Ted and I always wanted to build our next home. It’s always been our dream. However, we never thought that dream would be attainable because we didn’t think we’d be able to afford it. At least not right now. We figured it would be something we’d be able to do in 10+ years. We had already been pre-approved for a mortgage loan, so we knew where our maximum price point was. We just never believed we’d be able to build a home for that same price. We were wrong! :)
We began speaking to our builder, MK Builders Inc. Ted’s company is actually a sub-contractor for MK, so Ted knew their work ethic and quality of homes they built. We spoke to a few other builders at our local Home and Garden Show. We knew we’d be building with MK, but it was still nice to get some ideas from other local builders. Matt from MK made us feel welcomed and he was very informative on the process as well as answered all of our questions and concerns. I had a lot of fears of building, mostly “how in the heck are we going to afford this” so having Matt explain everything was extremely helpful.
Our journey with building began in February 2013. Ted and I had decided to put our home on the market so that we could start the process of building our new home. Much to our excitement, and shock, we sold our home eight days after we put the sign in the yard! We listed our house February 14, 2013, (romantic right?) and accepted an offer February 22nd. We were to close on our house March 29th (ironically, we closed on that house March 27, 2009 and moved the last item out of that house March 27, 2013).
Our house on Dunn (Rainey is in her favorite spot in that house – by the front door
checking out the neighborhood).
We began our search for our next home looking on the internet for homes for sale. Mostly what we found were houses that needed way to much work for way to much money. It was frustrating. So we decided to look into building after we talked to our realtor, Laura, who happens to be Matt’s wife.
MK told us to look at a local drafting company’s website for floor plans. We found eight floor plans that we liked. So one night we sat down and went over all of them and narrowed them down to our top three choices. Talk about a tough decision!! We liked them all, there were aspects of each one that we loved. With the remaining three, we listed the pro’s and con’s of each design. We sat and discussed those three choices and agreed on our number one choice. We had found a winner!
Isn’t he cute?!?!?!
March 23, 2013, Ted and I began moving into our apartment. We ended up getting a one bedroom apartment at a pet friendly community. It was a big down-grade from our three bedroom house, but we figured it was only temporary. It definitely feels like the walls are closing in at times, but we are making do just fine.
March 26, 2013 we took the plan to MK and told Matt what changes we wanted. Straighten the garage, extend the laundry room so that we could include a mud room as well, move the pantry to the corner of the kitchen to make a walk-in pantry, and extend the shower in the master bathroom to make it a walk-in shower. Everything else stayed the same. I just LOVE this house plan.
The bidding process took a lot longer than we hoped it would have. It was suppose to take two weeks but because of the Lincoln Parade of Homes, it took six! And when we received the bid for our home, it was WAY over our budget. It was frightening…I wanted to walk away from building all together after hearing that figure and go back to looking for a house to buy.
Ted and I went over our proposal and found areas to cut out or reduce the allowances in order to get the bid to where we needed it. Luckily, with the sweat equity we plan on putting into the house, and the down payment, we were going to be okay. So we started getting the house plan and contract finalized.
Luckily for us, finding a lot was easy. MK actually owned the perfect lot in Weindelin Estates near Blue Stem Lake. We looked at a few other lots, but they quickly sold, so we decided that the lot MK owned was the best one for our needs, so we decided to purchase it from them. Since MK owned the lot, once we gave them the money down, the permits began to get pulled and the work began.
We staked and roped off the area where the house would sit the last week of June. Then we just had to wait for all the permits to come in. While we waited, we worked with Taylor at Union Bank for our construction loan. We were approved and went signed our lives away for the construction loan on July 9, 2013. That same day we made our first draw for the lot and was the day we officially broke ground! It was great to have everything finally start!
Our lot view from the creek
Our lot view looking towards the creek
Highlights:
- February 14, 2013 – house on Dunn put on the market
- February 22, 2013 – offer accepted on Dunn house
- March 29, 2013 – closed on Dunn house
- March 26, 2013 – began process with MK Builders
- June 26, 2013 – staked and roped off are where future home will sit on lot
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