.  It's hard to explain, but he recommended a change in the roof line that had bugged me from day one.  I was so excited to hear what they suggested that I wanted to hug him, but I refrained.  We are going to make a few other changes to the house plans, but they are minor.  We will need to decide if we want the "open concept" living/kitchen/dining spaces or a bit more closed off.  I'm thinking something in the middle will work best. 

We had our first inspection from Regions this week and according to them are about 19% finished.  A few more percentage points to go and we will actually be allowed to start using Regions money and thus begin the draw process.  Hopefully that will go smoothly, but of course only time will tell. 

If you are following the blog and on facebook, you've probably already seen these pictures, but these are for those not on (like Gigi) ;-)


The front of the house of course.  At some point that power pole will be gone, when the Windstream people can figure out who is in charge of moving the lines to the other poles set up.

Stairs leading up to the second floor.  There aren't any stairs from the basement to the main level, so we have been walking the plank (literally a 2x12) to get into the main level. 

This is looking at the bonus room on the second floor.  We are actually standing in Nicholas' future bedroom. 

Nicholas cheesing for the camera in his bedroom.  The entire time he is there with us, I am incredibly nervous and will be happy when everything is closed in. 

Looking like a house now

After a three week delay, framing began this week on Tuesday.  As of this evening, they have done the majority of the basement and most of the exterior framing for the main level.  We did have a few issues because we decided to make some changes to the basement layout, but unfortunately those changes didn't make it to the framing crew and they went off the original house plans.  Luckily there isn't anything major, but just a few small wall and window changes here and there. 

We still don't have temporary power set up from the APCO, which is very frustrating, but apparently it is in cue to get set up.  It seems like the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing there.  I'm just glad the builder is able to use generators for the power tools working on the framing. 

Tonight we both walked in the basement and (as you can see below) Gabe walked on the main floor as well.  It's so nice to have walls that make the rooms actually feel like rooms. 

Gabe was standing in our future living room and is looking towards the front of the house.  That big hole in the floor is for the basement steps.  

Looking at the back of the house.  On the main floor the lighter areas are where future windows and doors are located. 

 This is the front of the house. 

After several weeks of nothing we are EXTREMELY happy to see the progress on the framing.  This week the crews have started their days very early and don't stop until it's dark (usually 7pm or so).  Note to anyone who plans on building, keep in mind that changes to your plans can wreak havok - just expect the unexpected and (try to) go with the flow.  I'm lucky that Gabe keeps me grounded and calm.   

Screeching Halt

I'm sad to report that there is nothing to report.  Two weeks ago Monday they poured the slab and were planning on starting the framing this past Monday.  Well, thanks to the power company, there is absolutely no work being done.  We need a power pole to be moved as it sits directly in front of the house now and they won't set up the temporary power until the poles are moved.  We are unsure as to when they will get to us on their list, but they did cash our check to move the poles.  Praying for patience...

Walls are up

Over the past two weeks a lot has changed. It's amazing and exciting to see how quickly things are progressing. The debate remains whether or not the house will be finished by Christmas.  Just yesterday, they poured our basement walls and today they took the forms down.  They also started to run water lines to the house today. 

This is the retaining wall that will run along the back of the house

 This is the front of the house.  The doorway is to our "safe room" should we ever need it.  I will definitely feel safe in that fortress.

The west side of the house.  The level above where I'm standing will be our glorious walk in pantry (Oh happy day!!) You can also get an idea of how tall the walls actually are.  

The East side and part of the back of the house will be daylight (hence the retaining wall), so no poured walls there.  We have decided on a brick color - Henry Brick Ole Cahaba.  We were able to drive around a few weeks ago and see the color in person, which helps a ton compared to just trying to pick one online.  One decision down, about a million to go. 

This past weekend we were in Mobile visiting family that we haven't seen in a long time.  We had a great time.  My favorite part of the past few weeks has been Nicholas' improvement in potty training.  He has had very few accidents at all, so we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.   

Footings - AKA a maze for Nicholas

The footings were dug on Monday and finished up today, so of course we had to check this out.  Nicholas loved running around in that area as he thought it was a maze made just for him.  Several trees that needed to come down were knocked down and we are moving right along.  As I'm writing this post, concrete is being poured into the footings, so Nicholas will have to find something else to play with.

Tractor #2 for Nicholas to be in awe of

Which way will he go next?

Daddy standing on top of the huge dirt mound

I was so excited to see the quick progress that I wanted to do dirt angels in our good for building chert rock.  It's a good thing the property is right down the road as I have a feeling we will be back and forth much more than normal. 

We have a hole in the ground!

All morning today, an excavator worked on digging our foundation.  When all was said and done, the deepest part is right at 6 feet deep.  We ended up having to reverse our floor plans because it turns out the land slopes down towards the East, so we need the garage to be on the West side of the house.  This really didn't matter to us and may actually work out better this way.  We are beyond excited to see work being done.  We have also had record breaking heat and a bit of a drought.  Obviously dry weather is good for building, but I hope we do get a little bit of rain soon as all the plants and trees are looking really rough.

Nicholas in awe of the BIG tractor!

Facing East - Lots of dirt, which was rather dusty due to the heat. 

Facing North - this will be the front of the house

On a side note, Nicholas is as funny and quirky as ever.  Some of my favorite lines/quirks from the past few months are:

• Never!  - This sounds bad, but you can't get mad the way he says it.  His voice gets real deep and we know he is just teasing when he says it. 
• That's preposterous!  - Not exactly sure where this came from, but busted out laughing the first time he said it. 
• He has a hard time saying his "R's" and his "V's" sound like "B's"
• Whenever he eats a PB&J sandwich, he always pulls it apart and eats it.  He doesn't do this with any other sandwich and it usually results in food all over his face
• He was playing with a pool toy and before I realized it he had chewed threw part of it and proceeded to blame it on the dog, who at the time was outside... 

He loves running around and dancing.  I tend to think he is going to be a track star, while daddy equates this to him being an all-star runningback.  We recently have been swimming with his buddies Colin and Evan, and he LOVES the pool.  He would stay in all day if he could. 

At this point Nicholas still takes good naps.  He may resist at first but will usually sleep 2-3 hours most days.  Recently, he has been getting out of bed after we put him down at night.  He tiptoes out his room and then turns on all the lights in the nearby rooms.  He is being stubburn about this, but I'm assuming as with all things this too shall pass before long.  As far as the potty training saga goes, he will use the potty but never initiates it himself and still won't go #2.  I decided to take a week off and devote the entire time to potty training.  I don't know if this will be effective, but this is my last ditch effort to break him of the diaper habit.     

Let the building process begin!

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!