Project Day 1 - Clearning the Property

Note: The "Project Day" number shown in each blog entry represents the total number of days that have elapsed since the first day of clearing the property.

It's finally here. The first day of actually starting to build on our property. Brad, the construction superintendent, called a couple of days ago to let us know that clearing would take place this fine Monday morning.

Dave and I had intended to arrive at the property at 8 AM when they started. But Dave had second thoughts. He wasn't sure how much of the road space would be taken up by the clearing equipment, and he also didn't want us to be in their way.

So, we dawdled and were finally on the road about 10 AM. When we were only half-way there (it's a 45-minute drive from our home to the property), Brad called and wondered where we were. We had not told him we were coming later. And, he's such a good guy, he stuck around until we got there so he could explain the process to us.

Here's a couple of pictures of what we observed upon our arrival.

Dump Truck with Bulldozer Trailer (our property is to the left of the truck)



Dump Truck (We are parked in the cul-de-sac looking back at our property to the right of the truck)



I learned that clearing is a tedious process. First the bulldozer knocks down a few trees. Then, Joshua (grading expert) gets out of the bulldozer to cut up those trees with his chainsaw. He gets back into the bulldozer to push the cut logs out of the way. Then, he knocks down a few more trees and chainsaws them as well. This process continues until the bulldozer has enough room to push more and more trees down and the clearing gets larger and larger.





We hung around a while watching the trees come down and be cut up. But, after a while, it's like watching cars rust! So, we drove into town to do some errands and then stopped by our son's home to say hi.

When we returned to the property, a lot more trees been cut, but there was still quite a lot left to do. The property is 100-ft across the front and back, and it is 174-ft deep.

Bulldozer At Work Later in the Day





We decided not to return on Tuesday because there was still a lot of cutting to do. We opted to come back on Wednesday when the clearing should be almost complete.

Brad had asked us to get permission from our two neighbors to cut down any overhanging trees. So, the next day I called our real estate agent who sold us the property and she went above and beyond to get us the names and phone numbers of both neighbors. I called both and was surprised to learn that one neighbor wasn't even sure where the property was located within the state as her husband had purchased it years ago and she had never seen it. The other neighbor was surprised to learn that there were trees on the property. Looking at the photos, I guess you can tell how long it had been since he had seen the property. Both neighbors kindly gave us permission. However, as it turned out, only one tree was cut.

We drove home very tired from observing others work so hard. We are anxious to come back on Wednesday to see the progress.

Designing Your Home - Part 1: General Floorplan

Before choosing a builder, we had dabbled in online floorplan sites--gone for me are the days of thumbing through hardcopy books. An online search for the right size home with the right amenities is much easier.

Instinctively, we know what we like when we see it. But, there always seems to be a few "somethings" about a plan that aren't quite right. So, after searching for a while, I realized "we" needed a method to our search.

The Designing Your Home article for this blog entry appears to be too large as a single posting (I lost 5 1/2 hours of work and now I'm trying a new tactic--shorter entries). I have not written the article as three separate parts:
Part 1 -- General Floorplan
Part 2 -- Kitchen Design
Part 3 -- Bathroom & Utilities Outlet Design (This article currently Under Construction.)

GENERAL FLOORPLAN

First we discussed and made a list our individual "must haves" and "wish we could haves" for the new house. Of course, the "wishes" dwindled quickly. It's fun to dream, though, isn't it?

We narrowed down our requirements list (in no particular order) to the following "must haves":
- Screened-in patio
- Whirlpool tub for Pam in master bathroom (hopefully with separate shower instead of combo tub & shower)
- 60-in shower in guest bath ([no tub] this will be Dave's bathroom--bathroom must be located so that Dave can easily get to the bathroom from the master bedroom)
- 36-in doors throughout house, for future wheelchair accessibility
- No steps into or out of the house, except those required by code (usually only one)
- Garage, preferably 2-car to give us ample storage for our "junk"
- Entry into the house from the garage needed to be near or into the kitchen
- Enough office space for each of us, and craft space for Pam (one large room for us to share would be great)
- Enough room in master bedroom for Dave to watch TV while sitting in a chair
- Laundry facilities inside the house (not in the garage)
- French doors leading to the patio
- Kitchen or dining area near the patio entrance
- Space to easily park our RV with access to RV utilities
- Ample kitchen countertop and storage (a pantry was a plus)

Now began the search.

