The Lower Level, Part 3 (Making Sense of the Options)

At this time, we had been in our own home for a year-and-a-half. It was January 2019 and we had finally gotten all the boxes unloaded, set up all the rooms, and cleared out the garage so we could park both cars inside. We had renovated the kitchen and half bath to make Kathy happy, installed new front and rear doors to stop the leaks, and replaced the 50-gallon tank water heater with a small electric tankless model since the old one was living on borrowed time. We had two different water heaters in past years start leaking all over the basement and it was never fun having to stop everything and fix the problem. Much easier doing it on your own timetable. But now our commitment to the new house meant we would have to sell this house, and soon. We called our realtor and set up a timetable to close on the house during the summer.

 I had just cleaned the garage and installed the tankless water heater

If you've ever sold a house you know you don't just put up a sign and hope for the best. Years of watching the various home shows on TV convinced Kathy of our need to prep the house for it to show the best. This meant fixing up all the little things yet undone that would surely be noticed by a prospective buyer, and staging the house by de-cluttering every room. Nobody knows how to "clutter" a house better than Kathy, and I say that in the most positive way. When you live in a home you make it your own by painting it your colors and decorating it in a way that makes you feel comfortable. The surroundings of a new house may be new but it begins to feel like home when you see the familiar. That might mean a wall full of family pictures, shelves full of knick-knacks, or a garage filled with junk while your cars sit out in the driveway. Prospective buyers are not interested in your decorating know-how but prefer to see more of a clean blank slate from where they can start their own journey. So we started packing up all the extra stuff and cleaning the entire place to show its best. I'm always amazed at how I put off fixing all these small projects "until later" only to never get them complete until we are ready to move. (Note to self: Do better on this next project. Get all the little things done right away!)

These shingles would not lay flat so I tarred and clamped them

Our next project in the house was to have been new laminate flooring. Some of the glued-down hardwood pieces near the front and rear doors were deteriorated from rain penetrating the old doors. I did not relish the thought of tearing out all that glued-down flooring, carefully removing all the baseboard, installing the laminate, and then just as carefully re-installing the baseboard. It never occurred to me that the floors were perfectly acceptable if the bad pieces were replaced, but my son thought of it and suggested I leave the floors as is. The floors were still unacceptable to Kathy because it was the dreaded "orange" wood, but now it meant we had one less project to do, and she wouldn't be there to see it. My son even had a better reason for saying so, in that I could use all the laminate flooring I had already purchased when we did the basement build. Problem solved, at both places. After realizing the usefulness of items already in the house, I made sure to save all the items that would be helpful to me in the new build that weren't needed in this house. Certain lights that were Kathy's favorites were removed and replaced with others I had around. I removed my Nest thermostat and put back the one that originally came with the house. I took the water softener with me as nobody I talked to in Georgia had ever even heard of a water softener. I ended up with a collection of small items that would help me in my new project, but didn't affect the house I was selling. In the past I had left everything behind and always regretted it. This time, no regrets.

I took my stack of flooring with me to the next project

So by the time May rolled around we had packed up many boxes, cleared out the clutter, and cleaned everything within an inch of its life. It was time to call the realtor to get this house on the market. This was the same realtor who had gone out of her way to help us get the house in the first place after many disappointments when deals fell through. She surprised us with her suggested listing price, took all her photos, wrote up the details, and the listing went live. After just three days and numerous showings, we had an offer that would lead to a closing about 45 days later. The obligatory inspection showed the need for some shingle repair which we had fixed. We had never had any leaks during out two years there but had seen a folded over shingle which led to a number of minor issues that were repaired. By the end of June we had finished all the packing as we prepared for the closing.

It's always exciting when you make it to the successful closing!

In a perfect world, our house would have closed the day before we closed on the new house. I'm sure you know we don't live in a perfect world, not yet anyway. We still had not heard of a closing date on the new house so we figured it would be September or later. We now had to figure out what to do with our stuff from now until we could move them into the new house. Jon and Myric were getting their house ready for the market and it would not make sense to move everything back into their house. We checked out storage units in the area but there were very few available and they were all small. We'd need several of them. In the end we found a local company that rented large storage containers by the month, delivered them to your house, and then picked them up and stored them indoors until you needed them. Our goal was to fit everything into this one container but that was a goal unmet. Despite my best efforts at packing tightly and to the ceiling, we came to the back end of the container with more stuff to go.

