Realizations

We haven't felt the need to blog lately because, well, the house building is pretty uneventful right now. We're mostly just getting settled and waiting for some key professional landscaping ingredients. However, inside we have realized a couple of things:

a. Despite being 20 feet wide, there's a lot of open space in the house. Or maybe it's just that we don't have very much furniture. This is proving to be a positive in Natalie's book- especially as she learns to walk with her little car back and forth and back and forth and back and forth (and back and forth). Plus we have plenty of room for a tent and tunnel in our living room- and isn't that just every child's dream? Twenty feet wide is proving to be plenty big so far.

...and back and forth

b. Our shiny new house makes the furniture we do have look ugly.

Like maybe it came from the streets of Boston on "big trash day" or the "as is" section of Ikea or something. We've been taking what we have and all the little things we saved and trying to give it all a place in our new life. We certainly don't *need* new stuff, we're living comfortably and fine with what we have. Paint can do wonders. Fabric can be reused. Hardware is available on something your husband called trash three days ago.

No, I'm not going to show you a picture of our ugly furniture.

I'm going with these cute window treatments instead.

My mother was intrigued by the challenge of creating roman shades for Natalie's room by taking apart old venetian blinds from our last house to use as parts.

c. We're too afraid to commit to hanging pictures and other things that require holes in our pretty new walls. Heck, we're too afraid to commit to buying floor mats for the front door and that certainly doesn't require holes. I think this drove my parents crazy last week during their visit. How many times did we hear, "You know, you should really put something to hang towels on in the bathroom." or "You really should get a mat for the front door." After rushing to commit and decide so much in the past year we have now slowed down considerably. Yes we know things like this can be changed, but knowing us, once we've committed $12.99 to a floor mat, it's not going to be changed until it literally falls apart. Therein lies the fear of commitment.

Note the artwork resting on the repainted shelf in the background.

Feel free to come over and vote where you think it should be hung.

-J

Water Valve Wednesday

Somehow I knew in the back of my mind that ending the previous blog post with "full speed ahead" would just make us come to a screeching halt. You know, the kind where you're frowning at a huge hole saying to yourself, "I thought I was done staring at holes on this property" and wondering if it would make more sense to just go get what's left of your money, toss it in the hole, cover it up with dirt and call it all done. I don't think that would help get us any closer to actually getting into the house though.

The day started off promising enough. The stairs had been stained yesterday and there were floor people milling about this morning, although they weren't here long and I'm not really sure what they did. Then the Department of Public Works (DPW) came by to switch out the water valve, and that's where things got more complicated.

A full driveway first thing in the morning always holds such promise.

Apparently, a lazy predecessor neglected to follow the rules and bring their line the entire length under the driveway as everyone previously assumed. (Huh- more corners cut in the previous shack- imagine that!) Options were discussed, sympathies expressed, but really the only choice in doing it right was to call back our faithful excavator, George, to dig up more of the paved driveway to find where the other guys left off and correctly tie into that, so that the entire run would be the proper one inch plastic pipe.

At one point there were no fewer than 9 of us staring at the hole: the DPW guys, George's guy Mike, myself, John the contractor, and a couple of neighbors.

Fortunately George was just around the corner and was over within the hour with his cute red "digger".

George in the hole. John and 2 DPW guys look on. The blue is the new 1 inch pipe we're supposed to have (and thought we had), as opposed to the copper 3/4 inch one that's hidden under part of the driveway.

As our contractor, John, said today, "Nothing's ever easy." Not when you want it to be anyway.

Apparently the DPW guys will be back on Friday to pave their section over the sidewalk. I'm not quite sure what that means for the other section. To think, we had originally debated about moving the driveway, but changed our minds because it was fine and in good shape.

So that's that. It's switched. We've now got what the town considers a proper water line and a more-current-than-1940 valve, so we're ready to go. If there is a plumber at our house tomorrow, I will be very happy.