Tomorrow's Homes, Inc. (THI) offers some great floorplans; but if you know me, you know I never order right off the menu. I always have substitutions and changes. So, I began my search for a floorplan by looking through Tomorrow's Homes plans and other plans available at online floorplan sites. In addition to our list above, we wanted to downsize considerably. Downsizing was for two reasons: less to clean, and less cost to build. Small, but comfy, was a huge criteria. We were trying to stay between 1000 to 1100 SF to keep our costs at a minimum. (We did end up increasing the house to 1225 SF due to financing considerations.)

Here are two of my favorite house plan sites:
CoolHousePlans.com/
HousePlans.com/

In order for me to make changes to available floorplans, I needed a software package to make these changes. I have used floorplan software, but for this process, it was not ideal. I found that copying a floorplan electronically into PowerPoint was easier. I set the size of the grid lines (dots) to a different pattern based upon what I was drawing. For big-picture floorplans and room sizes, I set the grid pattern to 1/10. A square of 10 dots across by 10 dots down gave me 100 square feet. This pattern is ideal for working with the entire house's floorplan. When I began detailed designing, such as for the kitchen cabinets, I changed the grid pattern to 1/12. I considered each dot spacing to be equal to 2 inches.

Next, I copied and pasted a chosen floorplan from a Website into my PowerPoint file. I sized the floorplan to match the grid. For example, if the floorplan had a room that was labeled 10x10, I would size the picture so that the 10x10 room would be the same size as one square in the grid (10 dots by 10 dots). As I developed layouts and made changes, I would just crop rooms or sections of the house and cut and paste as needed.

As I pondered each plan I would review our "menu" of must-haves to verify that a chosen plan would meet most of our criteria. Naturally, we would find areas that had to change. Some rooms might need a wall moved. Doors and windows might need to be repositioned, resized, added, or removed. Almost all doors in any floorplan we chose needed to be resized to 36-inches (for wheelchair accessibility, if ever needed). By changing a door size it might require closets to be resized or moved. You get the picture. It was quite a task to make it all work for us.

This process took us several months. I believe all-in-all, we settled on four plans, thinking each one was "it," before we finally chose our current plan.

During this process, Dave's cousin (Dorothy) and her daughter (Amy [a terrific mom of three]) would be my "external" counsel. Dave and I would agree on a plan with all its changes, and then I'd send Dorothy & Amy a copy. They would send back their ideas and opinions, which were a huge help to us during this process. It's always good to have the ideas of others to help you think of things we might have forgotten or never considered.

Here's a comparison of the floorplan and exterior design of the house that we started with as compared with our final plan and design.

Original Floorplan--1093 SF



Final Floorplan--1225 SF

At first, Dave and I enlarged the above floorplan to a total of 1130 SF. That's the size that we originally presented to Tomorrow's Homes and asked them to build for us. However, during the process, again because of financing considerations, we were asked to increase the square footage of the house to 1225 SF for a more favorable appraisal value. Tomorrow's Homes was extremely generous in helping us, financially, to add this square footage. I can tell you, most builders would never be as generous as they were to us during this planning and changing stage of the process.



Original Front Elevation



Final Front Elevation

The elevation design shown above is expensive to create because of the different roof lines. So, we simplified the roofline and came up with the following redesign.



The above diagram is a rendition I put together. Our final color choices for the exterior elements in the home are fairly represented. But, some of the design is not exactly accurate. The most notable differences between this exterior diagram and the final house exterior are as follows:
- The left window in our house is a double window
- The walkway into the front door in our house has no space between it and the garage wall
- The front door in our house is set back deeper into the house

The next step was to develop the kitchen layout and cabinet design. Go to the blog entry Designing Your Home - Part 2: Kitchen Design.

Designing Your Home - Part 2: Kitchen Design

Kitchen design is the most complicated. For our family, I do most of the cooking, so it was up to me to design its layout.

My first thought was "What doesn't work in my current kitchen?" For me, the biggest stumbling block is housing the dishes directly above the dishwasher. So, in my new kitchen, dishes will be more easily accessible. As we are getting older, I notice that lifting heavy dishes above my shoulders creates pain. So, my thought was why not put them in pull-out shelves at chest or waist height.

Another thought to consider is where shall I store all of my small appliances and pantry items? In my current home, I have a 5-ft wide pantry and many items spill over into the laundry room where I have a 10-ft wall of floor to ceiling shelves for storing small appliances and extra canned goods.