One last garage sale to find a home for the last few items

Moving the storage container into our driveway

Since we needed a place to stay until we could all move to the new house, we moved our bed and a few items to Jon and Myric's bonus room. As they say, deja vu all over again. We held an impromptu garage sale and disposed of some items, gave some more to Goodwill, and then sat down and cried. I can't remember if we really did or if we just felt like that but the fact remained we needed to find more storage space. We decided to check storage units once again and found a nice one close by that was indoors. It was small, like the others we had seen before, but we only needed enough room for the last necessary items. Many trips in the car later, we had the storage unit filled and the house empty. It was a bittersweet moment as we had really enjoyed living here in this house. But there was no time for sadness as the closing was right around the corner. After all the necessary signatures the house was no longer ours. We were exhausted but we were moving on.

No doubt the renovated kitchen helped attract a buyer for us

After moving back into Jon and Myric's home temporarily we started helping them prepare their house for listing. I went down a list of items to be fixed while Kathy helped with the cleaning and staging. After it was listed we made numerous mad dashes to straighten up the house and go somewhere else while prospective buyers examined the house. Their experience would be a little more frustrating. Several made offers only to back out days later. We were all happy when they eventually closed, though it was a couple months after moving into the new home. In the meantime we had the closing on the new house, thankfully using the funds from our sale to complete that purchase in August of 2019, nearly seven months after signing the contract.

Boxes got stored in one corner of the basement

Two days later, Kathy and I emptied Jon and Myric's house of our items and then proceeded to the storage unit to empty out those various items. These all went into the basement. The next day our storage container arrived at the house and we decided to hire a couple strong young guys to empty it for us as we were just fried by that point. All of these boxes and furniture items also ended up in the basement, with some of our daily living possessions going into a couple bedrooms of the new house until we could finish the basement. We would once again be faced with living in a home while building. Those boxes and furniture pieces were moved countless times back and forth in the basement as we cleared out space to work on a section, and then moved on to the next. Would it ever end?

Furniture and larger items stored

Jon and Myric had all the items in their old house moved to the new house a couple days after us. Kathy and I took a few days in Gatlinburg to clear our heads for the next stage of the new house project. The house was built over an eight month period (on and off, with a lot more "off" than we would have liked) and now our basement apartment project would begin. Yes, we had thought about what we wanted to do down there and how we would do it, but we were just now able to look the basement over and get a clear picture of what we had to work with. There were many thoughts about the project that were discussed over our time in Gatlinburg and on the trip there and back. But when we returned the project would begin in earnest, and each day we would be just that much closer to having a place of our own once again.

Arktander

(aka David Andreasen)

The Lower Level, Part 2 (Shifting Gears)

Over the course of forty years together my wife and I have lived in two different apartments, one purchased mobile home, one church-owned parsonage, and four different homes with a mortgage. So what was it that caused us to switch gears from having our own place to joining our son's family in a new house? We talked about what we were doing at our house, what Jon was wanting to do at his house, and about downsizing as you get older. I certainly don't remember all the conversations and the subjects but there were some overriding themes that surfaced. One was Jon's house and the projects they hoped to pursue. Most everyone who buys a house makes a list of things to make the house their own. This list was filled with both wants and needs, a some of them would be costly. Building new would cost less in the long run. On our side of the ledger was the idea of preparation for retirement years and downsizing even more. And Kathy never having to move again. Somewhere along the line the idea was floated for combining our families for good.

I started thinking about this distinct possibility during the final months of 2018. My mom and youngest son came to Atlanta to visit for Thanksgiving, and then for Christmas Kathy, myself, and my son's family went to Texas to visit family. There's something about spending time with family that gives you a better perspective. My brother-in-law Bob is great with people and has never met a stranger. He enjoys visiting open houses in new build neighborhoods to see what the state of new homes was like. They all knew Bob by name and that meant we had the royal treatment in looking around and asking questions. I looked at these homes with an eye to carving out two or three room areas that might work for us. The houses we looked at had this type of space on the second floor, usually a loft area with a bedroom and bathroom. I figured such an arrangement might work, though there would be no separate entrance.

Our bedroom in the bonus room

We had a taste of this idea years before when we moved to Georgia at the end of 2016. We moved our belongings into the basement of Jon and Myric's first house, and moved ourselves into their bonus room on the second floor as our living space until we found a home. For six months time that large room was our personal space, serving as bedroom, living room, office, and storage. Kathy was of the opinion that such an arrangement worked better as a temporary solution rather than a permanent one, and she was not shy in sharing her thoughts. Her conclusion was that there was really no way to make this all happen at their present house so a move would be necessary. She promptly went online and showed us all the houses that struck her fancy, though all the pre-owned houses seemed to need work as well. Nothing seemed likely to be a solution for our housing question.