-J

The Night Job

Oceanographer by day, amateur homebuilder by night, and enough grace and stamina leftover to take a time-out and care for Natalie when she pulls her first fever (no worries- she's better now). The glow next door reflects the many nights spent working next door (and highlights the need for shades/curtains).

Sometime in the middle of the night

On Thursday most of our light fixtures were installed by the electricians. Apparently we had lost count of how many lights we actually had, as we ended up being short three fixtures...the master bedroom closet, the washer/dryer area, and the mudroom (after all the problems it's caused us, we just forgot all about it). A few others, like the ones over the island, were deferred until the island was actually secured in place with a countertop. Still, it was fun to see some of the rooms take shape with the trim work nearly complete and the lights up...some of the lights even have temporary bulbs.

Anthony and Natalie checking out the sconce in the bathroom.

We are striving for a Energy Star HERS rating that will require at least 80% of the lights to be something other than incandescent. As most electricians and 'lighting experts' abhor CF or similar energy efficient bulbs because of their un-incandescentness, most of our bulbs will be supplied by a energy rating company (the same people who will pressure test our whole house), and are yet to come in. So the electricians left a skeleton crew of bulbs in place, perhaps to show us that they all actually worked. Again, much of the house, really just the simple rooms, feels like it is almost there...and just waiting for the floor.

These little button lights are our go-to easy fix for many areas of the house.

Which brings me to the rest of the weekend - after another trip to our Swedish hardware/furniture/solution store - we came home with the three remaining lights as well as our temporary solution to a kitchen countertop. Sunday, Anthony finished putting together and securing the cabinets and placed the temporary countertop. There is still one piece of the temporary top that we'll have to pick up, but it was on back order until this coming week. We're using temporary tops in the kitchen and bathrooms so that we can complete the project enough to move in and then focus on making the real ones at our leisure.

Island with butcher block top

We also finalized our door hardware on Friday, which took a dramatic switcheroo right at the end. Many of our selection 'issues' seem to occur when we have some entrenched design preference or idea or concept fixed in our heads that, over time, becomes untenable. Of course once you've decided to go a certain direction, it takes so much longer and so much more effort to change to a direction you'd previously discounted for some, previously iron-clad reason. (Perhaps this is what our builder was going through with our stairs). We were originally heading in one direction with cool handlesets and deadbolts and fancy rectangular rosettes from Emtek, when it occurred to us we wouldn't be able to leave and lock our doors without a key (which in hindsight, everyone should be able to do). After a too-long struggle to find a workable option with Emtek, we ended up changing lock and lever style as well as manufacturers completely. Writing this, it sounds like trivial issue, which I totally agree with, but for 'frugal wafflers' this is a bad scene.

Finally, it's felt like we've been hemorrhaging monopoly money for the past few months, but we think we now have everything ordered, planned out, or waiting to be installed. Everything, that is, except the kitchen sink. We'll have to get on that.

-J

Something Under Our Feet

Our tile is in and finished: the mudroom floor, the wall around the tub, and the bathroom floor.

Mudroom tile- It's called "Ayers Rock Cobalto Blue", which I find funny. I've been to Ayers Rock (yes, I did just work that in) and nothing about it reminds me of this tile, nor do I think that the tile or Ayers Rock have much to do with "blue". Maybe that's why we got a sweet discount on it.

Upstairs bathroom: "Stoney Point Grigio" on the floor and white subway tile around the tub.

The floor in the rest of the house was scheduled to be installed Monday, but now that's pushed back until Wednesday. Why? It's complicated. It involves stair guys, floor guys, us, "experts" on the phone in Georgia and the whole-like. What it comes down to is that our people here have been doing things a certain way for thirty years and if we throw them even the smallest design curve ball they balk and spend their time and energy trying to get us to change our minds rather than spending their time and energy embracing the new challenge (even if we're trying to get them to do something that's actually pictured in their own catalog). You would also think stair guys and floor guys had worked with each other before. This does not seem to be the case. This is difficult for Anthony and I to deal with, and I think it's because we both work in professions where learning something new (and collaborating) is celebrated.

So I'm holding my breath until Wednesday now.

