Digiversary

This week is our Digaversary.

One year ago this week we were breaking ground. 

Read about breaking ground and basement digging here in Part 1 & Part 2 and part 3. 

It has been a bit of a whirlwind for us. We purchased the ground and started the dig 6 months later. Before that, we thought we would buy a nice little starter home...

We built our forever home over the course of this past year. I cannot say that it was easy. There were more than a couple of arguments between Adam and I. A few tears shed. So many nights we would lie in bed awake. Up worrying and stressing over money, budget, time, design plans, mistakes. You name it--we lost sleep over it.

Don’t forget about regular life too. I switched jobs. Adam worked a lot of extra hours. We traveled East to D.C. land to visit both of our siblings. We went to weddings out of state, out of town, and right here at home. We went on a family trip to Mexico, and a few weekends up north to visit the folks too.
All of those things had to be worked into only the busiest months of course, in between laying our hardwood floors, managing the build, moving.

Day before the dig.

We worked together as a team for the most part. Adam kept track of the budget, and playing the role of general contractor. He was the one meeting with the electrician or the HVAC installers each week and supervising the work. I concentrated on all the details; from trim and baseboard style, to paint colors, fixtures, and cabinets.

Don’t worry though, I didn’t have all the fun. I also had to be “the bad cop general contractor”.  

For example: Our tile guy…let’s just say screwed up. More than once. And guess who had to tell him to shove his last bill you know where because he “fixed” a mistake he made and then charged us $150….although it was still not fixed? 
Me. I had to tell him. And get yelled at, and hung up on. (You can see the level of professionalism we had)

Do we regret building our forever home before we are 30? No. We are glad we did it.
Would we do it again? Hell no.

People said to us “If you can make it through building a home together than you can make it through anything!” Well, they were right. It was tough. It was stressful. It was fun. It was exciting. It was scary. It drained our bank account…But we made it through.  

We made a good team for this project. And the result is our home, which we both love. Sure, there are things we wish we would have done differently. Should have put a closet here, maybe chosen a different color of this or that…and have so many other things we still need to do. 
Like grass. I’d like some grass.

But we are very happy and looking forward to our future together, right here, at home. 

Scout too.

Home Appraisal: The Results

Last week I explained why we were stressin' out about our appraisal---and some of the things we did to avoid the stress of a larger mortgage payment than necessary.

AND IT WORKED! Our home appraised for even more than we hoped it would! We were thrilled. No PMI with this mortgage payment! Now...hopefully the tax man sees it the other way around, hah.

Oops, I am recycling a photo.

We also locked our rate.
I remember when we started the homebuilding process we were hoping rates would stay around 4% until we finished. Well we were lucky---they dropped even lower than that over this past year! We locked in it at 3.5%.  Although they were a tad lower here and there, we still feel like we are getting a fabulous rate.

We sign the final paperwork later this week. It will feel really good to get this loan process out of the way.

And that is all I have to share today. I know this was a quick update for you---and I even took the easy road and recycled a photo/graphic. LAME. But we have lots more stuff to share soon, and even another DIY build coming up!! Stay tuned.


Pssst...
See our post about how a construction loan works!
Take a look at the rest of the house tour too!


P.S. Adam thanks you for his birthday wishes. We had a fun weekend celebrating!

FAQ: How does a construction loan work?

We've had a few friends and family members ask us questions about house building. The ones that come up the most are about the financial and lending part. I've compiled a list of FAQs to better explain construction loans. Because I was pretty clueless before I started this process too!

1. You haven’t closed on the house yet?

We have been paying interest-only each month on an open line of credit with the bank. As the line of credit gets larger, so does our payment. But unlike a mortgage payment, $0 is being applied to the principal. Construction loans are usually 6-9 months, sometimes longer depending on your lender. Our loan began May 2012 and our loan matured last month. 

2. When will you close?

We are currently in the process of closing on the home.
We have finally rounded up all the bills from each contractor. (annoying to have to ask some of the contractors for a bill several times…you’d think they’d want to get paid!) Then the appraisal is scheduled. Which is TODAY! Cross your fingers and toes for us! We are nervous.

3. Why? What is the big deal about the appraisal? 

The appraisal will tell the bank and us how much the home is worth. The bank needs to know that they are lending us at the very least what the home is worth. If we borrowed more than the home is worth, then we would be upside down on the loan. This means the loan could be a high risk loan for the bank. This is one reason we paid cash for as many items as we could while building.