The living room and office area of the bonus room

As we started 2019, Kathy shifted gears and started showing us websites for new home construction in our area. Again, most of those would allow us a bedroom and bathroom at our own end of the house but nothing more. And, just like we saw in Texas, we were not finding homes with basements. Though we were not thrilled with the idea of living in a basement, it could provide another option for greater space. Then she suggested we take a Saturday to check out a small neighborhood that was just starting up and was just ten minutes away. She had driven by it on the drive from our home to the kids' home and has followed the progress of removing trees, putting in the utilities, and grading the site. For my part, I never noticed that subdivision even though I drove by it daily. Since that day I definitely notice all the new subdivisions that are sprouting up in every crevice and cranny near us.

I was not impressed with the drive up to the model home. It was the only finished home on the street, with the one across from it just underway. Lots of dirt mounds everywhere. While I had only driven up to a barren road, the model home was complete and more impressive than I had expected. Having built a new church and extensively renovated a home, I was pleased with what I saw in the construction of the home. To me the structure of a house and other hidden parts are more important than the visible areas. Once you build a house you can't just move walls (at least not easily or cheaply) or yank out plumbing and electrical. But you can always paint the walls or change a faucet or replace a lighting fixture. Considering the problems with my previous two houses it was good to see proper sheathing on the exterior walls for structure, and the air infiltration barrier covering it. That may have been standard on these homes we were looking at but I wasn't taking anything for granted.

"It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood."

One home might be mostly just like another home but it's the details that stand out and make the difference. There were a number of items that stood out to me. The windows were very well made with all the right features and were far better than any home we had ever lived in. The ceiling height on the first floor ceilings was nine feet and made a big difference in the feel of the space. Jon was especially looking for taller ceilings so as not to feel claustrophobic. I liked the cement board siding which would not blow off like vinyl siding, and was far more durable than the fiber board siding on older houses. The builder also offered two options for the kitchen layout and two options for the master bath layout. And, in what I considered a huge feature, the hot water was provided by a large tankless unit. No doubt the plumbing would be optimized for the tankless system.

Interior of the model home

We also walked across the street with the agent and looked at the house under construction, which was a different model and had a basement. We went down to the basement, as they called it, and looked it over with a thought towards how we would use it for an apartment. Kathy has always said she didn't want to live in a basement, but this wasn't a basement in the typical sense of a Midwestern basement. Those basements are basically a giant hole in the ground into which a house is dropped. This is why most basements leak. Water and pressure builds up in the ground and finds its way through any little crack in the concrete walls or floor. Been there, done that, wasn't happy about all that got ruined. Storage is one thing but actually living in a basement is something far different. And what was different about this basement is that it would be more correctly called a daylight basement, or a Georgia basement if you live in Georgia. Only the front half of the house contains basement walls which then step down to ground level at the back of the house. The grade outside also steps down so that all the water runs down the hill and off into the back yard, thereby keeping it out of the living area. In addition, there are windows on the back wall to let in light, and a door that can be used as a separate entrance. Clearly Kathy was on to something here.

The unadorned daylight basement

This would not be your typical subdivision. Only sixteen houses would be built on this single dead-end cul-de-sac street. Nine of them would be on a slab and the other seven would have a basement. There would be no pool, no tennis courts, no walking trail, no clubhouse in this small HOA. But we saw it as perhaps the best option we had seen yet. When we got home I ran some quick numbers and felt that it could work for us. So I put our findings in a detailed email and sent it off to Jonathan to look over. I wasn't sure what to expect.

Jon and Myric then checked it out on their own and liked what they saw, so all four of us---Jonathan, Myric, Kathy, and myself---got together to talk it over. Jonathan said the numbers looked good for our budgets, and the commute to work would be about the same. He liked the smaller neighborhood that he felt would be quieter on the street. Myric liked the open concept kitchen and family room, plus the master bath. Kathy was excited that the space was large enough on the lower level to have an apartment instead of just a room or two. And I was pleased with the overall quality of the house construction, based on what I saw. We all felt God was directing us in this. We all agreed that me and Jon would go back to see about putting a deal together.

We did that the next Saturday. I walked around the properties down the street to see which lot seemed best for us, but Jon had already decided on one of the lots that fit the bill. We had to pick out a few of the building options in advance, like the walkout concrete patio and the large crown molding. But in a short time we had signed a contract, put down a deposit, and drove away as the first owners to purchase a house in this new subdivision. When we got back to the house and we told the girls that we bought a house, they thought we were joking. But we weren't. Instead, we were all soon to embark on the process of building a new home. There would be a lot of unknowns, but with God's help we know it would all work out!

