Building/buying our first house!

[CammedS197]

So in June my Wife and I were looking into building a house and talked to many different people for a few months and our dream house was a Lifestyle home and they are very expensive and their cheapest was our max budget for where we lived. They put us in contact with a builder they work with Avtec and when people get too custom and crazy with theirs they recommend Lifstyle as an option. So we talked to them and we instantly left the other home builders. We got so much more for a little cheaper. We love them so far and really help us out. They also offer special incentives for military members which was a very nice plus. Cheaper upgrades as well as a discount on closing costs. They cover a portion of it. It is the Gulfstream with every upgrade possible and everything we wanted. Its a hometown family owned business. I'll get pictures of it soon. My wife has all of them on her camera. We are only at the pad built and the slap staked out with the wood down. Should be poured this week! We are very excited and its also prepped for full solar power if I wanted to install panels. Very efficient house so excited there. Our current rental house is not very efficient. Built as cheap as possible for rental only. Mortgage will be cheaper than our current rent woohoo. Our neighbor directly across the street just finished his and its by the same company and hes got a modified 3 valve. So I'm sure we will be friends.

This is the elevation and floor plan and some pictures of what it will pretty much look like when done.

The red there is actually going to be a walkway in our house. We are only losing like a foot and a half on our pantry which is beyond massive. I won't be hurting losing that space. Really opens it up in the dining room.


That's where the walkway where be.

 

[CammedS197]

Extra pictures.

Ours will have a slightly different front to it.

 

[ksack]

Congrats! I bought my first home a year ago and almost built new. Being able to plan it out is both fun and nerve racking! I would definitely spring for the solar upfront if you can afford it. My folks have it on their house in CA (3000+ sqft). Electric bill is under $100 a month and that includes charging a Tesla.

 

[Iceman62]

Sweet - congrats on your upcoming home ownership venture. Building fm Lot-0 is exciting b/c you can watch progress & keep on top of the crew(s). Definitely check the site daily, if you can. We corrected quite a few flaws along the way. Good luck & enjoy that new home smell!

 

[EBABlacknChrome]

Sweet - congrats on your upcoming home ownership venture. Building fm Lot-0 is exciting b/c you can watch progress & keep on top of the crew(s). Definitely check the site daily, if you can. We corrected quite a few flaws along the way. Good luck & enjoy that new home smell!

^^^^ I agree with this 100% , however don't be a pest to the guys on the job but also don't take any shit either from them. I mean pest as in telling them how to do there job consistently. Don't take that in the wrong way at all. I am very good at what I do for a living and my mother in law still questions the hell out of me like I don't know what I am doing lol. Love her dearly. I build everything from very custom high end to simple repairs. I let nothing go in regards to details from foundation to the very last brush stroke on the wall. There are very few builders that way. If you have any questions at anytime through your build shoot me a message, I would be glad to help. They build a bit different in the south then we here in the north but that's because of our snow loads and need for higher R values.

Beau

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[tjm73]

What is an imagination room.

South needs good R-value too. To keep heat out and A/C in.

 

[EBABlacknChrome]

Lol that's a new one on me. My guess is fancy play room, arts and crafts, learning that's my guess.

Yes I totally agree with you however 2x6 wall construction is not needed to achieve there are R-value. Not that I wouldn't want it if built there. I strongly recommend quality windows, doors, siding, insulation, roofing and venting no matter where you build. The building envelope is very important and expensive to replace yet almost always under done when on a budget due to other homeowner wants. Different areas always have different needs. Here where we are on Lake Michigan house's are built a lot like house's along the North East coast (Water front). Sorry for being long winded. Many variables in building A solid stable home much like the cars we are sinking money and time in. Way to often home's are built with more problems then those on a budget can afford to fix once there warranty is over. I make a damn good living remodeling and repairing these problems. I have been educated well from this site and hope that I can offer something that I know and care a lot about.

