Justin in Chandler, AZ 27 entries to date 84 forum posts to date
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 5/14/2008 4:28:19 PM
I am pretty much compulsive about Craigslist by now. I missed some stone floor medallions by a few minutes (the guy just sold them) and now I am checking it all the time.
I picked up a mantel for our master fireplace for $200. It's precast stone looking but much lighter (thankfully) it will look great around our 50% off fireplace I picked up last month. If only I had more cash on hand to buy good deals. Unfortunately the bank wants to make sure I spend the money on my house . . . wait this is all for my house!
On the brighter side apparently there is one small change needed for our plans but Brian our designer spoke with the City and he'll make the changes, I'll run the plans over to the City and he can approve it. To say we are that close to permits totally freaks me out but as my wife reminds me, "It's already been 9 months in (her parents) basement". This is true - ok time to get going on the house.
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 5/7/2008 8:56:27 PM
Home Depot had a 20% off windows and doors sale that ended today. It was a scramble but I think we got everything. They also had free upgrades to solid core doors which we took gladly.
One thing I found out is that adding 16 inches to interior doors nearly triples the price. I don't know why that is. Maybe they figure people who want 8' doors have a lot of money. Well that's what Audra wants and that's what she'll get. Plus they do look much better than 6'8" doors with a 10' plate.
We ended setting up a commercial account at HD. That will allow them to hold our prices for 6 months without paying for or ordering the items. I also have time to review all of the details on each window and door to make sure it is all correct. It was a rush to get it all ordered by tonight but even if we make changes or have to delete a thing or two they said it will be fine because we won't be ordering them for a while.
I also found a precast fireplace mantel for the master for $200. I'll get that tomorrow.
SRP, the power company, told me that the deal I got on our electrical panel wasn't so good because I have to buy a bypass kit for the panel or purchase another one. After all the headache (I posted on the forums). I still need to get a price for the kit.
There is one door that we haven't purchased yet because it was too expensive at HD. It is a sliding or french door from the living room to the patio. I'll check out the building materials outlet stores for something that will work. I just need it to be 8' tall and white.
I can't imagine how it will be when we get permits.
Oh, while I was at HD ordering windows and doors I found a few details on our plans that didn't match up. Small things that in no way effect the building but nonetheless I worry that our city officials will have nothing better to do that to redline them and make me resubmitt for another 20 working day period. 2 weeks and counting for comments on round two . . .
Hopefully Mr. Toad's wild ride will begin soon (or whatever his name was)
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 4/25/2008 1:23:14 PM
I resubmitted the plans yesterday. After getting the structural and design redlines changed, a septic permit, a variance, mechanical drawings, and a few iterations with the designer to make sure it was all right - it is done.
I asked the city if the 2nd round goes any faster - nope, 20 working days! I asked if they had slowed down at all - nope, despite news articles that they are way down on permit fee contributions to the city funds. I asked if they have let any one go - nope.
Gotta love the government!
I also picked up 100 gallons of primer paint for $4 a gallon, and 2 propane fireplaces for about half off retail. Both of these deals came from reputable companies who had overstocked inventory and advertised on Craigslist.
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 4/10/2008 2:45:48 PM
I know the road ahead is so long and there is still so much to do. Today, though, we celebrate justice and savor the fact that the Board of Adjustment voted 4:2 to approve our variance which allows to build our home without taking any of the existing structures down.
One vote away from hours and hours of work and thousands of dollars to comply-we are so happy. My budget didn't need a big hit like that before we even get permits.
We closed on our loan on the 31 of March and now need to get our plans back into the City so we can get our permits and break ground.
Since building our home is a long journey I think it best to celebrate the little steps. Hopefully we'll have many more little celebrations along the way.
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 4/9/2008 1:03:28 PM
Well it has finally come. Tonight we have our hearing with the Board of Adjustment. Audra and her father have gone down to the City to discuss the matter with a friend of her father's who works for Planning and Zoning. I have corresponded via email with a former principal of my High School (Chandler-Go Wolves) who is now on the City Council. We have signatures from every neighbor we could contact (over 50% of the neighborhood).
We will see how they respond tonight. We'll keep our fingers crossed and say a few prayers.
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| This is a "structure" according to the City. |
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| Audra asked the guy she met with and if we took the roof's off of these stalls they wouldn't be structures any more. The animals are the ones who really suffer from this law because in the Arizona summer they need to be in the shade. |
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| Hopefully we won't have to tear down these structures. |
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 3/10/2008 1:02:53 PM
After the full allotment of 20 working days the City of Chandler called to let me know the plans were ready.
The two main items needed is a permit from the County for the septic system (I was told that the City doesn't require this - but apparently this was an error) and full mechanical drawings.
