More Elevations

I told you Heather was fast...here's more elevations for your viewing pleasure. Click to enlarge.



We are supposed to get the actual hardcopies soon and they will include little cut-outs of mini-furniture to play with. This scored bonus points with Dionne, who is the quintessential homemaker.

North Elevation Sneak Peek

John of Pharoah put us in touch with a draftsperson named Heather Barnette. Heather's work is fast and affordable, and she has been able to recreate our main house plans to include all of the changes and updates we made which varied from the original Healthy Home Plans blueprints. Above is a preview of what the north elevation (back of the house) will look like when viewed from our backyard meadow. The garage will be off to the right, and, as you can see, we're building on the side of a slight hill. It's so satisfying to be able to visualize this stuff!

Garage Plans

I thought that we had posted the garage plans before, but I guess not. The official description is "New England Gambrel 2 Bay Garage With Apartment Over" and we will be making some modifications to maximize the upstairs living space which includes a full kitchen since we'll be living here for a few months until the main house is completed. One of the considerations we had was to ensure the garage was deep enough to fit our 2001 Suburban (affectionately known as "Jewel"). There will be a laundry/utility space on the bottom floor and the side door will lead to the main house via a covered breezeway. Click here for a link to the plans by CADSmith Studio LLC, based out of New Hampshire.

Contract Signed!

This was a busy 3-day weekend (I took a vacation day from the office), but it was well worth it as we finally got the actual construction contract with Jessica from Oakley Custom Homes squared away. Initial estimates show the completion of the garage by September 15th with completion of the main house around December 21st. We also spent some time on the property measuring and staking the future location and orientation of the house and the detached garage while Mema's dogs and the kids ran wild on our future backyard. Settling on the four corners of the house was more difficult than one would expect as slight changes of the front porch view drastically altered views from the back and side. We finally realized that this is because we chose to place the home at the mid-point of our "California-shaped" lot (think dogleg for golfers). From a bird's eye view you can see that it's impossible to have the front of the house face the main road and yet have the backyard view line up with our open meadow. We had to settle for facing a bit more toward Tom Black's house rather than Collinsville Road. Anyhow, several signatures and a few notary stamps later and we are set to break ground as early as tomorrow (Tuesday, April 22nd)!

Revising the Home Plans

The layout we decided upon is a modified version of the Field of Dreams home plan by Healthy Home Plans. As you can see, the exterior has a traditional farmhouse look which complements the land where we are building. There's just something awkward about a contemporary suburban stucco home out in the country. We met with our builder, Jessica Oakley of Oakley Custom Homes, and made revisions to the "off the shelf" plan including selection of windows, flooring, etc. (Did we mention that Jessica is part of our food co-op? We tried to barter a life-time supply of eggs in exchange for the new home, but she didn't go for it...) Before final pricing, an engineer needs to give the revisions a lookover. Grading of the property, however, can begin as soon as we sign the contract!

*sigh* Goodbye New Urbanist

Very, very disappointing but we have not yet heard back from New Urbanist regarding our updated home plans. A while back, we agreed to a partial payment for the plans when they started work (for which they have not yet billed us), but now we're considering sending them a cancellation notice since we've been left hanging without any sort of communication. We're so frustrated with not being able to move forward on our home! Tomorrow, we'll send them a certified letter to let them know we're canceling the order and hopefully this won't end up in court should they decide to bill us anyway.

New Home Rental in Columbus

Still no final plans from New Urbanist...very disappointing and frankly it's rattling our faith in them. After revisiting the idea of a yurt and looking at some other nearby rental property, we came across a great little 2 bedroom/1.5 bath that's about 5 minutes away from our Collinsville property. For $625/month we get a private road, wood-burning fireplace, lots of room, carport with workshop, and horses right outside our front door (not our horses, but who cares?!). It sounded great on the phone so we took the 1.5-hour drive just to see the property and hand over a check. We begin moving immediately, so Dionne and the kids will begin laying down more roots in the area. Google Maps doesn't like the address for some reason, so here's the closest map we can provide at this time.

Update from N.U.

Just heard back from New Urbanist:

I had a chance to review the changes that you made to the plans. I can tell that you guys have put a lot of thought into the plans. I think that they look great. There is very little that I would change. The price for the plans would be as follows. $1,895 for the base plans, $25 for shipping and handling, and $350 dollars for the changes and the addition of the attached garage. So the total would be $2270.00. We would require half of the total prior to starting then the other half would be due upon shipment of the final construction drawings. We can be paid with a credit card (preferred) or check. The plans would include two sets of construction drawings including a basic electrical plan, foundation and floor plans, and elevations. I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for your time and interest, and I hope that we have the opportunity to work together. Let me know if you have any questions or comments. Thanks again Thomas

Sounds good! We just need to verify the size of the garage, ceiling height and a few other minor things.

New Urbanist Homes

We made contact with an architectural firm called New Urbanist Homes and have submitted our request for modifications to one of their 2662 sq ft home plans. Chances are that they can make the changes faster and cheaper than another architect or builder. Local covenants prohibit us from building anything smaller than 2500 heated square feet (this is primarily to prevent people from living in trailers and such).

Custom Floorplan Too Expensive

While ideal, the concept of having a custom floorplan/design drafted up for us is just going to cost too much. The idea was that we could take an existing plan and have an architect modify it for us. Apparently there are some legal issues and the architect we wanted to use would have to redraw the plans from scratch at the cost of about $8,000-$11,000. We'd rather put that money towards actual construction, even if the plan is an "off the shelf" layout.