Another long day looking at granite (so many choices).
Blue Pearl is no longer in the running. Just got boring by comparison to others we have seen.
Our two current choices are Polare Blue http://www.arizonatile.com/products/natural-stone/granite/polare_blue.aspx and a new contender, Labrador Antique http://www.arizonatile.com/products/natural-stone/granite/labrador_antique.aspx.
Labrador Antique intrigued us all afternoon. It has a lot of blue (that we like), a lot of sparkles and gray that we also like. It also has brown in it. We never considered putting brown in the kitchen. When we saw it in our own kitchen, it was not as impressive. We will look at it with appropriate flooring choices and see what we think next week.
After stopping for lunch, we visited Rick's Hardware to begin looking at the overwhelming hardware choices. http://www.rickshardware.com/ We are probably a little too early to be making choices but it was good to see what's out there.
A stop at city hall to drop off our request for masonery variance and the end of another day. No definitive decisions but certainly lots of choices.
What fun!
Friday, May 30, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Contract!
After over a year of discussion, questions, resarch & more discussion with our chosen builder, we have a contract. We hope building will commence within the next 3-4 weeks.
On June 16 we will go to the city to get a variance on our choice of masonery. Keller requires a larger percentage of brick or stone than our Craftsman style plan calls for. We are told it should be a formality for approval. Fingers crossed.
A tree survey will be done to determine which trees need to come down for asthetics and for placement of the house. A soil test will be run & applications for permits will be filed!
Almost a year after we purchased the land it really is going to happen!
We spent another couple of hours roaming through Arizona Tile - http://www.arizonatile.com/ yesterday.
We viewed the big slabs of the granite samples we picked last week. What a difference the big slabs are from the small samples!
One was put aside as 'blah', http://www.arizonatile.com/products/natural-stone/granite/nero_azul.aspx
Another put aside as still a possibility http://www.arizonatile.com/products/natural-stone/granite/blue_pearl_gt.aspx
A 3rd that we had not seen caught our eyes as a definite 'maybe'. http://www.arizonatile.com/products/natural-stone/granite/polare_blue.aspx
Working with one of the designers we put together possibilities for kitchen tiles & a backsplash. We liked what we saw but will go to 'tile world' in Haltom City/Fort Worth for one more pass through before deciding.
On June 16 we will go to the city to get a variance on our choice of masonery. Keller requires a larger percentage of brick or stone than our Craftsman style plan calls for. We are told it should be a formality for approval. Fingers crossed.
A tree survey will be done to determine which trees need to come down for asthetics and for placement of the house. A soil test will be run & applications for permits will be filed!
Almost a year after we purchased the land it really is going to happen!
We spent another couple of hours roaming through Arizona Tile - http://www.arizonatile.com/ yesterday.
We viewed the big slabs of the granite samples we picked last week. What a difference the big slabs are from the small samples!
One was put aside as 'blah', http://www.arizonatile.com/products/natural-stone/granite/nero_azul.aspx
Another put aside as still a possibility http://www.arizonatile.com/products/natural-stone/granite/blue_pearl_gt.aspx
A 3rd that we had not seen caught our eyes as a definite 'maybe'. http://www.arizonatile.com/products/natural-stone/granite/polare_blue.aspx
Working with one of the designers we put together possibilities for kitchen tiles & a backsplash. We liked what we saw but will go to 'tile world' in Haltom City/Fort Worth for one more pass through before deciding.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Rain, Rain, Go Away!
In June 2007 we had a tremendous amount of rain. We had cool temperatures, nice rain showers & a prolonged spring. This year, the heat has started early & it has been relatively dry with rain staying further north for the most part.
Today it rained most of the day. Normally a day with rain is a wonderful thing. And for the next few weeks, it will be! Just hope that once construction starts, we have a LONG, DRY period!
Today it rained most of the day. Normally a day with rain is a wonderful thing. And for the next few weeks, it will be! Just hope that once construction starts, we have a LONG, DRY period!
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Foundation
We are building a house. Starting over, four miles from the house we built fifteen years ago when we moved to Texas. The last house was for a family of four that included two very active boys, aged nine & ten. Over the years it included two cats, a rabbit & two dogs. Now, there are two of us and one cat left behind several years ago when Sean left for college.
