Taking shape

It's been 10 days since my last post - we went to the site over the weekend and walked through the skeleton of our new home. As you enter - the dining room is on the left and a coat closet is on the right. Down the hall on the right is the entrance to the guest bathroom with bedrooms on either side. The bedroom on the left opens into the screen porch (not built yet). Back in the hall continuing on is the great room which will have a gas log fireplace and built-in cabinets and opens to the back deck. The kitchen, pantry and utility room are off the great room. The master bedroom and bathroom are located on the left side of the house.

Left side - Garage on the right

Left front - Garage window in front

View from the street

Looking into the garage



Left rear - will be screen porch & deck



Right front - will be covered porch

Garage

Right rear

Right side

View into the dining room from outside

View of the entry from front door

View into the screened porch from bdrm



Kitchen & hall from great room



View of screened porch from bdrm

View of backyard from great room

Big steps

Wow, what a difference a week makes! When we last spoke with our builder he said they we're pouring the foundation last Tuesday. We didn't expect to see so much progress after that. I went out to the site the following Saturday and was amazed at what I saw. The house is beginning to take shape. Take a look at the pictures and you'll see what I mean. Remember this is the structure for the flooring. We can hardly wait to see it next week.

Crawl space - more like walk space.

Right front - bringing in utilities



Back - porches not in yet.



Left front - garage to be poured soon.



Front - porch not in yet.



Front

Left side

Another view of crawl/walk space

Ongoing progress #3

We received word while we were out of town last week that the building permits have been approved and issued. Great news! Forms are being built for the foundation and the concrete will be poured in a week. The truss company has been contacted to bring the roof out in 30 days. We took a trip out to the construction site today. A number of our soon to be neighbors came by to say hello and tell us how impressed they are with our builder and his crew. They like the way he keeps the site organized and clean. It is exciting to see the house coming to life.

Ongoing progress #2

Things are going to start happening quickly now. The water is connected. The sewer/septic system is connected. Seasonal streams have been redirected and lined with "riprap" to stop erosion. We've been busy for weeks now picking our appliances, sinks, toilets, doors, windows, plumbing fixtures, paint colors and everything else you could think of that is in a house. We picked the tile, wood flooring and granite a while back and are coordinating everything with that.

Riprap

View from back of lot.

Ongoing progress #1

Plans have been redrawn a couple of times now - keep thinking of things we want. Approvals from the association have been obtained. The engineering has been completed ( structural, environmental and truss). Now the plans are with the county to approve and issue our building permits. In the meantime trees have been cleared for the home site.

Trees removed for home site.
Viewed from inside the lot.

Trees removed for home site.
Viewed from street.

The beginning

Way back in 1999 when life was simpler and stock options were more valuable we went in search of a second house we could use for vacationing and eventually retire in. We looked in a few places and could never find the one we really liked. We finally found a piece of property in a gated community and planned to build a home we liked. We were excited and started looking for a builder - then the dot com bust happened.
So we said let's wait until things get back to normal to build...
All the years since we've maintained the lot and paid the taxes and fees. We've driven through the development many times over the years dreaming of the day we could actually put a house there.
Flash forward to 2010. The opportunity has arrived for us to pursue dream.



Another view before construction



This is the land before construction

I semi-retired in September 2009 with the idea I would take the rest of the year off and look for work in January 2010. Well work is scarce and we moved on to plan B. I am still available to work if the opportunity presents itself but in the meantime its Plan B: We've sold our house, put all our stuff in storage and are living in our motor home - while our new home is being built. We found a good builder after many months of talking to other builders we didn't click with.
Before we located a builder we had to have a plan of the house we wanted to have built. We looked at a lot of model homes over the years to see what we liked and didn't like in a home. We looked through books and magazines. We found a book of country homes where you could buy the plans and bring them to your builder. We bought a set of plans (not cheap) and this is what we shared with all the builders we were talking to. Turns out the plans had to be redrawn to adhere to California rules and regulations. We also found out along the way that you need to have the plans looked at by a civil engineer and Title 24 engineer (environmental). We found that building permits are a ton of dollars and the roof is designed by a truss engineering company. The builder we have signed with handles all of this. It's a lot to think about but exciting just the same.