SylvanTrails New Home

We’re in our new home!  We’ve been here since March and it felt like home the first night we moved in.  It suits us to a “T”!

We did have one minor issue where the tankless water heater in the boys’ bathroom didn’t work, and it took a month or so to sort that out, but things are going great!

It is NICE being so close to everything.  We have gone from eating out 4 or more times a week to less than 2.   I buy gas about every 10 days or so.

We do have ticks and chiggers and blackberry brambles to deal with…yes, blackberry brambles can be a problem if they grow EVERYWHERE!  LOL!

Of course, there are still things to do to finish making the house completely a home…we need to finish hanging pictures, I need to fix the curtains in the bathrooms (they are too long), various other things like that.  But, we’re here for the long haul, so we’ve got the time.

All of the dreaming and deciding things and laying out floor plans and ordering things and delays and financing and it comes down to this…WE’RE MOVING NEXT MONTH! EEEK!!

The house is in place. The roof is on, the porch is on, the painting is in process, the electrical is in process, the heat pump is in place, the water is in process…everything is in the final stages…and WE’RE MOVING NEXT MONTH!

It’s really going to happen!

Lots of packing has been done…but there is still a LOT to do. We have a PackRat (mobile storage unit) on our old house that we’re loading with boxes. Once we’re ready to move, we’ll call the company and get them to move it to the new place. Still not sure if we’re going to move the furniture ourselves or hire someone…both have their advantages and disadvantages.

We took advantage of the Black Friday deals to get our washer/dryer set. Sears had a set that was originally $1500+ on sale for about $1k, so we got it. Cool news is that it’s not going to be delivered until February…to the new house. I know there were probably people who purchased the same set that were frustrated that it wouldn’t be delivered until February because they needed it NOW, but we couldn’t be happier. We still haven’t purchased any of the other appliances, though, I think we’ve got a good idea for the dishwasher.

We’ve met most of our new neighbors. They all seem nice. Yes, the neighbors who purchased the 12 acres next to us ARE putting in a horse farm…for at least one horse. They’ve also got 3 girls around Scott’s age (I think they are all 4 and under, or maybe 5 and under…Scott’s 3).

Hubby and I have been discussing different landscaping ideas. We definitely want to put in some trees to replace the some of the ones that were cut down to accommodate the house and crane. We’re looking at nut trees and fruit trees, mostly local stuff. I’ve also got some vague ideas for landscaping next to the house…I’m just frustrated that the house isn’t already in so I can put in bulbs for this year. Ah, well, will have to work on stuff for next year.

We’ve also got to do something with the area that the septic field is on. Hubby wants to put clover down. I think it will mostly be a play area for the boys, but, depending on what it looks like for sure, I may also set up my archery field near there. Right now, I’m not sure where my archery range is going to be. I need to situate it such that it won’t bother any of the neighbors or the street or anything like that.

No idea what kind of progress my FIL has made on his stuff in all of the outbuildings. I know that he and hubby did *some* work, as there is a pile of stuff to go to the dump, but I’m not sure how much progress was made or how much there is still to be made. We’ll see… I have a feeling we won’t be getting much use out of the little house this spring, either. We do NEED the garage cleaned out, so we can store the boat and maybe the truck in it. The plans are the boat and the truck live in the garage that isn’t next to the house and the cars will live in a carport right next to the house. Hubby wants to be able to get out of the car and walk right up the stairs and into the house.

We are now tenants in our old house…it now belongs to FIL. All of the property swaps have been done, the loan is in place, the house has been contracted and is being built at the factory, and the foundation is in place. I need to post pictures of the property before the foundation was put in and after, but I don’t have them on this computer, so it will have to wait.

The house gets delivered later this week, weather permitting, and then they do the finish work on it, and on the property. Things like putting the new septic tank in, the electricity to the new house, removing the water lines to the OLD house, etc. The scrub brush on the septic field needs to be gotten rid of and a low growing…something… needs to be put in. Hubby wants clover. We’ll see what happens.

