[started June 2011, finished January 2012] the house plan/bid has been the longest and most frustrating part of the process. Fortunately, at this point we have completed that stage, but I will give a little explanation for the process we went through.

After we purchased the land, we casually searched the internet for house plans that we liked. The most important part was finding an exterior that we liked, because the interior could be rearranged to what we wanted. We came across an exterior that we both liked and an interior that could be changed minimally to what we wanted. The requirements were:

• ranch style
• potential for bonus room above garage [we ended up taking this out of the final plans. we decided to finish the basement instead]
• at least 3 bedrooms on the main level
• master bedroom with bathroom and 2 walk in closets
• half bath for guests off of living area
• full bathroom for 2 bedrooms
• master bedroom separated from other 2 bedrooms
• mudroom
• walk in pantry
• open floor plan
• fireplace
• 3 car garage

The plan i found [familyhomeplans.com]:

My drawing for the interior:

*I also had a plan for the basement as well, the final image is very similar

The final plan (after several iterations):

[we plan on having the exterior be white as the inspiration image]

[main floor]

[basement]

So I said it was a difficult process, right? Well, we met with the architect that worked for one of the local lumber companies. we gave him all of the details and within about 2 weeks we met with him to go over the initial plans. Everything was pretty good, but there were a few things to change. However, about a week or so later we found out that the lumber company went out of business. just closed their doors. So.. how were we going to get in contact with the architect? After a few weeks, he called us and he told  us that he was going to continue to work on house plans from his home. Months went by and because we were not building soon, we were not a priority. Finally, in December, we received the revisions. We had a few small changes and in January they were complete. This was the start of another round of discouraging events…

[july 2010] The first step in the process was buying our land. We had always talked about building, but did not have any concrete plans or a timeline for building. I would periodically look online at land listings and one day I found a list for 13 acres in the part of town we wanted and on blacktop. Our biggest requirements for the area we wanted was school district and no gravel. The price was great, so we went out to drive by the property. It just so happened that the realtor was mowing around the for sale sign, so we stopped to ask him about it. We found out that the owners were selling 25 acres total and the 13 acres we were interested in only had only 60 feet of frontage (grandfathered in). The majority of the property sat behind another house. This was not ideal and we realized that if we bought the 3 acres next the 13, it would solve the issue. Of course the 3 acre price was almost as much as the 13 acres, so we had to consider if the total cost for the 16 acres was worth it. We decided that it would be hard to find 16 acres anywhere, especially that met our requirements, for that price. We submitted an offer and the sellers countered back and we accepted. This by far was the most smooth part of our entire process so far.

Although the interaction with the realtor and making an offer is very similar to buying a house, the loan part is much different. Not many banks offer land loans and the terms are different. Local banks and credit unions are a good place to start. Our loan was for 20 years, 5 year ARM, which was not a big deal since we were hoping to start building before the 5 years was up. 20% is required as a down payment, so this is also where it differs from a conventional mortgage. The down payment becomes part of your equity when you go to obtain the construction loan (as long as the land does not depreciate).

We purchased the land for $14k under the appraisal, so this helped give us additional equity when we obtained our construction loan.

dogs at the land

I’m creating this blog to keep track of the building process and keep my plans for the new house organized. The name of the blog comes from a favorite song of mine that came out around the time we were buying our land and working on our house plans

Miranda Lambert’s “The House That Built Me”

{my favorite part}

“Mama cut out pictures of houses for years.
From ‘Better Homes and Garden’ magazines.
Plans were drawn, concrete poured,
and nail by nail and board by board
Daddy gave life to mama’s dream.”

Welcome!