-J

Anthony the Scandinavian Carpenter

Cost-saving measures require that we acquire new personas. Ikea requires that we find some freetime in the middle of the night for a few weeks and can understand diagrams with little quizzical cartoon guys.

Anthony has been putting cabinets together whenever he has a "bit" of time since we picked them up flatpacked back in April. Last weekend we also started to install them so that they'll be in place before the floor goes in. There was some initial worry about making sure we were certain where the studs and a pipe were hidden, but the purchase of a stud finder confirmed our measurements and we were set to drill into our new walls and start hanging.

Cabinet One (note the daylight)

Two

Three

Four... right side uppers all hung (while the rest of the world sleeps)

Of course, even with all the planning and measuring and wall moving, Anthony discovered that the architect had not accounted for picky little things like the width of the window trim, or at least the window trim that the builder had put on, and so we had to rethink how we were going to handle our new odd-sized space on the left side of the window. I think we've figured out a new plan that should work. We shall see as the installation continues...

-J

Anthony the Plumber

Putting together manifolds...or voguing

This past week I've been spending a bit of time installing the tubing for the radiant floor heating system. When I say 'a bit' you should know that I'm actually modestly understating the vast amount of time I've sunken into this aspect of our house 'project'. This system was one of the core items we wanted to have in our new house. However we knew that to do it and stay within our budget, sweat equity would be required.

A lot of measuring and a lot of cutting to finish the tube returns.

We were most plumber's worst nightmare: unsatisfied with both the cost of full systems they were quoting us and the energy efficiency of their options, and armed with a neighbor across the street who is a local expert on radiant heating after doing this for his house. It took some time to find a plumber who was willing to cut the job in half: I would handled the tubing and manifold installation (significant labor, low skill) and he'd handle the supply lines from the mani's to the boiler itself (significantly higher skill).

So, with this arrangement I have ended up spending 'a bit' of time planning for the installation, ordering parts, convincing the plumber to do 'research' on the best boiler for our house and explain to me the efficiencies of everything from mixing values to indirect water heaters. Personally, I'm surprised that he hasn't walked away from the job yet. Our first plumber did.

As you may remember, a few weeks ago, we brought in some slave labor to help me install the wood strips used to separate the runs of tubing. Later in the week, while I went to a meeting in Santa Barbara, my mother-in-law continued to work on the system, screwing down some 400 aluminum heat transfer plates (about half of the total amount used). Personally, I'm surprised that she didn't walk away from the job. Our daughter must be really cute.

So, this past week the time came to install the tubing into the tracks, attach everything to the manifolds, and pressurize the system so that we'd know if the tile installers, or someone else punctured a tube while working. I spent Wednesday evening (5pm to 2am) installing the 5 tubes that will heat the top floor (each floor has ~950 ft of tubing on it). Aside from the first one when I was quite nervous about cracking, breaking, bending, or stepping too hard on the tubing, actually laying it went really well and only took ~2 hours. Cleaning the floor beforehand took about 5 hours. The same was true this weekend for the main floor, cleaning 5 hours, tube install 2 hours.

Upstairs tubes in place

Installing and pressurizing the manifolds, what was to be the final step for me task-wise, has become a grey area. We'd like the tubes pressurized before proceeding, but it turns out that I'm a terrible plumber. For the life of me I can't get all the manifold fittings taped and on such that the systems hold a constant pressure overnight.

Upstairs manifold, or "mani" as Jody likes to call it. Once the plumber installs the supply lines, the mani will actually move down and the tubes will fit in their respective slots.

After a night of spraying soapy water on the manifolds, looking for bubbles and tightening and retightening, I'm fairly certain that it is a manifold problem and not a tube problem. But I finally had to give up and call the real plumber in early. I'll try to not ask too many questions this time, and hopefully, he'll spend a bit of time finalizing the installation.

- A

Resolved

In a flurry we were able to metaphorically nail down our floor. It's going to float, of course, so by that I mean we picked it out, half-paid for it, and arranged for it to be delivered and installed.

