It seems that every time I want to update my blog, I always forget about it! Hopefully going forward once things really start moving the information will start flowing more freely. Well, for an update, we applied for our construction loan/mortgage with the local bank in town two weeks ago tomorrow. We were hopeful after the meeting, but know nothing ever goes according to plan, so we didn't want to get our hopes up. The construction loan process is a two-step one; step one: apply for mortgage and get approved for xxx amount. Step two: go through the appraisal process to find out how much of that approved amount you're going to get. Nowadays, most banks only finance up to 80% of the project, so you would need a 20% down payment. Since we bought our land and own it outright instead of doing the land and house under one loan, our land can go towards that 20%. For example purposes, say we need $280,000 to build the house, and say our equity in the land is $50,000. In the appraisal for this example, we would need the total project to appraise for $350,000 to not have to come up with additional money ($280,000 is 80%). I'm not the best at explaining things as you can probably see!

So, we were approved for the full amount of the loan we were requesting, and got a great interest rate too. Now, we are nervously awaiting to hear back on how much our project appraises for. We should have the answer within a week now. To say we're nervous wrecks is an understatement. The project costs are very reasonable for what we are looking to build. But like I said earlier, nothing is ever easy.

Last week, after a few months of work, we finished clearing the lot, with the exeption of the wood we plan on burning and the stumps, which will be removed by the excavator. Our lot is 1.2 acres, and we cleared roughly half of it. Here are some pictures of the progress!

January 2011

Terrible picture!

 Winter & Spring 2012

 

Our House Plans (minus the 2nd floor, oops!)

To get an idea of the size, the house is 2500 sf. The master bedroom itself is 16x18, walk-in closet is 8x10. We added an angled breezeway to break up the length of the house. We plan on having an office in there. We went back and forth on whether we wanted the house to have it's length parallel to the street, or perpendicular. I felt the house was too long with the garage and the master wing on one elevation. So, the solution was, angle the breezeway! For exterior appearance, the house is going to have shakes on the front, and regular clapboard siding on all other sides. Our other home is Cape Cod, so we're taking a lot of the styling from there. The windows are going to have 12 over 12 panes, to give it that colonial feel. We're unsure of shutters at this time. Here are a some of my favorite houses which I'm using for inspiration:

Okay, I think this is enough for today! I'll check in again once we hear back from the bank!

-A