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[CammedS197]

They call that room the "Imagination room" Cause its not considered another room and cause you can do whatever you want with it. Use your Imagination is what they say lol. Its going to be my man cave. EBABlacknchrome thanks for the info. I've been stopping by quite often just checking it out. The pad is my first concern making sure they do all the proper packing and its been raining here in Florida a good amount so its getting packed really well! My uncle has been doing this work for about 30 years now and he's been going along with and helping out making everything goes smooth and correct. They do build some nice houses though. We do need all those hurricane rated roofs lol. We are getting the hurricane straps and some extra. Rated at CAT4+. All the others by them held up perfect during hurricane Irma so i'm feeling pretty good there. I definitely won't be a pest lol. I hate that since my wife questions me when I detail our cars and also work on the 3 valve even when done shes like damn looks good or balls deep in my car building it and done and runs perfect when done. I used to paint and detail professionally in the auto body world.

Best part is we got every upgrade we wanted for less than the starting of other builders that have some issues with the foundation after 3-5 years since they are building an entire house from permits to finish in like 6 months. They aren't letting the pad settle and the slab is cracking. Everything we want. Father in law is trying to buy the lot next to us so we can't have a house right next to us and use it for something in the future and a play area for our son. Our neighbor owns the lot on the other side so there's a lot between our houses too.

Ksack, that's crazy good even charging a Tesla. I was over there in November and my goodness those cars are everywhere! Can't afford upfront but I definitely will do it when I can. Our current house we are a consistent $130-$140 a month on power and its crappy on efficiency and that in the blazing summer. Will have double pane Argon gas filled and upgraded to the top hurricane grade windows ad has an attic fan that's solar and will blow out hot air and bring in fresh air to keep the house cooler. I think current rental house is rated at 130 on the HERS scale and the new one is ballpark around 60 on the HERS scale.

Thanks everyone. Not excited about the moving of all our stuff but we all know how that goes lol.

 

[CammedS197]

Lol that's a new one on me. My guess is fancy play room, arts and crafts, learning that's my guess.

Yes I totally agree with you however 2x6 wall construction is not needed to achieve there are R-value. Not that I wouldn't want it if built there. I strongly recommend quality windows, doors, siding, insulation, roofing and venting no matter where you build. The building envelope is very important and expensive to replace yet almost always under done when on a budget due to other homeowner wants. Different areas always have different needs. Here where we are on Lake Michigan house's are built a lot like house's along the North East coast (Water front). Sorry for being long winded. Many variables in building A solid stable home much like the cars we are sinking money and time in. Way to often home's are built with more problems then those on a budget can afford to fix once there warranty is over. I make a damn good living remodeling and repairing these problems. I have been educated well from this site and hope that I can offer something that I know and care a lot about.

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Thanks, I'll definitely shoot you a message if anything odd pops up and even possibly future additions and I'm sure questions from my wife and I will pop up for sure. They come and go often but my uncle helped out a lot when we finalized our decision to build with them and he did a lot of questioning and info gathering for us. As of now I only plan on building a closet in the Imagination room at some point. I have plans for a pool and the lot my father in law buys I plan on a rec room and a car garage/shed/new mancave with a lift.

 

[ksack]

You don't need a tesla anymore to take advantage of the electric. Pretty much all hybrids now are plug in as well and get 20-50 miles just on electric before they switch to traditional hybrid driving. Step mom drives a hybrid fusion and loves it

 

[CammedS197]

You don't need a tesla anymore to take advantage of the electric. Pretty much all hybrids now are plug in as well and get 20-50 miles just on electric before they switch to traditional hybrid driving. Step mom drives a hybrid fusion and loves it

Hahah very true. Only thing is my wife and I like the good ole v8 LOL. She said over her dead body I'll be driving an electric car. She made me take my stock muffler off my car cause it was too quiet and not "man enough". I'd totally get a Tesla if I could afford it. Nice thing is driving/own a hybrid or electric car you can claim it on taxes.

 

[CammedS197]

Here I our lot cleared out a few months ago.


Here is the pad for our lot now.


And last this is where we currently are. The rough plumbing is finished and slab will be poured on the 18th.