In our new house, space will be at a premium. My kitchen pantry is only 30-in. wide and I have no laundry room for storing excess items. Because the garage is next to the kitchen, I can use cabinets in the garage to store less-often used small appliances and extra supplies of canned and paper goods.

In addition, in this new house, counterspace is at a premium. So, many items that I currently keep on the counter, such as my toaster, coffee maker, mixer, and food processor must find a home on the available counters.

With all the considerations to the space I needed, here's the floorplan of the kitchen with as much counterspace and as many cabinets as I could squeeze into the available space. The countertop bar will be cabinet height as this space is designed as workspace and not necessarily as "eating" space.



All these considerations required me to redesign the layout of the kitchen on numerous occasions. In our current home, Dave has installed pull-out shelves for all the cabinets below the countertop. I cannot get on my knees to get items that seem to hibernate at the back of the shelves. The pull-outs have been a huge help to making items accessible.

At one of the planning meetings with Tomorrow's Homes, LaVonne suggested that instead of paying extra money for pull-out shelves, we install drawers instead of cabinets. This is just one of the many suggestions that LaVonne gave to us to make our home work for our needs.

Before I share with you the kitchen layout, let me share with you the color scheme and decor design of our new house. The general decor will be Arts & Crafts style. If you have seen any designs by Frank Lloyd Wright, you know that design concept. Arts & Crafts is created with "natural" elements, like wood and stone. The colors are muted earth tones with splashes of warm colors. The lines are geometric. Here are a few examples of designs by Frank Lloyd Wright.









What we like is the simplicity of his lines. Of course, we don't want all lines with no softness, but the Arts & Crafts style sets the tone for our design choices.

So, here are the choices of kitchen elements. As you can see, the backsplash stone fits well into the Arts & Crafts style.





The following drawings show the cabinet layout of each side of the kitchen.





Next step, decide what items to put in each cabinet or drawer. I went through my current kitchen noting what I store in each cabinet. This gave me a list of what I needed to include in the new kitchen. As of now, here's the group of items I assume I will need to store in the new kitchen. Any spill-over items (too much of a good thing) will go into the closed shelving units I will have in the garage.





Again, many thanks to LaVonne, Dorothy, Amy, and Dave for their patience with me and their numerous suggestions and confirmations. I couldn't have done it without all of you!

Working with Our Builder

Another significant factor in deciding to work with Tomorrow's Homes (THI) was the determination of the owner, Gib, to help us find a method to finance the build within our limited resources.

Note: For information about our builder, read the blog entry titled Background--Deciding to Build. Their information is near the end of the entry.

One of Gib's suggestions was to finance this build with a reverse mortgage.

A reverse mortgage is certainly not for everyone. But for us, it was a huge benefit. This mortgage option allows Dave and I (or just one of us) to live in the house without any mortgage payments until either one of the following conditions occurs:
- The last surviving spouse dies
- The last surviving spouse moves out for 12 consecutive months--such as to a nursing home (in all likelihood, if you stay in a nursing home that long, you "ain't comin' home")

After one of the above conditions occurs, the house reverts to the estate and the estate becomes responsible for either buying the house or selling the house to satisfy the remaining mortgage (we put 53% down). The longer we live, the more the 53% equity will be diminished; but hopefully, by the time we kick out, the remaining mortgage will still be below market value, which is a good bargain for a buyer. Enough with the finances--let's move on.

Here's the "God-thing" for us about qualifying for a reverse mortgage--it's all in the timing. In order to qualify for a reverse mortgage, we had to own the property for one year, and the youngest borrower must be at least 62 years old. We would own the property for one year on May 14, 2009; and I would turn 62 the following month!

We vacillated among several floorplans over several months and finally found one that seemed to work--a small footprint (square footage), relatively few changes required, it had enough space for the furniture we are keeping, and large enough for our sedentary activities. (See our entry Designing Your Home in this blog [under construction--check back later]).

Our next step was to meet with Gib and discuss our plans. He thought the plan would work for their building style. He then arranged to meet us at our property to verify that the land grade was suitable for the type of house we wanted to build--it was. However, there will be a lot of grading to level the property so that it is suitable for no steps. Gib was willing for THI to take on the task.