Arktander

(aka David Andreasen)

The Lower Level, Part 1 (I Think I've Been Here Before!)

Wow, where has the time gone! I was asked by a friend when I might start the blog on our apartment build and I realized that six months has gone by since posting the five-part blog "Home Sweet Home" which ended with a cryptic possibility of such a thing. I suppose I may have felt at the time that a write-up of a mere basement build would be anti-climactic to an entire house build. However, the difference is that the house build went along without any assistance from any of us (in fact we were discouraged from being "in the way") while our basement build had our complete time and attention from the very start. So perhaps I will look at this as another multi-part series and give more of the details than I was able to give on the full house build. You can always skip over the parts that don't interest you!

That wooden structure is the majority of our basement apartment

At the moment, we are at the stage of nearly being done and ready to move in. That also happened to be the time when COVID-19 took center stage in everyone's life. (By the way, COVID-19 stands for COrona VIrus Disease 2019. You're welcome.) As the details trickled out slowly it became clear that this would be more than a mere blip in our lives. School was cancelled, store shelves were emptied of everything useful or not, more people worked from home, sports and other large gatherings were cancelled, and we learned about social distancing. Several states have mandated people stay at home and others require self-quarantine. All of this is supposed to slow the spread of the disease and keep new victims to a minimum.

Who didn't know a hammer arrestor was needed here? The plumber.

Social distancing has been interesting. I have been to Walmart with Kathy once in the last week, and everyone seemed determined to keep at a six foot distance from others. We wore masks and were careful as we could possibly be. I've also been to Home Depot two or three times in the past week as we were keeping a pace to have all our inspections and get our certificate of occupancy by the end of this week. Folks in Home Depot wear masks and gloves and all the employees wear gloves. The Home Depot in Hiram was limiting how many could be in the store at any one time by making people wait outside the store until someone else left. The Home Depot in Powder Springs was setting up a pickup line for online orders where you could stay in your car and workers would load your car for you. Kathy and I also drove to Floor & Decor in Kennesaw where we were treated to first class service as one worker took our info and told us where to go, another worker got our order number and called it in, then we drove to the pickup spot where another workers opened the hatch and put our items in the back. All of that to keep "essential" services going while at the same time eliminating contact was others in order to slow the spread of the virus.

These lovely bulbs need to be replaced with permanent lights

Even as I write this more states are adding extra restrictions as new cases of the disease are skyrocketing. We keep hearing that it will get worse before it gets better. In the midst of all of this the average person is just trying to keep his or her life together. Many companies are enacting helpful provisions for their employees but other businesses may go under before this is all over. Daily life has been upended. For our families together in this house, our schedules have not been all that different. Myric has been homeschooling the three girls for months now so that continues as before. Kathy and I continue to work nearly every day on the build and that continues as before. You could say that most of us are continuing the same "stay-at-home" protocol as we have have done for quite some time. Only Jon's routine has changed as he has been required to work from home, setting up a temporary home office for some sort of quiet work routine. Our difficulties have centered around our supply runs, be it groceries or building materials. On our run to Walmart there was no fresh meat to be had. When a store had TP and paper towels we were disappointed to find you could either have one or the other but not both. Clearly, life has changed immeasurably for most everyone.

I'm sure I'll have to close these in.

Last week was to have been our plumbing final. Everything was completed and working as it should, but we received a call from the Code Enforcement Office that inspections were being suspended for our build. I had to look online to find the reason for it: "Given the current health concerns, we will not be inspecting inside homes that are occupied (for instance, basement remodels, etc.) in order to minimize the risk to our inspectors and community." Either I'm getting called out or there is a whole lot of basement remodeling going on! I asked them what this meant for my permit as it expired in a few weeks and was told that they would renew it at no cost when they started inspections up again. Nevertheless, because I have been through all the rough inspections which you must pass before moving on to the next stage, I will be able to continue putting all the lights up to be ready for the final electrical and get all the trim and baseboards and other details complete so that I will be ready for the Final Final (that's what I call it) that gets me my certificate of occupancy. Well, in addition to the plumbing final that never was.

Will I be able to leave these stairs unfinished? Who knows?