 

[MADGT]

Tip: Before dry wall goes up--assume, you will have drywall, ask the builder to let you know. Then go in, take plenty of picture of where the plumbing, electrical outlets and all the wiring that will be covered by the wall. Save these pictures, the will come handy later on. I did that, then wanted to get some ceiling fans installed and other electrical mods. The electrician was able to pinpoint where everything was behind the wall, taking out the guess work. Of course, some may have high tech gadgets to figure all that thing out, nothing beats a pic. At least for me.

 

[CammedS197]

Tip: Before dry wall goes up--assume, you will have drywall, ask the builder to let you know. Then go in, take plenty of picture of where the plumbing, electrical outlets and all the wiring that will be covered by the wall. Save these pictures, the will come handy later on. I did that, then wanted to get some ceiling fans installed and other electrical mods. The electrician was able to pinpoint where everything was behind the wall, taking out the guess work. Of course, some may have high tech gadgets to figure all that thing out, nothing beats a pic. At least for me.

Oh man that's a freaking brilliant idea! They are luckily installing wiring in every room for fans! They are sorta hooking me up with some things as a "military special". But I'm definitely going to do that! We check out the house every friday or saturday after we get our son from daycare. Luckly our builder emails us every time they are about to do the next thing.

 

[Snakethat]

We just built our home about 3 years ago. If I were to do it again I would have made a list of things to check to make sure they got done. For the most part our builder did a good job. However the main water line from our well to the house was forgotten. My wife came to the site and noticed them knocking out a hole in the garage. She asked what they were doing and they proceeded to tell her. She calls me as I work out of state a lot. I was furious. I called the builder and he said we hadn't figured out where the well was going to be in relationship to the septic system. Unfortunate for him i had that email b/c our county needed to know before building. Which I'm sure is the same in any county. He tried to pass the buck and act like it wasn't his fault. I kept every email I filed it in a folder separate from my inbox. This helped out a lot.

IF you do anything out of ordinary make sure you keep up with it and check to be sure its going to get done. Our shower is a walk in shower with two shower heads. They nearly forgot one of them. I also hired a third party inspector throughout the building process. Also something to think about is having a home theatre recessed into the walls if your an audio nut like me. Perfect time to do it. Im really glad we did it.


I have new found respect for painters. Our builders painter was going to charge 10k to do the job. It sucked ass but my wife and I got it done. Its amazing how many little nail holes you have patch on the trim. Very time consuming. Plus the staining we did for our porch. We didn't use any tape for cutting. Lucky for my wife I have a steady hand and free handed all the cutting in from wall to ceiling.

My wife wanted granite countertops but was worried about the money. Her thought was we could get the cheaper stuff and then redo it in the future. Meh I told her we just need to do it and be done with it.

If i had to do it again I would have made a checklist as the job went on so that things didn't get missed. I would have added the backup generator during construction rather than doing a year ago. BTW a whole house generator is really nice. We have lost power and that thing comes right on and we just use the house like we normally do. Consider getting that done as well

Im in the midst of getting solar quotes myself. Im looking to have mine installed on the ground and have them track the sun. Do you have suggestions or any knowledge to pass on about solar

 

[Snakethat]

I forgot to add make sure you have plenty of outlets in the garage. Before we built this house our other house and hardly any outlets in the garage. I also had a a heater installed in the garage as well.

 

[CammedS197]

We just built our home about 3 years ago. If I were to do it again I would have made a list of things to check to make sure they got done. For the most part our builder did a good job. However the main water line from our well to the house was forgotten. My wife came to the site and noticed them knocking out a hole in the garage. She asked what they were doing and they proceeded to tell her. She calls me as I work out of state a lot. I was furious. I called the builder and he said we hadn't figured out where the well was going to be in relationship to the septic system. Unfortunate for him i had that email b/c our county needed to know before building. Which I'm sure is the same in any county. He tried to pass the buck and act like it wasn't his fault. I kept every email I filed it in a folder separate from my inbox. This helped out a lot.

IF you do anything out of ordinary make sure you keep up with it and check to be sure its going to get done. Our shower is a walk in shower with two shower heads. They nearly forgot one of them. I also hired a third party inspector throughout the building process. Also something to think about is having a home theatre recessed into the walls if your an audio nut like me. Perfect time to do it. Im really glad we did it.


