Today, we got the final floor plans and elevations from J. He and his assistant, who we'll call L, made some minor tweaks to the outside of the house to make it flow and tie together a little better. We were going for a little more of a craftsman style, and he made some tweaks that made it happen. I think it's fair to say that we love what he did.

J's got the plans out for bidding, and L is going to put together a couple exterior color options for us. We should have J's budget number in about a week and a half. Silly J, I've already got the budget number. :)

We're about 30 - 40% moved (I'd guess), and we're going to finish it up this weekend. We close on this house on 6/1, and have three days after to be out, but we're going to see if we can't surprise the buyer at close, and hand over the keys.

The journey continues......

Tonight, J stopped by with the revised floor plans and front elevation. We liked what we saw - no changes.

He's going to get it converted to prints, and we'll see the whole package around the end of next week.

At that point, he'll send it out for bids, and I'll finalize the financing.

We're on schedule to have a hole dug around 6/1.

WooHoo!

Nothing really new to report - J is working on the revised floor plan and elevations.

<--- Here's a picture of the lot.

Yesterday morning, we took a look at the completed floor plans and elevations from J (the builder). Once again, he pretty much nailed what we were looking for.

However, after some discussion and research, we've decided to change course. We looked at the neighboring houses in the development we'll be building in, and the houses to the left and right of us are ~2,000 and 1,528 square feet, respectively. Our plans came to ~2,300 square feet - we didn't want to be in the position of being the largest house in the immediate area -not a very wise financial move.

What we're now going to do is keep our main floor plan, and build three bedrooms, a full bath, a family room, and storage into the basement, instead of putting bedrooms on a second level. We're also going to keep the elevations (with the exception of removing the second level.) Besides being a better fit for the neighborhood, this allows better HVAC into the bedrooms, keeps the bedrooms quieter, and gives us a lot more living space for less money.

We'll get revised plans next week, allow a second week for revisions, a third/fourth for bids, and will likely break ground around Memorial Day. J, with a straight face, quoted us three months for completion - we'll see if he can deliver.

The journey continues.......