Not to mention a variance for structures built on the lot by the previous owner that weren't permitted and in the setback. They also told me that I needed to do a minor land division because I subdivided the land. I laughed at this one because they were the ones who approved the minor land division before it was recorded with the County. Silly civil servants.
Anyway I anticipate several weeks working on these items before I am ready to resubmit. Hopefully by April we will have everything back in and after the 20 working days we'll have permits in May.
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 2/19/2008 9:37:12 AM
This weekend I piled up the concrete slab that I had broken out. I loaded it up in to the loader by hand and then dumped it in a pile. It felt good to get it moved but I knew at some point I would have to move these pieces again. It would have been easier to take them to the dump but in an effort to reduce waste and cost I'll be making an extended patio out of the old barn slab. I was definately sore on Sunday.
I still have the footings to take care of and concrete debris to finish cleaning but I am hoping I can work out a deal with the excavator once he is onsite.
Our fruit trees have also budded and are blooming. This may not be too exciting for some, but for an Arizona boy raised in the desert - planting bare root apple and peach trees and seeing them bloom is awesome. I can't believe they are growing!
I also loaded up the old Palo Verde tree into the dump trailer. I truly believe that hell is landscaped with Palo Verde trees and their thorny cousins. I had two pairs of gloves on and still got poked 3 times and scratches on my arm. While I had my chainsaw I cut down another tree and stump. I only have one large Palo Verde tree left and I will likely leave it for a while. Those things grow like weeds - sprouting up between concrete slabs and when I cut a stump about 50 shoots sprang up. Those trees are of the devil!
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| Slab broken up |
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| Deep post footings |
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| Oh goodie! I get to move that pile again later . . . I hope the tractor is available. |
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 2/9/2008 8:56:05 AM
I was out at the lot yesterday. The bobcat took care of the slab under the old barn that we sold but the footings are like 16-18"+ with rebar in it. I didn't have time to break it all up with the breaker when I rented it. I focused on the slab and front post footings.
I was digging along the side yesterday and with it as deep as it is there is no way a sledge will make much of a dent with the rebar in it.
I thought about a chain and a tractor but the tractor we have (father-in-laws) isn't strong enough to pull it out.
I tried to dig along side it with the box gannon but that didn't work too well.
If I had a strong backhoe I could dig it out and then break it up but I don't and am trying to not spend any more money.
I may wait until the excavator comes out for the basement. He should be able to make short work of it with the large track hoe that they'll have. Or else try someone on craigslist or something. If I could get it done for less than $200 I'd try it.
That's my delema for now. Any suggestions? There are about 18 sections of 15 feet long footing.
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 2/8/2008 2:09:18 PM
$1,556.75 dollars later the City accepted our plans for review. They grant themselves 20 working days (or 4 weeks) to process them. We are only the 4th custom home to submit plans this year! It seems to be a little slow at Chandler. Hopefully they can turn our plans around much sooner but I am not holding my breath.
In the meantime I am finishing up my dust control permit with the County (no fees for owner builders!), septic tests and permits and other lot prep items.
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 2/3/2008 9:54:38 PM
Our lot came with storage sheds, 14 horse stalls, a barn, hay storage, washing stalls and other horse acutrments. The barn had to go because when we split the lot we put the lot line too close to it and it fell within the setback. No big deal for us because we wanted that area open. We sold the barn last year and it was taken down by the buyer. We were left with the concrete slab and footing it sat on.
I rented a Bobcat with a breaker on it to handle the concrete. It worked great on the slab but the footings were another story. They must have poured the concrete back when it was cheap! The front posts had about a 2.5' x 2.5' concrete around them and they took a good 20 minutes each to break up. I didn't get all of the other footings broken up during the 8 hours but I got a lot of it broken up. I haven't yet decided the best and cheapest way to get the rest out.
I found a lot of cool things to do with the broken up concrete and I plan to re-use the "urbanite" for raised gardens, walkways and extended patios. See: http://www.terranovalandscaping.com/blog/2007/02/07/90/
http://depave.org/index.php/project-profiles/album/72157600050416215/Concrete-Urbanite-Reuse.html
Plans should have gone in on Friday but Chandler wants a soils investigation (report) with the submittal (though it wasn't on their residential submittal checklist!). Another good $1,200 out of my pocket because of City requirements. It's frustrating. Tomorrow I hope to select a Geotech company to get it done for me.
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| My Bro helping out with the loader |
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| The front patio - Gone! |
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| Stopping for lunch |
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| Got my hands full! |
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 1/24/2008 9:19:43 AM
I couldn't help myself from planting more trees on our lot. We won't break ground for another month or so and I wanted to get them growing.
