modern with a touch of yellow...

There are so many things about the floor plan that excite me, but I am equally excited about the plan for the exterior.  Not sure how many folks share our tastes, but we have challenged our builder to give us modern on the outside, but warm and transitional on the inside.  There are a lot of things we love about modern homes, but the one thing that we do not like is sterile and uninviting.  We also do not like things too "European'y".  The renderings are works in progress, but the structure shouldn't change too much.  I envision that the bricks, stucco, and wood stain will probably change multiple times between now and then...but one thing that I know I want is a yellow front door.

Living on a corner lot in addition to the restrictions placed by the city where the house must be built really challenged Mr. Greico, but we really think that he delivered an excellent design.  If you are driving down Cortez, which is what our address will be, you will view the house from this angle:

I really love all of the architectural elements, especially the flat roof and the stairway tower in white.  We haven't fully decided the specific color of the brick or stucco, but we definitely want to keep the white.

If you are driving down Thornberry, which is right off Northwest Highway, you will view the house from this angle:

Since the home is situated to face Cortez, this elevation took much thought because the house has to look good from all angles.  I think that it was a smart idea to have both the driveway and the sidewalk face Thornberry.

As for the yellow door, the color isn't quite right in the rendering, but the home is in its infancy.  This whole process will really test my nerves...I mean patience.  But, it is all so exciting. 

Renderings are so much fun.  I bet the fellow on the stairs was so perplexed at how fast the grass grew and how quickly the sidewalk disappeared.

surprise! there is a pool under there...

I always hate it when other people are right!  I guess when it comes right down to it, there is a possibility that other people are as smart as I am.  But, when we heard people who we knew had built their home and they loved to tell us all of the stories about all of the things that could go wrong, I just assumed that those problems would never happen to us...and, I sure did not think that we would experience issues on the very first day! 

Apparently, the lot cannot be graded, cleared, and readied for the foundation if there is an unidentified metal pipe sticking out of the ground where the master bedroom is supposed to be.  So, our builder advised us to call Atmos and have them remove the pipe to confirm that it is not active.  I guess an explosion would be frowned upon.  Atmos told us that it would take up to 20 business days before a technician from Atmos could perform the work.  It also didn't help our cause that this all happened around the holidays, but it did take nearly a month for them to cut the gas off and work could actually start happening!

Awesome, right?  Yes...until they discovered that there was a pool under the enchanted forest (a portion of the property was covered in ivy which I called the enchanted forest...it stuck!).  Behold, the enchanted forest!

Of course it wasn't an enchanted forest, because at one point there was a pool there!

But, after countless hours of jackhammering and lot clearing and grading, the crew readied the property for the foundation team.

Let the waiting begin...



working with the architect and choosing plans...

We have always loved the look of century modern homes (think mid-century modern, but built today).  Following the advice of many blogs, we enlisted an architect before purchasing the lot.  There are many architect/builders in DFW and we performed our due diligence.  After meeting Tom Greico (http://www.greicohomes.com/), we felt that he listened to our requirements and delivered 4 excellent plans for us to choose.  And, with the layout of our corner lot (100x125) and the easement restrictions, Tom seems both challenged and excited about working on our project.  The house has to look awesome from two angles - the address of the property is Cortez so our front door faces Cortez, but our garage will face Thornberry. 

We settled on the plans below because they capture how we live today - no wasted rooms and a garage big enough to fit the truck!  The first floor captures the open floor concept and includes a powder room, laundry room, mud room area which is right as you come in from the garage.  Toward the front of the home is the master bedroom.  Here is the plan for the first floor:

And, the second floor has a very smart design as well:

We are really excited about the floor plan and look forward to working with Tom.  In the next post, I will post some renderings of what the outside will look like (they call it the elevation...I am learning so much!).

searching for that special place...

I will save you all of the boring details about the loan process, but suffice it to say that it is not shocking custom home builders are struggling during this extended housing depression.  Unless buyers are paying cash, securing a construction loan is challenging.  I guess lenders see all of the unsold inventory and can't imagine why we just can't find an existing home.

Trust me when I say that we looked at hundreds of homes.  We just didn't want to pay for other folks' updates or lack of updates which we knew we were going to have to redo to fit our tastes.   After nearly purchasing a home just miles from where we currently live which would have been a money pit, we knew that the only way to get the home we wanted while still taking advantage of lower rates was to build it.  Fortunately, we obtained an excellent construction loan which includes the cost of the lot and will convert to a conventional loan upon the completion of the build.

So, now instead of looking at houses to live in, our search became focused on either complete tear downs or lots for sale.  We found a very beautiful, heavily treed corner lot that we think will work out perfectly.  And, no tear down is required.

Since we had been working with our builder, Tom Greico, on plans and initial designs, we were able to get his feedback on the lot we had chosen.  After getting his approval, we placed an offer...and it was accepted with a 60 day close allowing us time to get all of the necessary approvals from the lender for the loan which covers the land and construction.  This loan will convert to a conventional loan upon completion of the project.

I took the photo below with my phone and does not do the property justice...and, we will have to remove at least two of the trees and also hire an arborist to assess the health of the beautiful remaining trees.  The lot size is 125 x 100 which is a nice size but does have city easement requirements (one of the many new words I have added to my vocabulary to date).  This just means that the new home must be built toward the back corner of the lot...basically the house will be built where I stood to take the picture.

Now that we have found our special place, the real fun begins as we are provided elevation and floor plans for consideration.