4. What is the reason to put your own cash in while building a home? 

PMI, or Private Mortgage Insurance. PMI is required by lenders on all conventional (Fannie & Freddie) loans over 80% LTV (loan to value). PMI is an extra charge to the borrower on top of the principal and interest payment. If PMI is require you pay it until the loan reaches 80% LTV. It can be anywhere from a few bucks to almost $200 depending on your loan amount and the LTV. 

Why pay more money every month when there is no real benefit? I could be spending that $100-$150 bucks each month on shoes and pinterest projects! Err…I really meant put it into savings.

Let me break it down for you*:

Appraisal Value: $100,000.00
Loan Amount: $80,000.00
Loan to Value (LTV): 80% No PMI Required

Appraised Value: $96,000.00
Loan amount: $79,000.00
Loan to Value (LTV): 82% PMI required = extra fee on top of mortgage payment.

*These are just examples our loan amount and projected AV is much different

Essentially, we are hoping the large sum of cash we paid into the home--plus, the land (which we also paid cash for) will save us from PMI.

5. What else can you do to avoid PMI?

We put a heck of a lot of sweat equity into the home. Labor can be a huge charge, DIYing what you can saves big bucks!
Some of our DIY items included:

• Laying our own hardwood with the help of friends
• My dad volunteering his time, hard work, and masonry skills, to lay the stone on our beautiful  2-story fireplace and the entire exterior front. 
• We stained the staircase, newel posts, and treads ourselves
• The trim and all the doors were painted by Adam
• Friends helped us with the back patio, and the front driveway pad to save some cash
• Built our own custom walk-in closets

These items help to save us approximately $15,000 in labor costs alone! We are hoping these items help avoid the PMI monster that lurks.

6. What happens after the appraisal comes back?

Our loan to value is determined and our monthly loan payment is figured. We also have regular closing costs just like buying a home; credit report fee, appraisal charge, underwriting fees, etc. Then we close the loan with our loan officer like everyone else…only we already have the keys!

Find out our appraisal results!
See the rest of our home in the house tour!
Our projects page shows the rest of our DIYs!

Disclaimer: Every lender and bank is different, so your experience will most likely be much different than ours. I am not a professional, and my opinions and thoughts are my own, and  I am not affiliated with any institution. Get advice from your own lender and building professional. 

stairs to upstairs...

So a few posts ago, I shared the boys laying the floors upstairs. Many of you were stressing out about the lack of railings...scaredy cats! We are now much safer, and pretty to look at too.

Paint color SW Restrained Gold,
although I am still not getting the correct color with my lack of camera skills

Since the basement is far from finished and full of stuff we have yet to unpack, let's head upstairs.

We have two bedrooms and a bathroom separated by a sort of cat walk type hallway above our great room. We also have a little loft area in between the bedrooms.

Don't look at the sconce which doesn't have a shade yet...

We stained the stair treads, newel posts, and the railings ourselves. The color we used was Jacobean from Minwax. We used one coat of stain and three coats of sealer. I can not imagine doing any more coats---all that sanding and staining! 

And get this... our builder supply store didn't measure right the first time, so we have 7 stair treads in our basement that are too small...and all stained and varnished! But that is another story, for another day.

Turn right at the top of the steps and you have the guest area (futureroomforsupercutekidssomeday) Straight ahead is our guest bedroom or currently my dad's room since he stays with us a few days every week while he works on the exterior stone. To the left is our full guest bath.

I like how the area is separated by a little nook, and there is enough room for a small dresser or large hamper...which is good new to us...because silly me didn't put a linen closet near that bathroom...

to the left to the left...

To the left you see our entry foyer over the railing and the other guest room behind that door. We added a little loft area last minute when they told us that was just going to be wasted space behind a wall. We are happy we did, it will be a nice place for a desk or a little reading nook.

Our chandelier is actually from the good old Home Depot. It is the Barcelona 6 light Rustic Iron Chandelier
We wanted sometime that wouldn't break the bank, but still had the style we were going for in the house.  It actually looks a little dinky in this photo for some reason, but it's pretty large in real life, but it does fit in well with the space.

Iron balusters and jacobean stained newel posts and treads.

