First of many headaches

Well we have settled on a ranch garden-level. (we had to concede the walk-out basement) The main level is everything we ever wanted, it went just as planned and even better.

However! The backyard deck/patio are proving to be the sleeping monsters. The lower level is not totally important at this point in time because we probably won't finish it right off the bat. We can have a few years to get that finished. But the patio is turning into a nightmare.

Architect and surveyor said, "no problem" on getting a deck that goes into a patio. Turns out it is a problem. Now we've had to include a landscaper as well.

Long story short... when building a semi-custom... make sure you fully understand the capabilities and limits of your lot and land. Everything is possible, for a price. $$$

Costs: People we've hired at this point & paid:

Godden & Suddik Architects- designed interior and exterior of house. Came up with elevations, and design. Working currently on finalizing plans and starting on construction plans so we can submit for approval and start the bidding process. Paid- original deposit, rest of money due next month $$

Long, Gardine & Lange Land Surveyors- did land survey with grades, drainage, measurements and city/county easements and setback measurements. Paid- flat fee, he is helping a lot!

A.G. Wassenaar Soil Engineers- took a 30' soil sample and will do a soil report (this takes about 1 month to prepare from date of drilling) *note* The engineer will need the soil report to stamp off structural plans. Paid- flat fee

Next Steps: Hire a structural engineer to review architect plans and stamp/sign off.

We chose to go with Dossey & Suddik Structural Engineers and the charge seems to be about $1.10/sq foot as a flat fee. Once they sign off (and we pay them), we can get going!

The LOT!

Here are photos of the lot that we purchased

Highlights:
- Corner lot
- Backs to a large city park
- Clean and well developed neighborhood
- Underneath final approach for local airport
- 180 views of Colorado front range

This is the lot from the corner by the other neighbor.

This is the back of the lot, backs to a green park and to a playground

to the west. Lot is gently sloping, so a walkout will work.







This is what you see right above you, BUT the planes are almost
silent since they are getting ready to land, we're not on the take-off side! It's
really neat. Everything from big jets to show/antique planes fly over.


We can't wait to sit on our patio with friends and family
and watch the summer sunsets, it is just amazing.


Looking back on purchasing the lot... we are so thankful we paid a realtor $500 to do the paperwork. It was major peace of mind, especially buying from an owner as opposed to an agency. The title company didn't charge as much either since we had a realtor, which was very nice.


We had already made sure we could get a construction loan (lending market is tough now, so BE SURE!) Also- the guy we bought it from already had a lot of information, like site surveys, soil samples, etc. done, so we used those for meeting with architects.


Next step: look into construction loans, architects, site surveys, soil samples. Start reading
How to Build a Custom Home for Dummies and be your own General Contractor ha ha.

Costs: contract purchase price, down payment of 20%, initial deposit, $400 application fee, county taxes, $500 to realtor

Who would've thought Ryangie would be renting!?

We sold our house and are renting now, to save up some money and hopefully make our stress load less! We found a cute place in old towne Arvada for a good deal. It's pretty new and CLEAN! So many rentals were just dives. Yuck. Here's our little duplex in Arvada-

All I do is keep the place clean- no repairs, no lawn mowing, not even changing lightbulbs! Ryan and I could start to love renting! And the place is small enough (1600 sq ft) that it's easy to not clutter it up, most of our things stayed packed up- and it's easy to clean! A basement keeps our stuff neatly hidden away and there is a lovely yard for Tellie to play... her first snow storm:

We have our project board up in the office, and we're ready to start our journey of building our own custom home! Here we go...

So between blogging our build and taking tons of pictures, you should be able to get a good idea of the process!

Making the decision to move...

Well Ryan and I made a big decision recently. It's still in the works, but we are putting an offer in on land in Westminster. We will eventually build a home... but that is a ways down the road. So we have to sell our home. The bathrooms and the rest of the house is updated (by us) but the kitchen was left. So we decided to remodel- worked harder than either of us ever have, but we got it done in about 2 weeks and for just under $1000. Pretty sweet deal and about a bucket of sweat (hopefully equity!) Enjoy the pics:

This is after Ryan spent an ENTIRE day ripping out the tile floor. This was probably the hardest job he's had on this house... it beats ripping out bushes from the front yard- easily!



You can see why we had to make new cabinet doors... yikes!



This is our "dining room" with a fridge/oven.
We still are without a sink... gotta love kitchen remodels.



Me installing the bamboo floor

We painted the frames... but had to cover everything for overspray- pretty messy.

Soon to come... the results!

Staying Young

Happy Birthday Rob!

We all (family and friends) went to Old Chicago and celebrated. Had pizza, salad, appetizers, cake and drinks... we left VERY stuffed!

You know, it's just so fun to let go and have fun everyonce in a while. Normally you'd ask me to suck on a lemon and I would cringe because it rotts away your teeth... don't think I didn't use to do it all the time when I was a kid! BUT it's so fun to goof around with my neices and nephews and just have fun. Gotta love staying young. I can only hope Ryan and I will always do this when we have kids, we sure do it a lot with Angie's kids!