After the Great Floor Fiasco of last week we re-explored a couple more of our options until they either fell apart or panned out. In the end there was one business in town left standing when we told them our budget and our wishes. Now our only wonder is if we had told them a lower budget, would they have met us at that price-point as well?

The important thing is that we got the floor we want at a price we're comfortable with (as comfortable as two cheapskates can be...) and in the timeline we need.

Meanwhile, kitchen cabinets are beginning to take shape in the living room of our rental house, the trim and doors are being hung over at our new house, and our minds have moved on to trying to figure out what we want the stair railings and balusters to look like (or how to get them to look the way we want and still meet code).

A busy place

- J

Holes

Holes in the front yard.

Holes in the back yard.

Holes in our bank account...

On Friday we came home to a very large hole, a very big excavator, and a super huge lego brick in our front yard. Apparently it was time to move the septic tank back in.

It was also time to get our mitigation plantings in. Anthony went to two different nurseries on Saturday and filled the Rav 4 with native species. He then began digging...

We're coming down to crunch time here where all the things that make a home need to have been bought yesterday so that we don't slow the project down. This is especially hard on us frugal wafflers, but we're hanging in there the best we can. We keep reminding ourselves that the important items are done (like the insulation), and what we're choosing now can be more or less changed down the road if we can't find exactly what we want at our bare-bones budget right now.

- J

Little Games Along the Way

First a disclaimer: there are no pictures with this post. Anthony's computer has not been playing nicely lately, so my computer has recently been confiscated by him (okay so it was our computer, but I used to use it almost exclusively). All the photos are on that computer, so all you get are words while I type on a different computer.

Some musings that have come up recently...

There are signs we like to look for in certain situations- kind of like little games or mini-milestones. For example, when we're skiing you get points for being the first one to spot the guy skiing in jeans (there's always someone- and the fake points get multiplied by certain factors depending on how straight the skis are, how acid-washed the jeans are, or instantly by a gazillion if he or she happens to be on a monoski).

Another that's more relevant to homebuilding is the current quest to try to catch someone saying the word "shellac" every time we're out looking at house stuff these days.

Today I feel like we hit on a third milestone: buying something off of Craigslist from someone actually named Craig. Not only that, but we included a two-dollar bill in his payment.

I also came across the scary realization tonight that I know way too much about toilets these days. Despite this we still have yet to find the right throne.

- J

Show and Tell and a Little Rant

A gratuitous house picture and then let's start with the rant.

The siding was 'pre-primed' in grey. We haven't actually decided on the exterior color yet.

Yesterday I went over to the house to check out what has been happening. While touring the upstairs quarters I noticed a bath fixtures box. Having spent a whole day picking out something I thought I could live with (in terms of style, functionality, and price), I was excited to finally see our fixture installed. But as I opened the box I realized that this was not the one I'd chosen... Although Anthony wasn't with me at that moment, I know he can envision what my face must have looked like: a combination of bewilderment and disbelief that morphed into - dare I say - rage (a similar thing happened when we cut into our wedding cake).

It seems that we're suffering from a growing trend of the people we are paying suggesting alternative 'arrangements' for sinks, toilets, walls and doors that don't take the whole house (or budget) into account, coming up with their own solution without telling us if there is an ambiguity in the plans, or simply ignoring the plans (and not telling us). Dealing with fixture selection and sourcing has been especially difficult. We've continuously been told to pick stuff out as soon as possible (as we're on a schedule) but then told that our selection was either not 'good', or that they have access to a "better" one for some unknown $. Look, I would love to have recommendations and suggestions as long as we can have final approval.

Anyway, after taking some time to cool off, we contacted "the John" via email (it was quite late by then) and asked that he ensure the correct one be installed. In today's trip next door we noticed the offending fixture box had been removed, so hopefully all has been restored. After fighting for these, now I just hope I'm actually happy with them once we're actually living with them.

Despite all that, there are some exciting things happening. An insulation guy was hard at work today putting up the attic vents in preparation for putting in insulation.

Anthony excitedly points out the day's work while Natalie appears bored.