We’re making progress on the packing. We rented a Pack Rat (a competitor to PODS) and we’re filling it up. Once it is full and we’re ready to move, we’ll get it picked up at our current house and moved to the new place and then unload it there.

Tentative move date is mid-March.

I’ve included a copy of the final floor plans, just so you can get an idea of the layout of the new house. Pretty spiffy and just what WE want.

Final Floor Plan–SylvanTrails

After all was said and done, when we looked at the layout of the land, there wasn’t room to put the house where we wanted it, so we’ve had to move that.  Now it will be more centrally located on the property, and the driveway will loop around the tobacco barn and the house will be oriented so the “front” porch/door will be…facing the street.  Just like it should.

So, we got numbers from everyone and figured out that, yes, we can do this thing.

This past weekend, we went and visited a display home from the company we are going with and had a few questions answered.  We know what color cabinets we want.  We also found out that we really don’t want pocket doors.  We had them in our original floor plan…going from the “office” to the master bedroom, but the first company we talked to couldn’t do them, so we changed to french doors.  Well, this company CAN do them, and had them on the display home.  However, they have a tendency to fall off their tracks easily (they did it at least once while we were there), and…with two kids, that’s just not an option.  I’d love to have them, because of the space saving, but not if they are going to be more trouble than they are worth.

Yesterday, we met my FIL at the bank and…the new property is now OURS!!  Now, we are working with our contractor to start on the permitting process.  We are also waiting for plans from the manufacturer to come back, so we can start getting the financing on our new house…and pay off the old house so we can give it to FIL.

Dates on things have slipped a little (don’t they always?), and we’ll probably be moving in over Christmas, not celebrating there.  Ah, well.

We saw our contractor earlier this week and he gave us (mostly) final numbers. Enough to go “gulp!”, but about what we expected. We have done some upgrades to the basics of the house…things like the “craneboard” siding in a color WE want (vinyl siding with foam underneath…adds to the durability of the siding and to the insulation on the house), forever-lasting “wood” for the porch stairs (I think to the whole porch, but don’t quote me on that), the heaters and the tub we want…things like that.

When our house is done, it will be EnergyStar qualified. So, perhaps better interest rates and perhaps tax breaks and perhaps lower energy bills.

We figured out how to solve the “where is the front door” problem we were having…we’re going to have covered porches off the front and back of the house, instead of just the front. It might limit where the house can go some, but I think we’ll like it better, in the long run.

Next step is to talk to FIL and get final numbers on the property swap, work on that, and work on getting the loan(s?). Hubby will start on that tonight.

We still aren’t in a super-hurry, we can always delay if we need to, but my worries about delay would be that interest rates might go up more than they already have and that, depending on when we start, we might finish in the middle of the winter…I have no desire to move in the middle of an ice storm.

Hubby was debating about trying to get a second quote, but I think we’ve got a good one…I know the base price on the house is reasonable and everything the contractor has added on is reasonable and stuff *we’ve* asked to have added.

Hopefully, soon, we’ll be proceeding…yikes…woohoo!

Theoretically, we’ll be moved well before Christmas…probably even before Thanksgiving!  Woohoo!  (eek!)

We are going with our friend.  He’s given us a tentative quote (will give us a final quote hopefully next week), that is within our budget…just barely, but within it.  But, that includes *everything*, the house, the driveway, any work on the well and septic, sealing the crawlspace, all the permits, etc.

Our friend is happy with the modular company he’s chosen.  Their prices are reasonable, and they can do some of the custom stuff we want, like the built-in 6′ tub, the water heaters we want, they’ll do the insulation the way we need it for the sealed crawlspace.  And, when all is said and done, we’re going to have a LOT of insulation…because the house will already come with EnergyStar rated insulation, then we add the CraneBoard siding that has it’s own insulation.

We are in all probability not going to get the little strip of land next to our property to put the driveway on…the neighbors have sold the whole lot to someone else, and they close about the same time we move in.  Ah, well…that’s the bad news…the good news is that the new neighbors will be putting a horse farm in.  Woohoo!  Pretty horses to oggle without having to clean up after them!  LOL!