Since buying the lot I have cut down 4 palo verdes (1 more to go) and 1 cottonwood. (1 more to go). I have planted 2 Chinese Pistaches, 3 Evergreen Elms, and now 3 peach trees, 2 apple trees and 3 grapevines. I bought them through a knowledgable man who grows them in his yard. The peach and apple varities I planted have low chill requirements and should do well in our moderate winters. I had to plant them in the back away from the construction zone.
I am not putting anymore in until after the lot is graded because I don't want any additional obstacles (10 new trees + 3 grapevines plus the existing structures) than I already have. It is tempting to get the citrus trees in this spring when it warms up a little but I have to resist. :-)
Pics to come
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 1/13/2008 2:03:09 PM
After running my plans around town and getting copies made I decided to post them to our website. When I call people for a bid most are quite willing to print them off themselves and it saves me a lot of money and time. I usually send them an email with the link to the site and they print off the plans that they need.
A cool idea that worked for me - thought I would share.
Here's the link: http://landdevelopmentworks.com/owenscustomhome.htm
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 12/27/2007 10:59:43 AM
I used a laser level to get elevations from my lot and from my initial estimations I have an excess of 700 yards of dirt before we even excavate the basement. The reason being that the previous owners probably brought in extra dirt for parking on a majority of the lot and now we want to lower the lot for flood irrigation.
With the cost of trucking all the dirt out or the hassle of pawning off a pickup truckload at a time I may have a sizable hill in my back yard until I can come up with a feasible solution to rid myself of a lot of dirt. I am sure my kids won't mind too much.
Anyone need free dirt in Chandler, AZ?
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 12/27/2007 10:59:27 AM
I used a laser level to get elevations from my lot and from my initial estimations I have an excess of 700 yards of dirt before we even excavate the basement. The reason being that the previous owners probably brought in extra dirt for parking on a majority of the lot and now we want to lower the lot for flood irrigation.
With the cost of trucking all the dirt out or the hassle of pawning off a pickup truckload at a time I may have a sizable hill in my back yard until I can come up with a feasible solution to rid myself of a lot of dirt. I am sure my kids won't mind too much.
Anyone need free dirt in Chandler, AZ?
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 12/26/2007 12:59:18 PM
I have heard how much bids vary but it amazes me to get my own bids and see the differences. I guess some are still holding out for the lucrative contracts that were had during the building boom. Others are, it seems, are more aware of either thier true costs or the market conditions and are willing to do the same or more work for less money than the other subs.
I have about half of the major bids that I need for my budget. It is tedious and tiresome but fun to see it taking shape.
BTW Christmas in the in-laws basement was fun but I am sure looking forward to our own Christmas in our new home next year.
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 12/13/2007 11:31:42 AM
I have been working hard to get bids from all the subs. I am getting 2-3 bids for the budget right now. With that I'll secure the loan, make final changes and submit to the City.
During the permitting process with final stamped prints, I'll get more bids. I have a hard time asking people to come get prints and I end up delivering most sets. I know times are slow. Part of that comes from not having a stack of prints to pick up somewhere. I find out what sheets the subs need then get the prints run off. I use 11x17 sheets whenever possible as I can run copies on our office copier. Then our print shop only charges $.06 per foot or $.36 per 2'x3' sheet. It's a good rate.
When I get final plans I'll just have a bunch of sets made up with my spec sheets. I'll seperate it by trade and then the subs can get the specs and their respective set of plans and I won't have to get transmittals for each trade. I need to make this simpler on me.
I hope to have a good idea where we are at with our budget by Christmas. I have this fear that we want way too much house, but we have to wait and see.
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 12/8/2007 10:59:00 PM
We got our first full set of plans. There are still things that weren't put into the plans that we communicated to our designer but oh, well. We'll get that put into the next and final set.
We started getting the plans out for bid and soon should have actual numbers for our budget.
I also spent a half hour tonight talking with the neighbor who has his house all finished and is just waiting for the power company to get their act together.
It's all pretty exciting he also told us that it only took 30 days to get permit but I was thinking 2-3 months. Hopefully ours will be the same.
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 12/2/2007 10:37:07 AM
It is not uncommon to have friends and family who promise to "help" with construction not turn up. Unfortunately for me, despite enthusiastic promises to help with my latest project my 3 year old son only managed to do about 1/20th of the work that I did. I also caught him stealing and concealing building materials during the process.
Normally I would have cut him some slack but this blatant defiance of his duties to our construction project could not be overlooked so I fired him.
Despite many labor, material and scheduling problems the house was completed and enjoyed by all, especially my son! :-)
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| Somehow I couldn't help letting him take part in the demolition even after his lack of help in the construction. |
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| Next year I will expect more help! |
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 11/27/2007 10:49:04 AM
We should have construction documents by Friday or next Monday. With these documents we will meet with the subs, get tips and bids, put together our budget and make a list of final changes based on the input from the subs.
By the end of the year we should be submitted to the City and by March we should be breaking ground.
