From El Paso, Texas

We are out of town this week and it's been a little harder to work on anything. I did find out a couple of important things though. First, we do not need to get an engineered grading and drainage plan! That was going to cost money and take a lot of time. I talked to Rio Rancho and found out we won't need it because we are not altering the landscape enough to disrupt the water flow. Also, our trusses have been approved and stamped by an engineer. That was something that needed to be done before we submit our plans for a building permit. Finally, I got word that our septic tank has been approved by the New Mexico Environmental Department. That is also needed before a building permit can be requested.

All we need is our basement walls to be stamped by an engineer. UBuildIt was supposed to be getting quotes on pured concrete walls, but they haven't been able to find anyone. They have a quote for masonry block walls, and thought that would be o.k. Based on a few different conversations we've had we feel like we would like to get the poured concrete. Our basement plans cannot be stamped without knowing the material it is made out of. I have called around a little and will hopefully get some bids on poured concrete soon. Then we can make a final decision and get a stamp and submit for permit!

Permitting

The permitting process is underway. We are going to try to have the entire home completed by December. Grandma's lease expires in September I believe, so I think a 6 month extension will be more than enough buffer time, in case the construction takes a couple extra months. I will work on some more today and keep you posted.

A Video of Our Lot

On Sunday we visited my brother's family. They live about 2 minutes away from our lot, so I decided to take the video camera and make a recording. The video file is pretty big, so you may have to wait for it a little.

Latest Floorplans

I haven't ever posted the floorplans. Here is our house. Scharese and I looked through hundreds of different plans and nothing quite worked. Scharese designed this entire house from scratch. When we submitted the design to our draftsman, he was very impressed because everything just worked. Scharese had to take into account the thickness of walls and proper measurements of doors and fixtures throughout the entire home. If anyone needs a great designer, Scharese's services will be available at competitive rates!

We have since gotten numerous comments praising the plans. Dennis, the contractor who we considered, loved the plans so much that he is stealing them. They actually have a copyright on them but he said that it just takes a few minor changes to become "his own" plan. It's a little aggravating, but what can we do?

Septic Permitting

So, we are now working on getting all the necessary permits to start building our home. The New Mexico Environmental Department has to approve our septic system. Our home design had too many closets for a conventional septic system, so we had to remove the doorways from the closets in the study, the den and the loft. If we kept the doors, those rooms would be counted as bedrooms and we would have to get an advanced septic system (which costs 4 times as much as a conventional system). My Dad wants me to look into a new kind of system that would use the greywater for watering the lawn and such. They are called Pugosystems. I will have to look into that.

Once we get the plans accepted by the Environmental Department we will need to get a couple of engineer approvals and we can submit for the building permit.

Meeting Reports

Some significant information has come out of our latest meetings. We met with our neighbor Dennis and his partner about building our home. We came away from that meeting discouraged. We were told earlier that they were going to be within a price per square foot that made us excited, but when we got the actual price breakdown it was significantly higher. They added taxes which made it higher. More drastically the price per square foot they quoted us included the basement, which they are not going to build. Why are they charging us for something that they are not building? They had some reasons, but none that we really feel are valid. So, they said they would look at some things and rework the numbers. We have almost entirely ruled them out, unless they come back with something really looks good. It would have been nice to have someone to build the whole thing for us, but I guess we will probably save a lot of money being our own builder/contractor.

Thursday we met with UBuildIt. Earlier they said over the phone that they were really happy with how the price was looking. But I was sceptical since our meeting with Dennis. When we got in there to meet with them, we found out that the price they calculated after getting bids from all the subcontractors was much more in line with our expectations. Then we found out that UBuildIt had allotted us more generous amounts of money for things than we think we need. We think we can build it for even less than UBuildIt allotted. So, we are definitely leaning towards UBuildIt. My dad is worried that UBuildIt may not give us enough support for the fee that they are charging us. I think their fee might pay for itself based on the quotes from subcontractors that they showed us. We need to talk to them and see if we can't get something in writing for them to visit the construction site a little more often.

I need to talk to James Lane and see what he will charge us, and what he would be able to offer. One little red flag that has come up is that he said Ybarra Concrete was a good company to contact for our basement, but they are actually out of business. That makes me wonder if it's been too long since he's done this. Maybe he won't be able to get the kind of prices from the subcontractors that UBuildIt can. UBuildIt claims to only use subcontractors that they know and trust. If we go with James Lane, we won't know what subcontractors are good and trustworthy. Maybe UBuildIt doesn't really know the subs like they claim to?

So, unless Dennis comes back with something spectacular, it looks like it's down to UBuildIt or brother Lane. I would say UBuildIt has the edge as of right now. But I was giving the edge to brother Lane last Saturday, so things might change.

We would love to get your input and feelings on this Grandma.

And the excitement builds!

We are really getting things rolling about now. We met with James Lane, who was a contractor in the past. Now he is an engineer at the Albuquerque Temple, but is interested in helping us with the house. He has built homes in Rio Rancho with basements and could be a great resource. We got him some plans today so that he can give us an estimate for his consulting/overseeing the project. In our meeting with him, he said that he would like to visit the construction site twice a week to monitor its progress and keep the subcontractors on task. He seemed very willing to loan us a tile saw, and paint sprayers to help with the do it ourselves tasks. After that meeting on Saturday I would feel very comfortable with him being our consultant instead of UBuildIt.

We were supposed to have a meeting tonight with a contractor and get a definite cost breakdown on our home construction. This contractor is our neighbor, Dennis. He was actually a contractor for Longford, and oversaw our current home when it was being built. We are familiar with his work, seeing that we live in one of his homes right now. That is a good thing and a bad thing, because we get to really know this house and all its faults. The meeting tonight was rescheduled for tomorrow night because his partner was unable to make it tonight with the bulk of the paperwork. We did have a talk with Dennis, and he said he could build the home for the price that we wanted (maybe we could have wanted it for a little lower price and gotten an even better quote???) Nonetheless, his price is definitely lower than what I was quoted by other builders that I have contacted. The nice thing about possibly going through Dennis is that he wouldn't just consult us, he would do it all. That would definitely take a lot of stress away, but we wouldn't learn as much. He would also be able to get it built quicker than we are anticipating if we just have a consultant. Tomorrow night we will get a definite bid from him.

Then on Thursday we are meeting with UBuildIt to see how all the bids from their list of subcontractors look. Scott at UBuildIt said he was pleased with the prices he is getting from the subs. We don't know how that will compare to Dennis' quote, but if it's higher we may just let the contractor take it. We will find out more on Thursday.

So, I guess we will have a BIG decision to make. Right now we have 3 major options. We build it with James Lane as our consultant; We build it with UBuildIt as our consultant; Or we let Dennis build it. Some prayer and contemplation will be required.

To really get things going we need to get the necessary permits. Tomorrow I am going to try to get the paperwork we need to get a Wastewater (Septic Tank) permit. That will take up to 10 days to get, then we can send 2 full copies of the plans for review with Rio Rancho, and finally finish the application process for our building permit. That will take up to a few weeks. If we really push it, maybe we can begin the actual construction by the end of July. If we keep pushing, maybe we can have the home completed before Christmas. I'm not sure why things haven't moved faster, but maybe it will work out for the best. One thing James Lane said is that we will get more quality work out of the subs when the weather isn't so hot.

I will report again in the next couple of days!!