Building a new home

[David]

Now that I'm retired, my wife and I decided to build a new home. It will be just a tad under twice as big as we have now which will give us plenty of room. The property is on the water which will be beautiful and relaxing. I'll use this thread to post updates as it's built. Time line is that ground will be broke around late October or early November. Closing is slated for the end of next March.

The first photo is from our backyard from left to right. The stakes and wrap are the home next door which is in the process of also being built. They've already broken ground. The pond is 'there' but undeveloped so it will look different after it's been cleaned up and filled further. It's man-made and inter-connected to other man-made ponds and lakes in the area. It will be excited to see it take shape as our home is being built. In the distance you'll see conservation wetland just beyond the pond as well as further in the distance. We will have homes behind us but we'll only be able to see maybe four of them and they'll be, I'm estimating, about a quarter of a mile distance. Our property is located exactly in the middle of the pond from each side.



Panning to the right.



Still panning to the right.



And the far right of the area.



Front of the property.



Some of the wildlife in the area. I don't know what kind of bird this is but it looks like it stands 4-5 feet tall. This was right around the bend to the right of our property.



Another pond in the area with one of those tall birds.



This area has over 20 miles of hiking trails. I'm VERY excited about that!

More to follow...

[David]

My son in the distance on one of the trails in the area. This is also more along the lines of what the pond will look like behind our property.

[Mac66]

Exciting!!! Welcome to retirement

[David]

Exciting!!! Welcome to retirement

Enjoying every second of it!

We go to the design center Oct 26th which means they'll break ground towards the middle of November. Closing is scheduled for March 24th. Wife wants to expand the kitchen area and put in a butler's pantry so we'll try to schedule all of that the day after we close and them move in after it's completed.

We go out there a couple of times a week and have meet a couple of the neighbors who's homes are in the process of being built now. Very nice folks. We'll have around 31 homes on our street, five have started construction. I'm guessing we'll be around the 7th built.

[David]

Okay, bit of an update. We found out that the 'pond' in the back of our property isn't a pond, it's a mitigation overflow retention area. Translation, it's a swampy area that in the dry season is going to be a muck patch that gets overgrown more than in the photos in the OP. We found out Thursday evening by chance. Confirmed it on Friday and called our builder who say they were unaware of the situation. All of the site maps of lots show this area and two others exactly the same as all the other ponds in the area that are very nice looking and well maintained. As a result, we were not happy with this situation particularly since we paid a higher premium for the lot. We simply didn't want a swampy looking area in our backyard.

So after meeting with the builder this afternoon we are switching our location to the other side of the road, three lots down. This puts us right in the middle of a larger pond that is actually a maintained pond. Additionally, the lot is bigger so we gained an additional seven feet in depth and seven feet in width. There is wetland/trees on the other side of the pond and an area on the side with reeds and lower wetland. There will be some homes off to our right but at enough of a distance that we're okay with it. This lot will have our backyard facing south so we'll get some very nice sunsets.







Everything has to be re-permitted now so we're basically going to be starting from scratch. They are going to try to expedite the process but I'm expecting everything to be pushed back at least a month. I would be surprised if we break ground before January and maybe moving in around May or June. But we'll see.

[Bmyers]

At least you found out before you had a house setting right next to it.

[David]

Very true. Some of the other folks had homes well underway. Not sure what they're going to do? Fortunately, and blessedly, we hadn't even gone to the design center yet so our property was still vacant. Hadn't even been leveled or outlined yet. So it's just a matter of re-permitting to the new property which is all on their part and their dime.

The nice part is that there have been several price increases since we purchased. They are of course honoring our original price so we already have equity built up. Another blessing.

[David]

So we resigned the contract for the new property yesterday. It will be sent on up the chain from there to their corporate for final approval. As mentioned, they've had several price increases since we purchased and they honored our original price. Yesterday at the signing of the contract the price had increased $14K. As of today they've had another $10K increase so we already have $24K equity in the house and it's not even built yet.

Our original design center date was Oct 26. They're going to try to push and keep that date but I think it unlikely. I'm expecting sometime in November but we'll see. They shut down for two weeks in December for the Holidays. I suppose it's possible they'd get things started this year but I'm expecting that more than likely it will be January before they break ground. But we'll see, I could be wrong.

Redoing the contract did give us a chance to make a few structural changes so that worked out well. Also, the property is a bit wider and deeper and no extra charge so that is nice as well. My wife and I go out there 2-3 times a week and like to just stand on the property and watch the sun set. And it's a good time to meet some of the neighbors who are doing the same thing. The lot on our right has a home that is about halfway finished. Walls and roof are on and it's framed inside. The lot on our left was just sold so they will likely be going up right around the same time as ours so when we move in I would think that construction on both side to be done or just about done so that's a plus.

Best of all, we actually saved about $30K redoing the contract so that also was a big plus.

[David]

Well we got the new date for our design center meeting...it's not until mid February of next year! Very surprised that got pushed out four months from the original date. This means that ground won't be broke until March most likely. So I wouldn't expect to be in the new home before July.

[Bmyers]

Wow, why such a delay?