Category: Farmhouse

Farmhouse

The End?

Sam

Ok, so to be honest it’ll never be the end. I mean seriously I am a borderline shopaholic when it comes to buying house decorations….. so instead enjoy the beginning of the end of Just Another Farmhouse.

See this isn’t even the final product! We need more grass to grow…. but for now it’s a great start!

My favorite part of the house has to be our kitchen area. I had a vision of how I wanted it and a budget that wasn’t even close to making that dream come true. So insert a wonderful vendor who was able to take stock cabinets and turn it into something I am so thankful for each day!

Another area I am thankful for are our three bathrooms. I opted for 3 full baths and went a little cheaper on the boys baths to save money. As you can tell I like white, gray and black.

The living room isn’t totally finished yet…. fireplace and entryway reveal soon… but so far I really like how all my furniture is fitting in the space. One ways I have stayed on budget is by purchasing furniture off Facebook Marketplace and refreshing them (chair above) or the auction site (the couch).

Although it is still not 100% finished I can for sure relate to this mat…. this is already our Home Sweet Home.
Farmhouse

The Waiting Game.

Sam

We are almost into our house. We still don’t have an exact date that the septic will be 100% finished and we are awarded with the magical occupancy permit…. but like the monkey who got its tail caught in the fan… it won’t be long now.

Ok, yeah I am using “dad jokes” but that should just tell you just how delusional I am at this point in our build.  I am burnt out on decisions, I am ready to be moved in, and in order to stay positive I have resorted to telling bad jokes…. but truth be told that’s a really good joke and you should laugh at it.

Anyways while I pass the time, I wanted to write a post about all the things that happen in this limbo period. So here goes:

  1. You spend money.

That’s it. That’s the end of the list. Through the whole building process and in the limbo period, and once you move in you just keep spending money, then you die.

Ok, maybe I am being a drama queen, but seriously I was not prepared for the nickel and diming that happens at the end of the build. So let my pain be a learning experience for someone…… here is a list of things you might have to buy and/or think about when you are about to move into a new house:

  • There are inches of construction dust. Like it’s raining dust at our house. Maybe that’ll be a new farmhouse trend I can start…. “authentic farmhouse dirt”. So to combat the massive air pollutants in the house I have bought:
    • A new shop vac (thank you Amazon Prime Days)
    • A mop/vacuum combo (thank you 30% off Kohls coupon)
    • A new broom
    • Another new broom because my husband took the one I bought for the garage.
    • New vacuum filters- because….. dust.
  • Cleaning supplies:
    • Hand soap, dish soap, Lysol wipes, granite cleaner, windex etc.
    • Magic Eraser- for when your kid takes a pencil to your newly painted walls
    • Carpet cleaner- for a similar reason.
  • Random stuff:
    • Trash cans.
    • Shower rod.
    • Soap dishes and dispensers.
    • Squeegees for the glass shower doors.
    • Curtains, blinds, etc.
    • Bath mats.
    • Entry mats.
    • Towel racks, toilet paper holders, door hooks, and door stoppers.
  • Furniture. So I think most of us know that we might want a new couch for a new house, or hey we have two more bedrooms in the new house so we need furniture for those new spaces…. But what I want to touch on is priorities of buying those things:
    • Make a list of all the furniture you plan to put in each room. Then mark next to it if you have it already or plan to buy it, and then write a budget of what each item will cost. I went as detailed as wanting a wreath for my pantry door.
    • Then highlight the items that are the most important to buy. (for example, we had to have a new bed for my son’s room and a new couch, but the entryway church pew I want wasn’t something I had to have right away).
    • Then come up with the goal you need to save or reserve some of your budget for to purchase those things. Then add some money because you will forget something.
    • Personally, I would focus on making sure you have a place to sit and eat (so either a table or bar stools), a place to sleep, and a TV so you can turn on a movie to distract your kids.
    • Another thing I bought here that adds up is paint and materials to refurbish the furniture I already had to “fit” in more with my new house.
  • Decorations……. This should be last on your priority list but unfortunately, I let this one sneak up on me. So my suggestion is that you at least budget for some decorations so that when you decide to buy some throw pillows… ok maybe I technically bought 12…. that it doesn’t shock your bank account. The thing you have to keep in mind about a new house is that you don’t need to move in and it be perfect……. obviously I am saying this to myself and not anyone reading this. SAM STOP BUYING DECORATIONS!
  • And last but not least I have spent an insane amount on organization………
    • Silverware tray.
    • Drawer dividers.
    • Shoe organizer.
    • Shower caddy.
    • Closet system that was over and above the white wire racks our builder included.
    • A crock to put utensils in (OK this wasn’t a necessity but I LOVE it!)
    • Pantry and Fridge organizers.