I have new found respect for painters. Our builders painter was going to charge 10k to do the job. It sucked ass but my wife and I got it done. Its amazing how many little nail holes you have patch on the trim. Very time consuming. Plus the staining we did for our porch. We didn't use any tape for cutting. Lucky for my wife I have a steady hand and free handed all the cutting in from wall to ceiling.

My wife wanted granite countertops but was worried about the money. Her thought was we could get the cheaper stuff and then redo it in the future. Meh I told her we just need to do it and be done with it.

If i had to do it again I would have made a checklist as the job went on so that things didn't get missed. I would have added the backup generator during construction rather than doing a year ago. BTW a whole house generator is really nice. We have lost power and that thing comes right on and we just use the house like we normally do. Consider getting that done as well

Im in the midst of getting solar quotes myself. Im looking to have mine installed on the ground and have them track the sun. Do you have suggestions or any knowledge to pass on about solar

Hey thanks on those heads up. We are going by today to checkout the slab. Just got informed that the blocks are going up next week! We are going to have walls!

On the solar question not particularly but I do have two pals who are electrical engineers and solar is their thing. They both recently converted their houses. The biggest thing is you need to make sure you have energy efficient lights and appliances as well as the house being very well insulated like the windows and attic or roof and door seals. Both of my friends made out pretty even and didn't owe on electric at all that year and FPL paid them about $1 each month. But they have been updating their appliances and lights which has really made a difference. We are expecting about a $50-$70 bill for electric from our normal $130-$150 bill. But I think I't will be even better due to the fat that our current rental is cheaply made and much more volume with a very little AC unit and about 120sq/ft bigger than our new house. If you have any specifics on solar questions I'd be more than happy to ask my pals for you. I do live in Florida so tons of sun lol. Even in the rain. The sun where my house is being built comes very strong at the front of the house so I'll eventually put our solar panels on the roof up front. I think you can have that as a tax write off as well.

 

[Snakethat]

Thanks for the insight. When we built this house at first I wanted to get geo thermal b/c my parents have it and it works well. But holy shit is that expensive. I couldn't believe the quote. I think it was around 30k. We have a heat pump but didn't do our research and they are not very efficient during the winter so we have a furnace that runs when it gets colder than 40. That has really helped our energy costs. We have 2000 sqft home with vaulted kitchen and living area. Our electric bill is 270 this month. During the fall and spring our bill will run 180 to 200.

Im on a website called energysage which is how I'm getting quotes. I have people coming next week to have a look. Im not looking to sell back to the utility company I just want to offset my costs so when were old our energy bill will be easier to handle. So far I have been quoted 40k for solar that is basically 100%. I doubt I do that. Im thinking about maybe doing half that and then maybe do the rest myself. I wouldn't think it would be to hard to install extra panels if you wanted to.

Hey thanks on those heads up. We are going by today to checkout the slab. Just got informed that the blocks are going up next week! We are going to have walls!

On the solar question not particularly but I do have two pals who are electrical engineers and solar is their thing. They both recently converted their houses. The biggest thing is you need to make sure you have energy efficient lights and appliances as well as the house being very well insulated like the windows and attic or roof and door seals. Both of my friends made out pretty even and didn't owe on electric at all that year and FPL paid them about $1 each month. But they have been updating their appliances and lights which has really made a difference. We are expecting about a $50-$70 bill for electric from our normal $130-$150 bill. But I think I't will be even better due to the fat that our current rental is cheaply made and much more volume with a very little AC unit and about 120sq/ft bigger than our new house. If you have any specifics on solar questions I'd be more than happy to ask my pals for you. I do live in Florida so tons of sun lol. Even in the rain. The sun where my house is being built comes very strong at the front of the house so I'll eventually put our solar panels on the roof up front. I think you can have that as a tax write off as well.

 

[Snakethat]

hows the house coming along

 

[CammedS197]

hows the house coming along

Was just about to post up a new picture. But the slab is down and my wife got bored and dropped by yesterday when she was getting our son and I was in class. But that have half way up with the block and trusses were delivered. Going really good though!

Thanks for asking.