The next day, he gave us a quote. We were satisfied that the quote was very reasonable, and we enjoyed getting to know Gib and his wife, LaVonne. After a few days of pondering the bid and discussing the workings of the reverse mortgage with the mortgage broker, we signed a contract to build on May 15, 2009.

And, as you could imagine, that was just the beginning!

Getting a Real Estate Appraisal

In order to obtain a reverse mortgage (well, any construction loan), you must have an appraisal. In order to make a reverse mortgage financially viable for us, we needed to make sure that our new home came in with the highest appraisal possible. If it came in too low, then the amount that was lent to us by HUD would have been too small and we would have had to come up with too much money as a down payment. We could see that our house would probably be too small to get a large enough appraisal, even with all the extras we added (like a spa tub, screened-in patio, 2-car garage, etc.). To get a higher appraisal we realized that we needed to increase the square footage from 1130 SF to approximately 1230 SF. THI worked with us to make this financially viable for us. Now, it was back to the drawing board to figure out the best places in our floorplan to add another 1,000 SF. Revising the plans kept me busy and out of Dave's hair for an entire weekend--he was rejoicing!

With the new floorplan design, we did receive an appraisal that was financially beneficial to us. (See our entry Designing Your Home in this blog [under construction--check back later]).

After obtaining a 911 address, finalizing the floorplan, receiving the appraisal, obtaining Builder's Risk insurance (to protect us against theft of building materials), obtaining a certificate from HUD stating that we have received our training on what it means to take out a reverse mortgage (a 30-minute phone call session and paying a minor fee), and all the other pre-construction tasks we completed, we were ready to obtain the construction loan. (See our blog entry Tasks Before You Can Build for an overview of all the other tasks necessary to get to this point of pre-construction.)

Next step: obtaining a loan for the construction. Note: The construction loan is NOT the reverse mortgage loan. The reverse mortgage loan is the loan that we will secure when the house is complete.

Gib and LaVonne provided many suggestions and helped us to arrange each and every step in finding a suitable construction loan. They were just awesome!

Making Choices

Throughout the process of creating a floorplan design and signing contracts to build with THI, we (mostly me) change our minds like the wind for items to include/exclude in the house, wood choice and color for cabinets, kitchen layout, etc. I give significant kudos to LaVonne for putting up with our many changes. Even when we had determined that we were finished, we seemed to think of one more things that we forgot to consider. The details of creating the perfect floorplan includes such details as where to put electrical outlets, phone jacks, CATV outlets, and which ceiling light will have a single switch location and which ones can be turned on or off at two locations. The details are mind-boggling. LaVonne has the patience of Job and she never makes us feel that we have driven her "nuts"--as I am sure that we have. Her patience confirms that we have chosen the perfect builder for us.

Read our blog entry Designing Your Home [under construction--check back later] in this blog to understand the processes we went through (months of work) to create the floorplan that works best for the next phase of our lives!

Tasks Before You Can Build

The purpose of this entry is to give you a list of the probable tasks if you plan to build a home on your own (not using a developer). Some tasks may not be applicable to your build. The fees that I have included are the fees that we had to pay. Your fees may differ. Many of these fees are dictated by county/city ordinances or by private companies that you must hire to do the tasks.

The following information is a more-or-less chronological presentation of the tasks we have performed to build our new house.

Before You Close on the Purchase of Land

After you select your building lot, but prior to closing, do the following tasks so that you know you can use the land as you anticipate:

1) Obtain restrictive covenants (rules) for your subdivision, if applicable, and verify that you would not violate any covenants in your planned or future use of the property. (For example, we have an RV that we would like to store on our property. Many covenants do not allow you to store RVs on your property.) Always respect the covenants; they are in place to protect the future value of your property!

2) Obtain a plat survey of the property. Service performed by a Land Survey Company (fee $275). You must obtain at least 3 original plats from the survey company. Note: When it was time to obtain a building permit, we had to record the plats with the county. I received 5 copies from the survey company and I had all of them stamped "recorded" for a fee of $8.

3) If your property requires a septic system, obtain a soil sample test (aka: perk test). Service performed by a Land Survey Company (fee: $300). You will need at least one original for the Health Dept (I just made color copies for my own records).

4) If you are satisfied with the results of Steps 1 through 3, purchase the property (fees: typical closing costs and attorney fees based upon the purchase price)

Selecting a Builder

Although price is a huge consideration in selecting your builder, getting to know who your personality works best with is more important. If you have bad "vibes" about the personality of someone in the builder's organization, just think how stressful this relationship will become if you begin to question any aspect of the build. Being able to work together without a strained relationship is critical.

