Appraisal Done - Closing in 30 days

The title just about says it all...  The appraisal is final, there will be no budging or correcting or second opinion on it.  Well to be honest, the appraisal has been done for a few weeks now.  However, we decided to question the validity of it due to many misunderstood (or misinterpreted) values listed on the final report.  We sent a letter requesting explanations on different things, like why the picture was of the property next door?!?  Of course we had to send a copy to the bank, who in turn contacted the appraisal company and things were in limbo about what to do.  Either way, the appraiser stands by his appraisal, the bank stands by him and all comps are in, the values are set and all the waiting was pretty much for nothing.  I still don't understand how you can depreciated $30,000 for being in a low employment area, nor can I understand the $30,000 depreciation for having a basement?!?  Now we have to figure out to cut costs to stay within the new budget without cutting any square footage! 

Moving forward now - paperwork will have to go the underwriters, then to the loan officers and if everything works out as planned, we should be ready to close in 21-30 days!  I do love progress - even if it moves at a snail's pace. :)

A Sneak Peek at the Plans

For those of you curious, here are bits and pieces of our house plans!

Choosing a Bank

You would think that choosing a bank to lend  you a tremendous amount of money, that you're going to spend a huge portion of your life working to pay back, would be easy right?  I guess I never thought it would be that hard to choose the right bank for our loans.  Our situation is a little different from most though, and in today's economic troubles, it has been harder than ever to borrow the money we need to build.  The first issue we ran into was our lot size.  No bank around here wants to use a 11 acre piece of land in their deed of trust, and the Gates County Planning Department has other thoughts on what it does to split out anything less than an acre.....  So around and around we went.  We didn't want to split out an acre of land, because that meant if we ever decided to split off another acre or more to possibly give Josie one day, that it would turn our farm lot into a subdivision!  That is NOT what we wanted!!!  So, we decided to keep the farm lot in tact, borrow against the whole 11 acres, and find a bank that would let us do it...   That was the hard part.  Luckily my old college roommate and her husband were also going through the process of building on about 10 acres of land, and were far enough ahead of us to share some information on the banks they researched.  She told me that they went through 80 different banks before they found one that would let them build without subdividing the lot.  That was Ag Carolina out of Elizabeth City, so I called them.  "Oh yes, we would be happy to work with you and 11 acres", everything would be great, except (don't you just love that word?!?), except your builder has to be a certified general contractor with grade A license.  WHAT?  Now that just threw a monkey wrench in things, because we already knew we wanted Jeff to build the house, and I knew he wasn't a licensed contractor!  So we went in search again, until I came across Mr. Ellis Wills, and Farmers Bank Mortgage in Suffolk.  Mr. Wills has been nothing but helpful from the start, and I am very pleased with our choice of banks - so far...

Digging the Pond - Summer 2011

So this past summer really started the ball rolling with the whole process of building a house.  After deciding that buying a house was not what we ultimately wanted to do, we worked out a deal with Jeffrey's family to split up the farm.  After the surveys and deeds were all recorded and all the paperwork was finalized to make our half the farm officially ours, we started doing just that - making it ours.  I've never owned any real estate before, so that alone was a huge thing for me and I wanted to make a part of it mine.  I started small by planting a small garden, a couple rows of snaps, a few squash and zuccini, a cherry tomato here and there and pumpkins!  More than anything, the garden was just an excuse to be out on the lot every afternoon, just enjoying it!  But back to the pond...when we got our ducks in a row and started digging the pond the whole scheme of things changed, and things really started to take shape.

  Early in the summer we had someone with a backhoe come out and dig three test holes, just to see if we'd hit water, and check the soil types we'd be dealing with.  The we met with soil and water and dug a few more test holes in the bottom of the first holes,  everything seemed A-O.K. and we recieved the green light to dig ourselves a pond!  There was no question who we wanted to do the work for us - we already knew who we wanted.  We hired Russell Askew (Sandy Point Excavation) to bring in the escavator and bulldozer and he got to work for us.  Russell did a great job and was very easy to work with.  I would recommend him to anyone!  We met out on the lot and discussed where the pond would be, how big, how deep, and marked off the area with flags.  Of course in retrospect, nothing every ends up the way its planned.  I'm trying to keep that in mind as we move forward with each and every step of this project...

 At the end of Day 1, most of the topsoil had been removed and set aside to use later and day 2 would be the time to start the real digging!  The boys were hot and dirty, and realized even after only one day, it was going to take a little more time to dig this hole than originally thought!

Day two produced the first little bit of water, and by day three we took our first swim!  After working all day in the summer heat, I suppose it could be considered a bath for a few...  For those of us just 'watching' the pond take shape, and not actually participating in the driving, hauling and digging, it seemed like a long slow process, but all the guys were hard at work and those afternoon cool down swims sure did feel good! 

The sunflowers we had planted in the back of the field were finally in full bloom, and the butterflies were everywhere!  With some of the breathtaking sunsets we watched this summer, it was hard to imagine having to wait any longer to start digging the foundation!  Little did we know our patience would be tested more than we could ever imagine!

By day 10 of the pond construction, which seemed like a month or two after we started, (due to the rain, heat, ballgames,  and other events), the pond was finally dug, the top had been groomed, the hill had been built for the house, the grass was about to be seeded, and the water that was filling the pond was so beautiful and blue-green.

 That was until Hurricane Irene hit......