More metal is showing up. Some of it is to make sure the stairs stay where they're supposed to and some of it is to make sure the house stays where it's supposed to.

Metal strapping, complete with way too many nails, connects the landing to the floor joist above allowing the open space and light of the living area (where the picture was taken from) to flow all the way down into the basement

Giant, 50-bolt straps from **** and...

7 foot long threaded rods tie the main floor decking and main floor walls down to the foundation. Again, we'd not going to dare a tropical storm, but...

In addition, the electrical, plumbing, and gas tie-ins (outside the house) continue to be planned for and put in. These have brought up some odd compromises. Since the boiler vent has to be more than 4 feet away from the gas meter, which has to be more than 4 to 5 feet away from the electric meter, which has to more than 6-7 feet above the water line, not all of these can fit on the right front corner of the house (where the wall is ~10 feet long) as we'd prefer. At least one has to be placed on the opposite (south) side and come across the house inside. So much for saving money by placing all the inside utilities close together...

- J

When Cheap People Try To Build Nice Houses

Despite our setbacks, and the growing number of people in the Cape Cod house-building industry that are probably cringing when they see us coming (being extremely budget-minded and involved in the decision-making seems to be a rarity on the Cape), we feel like a ton of stuff happened this week. It's a wonder we both have real full-time jobs. And a daughter. And a needy dog.

We are hoping to include our architect interfacing with the contractor more as we go forward, just to make sure inches don't get lost (again). In addition, the sheer amount of decisions is overwhelming at times, and we're hoping to have a little more help with them. Understand that we are people whose furniture comes from the streets of Boston on "big trash day". Now we have people telling us that the quality of something we picked out at Home Depot won't be as good. Really? Not as good as this dresser I carried home in the pouring rain and nailed back together? Our aim with building this house has always been to put our money into things we deemed important things and unchangeable, like insulation and the heating system. Of course, this is the part that you don't really see. The Cape Cod housing scene is more used to the opposite: putting on the glitz and glamour show within the paper-thin walls.

As far as our progress this week, we have moved things the five inches back to where they needed to be moved. This included moving a door and re-siding that side of the house.

Side door that was moved, house re-sided and electrical rough-ins in place

While we were on the subject of moving things we also asked to have our doors raised a tad so that after all the floors were laid we would still be able to put a little mat by the door and be able to open it without having to kick the mat out of the way (as was our experience in the previous "shack"). Apparently this then became an issue with the height of the stairs.

View of stairs from the main floor- going up and down

The exterior siding and all three doors are now in place. The basement was also poured this week, and then the stairs down to it were framed in. The electrical and plumbing rough-ins are also almost complete.

Finishing the basement floor

The debate over how to do the radiant floor heating on the upper two levels rages on. Part of the problem is obviously our own frugality. Anthony has likened it to how we buy ski coats: we absolutely have to know we're buying the best coat out there for the cheapest price, although there are probably ten or more coats that we would likely not be able to tell the difference between. (Of course this is coming from someone who is wearing his brother-in-law's ex-roommate's hand-me-down coat.) Apparently we've also learned that frugality and radiant floor heating don't really go together- but hey, cheap people want warm feet too, right?

-J

We (and the neighbors) Like to Call It Improvement

Today we finally closed on a construction loan to help us pay for the hole we've (*literally*) dug ourselves into. Some might wonder about the wisdom of tearing down our house before fully securing the funds to rebuild it. I'd encourage these individuals to meet our mortgage appraisers to understand why this happened. What is bewildering about appraisers, the people who assign a value to your house (or potential house), is that the enormous sway they hold over the loan process is matched with near-zero liability. Couple this with the fact that they have completely no idea what they are doing...I think I've found my next career.

Speaking of 'value', as we were signing our lives away today, the attorney remarked that all mortgages have a clause that stipulates that the 'owner shall not act in such a way that decreases the value of the house' and that we likely violated this clause on our previous mortgage by tearing down the house. I, respectfully of course, disagreed and countered that, according to said appraiser, the land itself was worth more than the house and the land.