So, tomorrow I will head downstairs to the work site and continue on baseboards while Kathy follows behind caulking and touching them up with paint. She'll also be cleaning the floors and getting ready to move our furniture and belongings into the finished rooms so that we can clear out of the dining room and library room on the first floor that has housed all that stuff for the past seven months or so. As far as I'm aware there's nothing to keep us from setting up the rooms, considering how we've moved all that stuff from one room to another several dozen times while we've been working. Kathy is adamant that she's not moving it any more after this last time, and who can blame her? Unfortunately, as many of you know all too well, that is the price you pay for renovating or rebuilding while you're living in the space. We did that once before and it took us seven long years, so coming up on eight months for this build should be considered a minor miracle. My wife even paid me the supreme compliment when she said she couldn't believe how fast I was moving! She never says that! During the aforementioned seven year reno she was always telling me she couldn't believe how slowly the project was going. So there's that.

Anyways, I will be following through with part two by starting from the beginning of our "new home" saga, and it might even end up to be more than five parts! If you haven't checked out the "Home Sweet Home" series now would be a great time to do so as it sets the stage for this latest project. I hope to have you along with me for the ride.

Arktander

(aka David Andreasen)

Home Sweet Home, Part 5 (The Final Touches)

It was now days from our closing date in the second week of August, which would be just about seven months from the time we signed our contract and five months from the start of the project. Five days before closing we had our first walk-thru at the house with Kevin on a Sunday afternoon. This was his chance to go around and tell us about everything in the house and how it all worked. You may think you know how everything in a house is supposed to work but if you hadn't seen some of the new things in the housing market, then you'd be wrong. He went through the kitchen and the appliances and it was there we found out that we had a smart oven. They didn't have the double oven in stock that we had ordered so they sent out the next model up, which could connect to the internet and had a screen to shows recipes and such.

Myric is super-excited about her open-concept kitchen and family room

Considering that all of us were there looking around the new place for the first time, there were quite a few little things that we all found. These were all dutifully written down so that Kevin could take the next few days and take care of them. We went through every room on both floors and checked it out thoroughly. But overall we were thrilled with how the house had turned out. It was so quiet inside with the new windows and all the insulation and it all looked like we had hoped.

Foyer stairway with iron balusters, and tile work in all the bathrooms

On Thursday of that last week, the day before closing, we were to come back for the final walk-thru. That day we also walked around the outside to add some things to the list. We went over all the things that got fixed over the last few days and then I went up into the attic to check out the furnaces and the insulation. Leave no stone unturned is what I say. I also went down into the basement as I had a vested interest in that location. And then we went into the garage to learn about the new Rinnai natural gas fired 199,000 BTU Super High Efficiency Plus Tankless water heater with Thermacirc 360 recirculation for quicker hot water and the Smart Home internet-connected and voice activated connection. This is one of my very favorite features in the home because it represents the best of the best in a particular appliance. Do I have a picture of this engineering marvel? Of course I do!

The "Super High Efficiency Plus" Rinnai tankless water heater

Some of you may remember I installed a smaller electric version of a tankless water heater in my last home and we loved it. The only downside was the time it took the hot water to arrive from the water heater to the upstairs bathroom, usually about 45 seconds or so. Truth be told, our original 50-gallon tank model also took as long to get us the hot water, but that is more a matter of certain faucets being the farthest away. However, this new system has a standard circulation pump that keeps hot water in a loop that goes out to the farthest faucet and comes back to the pump. Now when we turn the hot water on it's there immediately, like a couple of seconds. Before I turned that feature back on it was taking several minutes to get to some of the bathrooms, like mine. I may have been the last on the loop. You can waste a lot of water waiting so this is a great feature. If you ever wondered if a tankless is worthwhile, the answer is yes when building a new house, but you need to get one like this with all the features. It would also be worth it if you are replacing your water heater and it's in an area that is close to an outside wall to make the installation easier. It can cost several thousand dollars to put one of these in after the fact. To be fair, Kevin didn't explain all of this in his walk-thru, I found it out on my own. But he did tell us a lot of helpful stuff.

The family room, right next to the kitchen, with the fireplace and windows

The next day was Friday, closing day, and we made a quick trip by the house to see what else had been done. Then we headed to the lawyer's office for the closing, which was exciting because it was uneventful. We paid our money, signed the papers, and went back to claim our keys. We could all hardly believe what had transpired in just seven months.

We have a deck off the kitchen, which almost got built to half size

Kathy and I moved in the items from our storage room over the weekend, and then had our portable storage container delivered to the house on Monday with the rest of our items. The only snag we had was that the key I had carefully put in a safe place to open the lock did not work that day, so I had to run and rent a bolt cutter from Home Depot to get it off. We had hired a couple guys off the U-Haul website to unload it for us and by Monday night all our stuff was in the house. Well, actually, it was in the empty basement which is guess is still technically the house. Kathy and I slept there that night as our stuff was all there. Jon and Myric moved in a couple days later and we've been in the new house for a month now. In some ways it feels like we've always been there. I think it sure feels like home.