Oh bonus tip: You also spend a ton on going out to eat and gas. I am always forgetting something I need at the store because my pantry isn’t fully stocked yet or because we are still working on 100 projects around the house time gets away from me, so we end up eating out more than I care to admit. Plus, all those back and forth trips to the store and Lowe’s really add up!

Please do better than me if you decide to build a house. Budget better for these little odds and ends and plan better so that you don’t need to blow an entire paycheck on trash cans and cleaning supplies. Oh, and a word to the wise avoid the Target Dollar spot and Hobby Lobby during this limbo period.

Farmhouse

30+ Tips When Building A House

Sam

I am no expert when it comes to building a house. Kyle and I don’t build houses everyday and we haven’t even lived int hat many houses either. So when we decided to build a house we begged, borrowed and plain stole ideas of what to do. We were so fortunate to have a lot of friends and family who shared plenty of tips with us. As my way of paying it forward I tried to write down all the tips we received so that maybe we could help others like we were helped out. So………. enjoy these 30 + tips when building a house…..

General-

  1. When you dig the hole for your foundation (before the concrete goes in) spray the ground for termites.
  2. If possible, go with 2×6 walls. This helps with energy efficiency and for sound.
  3. If your builder lets you, get 2nd quotes on everything.
  4. I’m sure most of you know this but when you stake out your house it will be small…. like super small. One thing that helped me was measuring the size of my furniture in the staked off area. We also went to a friends house and measured their room dimensions to put our (ok…. actually just my) mind at ease.
  5. When the foundation gets poured put your conduit in, so there is no drilling through concrete walls. Also, remember to cap in the conduit so that the concrete and waterproofing black tar don’t get in it.
  6. Take pictures of everything. You’ll want to know where an outlet is that was accidentally hid by the drywall guy.
  7. Make your doors wheelchair accessible. Actually, look at your house overall and say “how accessible is it?”
  8. Rough-in plumbing in places you eventually will finish out or want a bathroom in (like the basement). Honestly, one person even suggested a bathroom in the garage, and I think it was genius! While I didn’t do that it made me remember that my boys always come in super dirty from outside, so we put our laundry room with a full wash tub right by our garage door and a bathroom access right as you walk in there too. That way they don’t have to go all through the house to get to a bathroom or to throw muddy clothes into the laundry room.
  9. Interior sound insulation, especially if you are doing an open concept.
  10. Where will you store a vacuum or broom? Think about living in the house. Where will you store things? Where will you hang out? Walking through our house and thinking of those things helped us switch a few things.
  11. Do you LOVE shiplap like me??? Pre-paint it (or buy boards already primed/painted) so that when you put it on the wall and over time the house “breaths” you won’t see the grooves that you missed. If you paint it once it is on the walls then the boards will separate over time and it’s really hard to get paint in those cracks!
  12. When choosing tile try to stay away from white grout. White grout will never stay white. Also, if you go with a dark tile in the shower keep in mind that soap scum is white.
  13. Can you add attic storage anywhere? Our builder was able to make us some attic storage that had access from our bonus room.
  14. Ask for any leftover material so that you can touch up things later.
  15. Also, think about where you can use leftover material. Can you use scrap granite in your bathroom on ledges? Can you use the outside board and batten on the fireplace or around a tub?
  16. Lowes Pro account. Kyle signed up for one of these and we get 5% off our purchases all the time. There are a few advantages to it. 1) you can order at the contractor pack levels (i.e. cheaper rates on lights/drywall if you buy so many) and 2) you can have it pulled and waiting for you and pick it up at the one door that says contractor (it makes us feel official). 3) it is kept separate from our checking account so it is easier to submit when we need reimbursed from our loan. I think using a military discount if you qualify would work well too.
  17. One thing that helped us was having some really smart friends (those who were contractors, inspectors, etc.) walk through our house at each stage. More times than I care to admit they pointed out things (like a wall that wasn’t supported right or a friend who looked at one of my building pictures and sent me a Facebook message about plastic wrapping to prevent rotting porches) that we were able to take back to our builder the next day and ask that they address it. I can’t tell you how much this saved us in failed inspection fees, and it gave us peace of mind.
  18. I can’t tell you how many things we have returned. Lights because I didn’t like the size, fans because I didn’t like the color, 4 different styles of door handles, etc. Make sure you don’t get into a habit of buying and returning too much. It costs money and time to return all those items.
  19. Final walk-through for paint/dry wall. Give family and friends each a roll of blue painter’s tape and have them put a piece of tape by anything they find. The worst thing would be to move into your brand-new house and realize you already have to patch a wall because when they brought in the cabinets, they scratched something up.
  20. And keep in mind that some things will not go right. Try to have a good attitude about everything! I’m a Christian and my faith has helped in ways I can’t explain! This house is not my #1 priority, it is just a house.

