Foundations and Finances

As of our last blog, this is where we were with the house. A large whole in the ground and no money from the bank. Well a lot has changed since then.

First of all, the finances. After a few arguements with the bank about why we were planning on doing a majority of the work, and our appraisal coming in well above of what we needed to, we finally got approved for our loan!! So, after Holly and I signed our life away and entered into the "way above our head" zone for debt, the work on the structure could begin.

First step was the concrete foundation. Because of our lovely rock that mom and dad blessed us with, we had to make some changes to the foundation. It had to be built up four feet all the way around, but the garage floor had to be ground level. So some changes in the blueprints and a few steps going from the garage into the house, and the foundation could begin. So bring on the machinery!!

After three days of hard work, with a few days off in between, the foundation was finally poured, and the water and sewer were hooked up to the foundation as well.

The Tyler clan also got their hands dirty as Holly, mom, dad, and I ran the service wire from the light pole into the foundation so that maybe, our house can have electricity one day.

While the contractors were doing their thing, Holly and I continue to do our thing which is search for great deals on things for our house. A whirlpool tub and a vanity for the upstairs bathroom were purchased for at least 50% off of each. A flooring choice might have been made for the hardwood flooring downstairs, and windows for the entire house were also bought. Most importantly, the Cardinals stained glass window is being framed and insulated as well.

So, the house continues to be the focus of our family, and the first load of lumber and the framers are set to begin Monday!! (weather permitting) So stay tuned for some pictures of the framing and some more updates. Thanks to everyone for all of their help.

The beginning........

Well, as many of you know, we have been living in our garage/townhouse for about two and a half years. Well, needless to say, we have reached our limit in staying in this small house. So, in the middle of March, Holly and I decided to start the process of building our big house.

Needless to say the process has been more involved and timely than we had anticipated. The bank always needs more paper work, and a few more days to get to the next step. So, after talking to our bank guy, it looks like our construction loan will be 100% ours within the next ten days or so.

So, what have we been doing while our loan is going through? Lots of research, lots of looking at blueprints, and finalizing some "finishing work." We also hired a couple of good old boys to dig the hole and pour the concrete for our foundation. My parents somehow played a cruel joke on us and gave us some land that is setting on a huge rock. So, the excavaters have been using our hard earned money to hammer through the rock and make us a hole deep enough for our foundation. The rest of the boys are coming out to put the forms up for the foundation tomorow, and the bug guy coming by Wednesday morning to pretreat the foundation for bugs, and the actual pouring of concrete Wednesday morning.

It's been an interesting dynamic between Holly and me to see who is going to take care of what aspect of the construction. It seems like most of my time is spent on making phone calls and getting the bids for the actual construction of the house, and her time is spent researching and gathering ideas for the finish work. Just yesterday, she figured out that tiling the kitchen countertops will give us an interesting look without hitting the pocketbook to hard. So it's been an interesting process thus far.

More to come after they pour the foundation.

What? A blog??

Yes, this is the official Tyler house construction blog. We've stepped into the 21st century and going to maintain a blog on our house construction. We thought it would be an easier way to keep everyone updated on the changes that our house is going to see in the upcoming months. So, our plan as of now is to update this blog about once a week and provide some pictures along the way so everyone knows what we are doing, and how the house is coming along. We'll let everyone know via facebook when we have updated it, so stay tuned.