Under that deck is the door to the basement, and our future apartment

We chose this lot because it had the largest flat back yard

We've gotten out to meet our new neighbors. We were the first to move in but there are now three other families in houses across the street. The back of the house is a pleasant place to be. When you look out of the back windows you get to see just the woods behind the house. When you're out in the backyard you feel like you're a part of nature. Just this week the girls and Myric went out to explore the back yard and ventured out into the lot next door because of the "pretty flowers." They are pretty but I still think they are weeds. They seemed to enjoy the nature walk.

The girls took an afternoon to go on a nature walk

We still have to deal with the construction traffic during the day as there are still twelve more houses that need to be built. There are still a few items waiting to be completed. However, there were a number of other tasks waiting to be finished that Jon and I simply did ourselves as it was simpler and quicker. And there are quite a few larger projects that need to be done over the next year or two. The first big item on that list is building out the basement for an apartment for Kathy and myself. We will have about 1,595 square feet of living space which will officially be our smallest home. There will be an entrance to the apartment from the back door under the porch, as well as one at the bottom of the stairs from the first floor of the house. All the photos you see of the basement show many walls that look like it's already set up for an apartment, but there are only some walls built. Those are the ones that support the structure of the house. I need to add a few more walls to close off and partition separate rooms. As we have purged again a few months ago when we moved, we should be ready to set up life once the build is complete. That will probably deserve a blog post or two when complete.

Prepared and ready to finish the basement for our new apartment

So were we glad that we chose this path when searching for a different place to live? Definitely yes! After searching out nearly every other option we could find, going with a new build house in this location with this floor plan and basement was exactly what we were looking for. A surprising spreadsheet projection puts the new mortgage, insurance, and utilities cost of this house at $100 a month over what Jon and I were both paying before. With interest rates so low it ended up being a great time to finance this dream. Neither of us will need to think about upkeep and repairs for quite some time. This is the well-made home we had in mind when we thought about the house we all wanted to live in. It has been an amazing journey and we're glad we all went through it together.

The official company drawing of the Laurelwood model home

I leave you with this last photo as I close out this journey of ours. It is the picture of the Arts and Crafts elevation of the Laurelwood model and was the favorite of the four options offered. Unfortunately it was listed as the most expensive, though only by $6,000 or so. We agonized over whether to spend the extra money and the decision was made to go with the least expensive option since the inside would be the same. But on the day we went to sign the contract, we were told that the Arts and Crafts elevation was the cheapest of the four options and so we ended up with it anyway. God has been with us through this whole process and we are thankful to Him for it.

Arktander

(aka David Andreasen)

-- THE END --

(of the Home Sweet Home series. See you with the next blog post!)

Home Sweet Home, Part 4 (Up Out Of The Ground)

As you can imagine, there was a great deal of excitement over the foundation work that was completed. This was really happening! In what we looked at as a miracle from God, we were introduced to Kevin who was our new builder. We never met the former builder, though I tried many times. We never met any of the company people, who you'd think would want to meet the first customer to buy one of these houses. We never got any information from any of the parade of agents who were sent to our community. There was nobody who would now answer our questions, which was not surprising since nobody could answer them before. I told Jon that I only looked at this as a means to the home we wanted, and not as the experience we had hoped to have. Though the company sorely disappointed us, it was Kevin who would answer our questions or find out the answer.

All these walls helped support the structure of the home above

It took a month to get the foundation in because of all the rain. Then the weather turned nice and the walls went up quicker than I expected. During this first part of the build I showed up at the end of each day to see what got done, or didn't get done. As I've said before, there was nothing I could do even if there was something I didn't like. Nor was I able to do anything on the project myself. But I would take pictures of the day's progress and I started a text group message to inform the others of what was taking place. I learned a lot about new building techniques just by watching as the building went up. I was far more intrigued and interested in what was happening in the structure. By the time they closed up the house and began on the finishes I wouldn't be able to get in at all. Since I drove for Lyft each day I usually ended up going by anyway and so I was able to keep tabs on the build and report back to the rest.

Right around the time of the structure being closed in, Kathy and I put our house in Hiram up for sale and it sold within a few days. We closed a month later and we moved in with Jon and Myric (again!) for a couple months. It was deja vu as we had also done this when first moving to the Atlanta area. We put all our possessions in storage to await the closing of the new home and the legal ownership that would allow us to move in.