Kitchen-

  1. My pantry wasn’t as huge as I’d like it, so my builder found some space between the studs to add an extra small closet. Utilize space between studs well- extra closets, built-ins, etc.
  2. Pot filler- ok this is a splurge, but I am so excited about it!
  3. Pot and pan drawer right by or under your stove/cook top.
  4. Silverware drawer next to your dishwasher for easy unloading.
  5. Think about the places everyone goes in the kitchen when they are over. The trash can and sink. Unless you can access the trash by multiple directions, I would suggest not putting it next to the sink (I know strange but trust me!)
  6. If you have an island with a sink in it, make sure the faucet you select isn’t too tall.
  7. I don’t think you need a ton of specialty drawers, but one or two are really nice. My two were the pot/pan drawer and the trash drawer. Maybe yours is a fancy spice rack next to the stove. In the other cabinets think about wire racks inside to maximize space without the extra cost of a pull-out drawer.
  8. Remember that between your island and your cabinets and where your table is you should have at least 42-48 inches so that you can easily maneuver without hitting your hip on something.
  9. Lights. Two big flaws I have made in our house are the fact that our table isn’t centered to the dining room and the island isn’t centered to the middle beam… which means the light over the table isn’t centered to the room and the pendant lights aren’t exactly centered either. You can’t notice unless I point it out….. but I noticed.

Bathrooms-

  1. Pick tile for your shower that is not shiny! You will slip.
  2. Showers that are really large or open air are cold. Think about either making it smaller, adding glass walls, or multiple shower heads.
  3. Where will you store towels for each shower?
  4. We went with taller vanities in the bathrooms. And a taller toilet. I am not 100% sold on this but the taller cabinets look nice and the toilet is easier to get off of when you get older…..

Outlets/Light Switches/Etc.-

  1. Master closet- for a safe
  2. Hallway closet- to charge cordless cleaning appliances
  3. Pantry- for kitchen appliances
  4. Bedrooms- for nightlights
  5. Living room floor- for power couches and lamps on side tables
  6. Don’t forget outlets on the porch. Maybe even put some on the ceiling so that it’s easier to hang Christmas lights. And outlets in the garage for charging power tools or your kids power-wheels.
  7. Where will your bed be in the master bedroom? Think about laying down in it and the lights being on, then having to argue about who’s turning the lights off…… maybe add a switch to the lights by your bed.
  8. Plan where you are going to put your Christmas tree or entry table and then put an outlet there.
  9. Put in dimmer switches in certain areas of your house.
  10. Put in USB outlets in places you might charge your phone.
  11. Don’t want to see cable boxes and such? Run conduit in the walls from where your TV will go to a nearby closet.

Outside/Barn/Garage-

  1. Are you having gas? Run a line to your back porch for your grill.
  2. Driveway….. while building it (and your yard) will be a mess! Try not to do finishing touches (or concrete aprons, black top, etc.) until all the heavy equipment is out.
  3. Gutters tied into pipes buried to move water away from house.
  4. In barns and garages (if your county allows)- add drains.
  5. Make sure windows and doors in detached garages and barns face the house so you can see if someone is breaking in.
  6. Also we had trail cams put up while we were building. And we had people steal things….. so they came in very handy!
  7. Double garage doors vs. 1 bigger door are more heat/cooling efficient.
  8. Put an outside spicket on multiple sides of your house so you aren’t dragging hoses around.
  9. Think about alternative energy/heat/cooling sources. Could your house use an outdoor wood burning stove, a wood burning stove in the basement tied into the fireplace chimney, an attic fan, or if you had a generator where would you put it and pre-wire it to main areas of the house.
  10. We were told not to put the outside air condition unit by our bedroom because it would be loud- but ours is really quiet… so this is “maybe” a good tip?
  11. Our porch is ridiculously deep. So maybe we are a bit excessive. However, make sure it is deep enough for furniture if you have one.

