We finally have a picture of some of the deer that are on the lot!

We saw deer

We went out yesterday afternoon to the lot and we saw 5 deer there. I was so excited! I wish I would have brought  my camera. I am going to buy a salt lick for the deer for them this winter.

We closed on the Lot

As of Friday, we own the lot! We are excited that we closed on the lot and it is now ours.
We meet with another builder on Monday. When we receive all their proposals back we will make a decision on the builder and then we will begin the building!

We plan to go out to the lot this afternoon if it is not freezing and just look around. :)

Small update on our progress

We called 4 builders to get estimates for building. These are my first opinions from meeting with them or talking with them

Builder #1- I think he will be lower cost yet still does decent quality work.
Builder #2- He was very knowledgeable. I bet his work is more costly.
Builder # 3- Hard to get an appointment with, so he is more busy and in more demand
Builder # 4- Never returned my call, so he is out of the running

We have met with 1 and 2 builders so far.  It was interesting to see how different their ideas were. We have scheduled an appointment with builder #3 and will meet with him soon.  We will meet again with builder #1 this week to get his estimate. That should be exciting.

We close hopefully on Friday if all the bank paperwork gets done.

We drove by the lot and were excited to see many deer tracks there!

Questions to ask potential builders

We are getting ready to talk to some builders. I have been working on some questions that would be good to ask these builders. Here are some of my questions.

1. What is your experience, how long have you been building homes, and how many homes have you built?

2. Do you belong to any Associations? Are you part of the BBB

3.Do you use specific sub-contractors on a regular basis? Who are the sub-contractors?

4. How many jobs do you do at the same time? How many jobs does your company have in progress right now? How long until you could start my job?

5 .How are jobs managed on a daily basis? Who will be in charge of the job each day? Who checks for quality, mistakes, progress?

7.Can we see any of the homes you have built?

8.As the contractor/builder, do you assume the responsibility of and liability for, all your employees and sub contractors involved in the home construction process? Why or why not?

9.Do you have references from past clients?

We want to build a Ranch style house. This is the look of the house we like now. It will be interesting to see what we end up with!

This is the floor plan we like

Ideas on How to Choose a Builder

We made a list of Possible Builders

We have figured out the type of house we want, now we need to find a builder.The bank gave us a name of a reputable builder.We also asked friends for recommendations. We asked about builders they have dealt with directly,and if they had a good experience

Time to do homework

Now we have a list of builders, with the internet I am researching their reputations and the quality of their work. 

We have narrowed our list down to 3 possible builders. We plan to make up a packet of what we want in a home and will contact our list of 3 builders within a week or two.

Pictures of the Lot

Paper work

We have completed the bank paperwork to buy the lot! Our closing date is set for December 9th. We have a list of three recommended builders. I will start to work on how to choose the best builder. That will be my next post.

Follow our journey as we plan and build our house

We have been living in suburbia for some time. We can presently look out our back door and see 30+ houses. We live in an area of new construction and no trees.

We found a wooded lot of 5+ acres for sale by owner. This area is not as developed and more private. In our dream house we will be able to look out our backdoor and we will only see the woods!  We made an offer this week. We hope to close in about a month on the land and then we will be starting to build our dream house.

Journey with us as we learn about building a home! We will share what we learn and your can learn from our mistakes.