I'm a newby in the building process (did get The Owner-Builder Book though!) and would appreciate as much advice as I can get at this stage. Thanks a lot. This is a great discussion site. I learned a lot in just an hour of reading. Dennis from Howey-in-the-Hills, FL

Kevin's Forum Posts: 1
Journal Entries: 4
Average Forum Rating: 3.00



Image from Kevin's blog

Subscribe to this journal...

Lot Cleaning and Pad Work Decided

Posted to 6158-in-Montgomery-TX by Kevin in Conroe, TX on 12/23/2007

We got all the bids back yesterday, and have decided on the company to clear our lot and build our pad site. We were able to work a better deal if I contracted the dirt, and just paid the contractor to move and compact it. As luck would have it for us the neighborhood is finishing up the digging of a few ponds, so the dirt is not coming from far and is saving us quite a bit versus coming from a pit. Our bids for this phase of the project had $20,000 between the lowest and highest bid. We will hopefully start clearing the lot the week of Christmas if the weather holds out. We will be posting pictures starting next week. We hope to pick a few spots on the exterior of the house, and capture the same picture from this spot over the months to come to track the progress.

Lot Clearing and Pad Work

Posted to 6158-in-Montgomery-TX by Kevin in Conroe, TX on 12/19/2007

Met with local contractors at the site this week to discuss what we want cleared and where we want the house. After reviewing with all it looks as if we need to bring in 400-500 loads of dirt to build the pad five feet off the ground to compensate for the detention pond in front of the house. A detention pond (I found out this last week) is designed to capture water during a heavy rain and slowly passes it under the street. Due to this being on part of our property, we chose to place the house at a point that is higher than the highest point of the berm around the pond. Should have bids back from all on Friday so we can make a decision over the weekend.  

At the same time my wife has been meeting with an interior designer to work on our kitchen, laundry room, pantry and bar cabinets. I am planning to make a trip to the Kraftmaid outlet in January to hopefully buy some of the cabinets we will need to do the house. Upon completion of the cabinet layouts, they will move on to other items in the house.

Loan Phase Done

Posted to 6158-in-Montgomery-TX by Kevin in Conroe, TX on 12/13/2007

Well, we can now move forward on the construction of our home. Every corner you turn, there seems to be another hurdle. We ended up having to do a two-time close with the state of the mortgage industry. But after finally determining this fact, that process ended up being much easier than we thought. We now have our construction financing in place, and have a very flexible bank as far as our draw schedule goes. Our financing could have been easier if we would not have had an incompetent mortgage officer help us at first. She told us we need to go no-doc, and we agreed, since we are self-employed. After finding a bank that would do a one-time close, jumbo, no-doc loan, she ends up submitting our application as full-doc. That bank ended up being out of the question and we changed our mortgage broker. The new broker took and presented it to a local bank, and we had funding in 20 days. So we are now on to bids for lot clearing and pad site.

Planning Phase

Posted to 6158-in-Montgomery-TX by Kevin in Conroe, TX on 9/4/2007 1:17:41 PM

Well my wife and I have decided to build on 5 1/2 acres we bought in Feb, 2007 in Montgomery, TX. Our lot is located in Grand Lake Estates and backs up to more woods.

We have chosen our house plan are now in the process of reviewing it and making minor changes to it. We have chosen a house that 6,158 sq ft with another 2,000+ sq ft of patio. We are trying to make the design decisions of cellulose, batt or Icynene or a combination of cellulose and Icynene.

We hope to break ground on our dream home in Jan. but a lot of that depends on our daughter that is due in October.

Photos

Posted by George in Wharton, TX on 9/14/2007 George's Forum Posts: 33 Journal Entries: 2 Interview Answers: 63 Average Forum Rating: 3.39 George's Selected Image 9/14/2007

Good luck, that's one big house!  We are breaking ground in around two years. We are about an hour from Conroe. BigOakBuilder-TX journal.