The entire structure is complete and covered with OSB

The picture of the house with all the wall and roof sheathing on it is one that stays in my mind because of the houses I've had that were not constructed like that. It was also nice to see a fully covered house in Tyvek. The only time I had seen that in person was when we put it on the church that first year of building. Then the roof shingles went on, next the siding, and then the windows. I had barely gotten that picture when they painted it all. It was all moving so fast now. Considering how slowly they had moved at the beginning it was nice to see constant movement. Before you got used to the structure being up, it seemed like it was all painted and ready to go. It was hard not to be impatient about moving in!

Tyvek house wrap, windows installed, porch built, roof shingles added

I happened to be talking to Kevin one day when I stopped by and he was talking about the deck project that was to be starting soon. I made a comment about how I was glad it was 18 foot long and he responded by saying, no, it was only 12 feet. I was certain I had seen it on the plans at 18 feet so he pulled up the plans on his laptop and, sure enough, it was 12x18 feet. He had to quickly make plans to make sure the concrete below it would be made that size and then order enough lumber for the larger size. And it saved him from making the one next door too small. This was the very reason I stopped by the work site each day.

Siding painted and stone work finished at the porch level

When we were at the Design Center, one of the choices we had to make was the exterior colors. We all liked the dark gray siding with the dark blue shutters and front door. The unique plan for the paint colors in the neighborhood was that once an owner chose their paint selection then it was removed from the options for the owners who came later. While there was a general theme going on in our neighborhood you would be hard pressed to call it simple cookie cutter.

Shutters painted, porch pillars, metal roof, driveway, and landscaping

Two oak trees in front and two maples in back, plus the street light

Landscaping added on the left side, with the forest left alone

Around this time I started assembling a list of things that I knew needed completing. I had discovered that Kevin was just as thorough as I and took care of things as he saw them. But as we got closer to closing day Kevin asked me for a list so he could be sure to get everything done. It was great to have someone willing to listen to you. He helped us get some upgrades that we had chosen and paid for, but that the company said we weren't supposed to get. One thing they learned; don't ever tell that to someone who actually knows what they are talking about. Kevin pursued getting the 2-piece crown that we had been told about from the beginning, and the ceiling fans in the bedrooms they had told us about at the Design Center. Thankfully, someone at the company found documentation to verify both those purchases and we finally got them in the house. I was right about the 2-piece crown molding—it may have cost a bunch of money but they sure looked amazing!

We fought to get upgraded crown molding and ceiling fans we paid for Though we had been down in that basement a few times, we never noticed anything out of place until Kevin mentioned it to us. Turns out that he had misread an email about the heights of the floors and instead of an eight foot height in the basement he took it to be nine foot. So the houses on lots 12, 13, and 14 all have an extra foot of height down in the basement, which is an amazing gift considering how low most basement ceilings tend to be. It's all the more a blessing since we will actually be finishing it off and living down there.

Arktander

(aka David Andreasen)

(Be sure to check out "Home Sweet Home, Part 5" which follows.)

Home Sweet Home, Part 3 (Is This Really Happening?)

If you're coming from Part 2 you'll remember that I mentioned the term "builder grade." It has become a term that represents the very least you can legally put into a house as it is built. That is unfortunate as most people would pay a few thousand extra for a new house that had more than the minimum. What does a builder gain by sheathing a house with thin foam board instead of OSB? One might think it more insulated but structure is compromised. Why would you install shingles without tar paper? Not only does it void the shingle warranty but you lose that extra protection against water intrusion. What about leaving out underlayment to place on top of the sub floor? While it may not be required by code it often provides extra stiffening for the floor and levels out the surface for the flooring above. Thin concrete, poor insulation, missing house wrap, cheap windows, cheap cabinets and vanities, cheap lighting, undersized heating and cooling systems, and marginal electrical panels are some of the shortcuts taken under "builder grade."

Builder grade kitchen cabinets: not fancy but they hold your dishes

I've experienced all of the above in one house or another and they all cost money to fix. The junk had to be torn out and the better parts installed. It would have been better to pay a little more to do an upgrade of each item at the time of the build. But as one finds out when going to either buy a new house or have one built, there are no changes allowed by the builder. The plans are drawn up and approved in advance and builders don't want to waste any time as time is money. Economy level builders want a house to go up in as short a time as possible for as low a cost as possible so they can move on to the next one.

Semi-custom: up-to-date cabinets, stainless steel appliances, granite countertop

If builder grade is the bottom rung of the ladder, what is at the other end? For that answer let's go back to Ken who is building what I would call a custom home since he designed it according to what he and Kelly wanted and has contracted with a builder to bring his dream to reality. If he wants to change a few things here and there he can do that. In fact, not too long ago he mentioned online that he had a wall removed. Depending on his agreement with the builder there may be an additional charge but he is entitled to that choice. I see that he has been allowed to work on his house, as he also mentioned that he pulled his media wires throughout the walls. It is likely that Ken and Kelly were able to choose every option they wanted in the house before the build started.

