I can't believe that I actually won! This forum has been so helpful during the planning phases. We are about two weeks from moving in and we can't be happier! Thanks again for all of the support and guidance that the website has given us! Heather L.

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Flatwork done... kinda

Posted to Dream-In-Progress by Jim in Shawnee, KS on 6/7/2007

It's been a stressful week for us with a 30% chance of rain lingering over our heads every day... we HAD to get our flatwork done so our framer could start ASAP - he was getting tired of waiting on us and was getting ready to pass on the job. Can't blame him; if he isn't working, he's not making any money - luckily he had a couple of odd jobs for his crew to work on this week, so we could get the basement poured, and luckily the weather decided to cooperate. He poured the basement floor on Tuesday and the garage and storm room on Wednesday. 

We were hoping he would actually pour on Monday, but he spent the day setting up forms, rebar, and gravel instead. It's probably a good thing that we gave the ground an extra day to dry out anyway, because apparently an 80,000 pound cement truck is pretty quick to get stuck in the mud.  :) 

Good news is that we are VERY happy with his work, and it turned out really well. The reason I say the flatwork is "kinda" done is just because he didn't pour the front porch area, but I think he will come back and do that later with sidewalks and patios... And our framer is now ready to go for Monday. We gave the framer the ability to purchase steel beams and lumber on our behalf (we negotiated prices of course) but we set up accounts with the lumberyard and the steel company so he can get what he needs when he needs it.

One of the things we learned while getting bids from the lumberyards is that you can really play them against each other to get the prices down. We had a bidding war going on between our top two contenders and saved a lot of money. I think that it's just slow enough that they are really willing to fight for every drop of business they can... it's also funny that the lumberyard we chose lost out on the window portion of the bid - we gave it to the other guy...

I think that's about it right now. I am very excited about the framing process, for the first time I think it will feel like we're actually making some progress! 

I'll try to get on and post some basement pictures tonight.

Pictures, finally!

Posted to Dream-In-Progress by Jim in Shawnee, KS on 5/29/2007

Here are the pictures as promised from my last post. I finally figured out an easy way to post them... enjoy! More updates later this week.

Rain, Rain Go AWAY!!!

Posted to Dream-In-Progress by Jim in Shawnee, KS on 5/17/2007

It rained for 10 days straight. Not only did it rain, it flooded... needless to say, we had a long period of drying out before we could get started.

This is the southwest corner of our property - completely under water:

This is the hole they dug to see if our soil would 'perc' - it was about 8 feet deep and completely filled with water:

This is the road just south of our neighborhood entrance: 

Since my previous post, we've done a lot of waiting. We had the excavator out last week to dig the hole. He told us that it would take one day max, (8 hours) but of course it took 2.5 days and nearly 20 hours... our blueprints are reversed so that gave him some trouble, plus the ground is wet clay so that slowed it down a bit too. Luckily, he's a friend of the family, so we're trusting that he won't charge us for his downtime.

The foundation company came out and poured the footings early this week and they are pouring the walls today. Once they're out of there, we need to get going on the basement plumbing before the flatwork guy comes out on Monday... We need to dig the hole for the septic pump and run the drain pipes for the bar/kitchen and bath... and to be safe, we're running a drain tile around the inside of the foundation as well... though until I actually see my husband do it, I won't be good at explaining it all.  :)

Waterproofing is early next week too - plus we need to order another load of rock for the driveway. We're hoping to start framing the first week of June, so we have lots to do in the next couple of weeks. 

As far as the budget goes, we saved some money on our building permit but are going slightly over on our foundation, so we're still ahead... we're working on the lumberyard right now trying to get our price down and we've found a really good framer who is going to save us some money, too. 

And as far as our schedule goes, we're actually a week ahead! Our move-in goal is January 10, 2008 and so far we're way ahead of that! (Yes, I realize that I'll probably look back at this post in 9 months and shake my head at my naivete...)

Thanks for reading!

Getting closer!

Posted to Dream-In-Progress by Jim in Shawnee, KS on 4/30/2007

Well, we're done with our bidding process and have secured the construction loan from the bank.  We were pleasantly surprised how easy this was!  We put together a nifty little presentation with pictures, floor plans, budget, etc. and the bank made it very easy.

The only "problem" we ran into with the bank was the flood plain certification - we are on the boundary of a flood plain so we had to show them that our house was not going to be built in the 100-year flood plain, which it isn't.  We got the Preliminary Plat Plan from the Developer and merged that with our site plan and since I haven't heard back, I'm assuming that is adequate. 

We had the excavator/septic guy come out to see if the soil passed the percolation test - and it didn't.  Well - one of the two holes he dug didn't... he dug two 7-foot holes, one filled up with 4 ft of water and the other had just about an inch of water in it... probably just runoff from heavy rains.  But the soil book from the county also states that our soil is mostly clay, so according to them it doesn't perc anyway... SO that means that we have to have an engineered septic system.  Luckily we can call in a favor for that and hopefully save about $4,000. 

We'll get our building permit this week and should break ground in the next 14 days or so.  This day has been a long time coming, and we couldn't be more excited. 

I'll post more pictures soon!

Here goes nothin'...

Posted to Dream-In-Progress by Jim in Shawnee, KS on 10/28/2006

I can't believe we're doing this!  Buying land and building our dream home?  That's such an adult thing to do...is it possible that we are actually ADULTS???

A little background on us - my husband and I are high school sweethearts (middle school, actually) and are the proud parents of a precious little girl.  We grew up in the country and moved to the city after college - now that we have a family to think of, we're moving back to our roots in the hope of raising our kids in the same environment that we grew up in - where playing outside in the woods will hopefully be more appealing than video games and cell phones.

We bought 4 acres in a country estates subdivision, on a cul-de-sac, nestled back in sycamores, oaks, and maple trees.  We are in the planning phase right now, and hope to break ground in the spring.  We bought our house plans, a 2 story with everything we could possibly want in a house.

Here are some pictures to get us started.  Wish us luck! 

Photos