The iron ballusters. This is second behind my fireplace as my favorite item in the house....We couldn't decide on the basket design that attaches on the iron balusters so we said NEVERMIND in the midst of frustration to make a choice. But I am glad we left them as is. Some of the designs are just too fancy for me and I like the look we ended up with.

Watching Adam build a fire.

Now everyone can relax. The dog will not fall off the catwalk...getting his head stuck in between those iron balusters? Maybe.

Friday Fun: a sneak peek at kitchen cabinets!

Happy Friday!

This is my life right now.....Kitchen cabinets partially installed and a bathtub in my kitchen. Who else has a bathtub in her kitchen?
I tell you what it's good for storing all that crap we buy at Menards...

The start of cabinet installation.

Here you get a sneaky peek at our kitchen cabinets being installed. As of right now, we only have the base and the island put together so they could come out and measure to cut countertops.

We are hoping the rest of the kitchen cabinets installed next week, along with all the molding that goes with it. It would be nice for kitchen countertops to be installed next week too---but who knows with the holiday.

Cross your fingers everything comes together next week. I am ready to start cooking in my new kitchen! I can't wait to do a kitchen reveal post too.
Oh and a stove. I will take a stove too. But don't worry, I am making due....this week I boiled noodles on the grill for a food day at work.

What are you doing all weekend? I am spending the weekend with my momma, my wine brother Seth, and his momma shoppinggggggggg!

Stone Fireplace reveal!

After a long three weeks in the new house, we have internet and television.

We are finally moved in---although the house is far from complete. We are still "roughing it" with only a fridge, microwave, pizza pizzaz and a crockpot.


Here is an example of us roughing it the day after move in:

(before floors, obviously)

Lawn chairs and plastic tubs for furniture and Uncle Buck in the dvd player...thankfully that was only for a week.


SO many more things to update you on!

But when we left off, we were still working on the fireplace. It is finished. And more beautiful than we could have dreamed. My dad did a wonderful job and it makes it even more special that he did this for our home.

Adam think he is being classy by putting his golf trophy up there...

Move in day, which is why we look like bums.

Me and my dad with the finished product.

Scout on the first night "But, when are we going back home??" 

 Stick around, many many updates and photos coming soon to you.

fireplace part 1 and 2

Everyone has been asking what about the blog? Where are the photos of the updates? Truth is, they have all been sitting on my camera...we have either been too busy or too tired to blog. Or to do laundry for that matter. 

The past two weekends my dad has traveled the three hours south to help us work on the house. My dad is stoning the fireplace and the exterior of the house for us, with Adam's help of course.

Here are some photos of what he has been working on...

My dad climbing down the scaffolding.

The scratch coat gives the stone something to stick to.

Ready for stone.

This is how we cheat the look of a full masonry fireplace.
Instead, we purchased a fireplace insert, and had it framed so we could stone around it.

Adam will probably not appreciate this photo, but this is the view from the kitchen/dining.

Oh and I was also re-picking out paint colors the evening before they needed to be picked up. Yup.
 ...more on that story later.

And the underlaminate is in, ready for hardwood.
Well, after the fireplace is stoned anyway.
At least the dust is gone.

And after the second weekend:

He picked out the stone for the hearth and cut it to size for us too.

Oh and the house is painted now too! But don't judge it by these photos because it looks different in these.
I haven't figured out how to make my fancy camera take photos of painted walls. Be patient with me.

We love it.

We can't wait for him to be able to come back down and work on it more.
Love you dad, thank you for all your hard work!



This weekend, we are starting the hardwood upstairs...
What do you think of the fireplace? 
Do you like the stone?
Does your dad ever wear a shirt?
Can you explain to me how to take photos of painted walls with my fancy camera? 

Cabinets are hereeeeee

yep, that's all you get.

But that's all I get to see too. Those babies are wrapped up good, and have to stay that way until the floors are in. I really so much want to peak at them, but I am practicing my patience!

I will try and have more updates for you tomorrow. We are working our tails off every evening at the house after work. I never thought I would see the end of the dust. Sweeping. Sweeping. And more sweeping.
Last night the under-laminate went down. Almost time for hardwood!!


Are you bored every night from 5-10 p.m? We can put you to work...great pay!*





*beer, wine, pizza...unlimited......well kind of, I mean...we have a mortgage ya know.

Geothermal. What is the deal?

A few months ago, we had a huge gurgling hole in our front yard...

What the heck is that?

