Monday, February 24, 2014

{House Update}

This whole house thing has definitely been a lesson in patience.  It's been almost 9 months since I closed on my house  & moved back in with my parents.  It honestly hasn't been that bad, but I am so ready to have my own space again.  I fully intended to be in a house by April.  I miss having a yard to work in, walls to paint & I REALLY miss having people over; I loved hosting Halloween, Christmas & Super Bowl parties. 
Slowly but surely, we are making progress.  I had my preconstruction meeting & made all my selections 3 weeks ago.  I did have a slight panic attack when we first got started & they told me the lot I bought wasn't supposed to be sold.  Umm...what?!?!
A little background on the whole lot thing...  I was one of the first ones to be able to select a lot back in August.  As soon as roads were put in, I went & looked and fell in love with one.  It was the perfect size, backed up to a tree line so I wouldn't have neighbors behind me, & the sun wouldn't set in my backyard {important when you live in Texas & like hosting parties}.  So, they penciled me in for lot #25.  Fast forward to October & it was finally time to sign the official contract.  A few days before I was supposed to sign, I drove by one last time & there was now a fire hydrant smack dab in the middle of my front yard.  I wouldn't have a problem with it had it been on the lot line between my house & the next door neighbor, but the location really bothered me.  After a lot of debating back & forth and being told that it was probably put in the wrong place & might be moved, I decided it wouldn't be that bad & went ahead and signed the contract.
A few weeks later, I drove by after work one day & the "small" fire hydrant had been raised & was now over 3 feet tall.  Clearly they weren't moving it & it was now a HUGE eyesore.  I am pretty particular about my yard & there was no way I could have that directly in front of my house...not to mention the fact that no one could park in front of my house, etc.  Several emails & phone calls later, I was able to change lots; I ended up moving one lot over.  It's huge & much larger than I wanted, but I keep reminding myself that I will like the extra space & it will be better for resale {remind me of that in August when I am trying to keep all that grass alive & mowing it every week}.

The issue with this lot is that it has 3 huge pecan trees on it right where the house should be built.  I am assuming they didn't want to sell it because they didn't want to take the trees down...I don't know?!?  Once they realized their mistake & that they had in fact sold it to me, the original plan was just to take all the trees down & build the house as planned. 
Then it was decided that maybe we could keep the trees.  Since the lot is so large, they thought about moving the house back behind the trees. I would love to have trees, but since these are really old pecans, I didn't want them to be a problem for me in the future. I met with a tree man last week & he confirmed that they are dying, full of disease, etc. So, after talking with the builder Friday evening, we decided to remove the trees & proceed as originally planned.  They told me construction would begin by the end of the month, but I have a feeling this whole tree thing might delay the start date some.  Estimated completion is late June/early July...I moving in - finished or not! =)