I'd suggest that you visit and "get serious" with at least 3 builders. This will not only give you the overall impression of how easily you can work with the builder, but you will learn a lot of facts as you go though the interview process. You will also find out what each builder includes in their pricing (or excludes) and then you can compare pricing, apples-to-apples. Create a spreadsheet or checklist with the various items each builder quotes so that you will know what you have to add or delete from their pricing.

Educate Yourself

Building can be a daunting task. The more you educate yourself on building practices, the better informed you will be. It's hard to "pull the wool over your eyes" if you are knowledgeable. Read books. Learn the general building codes and practices. For example, know how walls should be insulated for your climate zone. Watch a lot of building shows. One of my favorites is Holmes on Homes. This builder fixes mistakes of other builders. It's quite enlightening.

Keep a Notebook

Create a small notebook and add tabs so that you can jot down notes about the building process or ideas that you want to record. My spiral book was approx. 4-in. x 5-in. so that I could carry it with me when I went shopping or watched a TV program. I created tabs, such as General Building, Finishing Ideas (for trim or painting), Kitchen, Bathroom, Bedroom, Laundry Area, Garage & Storage, Landscaping, etc.

I also recorded the sizes of furniture that I know I want to take with me so that when I later created room drawings, I could verify everything would fit into a selected plan.

Create a Binder

I created a 3-ring binder that I take with me everywhere. This binder contains everything I may need if I'm questioned about any aspect of the build. I put all information in individual sheet protectors as this binder gets "flipped through" quite frequently and I do not want pages to get torn out. I put samples in a sheet protector and then I add binder clips to the top of the page to keep the samples snug and secure.

The types of information that I keep in the binder are as follows:
- Contracts (from builder, construction loans, insurance company)
- Property Details (includes plat plan, site survey, deed, covenants, building codes)
- Utilities (includes information from water, power, gas, cable/satellite)
- Plans (includes floorplan, kitchen design, deco ideas, site layout diagrams--where I want the house placed within the property boundaries)
- Samples (includes paint chips, tile samples, deco ideas, floor samples, etc.)

When You Are Ready to Begin Building, Get Answers

1) Electric Company: Personally visit the electric company to discuss the services you will need for your building project, and ask them what fees they will charge to you. Here's a list of what we needed:

a) Power source to your property/land (typically, a power pole). There should no charge for getting power to your property line. Generally, the electric company decides where to place the power pole. If you do not like the placement of a power pole that already exists, you may want it moved. We didn't like the placement of a pole in our yard, but the cost to move the pole was $750--too much for my liking. So, we became happy with its current location!

b) Temporary construction power pole erected to which the electric company attaches a meter (fee $20 for the meter). Note: Many builders provide this pole--ask the builder (sometimes they charge you separately). Important: You are typically responsible for the power bill used by your builder.

c) Electric lines from the power source (permanent pole) to the meter box on your finished house. In our case, the $20 fee for the meter that will be attached to the construction power pole covers moving the power lines from the construction pole to the house when the build is complete. However, you might be able to obtain underground power lines for your build. This, of course, would be an additional charge. In our case, the underground line fee is $200 for the first 66 ft and $3.00 each additional foot to bring the lines from power pole to the meter attached to house. We will opt for this expense because we have ice storms in our area. Note that if the power line on your property falls or is damaged, you are responsible for the cost of its repair. However, if the power lines come down outside of your property, the power company is responsible for the repair of those lines.

d) Request a street light, if necessary (our fee $7.75 per month)

e) Open an account with the power company. There is no charge for the account until you begin to use services.

2) 911 Address . If a 911 address does not already exist for your property, you must have an address assigned before you can build (fee $25). Personally visit their office to discuss your property. In our case, the street name had changed since the last time the plat was filed in 1974. Therefore, later in the process, we had to re-file a plat before we could obtain a building permit. Note: When you are ready to obtain an address, you will need to have the general house footprint completed to know where on the property your driveway will be cut. Contact your county for the location of the 911 Addressing Office. Find out if the county provides a culvert later in the building process for your driveway. Because our driveway had not been "cut," we obtained two white flags from their office. We had to go to the property and place these flags 20-ft apart (to indicate the driveway location) on the property at the street level. FYI: To obtain an address, the 911 Addressing Office measures the distance from the nearest cross street to the center of your flag placement. In our county, one address number is added for approx. every 5.25 ft.