However, Jody later reminded me that metal stakes are holding up our new mailbox at the front of the lot... classy!

- A

The Money Pit Has Been Dug

We returned from our holiday travels last night. As we pulled down our street we shined the headlights where we had left our house a week and a half ago and realized that we are now the proud owners of...

a hole.

Of course, it's a nice hole with a view of the pond and a short walk to downtown, so that's comforting.

-J

Including the Kitchen Sink

The house is being emptied. Pieces are filling the basement of our current home and some things are being sold.

Kevin helping to take up the floor.

First we moved all of our stuff. Then we started moving things that came with the house. Then we started moving actual parts of the house. And just when I thought there was nothing else I wanted from the house, the neighbor got involved and started salvaging whatever was left.

Seeing someone else discern value from your belongings makes them so much more attractive. Suddenly every hinge and screw looked *very* important to me.

Apparently pipes are worth more than pink sinks.

Anthony came at it all with a very logical, "If you haven't needed it in the past three years, you're not going to need it ever."

My frugality kicked in with, "Think of how we'll save that 20 cents down the line because we won't have to buy a new screw..."

Salvaging the storm window frames

Bottomline was that time (and energy) was not on our side though. After months of waiting and planning for this, it turns out it's happening at an incredibly busy and stressful time for us: proposals, trips, returning to work plans, Natalie deciding it's more fun NOT to sleep at night, etc. We did our realistic best and got what we could, which of course included the kitchen sink, but we let the neighbor take the gutters. Perhaps he'll make a big ice cream sundae bar in one.

- J

November Flies By in the Blink of an Eye

What? No November post?

Where did November go anyway?

Oh yeah. We spent it waiting, and crossing t's, and dotting i's, and doing math, and trying to figure out other people's math, and filing things, and preparing to sign new contracts, and sweating about the lack of income my maternity leave is (not) providing, and reveling in the joy of chanting "Trot trot to Boston" for the twenty-thousandth time.

November came and November went and now it's December, so where are we?

Plans are being looked at by the structural engineer. New builder is ready to go. Building permit is ready to be filed. Conservation Commission planting extension until the spring is in hand (so that they have a better chance of survival). Loan has been applied for. We're slowly moving into the rental house. Belongings are being reassessed. Things are being posted on craigslist. Childcare for January has been secured (although impending going-back-to-work in January is being ignored). Zippy's still barking at the mailman. 

 And as for the little one... just when you thought she couldn't get any cuter- she does.

-J

...and Delay and Rethink

If September was about trying to get through committees and meetings that were constantly being delayed, then our current state is continuing with the delays and rethinking our schedule and plans. Yes, last winter the timeline was plan through the spring, committees in the summer, break ground in September, live in a winter rental and move in the next spring. And do it all within, or not too far from our budget.

Well, clearly we're off that schedule, and apparently it looks like our budget is rising farther and farther above us (How can original estimates from people in the biz be SO far off?)

This is very discouraging. We consider ourselves two hardworking professionals. We've saved; we've worked toward this; we're not trying to do anything extravagant. There's no reason why we shouldn't be able to build a small box in the town we work in with a mortgage we can afford through the years. We thought this was going to be an exciting example of common sense building on the Cape.

Apparently the excitement has worn off for others, and rather than seeing our project as a unique opportunity to join the rest of the world in common sense housing, we're probably just seen as small. It's bewildering to realize that we're pretty "second fiddle". That our schedules, time, and ideas are not important enough for the full attention of those working with us.

Yes, we're getting frustrated, and a little angry, but no- we're not giving up. This is part of the challenge of our affordable, sustainable, happy little safe dream.

We just have to rethink how we go at this.

-J

Our Child Will Be Driving a 2000 Toyota Tacoma

Part of our year of growing up is to get a more family-friendly vehicle. The truck has served us well. It will be hard to switch to something else, something more child seat friendly, but it has to happen. (Just like the band-aid ripping off when Craigslist took our kayaks recently.)