In between those two options is what I would call semi-custom and that is what we experienced. When we chose the model and floor plan we had some other decisions to make. We had two choices for the kitchen area and two choices for the master bathroom. The kitchen options dealt with the island facing and an entryway into the dining room. In the bathroom you could have a tub and a smaller shower or no bathtub, a huge shower, and a monstrous double vanity. There was no extra charge for these choices. Of course, once you made those decisions your floor plan choices were over.

Setting out our choices at the Design Center

Another difference with semi-custom is the choice of finishes. While builder grade makes the choice for you in everything and custom gives the owner the choice of everything, semi-custom gives you a limited number of choices for certain areas of the house important to owners like kitchens and bathrooms. We could choose the color of the kitchen cabinets, door hardware, countertop material and color, tile, appliances, vanities, paint color, carpet color, wood flooring, extra outlets, media ports, crown molding, and exterior colors. Choosing all of those was fun for Kathy and Myric!

Two weeks after signing the contract for the house to be built, we headed to their Design Center to make all those choices. A good amount of time had been spent beforehand with the list of upgrades so we were prepared. There were some surprises with extra choices and lower prices but it took us the four hours they had planned for us. We were able to see exact colors in the showroom, along with lighting fixtures, plumbing fixtures, carpeting, flooring, and the like. By the time we were done we could start visualizing what they entire house would look like. I liked what I saw in my head.

A great back yard, large and level

Since we were the first one to buy into this new community we had our choice of lots. Well, except for the completed model and the nearly-finished house across the street. This community of sixteen lots was divided up with 1-9 on the left being designated as houses on slabs, while 10-16 on the right were designated as houses with basements. The purpose of this was to follow the original topography of the land. As we walked around the basement lots we decided against 10 and 11 as they were in the tight space of the cul-de-sac where the front property width was less than the width of the house. Jon said we'd go with #12 as it was the largest of those remaining and would have a larger back yard. Plus there was an easement strip between #12 and #11 that would give us breathing room. Lots in communities like this all come with various price premiums, from $5,000 to $25,000. Silly me, I just figured the lot came with the house. Though ours was "just" $10,000 that amount was erased with a builder credit. Many months later we still feel we picked the best one for us. Coming from a back yard filled with trees and hills and mounds, Jon and Myric had hoped for a large and flat back yard and that is exactly what they got.

Preparing the lot

By March they had brought more dirt to the property to start setting up the topography correctly. No more can builders simply do what they want. Properties and communities are required to deal with the rain that falls on the land, protect the trees nearby, keep water away from the house, and plant new trees and bushes with a specific plan. All of that has to be permitted and approved. We ran into an early stage of that policy when finishing the grading of the Lincoln church in 1999, twenty years prior. That was the first time I heard the word "retention pond" and we had to make sure all the water from our property was first routed through that retention pond. Fortunately we had an area that worked well for that purpose, between the parking lots, and it didn't cost us very much. Developers and builders often pay hundreds of thousands of dollars now to meet those requirements.

Footings formed and poured

Once the dirt was moved into place or scrapped away, the digging started for the footings. Then the forms for the foundation walls were put in place and concrete poured. Finally the back half of the basement floor was poured in place like a slab. These were rather complicated floors with deep footings built in to support the walls placed on them later, and lots and lots of reinforcement bars placed all through the concrete. For our eventual apartment, we were happy to see that they put in a heavy plastic sheeting under the concrete floor to keep out moisture.

Foundation formed and poured

All of this made for what was called a daylight basement, or what my dad called a walkout basement. Here is Georgia they call it a Georgia basement. The front half of the basement is built of concrete walls which step down to ground level in back, allowing the back half of the basement to work just like a house on slab. With the door placed out on that back wall, Kathy and I would have our separate entrance. The build was underway!

Foundation at the front steps down to the back

Basement floor is on ground level in the back yard

Even this early in the build I could see some areas where I would have liked things changed. I had even spoken to the new "builder in charge" for our home but it was clear there was nothing that could be done about it. No matter, I would still keep them honest and show up every evening on the way home from work. I took pictures and kept Jon, Myric, and Kathy informed about what was going on right then. However, it was clear to see the builder wished to get things done right and he always asked how we thought it was going whenever I saw him.

Arktander

(aka David Andreasen)

( Be sure to check out "Home Sweet Home, Part 4" which follows)