I never really pay attention to the  kinds of trucks, trailers, or machines that are out at the house. They are always coming and going and they are for digging dirt, lifting trusses, etc etc....but a big gurgling hole...I noticed.

Then, I realized what was happening...They were digging the geothermal!

Geo.

When we first discussed building a home we had a number of people ask us if we would go geothermal. We were pretty clueless about the entire subject. All we knew that it was "green" and something about holes in the ground. And expensive.

Then we did some research. Mostly with the help of our good friend Google at first. But while getting bids for heating and cooling we asked local professionals for their input to help us understand. We asked friends in the business. We spoke to people that have geothermal systems in their homes already. We watched youtube videos, and even a super boring 25 minute informational DVD about it that we picked up at a home & garden show.

The only way I really understood it was by looking at pictures and charts. And asking lots of questions.

I asked a bunch of questions to help understand too...

For example:

So we don't have a real air conditioner? Not happening.

Actually, the machine that cools the air is really in the basement or utility room, not outdoors like a regular air conditioner. There will still be forced air vents, just like a regular HVAC system, no one will know, except us. (well, and you guys reading this) Plus, it's almost twice as efficient.

How much money will we save?

Apparently, it's hard to tell for sure until until we actually start using it.
Every home is different.

For example, we currently we live in a tiny two bedroom rental with a regular old HVAC system. Our bill runs us about $138 a month if we really crank the air (which is 90% of the time, I'm a brat when it comes to comfort). Using this Geocomfort savings tool, our new 2,200 square foot home will probably run us $164 each month.

BONUS: We spoke to someone with a new construction twice the size of our new home, and their highest electric bill has been 170-180 dollars. 

But how much extra is it to even get the system installed? 

After the tax rebates it's going to cost us an extra $2,000ish for the system and install. Before taxes it's roughly double a regular HVAC system. Word on the street is that our money spent on the system can be recouped in as little as 3 years due to the energy savings.

I still don't understand.

Basically, they are digging holes in the ground and putting some tubes in that connect to the house and make it hot or cold based on what I set the thermostat on.

This animation helps too.

What it looks like.
(This room in the basement looks pretty gross in this pic, sorry, under construction.)

We turned the system on labor day weekend to help move along the mudding process by taking some of the humidity out of the house. Although we are not looking forward to another bill (building a house is nothing but bills bills bills!) we are both interested to see what our electric bill will be with this baby on.

Have you heard of geothermal?
Do you have geothermal in your home? I want to hear from you! 


***I am not a professional and information in this post is based on my own research & opinions. AKA I have no clue what the heck I am talking about. If you have serious questions I suggest you ask someone who knows their geo-shiz.

Sources:

graph #1

Tax credit info

Drywall in progress

Just a forewarning this post has no photos of sweaty men like the last post. It's boring photos of walls. Not even real walls. But progress is progress.

They have started the drywall.

standing on the stairs looking at the loft.

one of the second floor bedrooms.

OK I lied. Here is a hottie photo for you.

My kinda man that Ryan Gos.

Next comes something else reallll fun. Picking out paint colors!

Let's hear it for the boys...and back patio!

This weekend many of our wonderful friends worked their asses off.
In the heat.
From 7 a.m. til the afternoon.
On a Saturday.
When they all were supposed to be off work, relaxing, sleeping off hangovers in.
For free cheap beer and pizza.
All for us. And our new beautiful pack patio.

They started to work on it a few evenings last week.

WARNING::: Blogger fail:
I couldn't be there for the actual pour because I had other "house building stuff" to do (like garage doors and front porch columns to pick out). Also I slept in that day. Just a little...

My job was just to bring the food. So, unfortunately I did not whip the camera out until most of the guys left...Because of me being late to the party you are missing out on photos of about 5 more sexy sweaty hardworking dudes. Sorry girls.

After it cured they cut it.

Why do they have to cut the nice smooth concrete?  Because otherwise it will crack when it expands.

I was kind of sad because it looked so nice as one giant slab...but it makes sense.

boys finishing up.

Sexy sweaty dudes.

Tommy instructed me to post this so Faith could see his muscles... Lol boys.

After it's all cut.

And all finished!

Scout was the foreman as usual.

Thank you boys. We appreciate your help more than you know. We can't wait to throw some parties on our sweet new back patio. Soon!

Now to figure out where those steps will go.