Building a House Part 3 - Halfway Done?!

Well, construction is well underway! Latest schedule from the contractor shows finishing last week of December, I can't think of a better way to bring in the New Year!

Progress!!!

Electrician Speak

I've been able to meet some of the contractors the past month. The framing "dudes" - I can't remember their names, but two guys basically framed this whole house in a month and during one of the hottest summers SoCal has ever seen. They were amazing. Scotty, the plumber, used to race bikes. He started his own plumbing company a few years back so he could be his own boss and have the time to raise his kids and "be a good dad". Zach the Electrician has pretty much thought of any possible thing we may want to do in the future and has planned for it. Spare power in the garage for future electric car - done; Conduit stubbed underground for future electric gate at the drive entrance - done; Spare power and another conduit stubbed underground for building on the 2nd pad - done; Space to connect future solar panels - done. Every time I ask him a question, he's on top of it - his response, "I just think of what I would do if it were my house".  I haven't met the HVAC dude yet,

Air Flow

but bless his heart. Since we're building a house with a flat roof, it's more difficult to run the ductwork than it would be in a traditional "sloped" roof house. But he's making it work and it looks great.

While the house is being built, I've been doing some "google"-ing on-line to try and figure out the best way to build the "future training center" and came across this fabulous website called "Studio Shed" (http://www.studio-shed.com/) Seeing how the main house is fitting on the land, I can visualize better how the training center and future structures could be positioned... I have some great ideas and as usual getting ahead of myself, but you always have to keep dreaming.

Souped up RV

Jaw and I turned in our notice to move out of our Apartment at the end of our lease (Nov 30), so we're getting ready to live it up in the RV for a month. Jaw put solar panels on the RV, tore out the old carpet and put in vinyl tile flooring and put in a new WC. It'll be small and cramped, but I think it'll be awesome. We'll probably take it down to the coast on the weekends and "camp". Can't beat that!


Some things are keeping me up at night - the process is amazing, but I find myself wondering "have I forgotten anything"? I'm trying to let it go and just keep reminding myself that we're creating something great - for us and for our friends / family. And then I always come back to the "view". And can I put a coffee maker and wine fridge on the 2nd floor deck??
Cheers!
Mer-OO
xox

The VIEW!

Building a House - Part 2...AIEEEEEEE!!!!!

Today is a good day. I finally closed on the construction loan for the house. This process was the most painful thing in my life. I'm the type of person that likes to make sh*t happen, and with this loan, there was absolutely nothing I could do. If there was ever a lesson in "letting go", "not worrying about what you can not control" or "stop trying to force things to happen and just let them happen", applying for a construction loan or mortgage now-a-days will teach you those lessons.

At any rate, I also have an address for the house. It was assigned when the builder submitted for the permit. WOOOHOOOOO!!

I've been spending a bit more time at the property and there are a lot of bunnies there. I like bunnies.

I'm meeting the builder on Thursday to finalize everything.... There are some things I'm really really (ahem really) particular about and other things I don't care about. But somehow when you're spending time and money to build your own house, everything seems to be of the utmost importance. Do I have all the electrical outlets in the right place? Where to put the towel racks in the bathroom? Are 15" deep upper kitchen cabinets a standard size because some of my dishes won't fit in the standard 12". The linen closets need to be deeper because I just measured the depth of my big towels when they're folded and I need deep shelves. OMG - I wake up every day grateful for what I have and know that there are a lot of people suffering out there in the world - how can I possibly be worried about the shelves in the linen closet not being deep enough? But one thing I've learned lately is not to feel like I don't deserve what I *have*. I'm not huge on having materialistic things, but this house is a dream and when it's all said and done, I hope it serves a greater purpose than just a place for Jaw and I to live. I want this house to be a place for our friends and family to come any time they want / need to. I want this house to be a place full of light and joy and happiness. I want this house to be a place where people can be and create their dreams. When the training center is built, I want this house to be a place for friends, athletes, neighbors to come and train (ahem - Midwest friends - have you signed up for a spring race and need a place to train in the winter??)  That's the dream. That's the vision.

Hopefully, the next post will include a picture of something resembling the frame of the house being built!!

Cheers and XO
Mer-ooOOo

Building a house...Part 1

For a long time I've had the yearning to build a house. I think it actually started when I first had my cat. I remember thinking to myself, "when I build a house, I'm going to cut an opening in the wall and create a space for the cat box that had like a little kitty door in front of the opening so that the litter box would be hidden and out of the way". There's just no good place in a house to put a litter box and hence my whole first idea of a house plan revolved around where to put the cat box.

Things have changed a bit since then.

It didn't become clear to me until last year why exactly I wanted to build a house. Now the vision is clear and I'm just pushing forward as best I can. I can't control this. If it's meant to be, it'll be.

Archie, the neighbor's dog :)

Jaw and I found a property in Fallbrook, CA which is way way way north county San Diego. It's an unincorporated town, known for it's avocados and history of artists. There are also about 10 churches of various demoniations along this one stretch of road and the first time we explored the area, we encountered a "preacher" of sorts giving a speech in the parking lot of the corner gas station.  So with divinity on our side, we purchased the lot. It's a pretty amazing piece of land. Situated on about 3 1/2 acres, it had a graded building pad, septic layout and all the makings to be an extremely peaceful and wonderful place to build.

Jaw set his RV up at the property and we spent some weekend days up there, got to know most of the neighbors and were feeling pretty good about things. I (more than Jaw) wanted to get started on the project, so I made contacts with a loan guy and got the skinny on construction loans. We would be approved - it was just a matter of getting a design and a budget over to the bank and then poof - we'd have a loan. So, I hired an Architect and got them going on a schematic design.

In the meantime, I did some research on the other utilities for the house.  Water was not a problem - there was a meter for the property and that was set to go. The house would be on septic, so all we had to do was update the old septic layout and submit it to the county. There's no natural gas to the site, we would be using propane - that's easy to set up... Finally, there's power. I mistakenly thought that since there were houses around us and a "road and utility easement" along the north side of our lot, that power would be readily available. I was wrong. But with multiple meetings with the electric company, the contractor and the neighbors, we finally (after about four months) got it sorted out. Needless to say, we'll be looking into solar systems to get off the grid as soon as possible!!

Next up - meet the fire department to make sure they're happy. You need a happy fire department or else you're screwed. The Architect and I met the Fire Department and worked through a couple of

issues. The fire marshall is amazingly nice and I pray to the Gods above he doesn't retire before my project goes through! I need to pave the driveway (this I knew). The driveway needs to be 16' wide, but if it's not in some places because of the terrain that's ok (Phew - because I'm pretty sure it's on the brink of being barely 16' in some places). I don't need to put in a fire hydrant (the nearest hydrant is more than 1000' away) as long as I have a fire water storage tank (wayyy cheaper than extending the water line to a hydrant and installing a hydrant). Yay!

I took the schematic drawings to a builder in Fallbrook to get pricing input and have been working with them to finish the plans. It's starting to come together and we hope to start construction in July. Yay!

Our vision is to build a house along with a secondary structure to act as a training facility / music studio / yoga room. The house will get built now and then sometime in the (hopefully not so distant future) the second phase will get built.  It's all very exciting!


Cheers!
Mer-ooO