We have been looking for land to purchase in our adopted hometown for a couple of years. Fifteen years ago, that was a pretty easy thing to do. Now, the city is almost built out. It was a combination of good luck & tenacity that allowed us to find this land. We wanted to move further away from traffic. The area we live in has become congested (as congested as an area can be with a population of less than 40,000). We lived virtually at the crossroads of the two main streets in town.
For a couple of years we have driven around, looking for land, looking at models. We have searched plans online, read magazine articles & started to become informed on 'being green' when building a house.
Last May we found our land. We knew when we saw it that it was in a neighborhood we would like, in a good location & the adventure had begun! We started interviewing realtors, speaking with their clients. We started interviewing builders, looked at many of the houses & made some decisions. We started organizing & cleaning out the house in preparation for putting it on the market & moving.
In June, 2007 the land became ours. During the summer of 2007 the land was surveyed & platted with the final approval taking over 6 months, countless calls to the surveying company, the city, a couple of trips to city hall and one memorable trip to downtown Ft. Worth. That trip included picking up a receipt to show that we had paid the taxes on the land (although it was posted online that they were paid) & walking to another line, 5 feet away to have an official stamp put on the receipt. Then back to city hall in Keller to turn in the receipt.
Once we had picked our builder we had several meetings over the summer with him, continued to look at plans & fine tune them.
Fast forward to December 15, 2007 when we put our house in the market in what the media called one of the worst housing markets in history. We were fortunate. We had maintained the house, including updating it. We had almost an acre of land in an area that is all but built out. We had a lot of beautiful fully grown trees. And for some, we had location, location, location. Four months later we closed escrow having received 98% of our asking price, no concessions for repairs & the appraisal that the buyer was looking to receive. Once the sale of the house was confirmed we started to meet with the builder & architect on a regular basis to fine tune the house plans.
We moved into an interim rental house about twenty minutes away from our land and are eagerly awaiting the groundbreaking. We have started looking at flooring, granite, lighting, siding, all on a high level. The time to start making some decisions is fast approaching. We have approved final plans. They have gone back to the architect for printing. We will meet with our builder this week for final contract discussions & a revised time line. Hope to see dirt moving soon!
We have been looking for land to purchase in our adopted hometown for a couple of years. Fifteen years ago, that was a pretty easy thing to do. Now, the city is almost built out. It was a combination of good luck & tenacity that allowed us to find this land. We wanted to move further away from traffic. The area we live in has become congested (as congested as an area can be with a population of less than 40,000). We lived virtually at the crossroads of the two main streets in town.
For a couple of years we have driven around, looking for land, looking at models. We have searched plans online, read magazine articles & started to become informed on 'being green' when building a house.
Last May we found our land. We knew when we saw it that it was in a neighborhood we would like, in a good location & the adventure had begun! We started interviewing realtors, speaking with their clients. We started interviewing builders, looked at many of the houses & made some decisions. We started organizing & cleaning out the house in preparation for putting it on the market & moving.
In June, 2007 the land became ours. During the summer of 2007 the land was surveyed & platted with the final approval taking over 6 months, countless calls to the surveying company, the city, a couple of trips to city hall and one memorable trip to downtown Ft. Worth. That trip included picking up a receipt to show that we had paid the taxes on the land (although it was posted online that they were paid) & walking to another line, 5 feet away to have an official stamp put on the receipt. Then back to city hall in Keller to turn in the receipt.
Once we had picked our builder we had several meetings over the summer with him, continued to look at plans & fine tune them.
Fast forward to December 15, 2007 when we put our house in the market in what the media called one of the worst housing markets in history. We were fortunate. We had maintained the house, including updating it. We had almost an acre of land in an area that is all but built out. We had a lot of beautiful fully grown trees. And for some, we had location, location, location. Four months later we closed escrow having received 98% of our asking price, no concessions for repairs & the appraisal that the buyer was looking to receive. Once the sale of the house was confirmed we started to meet with the builder & architect on a regular basis to fine tune the house plans.
We moved into an interim rental house about twenty minutes away from our land and are eagerly awaiting the groundbreaking. We have started looking at flooring, granite, lighting, siding, all on a high level. The time to start making some decisions is fast approaching. We have approved final plans. They have gone back to the architect for printing. We will meet with our builder this week for final contract discussions & a revised time line. Hope to see dirt moving soon!
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