White Flags Indicate Location of Future Driveway



Distance View of Our Lot with White Driveway Flags



3) Health Department: If your property requires a septic system, contact the Health Department to determine the process for obtaining a permit and the fees involved. When you are ready to build, your builder will contact them to obtain a permit (fee $275). FYI: The Health Dept must have an original copy of your soil test. You or your builder should provide the Health Dept. with a drawing of your lot showing the proposed location of the house and where the builder would like to place the drain field. The Health Dept. will make the final determination for the location of the septic tank and drain field.

Drawing of Our Lot and House Location



4) Water Department: Contact the Water Department to find out the Tap Fees (bringing water to your property) and what they do and don't do for those Tap Fee (fee $810). There can be extra charges if the street has to be repaired or if your street does not already include water lines. This can be an expensive process.

5) County/City Ordinances: Find out the set-back requirements for your property (know how far from each property line can you build a structure). I obtained a copy of the building codes from the 911 Addressing Office.

6) Homeowner's Association (HOA): If applicable, contact the association. When you purchase the property, your real estate agent should have contact information. Obtain from the HOA the following information:

- Subdivision set-back requirements Note: If the set-back requirements differ from the county/city ordinances, use the greater of the set-back requirements.

- Contact for submitting your house plans/layout for approval to build, if required.

REMAINDER OF THIS ARTICLE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION. CHECK BACK FOR UPDATES.

Background -- Deciding to Build

The journey to building our new home began with our decisions to retire early (Yippee!!). But, where do we live; how can we afford it; what happens when we can no longer live independently, and do we build or buy an already built home?

After several years and many months of wrangling with these questions, we finally decided to build or buy a smaller, more manageable, one-level home.

Our next decision was WHERE to build or buy. Because of the experience I (Pam) had in helping my mother as she aged, we realized being a short distance from family would make life much easier on us and family. So, our choice was to search in the area of Lavonia, Georgia.

After searching for available pre-built homes and finding nothing suitable in our price range, we decided to look into building a home.

We narrowed our search to three viable builders in the area--each had their pros and cons. While we visited builders, we also began our search for a suitable building lot. It didn't take us long to find a great lot in an established lakefront subdivision on Lake Hartwell, which is on the border between Georgia and South Carolina.

We purchased the property on May 14, 2008. Here's a picture of the lot (really nothing much to see but trees).

View Upon Entering Our Street (looking at this picture, our lot will be further up the street on the left)



View From the End of Our Street (cul-de-sac) (looking at this picture, our lot is on the right side of the street)



By May 26, 2008, we were on the road beginning our five-month RV trek across the United States. See our travel blog at www.pamdavetreks.blogspot.com. Needless to say, our building project was going to wait until our return.

Upon our return in October, 2008, we began the process to get our current house vacated and ready to sell or lease. The housing market had taken a significant downturn during our trek, so now we are not sure how to unload our current home. But, we know that we must downsize. So, we move forward with our plans to build. (We'll tackle unloading our current home much later in the building process.)

We chose our builder based upon several factors. But, the most significant factors were 1) which builder would be willing to work with Pam (the unofficial general contractor know-it-all) and 2) which builder would be willing to help us stay within our meager budget.

Important: If you would like to consider using the builder we chose or you just want to check them out, Dave and I would appreciate it if you would let us know BEFORE you contact them. They offer a referral bonus, which we would gladly split with you. But, we must give them your name BEFORE you contact them in order to be eligible for the referral bonus. Just leave a comment on this site if you don't know how to reach us personally--we'll get back with you!

Hands down, our choice was Tomorrow's Homes, now located in Comer, Georgia. Their Website is http://www.tomorrowshomes.com/.

Read about our pre-construction experiences with Tomorrow's Homes in our posting titled Working with Our Builder.

Exterior & Floorplan of House

IMPORTANT: This entry will remain at the top of the blog for quite some time. I hope this entry will make it easier for you to understand the pictures (for a frame of reference) as the construction develops. Scroll down below this entry each time you log on to view the latest posting.

Exterior

Here's "my" rendition of the exterior of the house. A few things are not quite the same, but for the most part, it's close. For example, the window on the left will actually be a double window. The exterior colors of the house are as shown.



Floorplan