I have not posted much recently because I never felt like there was much to say. I will start posting at least once a week, even if it is just to say that nothing happened that week.
We had a conversation with Grandma on Monday night about when we should build the house. We have been pretty conservative about starting a project like this with the current financial situation. We can't afford two mortgages, so we need to get our current home sold. Home sales are not looking very good right now, so that is a concern. Our current home may not sell, or may only sell if we take a loss on it. That wouldn't help us at all in affording the new home. Another financial concern we have is with my job. My company has basically said that we are not going to grow this year, but just try to stay level (and lots of hints that we are just going to try to survive). I think we will survive and I feel like I would be one of the last employees to be laid off. In one of our meetings we talked about ways to reduce costs to help the company through the tough economic times. I may have to take a pay cut eventually. So, some of our drive to get the home built right away has been diminished by current circumstances.
If it is the right thing to build now, regardless of the circumstances, we want to do it. We just want to make sure that we are doing the right thing. Our country is in this financial mess because too many people lived beyond their means. Every time I hear a report about someone who is complaining that the banks and the government aren't helping them keep the home that they could never afford in the first place, it bothers me a little. I don't want to become that.
So, do we wait it out a little? Maybe we should get it built as soon as possible, for Grandma's sake. If we end up in a tough financial situation, it will have been worth it to have Grandma's influence in our home and around us and our kids. Do I lack faith? Or am I being wise? Has the delay in building been the Lord's will, or my will? We are going to have a fast, to ask if now is the time. Grandma's lease gives us some time, but not much. When I look at how long Tahna and Jordan's house took to build, I realize that it will probably take longer than I would want it to take. I am looking forward to finding the right answer.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
Financing
Chris got back in touch with me! He had already started working on our loan. I sent him the houseplans, and an updated price estimate for the construction. We'll see what he can do!
New Castle Mortgage wanted every subcontractor bid updated and then they wanted copies of the bids. UBuildIt wasn't to open to that idea. Getting the bids updated fall under our responsibility according to the contract we have with them. It's just a matter of calling the subcontractors and letting them know we need them updated. The problem with that is that we haven't signed-on for the actual construction with UBuildIt. We don't get access to that kind of information until we sign. We didn't want to sign until we get financing. We can't get financing until we show New Castle the bids. So that's the situation we're in there.
Chris didn't seem to need newer bids (not yet at least). We may have to make it official that we are going to use UBuildIt, or find another builder. UBuildIt is going to be a lot less expensive and a lot more work. If we get someone to just build it for us, it will be too expensive. UBuildIt states in the contract that if we sign and the house doesn't get built, we don't have to pay. But if we sign and the house gets built (even by another builder) we have to pay them. So, I'm hoping we can get financing without having to commit to UBuildIt quite yet.
New Castle Mortgage wanted every subcontractor bid updated and then they wanted copies of the bids. UBuildIt wasn't to open to that idea. Getting the bids updated fall under our responsibility according to the contract we have with them. It's just a matter of calling the subcontractors and letting them know we need them updated. The problem with that is that we haven't signed-on for the actual construction with UBuildIt. We don't get access to that kind of information until we sign. We didn't want to sign until we get financing. We can't get financing until we show New Castle the bids. So that's the situation we're in there.
Chris didn't seem to need newer bids (not yet at least). We may have to make it official that we are going to use UBuildIt, or find another builder. UBuildIt is going to be a lot less expensive and a lot more work. If we get someone to just build it for us, it will be too expensive. UBuildIt states in the contract that if we sign and the house doesn't get built, we don't have to pay. But if we sign and the house gets built (even by another builder) we have to pay them. So, I'm hoping we can get financing without having to commit to UBuildIt quite yet.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Permitting and Financing
I have some news. I have been doing some work on our home recently. Before Christmas I talked to a new mortgage man. New Castle mortgage, and over Christmas he was a little slow in getting back to us. So, I finally met with him on Thursday and found out that they had some concerns about the amount UBuildIt quoted us. They want to have some sort of assurance that we can actually build the home for the amount that UBuildIt says we can. Either a signed contract with the price, or they want to see the quotes from all the subcontractors that UBuildIt got. The lender also needs newer quotes, since ours are out of date now. I am meeting with Scott at UBuildIt on my lunchbreak tomorrow to discuss this.