We also contemplated looking at getting the property behind us…but it’s worth more than we can even think of affording right now.  Ah, well…

We’re still playing a bit with exactly where to put the house.  Hubby and FIL had one idea, but there isn’t a whole lot of wiggle-room there, and when hubby realized that they were orienting the house completely wrong, he’s thinking that, if it stays where it is, we won’t be able to put in a back deck.  We need to decide if that is important or not…and if it isn’t, then we will contemplate removing the door in the living-room, because we won’t need it.  If a deck is important, then we may need to contemplate putting the house elsewhere…like, maybe, right behind the current house or something… dunno, yet.

Still a half-a-gazillion things to figure out with this…like, do we get cable installed or not, which phone company do we use (do we have a choice?), if we move the house, do we just use the driveway that is there, or go ahead and put a new one in?  etc…all sorts of questions, including ones we haven’t even thought of to have answers for, yet.

But, it is coming along, and we do have a rough time-frame for moving…yikes!  It is becoming a reality!

I do that, I get busy with something else and get sidetracked.

Let’s see, we met with the one modular dealer, gave him our floor plans, gave him some input on colors and carpeting and other stuff and waited for them to come back with factory floor-plans and a quote.

Got their floor-plans back and said “what the heck?”.   They messed up parts of it…important parts.  Things like the doorway from the kitchen being aligned with the doorway to the pantry, the boys’ rooms being mostly the same size…things like that.  There were easily a half-dozen issues.  Hubby got on the phone with the dealer and discussed issues and they went back to the drawing board….and sent us something a bit more acceptable.

We’ve still got some compromises…like, they would be putting in the plumbing for the tub in the master bath, but we would get the tub put in ourselves, because they don’t do 6′ tubs.  Other minor issues, but things we can live with.

So, while we were waiting for all of that to get worked out, we send our floor-plans to a friend from church, who is a builder/contractor.  He looks into his contacts and finds a modular dealer he’s happy with and gets some information from them.  He gets some additional information from us, goes back to them, and gets an initial quote…that is currently fairly close to the modular dealer above.

I think we are really hoping things work out with our friend.  If the modular company he’s working with can come up with something comparable, it sounds like they can do more customizing…like, maybe we can get the 6′ tub and the tankless water heaters we want put in to begin with, instead of having to put them in ourselves.  Also, he’s a local guy, a friend from church…AND, he can do it all…get all of the permits, get the driveway done, the clearing done, etc.  So, instead of one of us having to take on all of the work of finding the different contractors we need part-time, we’ll have it all wrapped up in one nice package.

We met with him tonight and he had a bunch of questions…including stuff that we didn’t have the answers to at this point.  He’s also ready to come out and look at the property and to show us another property he’s working on that has a sealed crawl-space, so we can get an idea of what that looks like and what is involved with that (energy savings, among other things).  Hopefully he can get us a new quote in the next few days so we’ll know what things are really going to cost and where we need to go from here.

On Friday, we went and talked to the bank to see how much mortgage we could afford, to try to get an idea of what the properties are worth, and to try to get an idea of just how complicated this property transfer is going to be.

When all is said and done, the bank said we could work the trade out however we wanted to, as long as the mortgages on the properties are paid off. We were able to get an idea of what our property is worth, but FIL’s was a bit more complicated (nothing comparable has sold around it recently), and we discovered that with our credit rating, we could afford as much house as we wanted to afford.

Oh, we never did get the information from the realtor about what our house was worth.  Ah, well, we got the info from the bank, so all is good.

So, hubby has set up an appointment with the modular dealer we are going with and we are meeting with them this coming Friday to see what we need to do to work on getting a final work-up of for the house and get the ball rolling on getting the house built. Yay! EEP!

The next few months are going to be crazy, hectic, fun, as we get the properties arranged, the new mortgage(s) in place, the lot set up for the house, the house put in, and us moved into the house. Lots of work ahead.

But, it will be worth it in the end to have our dream house, built closer to everything, and built to our specifications.

Oh, and this weekend is also our anniversary, so hubby and I are going to do… something… we still aren’t sure exactly what. But, we’ll be heading off to do that after we meet with the modular dealer.