Home Is Where the Heart Is or something....

We took the plunge….we decided to build a house. 

So, here’s the basics of how this will work.  We bought a lot using a construction loan.  Adair Homes is going to build our home. Then we will pay Adair for our home with our mortgage.  Adair works with you to build your home.  We have to do some of the work – like excavation and painting.  We picked out the floor plan first.  Then, we decided on which options we would like to pay extra for.  Yeah, you have to pay for a garbage disposal…  We had a few musts - central air, the dark stain on the kitchen cabinets, Brandon's Christmas light plugs in the eves.  We also got to pick out things that were not extra cost like the cabinet color(within their choices, which we didn't like and upgraded) and door style, cabinet knobs, molding, shingles, and flooring.  This helped us with the building process.  We didn’t have to search thousands of samples to decide something like shingles – we had 3 choices we didn’t have to pay extra for(or upgrade, as Adair likes to say).  Yes, this won’t have all the features of our dream home, but this home will still be better than buying what was available in Newport.  It will be new and ready to move in.  

We did have a little problem with the property:  We wanted the house as far north on our lot as possible.  We found out there was a drainage easement that made us build 25" from the north property line.  Then, we had to build 15" from the front property line, which was more like 25" due to the 10" city easement for sidewalk and 'stuff', and 10" from the back property line.  This left our house fitting within 6/10 of an inch.  Tight fit.  We did get the drain pipe installed, so we don't have to worry about anyone building behind us and wanting the pipe installed later. 

Here is the lot as we purchased it. (Looking northeast.  The area to the left is higher than the rest of the lot.  Our neighbors in back are up higher, so hopefully they won't 'look down upon us'.  That's funny cuz he's a minister)

This is during excavation…. (northeast corner/east side of yard)

 Here is the lot after excavation (looking east)……  The area on the left will be the garden area.  The wall in the 'back' is our backyard area.

Nice retaining wall!

So we have a retaining wall in the back, and one started along the north side.  The lot is such that we have a higher section of land on the north side of the property.  We decided to keep it higher so we can plant a garden and still have the sun hit it (it's high so the sun can sneak over the house).  We won't get that wall completed for a while.  They need to use of the left over dirt to fill in a section and make the garden area a little larger.  Because our house fits within 6/10 of an inch, we will not have much of a backyard.  We plan on using the area 'above' as the backyard.  We also will have a nice front yard, which Brandon calls his area to throw the ball around.  I wish the lot was larger, Brandon doesn't want a yard, and so we went with what was available.  It was the largest in the subdivision, if you think a 10th of an acre is large.  We do have plenty of beach around if we need a place to play!

We should have a foundation soon.  Then it will be about 3 months until the house is done – another good reason to build with Adair.  They have this to a system so it takes less time to build.  There is an older couple building right now.  They have a smaller house, but they have all the walls up, and they started about a month ago.  We are hoping we get the house done before we go crazy in our more than ghetto apartment.  No, really.  This place is disgusting.  We won't show picture cuz we don't want to remember it....