Baby steps . . .
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 11/20/2007 2:58:56 PM
Here are our plans thus far. Everything is getting close to solidified but any input is gladly welcome.
We have gone round and round on several items but here are the plans. We will be finishing off the main floor and saving the basement and second story until later (when we have the need for the space). So we are basically building a house that will work for us for the whole life cycle of our family. We won't have any structural additions later just framing rooms in the basement and second story.
I converted the PDF to JPG but which allows me to upload them but they aren't real legible. If anyone knows how to upload documents please clue me in.
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| Front & rear elevation |
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| Side elevations |
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| Main Floor |
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 11/18/2007 5:50:27 AM
The designer said he will wrap his end up and have construction documents in 2 weeks!
We also closed (sold) on one of our other lots to give us some working capital to start our project.
It has been a great week in getting closer to groundbreaking. I am hoping for sometime in February.
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 11/15/2007 1:54:54 PM
He has been working on it for months now. Reading from other OBs I should be getting bids from hungry subs but I am stuck waiting while our designer finishes up.
He is a good designer and some of the hangups have been our fault. Also because we didn't know exactly what we wanted there have been some changes. We thought we were prepared enough as we have spent over a year designing our floorplan with Punch Platinum but still somethings changed and he offered some good feedback.
Hopefully we'll be submitting soon.
I have planted 5 shade trees (3 Evergreen Elms and 2 Chinese Pistaches) because I got a great deal on them. I also ordered 5 fruit trees and 3 grape vines to plant in January.
Work continues on mending the fences, cutting down existing trees, and other odd projects. Life is good though and we are happy.
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 8/19/2007
This past Thusday we met at the good old McDonalds with our designer while the kids played on the germ infested playground.
After working on the plans (mostly my better half) for over a year it is great to have a real professinal working on them and seeing them on paper. He brought up some good solutions to the problems that we could not solve on our plans. After having the lot since May of 2006 finally some progress.
Yesterday I worked on the fence (cementing steel pipe posts in the ground) and cut down 2 trees and trimmed on up.
I also checked with our loan officer and even with all the shake up in the mortagage industry we are still more that qualified for our loan.
Some progress and peace of mind . . .
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 6/6/2007
My banker called today and somehow my credit scores jumped into the 770s and we are preapproved!
The planning continues. We are seriously considering building a garage with an apartment over it so we can get onsite and then build the house. I spoke with the City and they are OK with that but will file a deed restriction when we pull permits that will restrict us from renting the apartment. We are ok with that because it is already against zoning. We'll likely use it for office space and eventually for the parents/inlaws.
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 10/27/2006
If you have a minute please review our floorplan and tell us what you like and what you don't like. We would like all the feedback we can get.
I think we are getting near our 200 hour mark just with the floorplan!
Thanks in advance!
Photos
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 10/13/2006
Please visit us at: http://owensnewhome.blogspot.com/
I will be updating regularly. Blogger offers more functionality than I have here.
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Posted to OwensNewHome by Justin in Chandler, AZ
on 8/6/2006
We found a great lot in
Chandler, Arizona in March of 2006 but it was too big and too
expensive. We purchased the lot on May 1, 2006 and everything in the
transaction went smoothly. The sellers were great and most helpful.
After
marketing half of our lot for months and not finding a good buyer we decided to keep the whole 2.5
acres and board horses as many of the facilities for boarding were on
the property when we purchased the lot. At the time we decided to keep
the whole property I had just submitted the plans to the City for the
lot split for two 1.25 acre lots. We figured to let it go through so we
could sell someday if we needed to. That very next week a potential
buyer called and wanted 1.5 acres. At first I wasn't too excited to
have the lot resurveyed and have the engineers change the plans just to
go through all the City hoops again. He called back a few times and
after walking the property with him and his wife she was sold. So we
opened escrow and I ordered the plans to be redrawn. This week we
recorded the plans that split our lot into one 1-acre lot and one
1.5-acre lot.
We were a little dissappointed that we
wouldn't have as much land but an acre was all we ever wanted from the
beginning. Plus with the additional money the buyer was paying for the
extra land we could build a bigger house. We should close on the sale of the 1.5
acres at the end of August. That will significantly reduce our montly
interest payments on the land which will help out a lot.
We
still have our home in Maricopa, AZ and land in Show Low, AZ that we
need to sell before all is said and done but we are on our way. BTW the land in Show Low has nice tall pine trees and would be great for a cabin, we have 4 parcels in two 1-acre lots and one 2-acre lot if anyone is interested in an owner-builder project in the cool White Mountains.
I am including some pictures of the lot.
We purchased a book of stock floor plans, found one that we like and have been using Punch Platinum software to make changes and add what we would like. Once we sell a lot or two in Show Low we'll take our plans to an architect to draw up and submit to the city.
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