Now it's time for the truck. However, the truck doesn't seem to know this; like the Energizer bunny it just keeps going and going and going. Sounds great, right? Hmm... here lies our dilemma and options:

1. Our truck's frame is supposedly prone to rusting out, and if that happens Toyota will buy it back at 150% of the excellent value *cha ching*.

2. We lived in Oregon sans salted roads for too long, thus this has not happened yet. It's running great and looking great, so who knows when this will happen?

3. The truck's not really built for a car seat (although it does fit).

4. With the whole house-building and baby-coming stuff (not to mention outstanding student loan), we don't want an additional car loan.

5. The truck is worth way less as a trade in (we already tried to trade it in at a dealership).

6. We don't really need two cars, but should we hang onto it until it rusts out or our kid needs it for college (buying a cheaper family vehicle in the meantime, as well as paying the extra insurance to have two cars)? Or should we see if we can sell it on our own so we can afford a nice family vehicle now? And what should that nice family vehicle be? (Below is one option- if we were going by coolest ad...)

Back to the truck- we've posted it for sale (Craigslist: Cape Cod), and I guess we'll see what happens. The emotional attachment is hard though. It's a decade of our life, and that decade's lifestyle that we're parting with here. Someone called about it the other day and I was tempted to tell them it was not for sale anymore; that that part of my life could not be bought- but we have to move on to our new lifestyle now, I suppose.

(Too bad it's not the seventies or something- then the truck would be a great family car. You could just throw the kid, the dog, and anything else right in the back there!)

-J & A

Not Much Room Vs. Cozy, Comfy Abode

We've chosen our team! After fighting the slight urge to throw up while handing over our initial payment (just one of many to come...) The Design/Build team of Alison and Bob at A&E Architects of Brewster have won the race, mostly by being excited (and not being scared off) by our budget constraints, site plan and vision for realizing its potential.

The good part is that now we've put all our unknowns about the design into somebody else's hands for a while.They seem like they'll be able to work with us on cost, as well as understand our common sense, happy living approach to the design. Like most of the world (our country excluded), they did not need convincing that no, we didn't need more room. They get it.

I mean, take a look at "Flip". At our last ultrasound on Tuesday it looked pretty tight in there, yet in true kiddo fashion he/she was having a ball, squirming all around, playing and drinking. Kids dig small spaces. I'm sure that whatever size room Flip ends up with she or he will still crawl into a box someday and call that their home.

Families are meant to be close. The question is, (if we went with it) how close would a 20 foot wide house make us?

-J

Architects and Dog Groomers... Things That We're Not

With our apologies to Zippy, the last few months have shown us two important things about house design.

Number one: we need help with this.
Number two- this is going to cost us, so we need to "trim" our budget in other places.

The pun there was intended since poor Zippy became one of our budget savings. "We don't need to spend money on a dog groomer, certainly we can cut the one and half pounds of hair off you ourselves."

Four hours later and he's happy and skinny, the bird and the squirrels are happy, but man is he scrappy-looking!
Let's hope since we're putting the dog grooming savings into the house pot, the house will come out looking much better than he does.
-J

Architects!

So, we've finished our final round of meetings with potential architects. With few real recommendations to act on, cold-calling random people to see if they would be willing to help you with a 'low' budget project has been grueling. I think I've had phone and/or in-person meetings with 20 or so. These have garnered a large range of responses. From big firms, fancy firms, single employee firms, design-and-build firms, to the architecture student that we met in the Barnes and Noble we've gotten responses from 'I can't help you, I only do $350/sf homes.' to 'You guys seem nice, and I'd like to help you but you'll have to double your budget.' to 'Sure, I know some guys.' and only a few 'These are the types of projects that we like.'

Apparently, its really easy to build an expensive house, but much more difficult and time consuming to get a well-built, inexpensive house, especially one with lots of 'issues'. What with the economy and all, you'd think that more would be interested...

Also, all of these guys have made the same comment: 'Wow, you guys have really done your homework!' This seems odd to me. How are you supposed to find someone that will fit your situation if you don't know what your situation is?

-A