Permitting: When I submitted for permit a while back I got a couple phone calls from Rio Rancho that told me what I needed to do to get the permit. About a week ago I called again, to ask what needed to be done. This time they faxed me the paperwork, and there were a few things on there that they didn't tell me about last time. One of the notes on the paperwork stated that it was clearly a Duplex, with multiple living spaces, and that is not allowed. This made me really worry. I was going to look into it more and make some phone calls before I worried anyone else about it, but I ended up telling Grandma and Scharese. Now I think I've really made more worry than had to be. Here's the good news: I called the permit office on Friday and talked to the lady who makes the decisions on these things, and made the comment on the original paperwork. She told me that the 2 front doors are not a problem. It's the doorways between our side and Grandma's side. So the doorway between our nook and Grandma's den needs to be an open walkway. The door from Grandma's hallway to her den must also remain an open walkway. If we submit our plans with those changes (which are very minor) it will make the entire house have an open flow between both sides and will be acceptable as a single family residence. The lady also made it very clear to me that we can divide the house after we get our certificate of occupancy, and that is not a problem. It just needs to be this way because of the zoning for the permit itself. After we get our certificate of occupancy we will plan on installing doors where we initially planned. That really made me happy. I thought we may have to make major changes, but I made her clarify it multiple times to make sure I got it.
I also got in touch with the septic tank folks and they are still going to be able to install our tank as soon as we are ready.
I sent a bunch of paperwork off to Chris Hunlow, because we found out over Christmas that he actually is licensed in New Mexico to get us a loan. I haven't heard back from him yet. I will try to get in touch with him this week. New Castle mortgage is also working on it for us. I didn't get any final quotes or figures from them because they think UBuildIt may be underestimating things. UBuildIt got actual bids for their quote, so I don't think it should be a problem once New Castle gets copies. I don't know what kind of rate they will get us, or what closing costs they charge. I need to find that out. I will try to do that this week too.
New Castle also (at my request) got a quote from a contractor to build the house for us. I think that a contractor would be better than me at getting things done in a timely manner. It costs significantly more though. So, we are still leaning toward using UBuildIt.
Hopefully the recent progress will keep rolling and we can start building sooner rather than later!
Permitting: When I submitted for permit a while back I got a couple phone calls from Rio Rancho that told me what I needed to do to get the permit. About a week ago I called again, to ask what needed to be done. This time they faxed me the paperwork, and there were a few things on there that they didn't tell me about last time. One of the notes on the paperwork stated that it was clearly a Duplex, with multiple living spaces, and that is not allowed. This made me really worry. I was going to look into it more and make some phone calls before I worried anyone else about it, but I ended up telling Grandma and Scharese. Now I think I've really made more worry than had to be. Here's the good news: I called the permit office on Friday and talked to the lady who makes the decisions on these things, and made the comment on the original paperwork. She told me that the 2 front doors are not a problem. It's the doorways between our side and Grandma's side. So the doorway between our nook and Grandma's den needs to be an open walkway. The door from Grandma's hallway to her den must also remain an open walkway. If we submit our plans with those changes (which are very minor) it will make the entire house have an open flow between both sides and will be acceptable as a single family residence. The lady also made it very clear to me that we can divide the house after we get our certificate of occupancy, and that is not a problem. It just needs to be this way because of the zoning for the permit itself. After we get our certificate of occupancy we will plan on installing doors where we initially planned. That really made me happy. I thought we may have to make major changes, but I made her clarify it multiple times to make sure I got it.
I also got in touch with the septic tank folks and they are still going to be able to install our tank as soon as we are ready.
I sent a bunch of paperwork off to Chris Hunlow, because we found out over Christmas that he actually is licensed in New Mexico to get us a loan. I haven't heard back from him yet. I will try to get in touch with him this week. New Castle mortgage is also working on it for us. I didn't get any final quotes or figures from them because they think UBuildIt may be underestimating things. UBuildIt got actual bids for their quote, so I don't think it should be a problem once New Castle gets copies. I don't know what kind of rate they will get us, or what closing costs they charge. I need to find that out. I will try to do that this week too.
New Castle also (at my request) got a quote from a contractor to build the house for us. I think that a contractor would be better than me at getting things done in a timely manner. It costs significantly more though. So, we are still leaning toward using UBuildIt.
Hopefully the recent progress will keep rolling and we can start building sooner rather than later!
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