New Appliances

After several weeks of researching appliances in preparation for a future purchase we ran across a deal we couldn't pass up. We went around to several of the big box stores to start looking after church this afternoon. When we got home we saw a Sears add that said all Kenmore ovens were %50 off and cook tops were %30 off. I called to verify the add and found that it was truelly ALL Kenmore cooking appliances. Consumer reports lists Kenmore as having the least number of repairs and a CR best buy in the wall oven and cook top categories. So we decided on a Kenmore Elite double covection wall oven and a Kenmore elite 5 burner gas stove, both in stainless.

Still no update on the bank finishing up the loan. Appears the appraisal company is still making excuses on why they can't finish their report. Hopefully the report will get finished up this week...

We have power and water!

We now have power and water, at least on a temporary basis. Sweetwater utilities board has set a new transformer, which is located on the corner of our lot. A temporary meter and disconnet were installed on the side of the transformer to support construction activites. A new water meter has also been installed and capped off.

A surveyor has staked out the corners of the lot and the location of the house on the lot. Roger (?), a surveyor with GPS locating surveying equipment, optimized the position of the house on the lot based on the size and shape of the lot and water runoff. This will help ensure that there are no water issues in the basement. The house is placed approximately 50' from the road on the front, 25' on the side with the garage, and 16' from the opposite side.

The only thing holding up ground breaking at this point is the closing of the construction loan. The bank reported today that the appraiser has not completed his report, after two and a half weeks, and their management was contacted to force the completion of the report. Once the appraisal is completed there is another three days worth of underwriting before the paperwork can be forwarded to the closing officer. Hopefully by this time next week we will have a firm closing date!

Lot 19 Clover Hill

We took the first step of purchasing the lot on 10/2/09 and we received a set of 5 blueprints from Frank Betz on the same day. On 10/4/09 we met our builder Tim Sally at the lot and walked the lot to get a good idea on how the house would set on the lot. Lot 19 is wedge shaped with approximately 100ft at the street and fanning out towards the back with over 150ft of tree line and backing up to Hwy 11. The lot gently slopes down from the street toward the highway, perfect for building a two story home with a walkout/driveout basement. The lots on each side of us are empty and our friends Jason and Jennifer Dacus live two lots over.

Tim told us he would start taking some initial steps while we wait on the closing of our construction/perm. loan. We hope the loan will close later this week, if not next week at the latest. Tim will start this week by tentatively staking out the lot and a rough house placement, requesting temporary electrical service, and permits. It seems like both Tim and Katie/I are eager to get started as soon as possible. I learned this week that October is supposed to be the dryest month of the year so we are eager to "get the house in the dry" as soon as possible.

Below are some satelite images of the lot and house plans from the designers web site. I really don't like the colors used in the designers artwork, but that won't matter much since we are going the use all brick. Now the fun begins...