PrefaBlog

A colleague of mine is a very talented designer and has used Google SketchUp extensively for freelance work.  After getting a quick tutorial on the software from her, I am now looking around at some other online resources for learning how to use this slick piece of kit.  My hope is that this will help us during the planning process, eventually.  We have already had some discussions and debates about what we want in a home, and given the number of warnings we have already heard about the importance of planning ahead to minimize change orders during construction, I’m trying to do everything feasible to make sure that the design we start with is as close as can be to our goal.  We’ll see how that works out….

We’ve got 2 more sites to look at this weekend.  They’re in a less-desirable town than the one with all the wet lands, but it’s still close to work and I certainly wouldn’t have a problem paying fewer taxes.  (All of the towns in this area are part of a regional school system, which negates that particular line of decision-making criteria.)

Each of these two would require more tree clearing than the wet site, and would need a full septic system, but based on the engineering plans that we looked at for the first site, it’s reasonable to think that those costs would work out to be pretty much the same.  Also, no wet lands or highway. Score!

We looked at a potential building site yesterday.  We’d been out to it on our own once before, but this time we brought everybody and their mom along with us: our agent and the selling agent for the property, as well as our (prospective) builder and his local contractor.  We walked the 2 acre lot and got some heavy information from the selling agent.

The site has some good things going for it to be sure: it’s a decent-sized parcel in a very desirable town, on a quiet side street with little traffic that’s reasonably close to the commercial downtown area.  It’s about 20 minutes or so from work for both of us, and the site has already been cleared of most vegetation.

Those are the pros, but the site is not without some considerable cons.  The property backs up to a highway and contains extensive wetlands.  While these are definite challenges, the seller has already installed the leaching field for a 4-bedroom septic system (more than adequate for us).  The kicker is that the field is on the opposite side of the wetlands from the already-approved building site, and the contractor would have to install a septic tank and pump, then burrow under the wetlands to connect that assembly to the leaching field.  All of this has already been engineered, and the plans have been approved by the Building Commissioner in town, which is a major, major bonus.  I would not even consider the property if that kind of development had not already been tackled, given the physical challenges of the site.

Our next move is to sit down with the builder and establish some baseline parameters for a home that we’d build on that site.  This will give the contractor some necessary information to come up with an estimate for the needed site work, and will allow us to clarify our thinking somewhat on the home we’d like to build. As of now, that meeting could happen as soon as Sunday; it would represent another major milestone so we’re somewhat eager to get on with it.

I’d say it’s about a 33% chance that we’ve actually found the site we’ll build on.  Our agent has found a few other potential locations elsewhere in the county that we are keen to check out, as well.

I’ll try to remember to get some photos the next time we’re out looking - I brought my camera to the wetlands site but kept it in my pocket the whole time, as I was too busy absorbing information from the selling agent, the builder and the contractor to take photos.  A lame excuse, I know, but I only have one first time at this process and I’m trying to avoid as many mistakes as possible.  For me, that means a lot more listening than talking and doing.

This is the beta version of Some Assembly Required, my new blog about the process of searching for a new home, with a focus on purchasing a modular (pre-fab) house.

This post is really just a filler so that I can configure this blog the way I want.  Expect more content shortly.

When well then be now?  SOON.