Finding Land-

  1. We just randomly called up someone to ask if they’d sell us land. Since we’ve done this we’ve heard of so many people who’ve also been able to get their land like this!
  2. Make sure the land you like isn’t too wet. Or if it has a lot of trees- just know that it is going to cost money and time to clear that land and probably will mean bringing in dirt.
  3. Think about where you are putting the house and how hard it is to get utilities to it.
  4. Talking about utilities you can call up the water company to see how much a water tap would be (or even if you have water available) and you can see what your county usually lets you install septic wise (we basically only got to install a mound system). Figuring some of this out beforehand might make you decide if the perfect land is really worth it knowing how much prep you’ll have to do.

Farmhouse

Construction Loan and Draws

Sam

So I really suggest building a house without the use of a loan at all. That isn’t what Kyle and I did (and it may be unrealistic for most of America) but it would have reduced 90% of my stress. Plus you could then build whatever house you wanted, whenever you wanted!

For example: let’s say you want to build a two bedroom house with a basement and put two bedrooms in the basement (so now you are essentially a 4 bedroom house)…. well the bank is not going to loan you that much on that house (so you’ll need to fork over a lot of cash) because the resale value on the house (and what the auditors site will report in our county at least) is that the house is only a two bedroom house.

Ok. maybe that example isn’t applicable. How about this one……… you buy your land out right and decide to do some of the land clearing yourself and add a half driveway so that you aren’t parking your truck on a busy road. Well, when you go and get your loan the bank considers the driveway a land improvement and there now could exist a lien on your property and the bank is going to be real skeptical about loaning you money. (A lien might exist if you hire a dump truck to bring you a ton or two of gravel- you pay the driver of the truck, but he never pays the gravel company…. the gravel company can now put a lien on your land until they get paid by the driver.)

The second example did happen to us. Not the lien, thank goodness, but rather the bank was not happy we put a half driveway in.

I know that some of us are not in a position to pay for a $300K-$400K house in cash so a loan is inevitable. So, there are some basic recommendations and knowledge I’d love to share with you on the whole loan/drawing money process. Plus some suggestions on how to choose a mortgage company. However, like all my posts, my disclaimer is that this is different with each bank and builder…… so the following is just how it worked for us:

1) I would suggest a 100 times over to pick a mortgage company that your builder has worked with before. We did not do this. This will come in handy when you go to do draws. It will come in handy with inspections for draws. And it will come in handy to avoid things like my example above.

    • Our mortgage contact was wonderful, but the construction department was where it would have been easier to work with someone who was familiar with our builder. So if you know someone in the mortgage business- maybe use them (if the rates are favorable) for after the construction loan is done (if that is even allowed??).

2) To be qualified for our loan we had to provide all the typical W2’s, Tax Returns, Bank Statements, etc. plus the following:

    • House plans.
    • Our cost sheet. Our bank had some questions on our cost sheet (ex: the house plans show an extensive porch so they wanted to know which line item the porch was included in since it was not a separate item.)
    • Then they had us turn in a cost sheet breakdown that they typically use (so basically just copying the information from my sheet to theirs) and having our builder sign it.
    • A Builder’s Contract. Our builder didn’t have one of these nor our bank.
    • Letter of Explanation, receipts, and lien waivers for the half drive way.

3) The bank will require you to put (in cash or property) 10% to 20% of the total amount your house appraises at. So some math:

    • The cost sheet of my house to build (without consideration of any of the savings I plan/did have) was $382K.
    • Our land was purchased at $36,500 and appraised at $42,500.
    • Our house (based off comps in our area and our cost sheet) appraised at $425K.
    • The “comps in our area” is very important. Let’s say we had one of the more expensive houses in our area to build, but the housing market didn’t support that, the bank won’t lend you money on it because if you foreclose they won’t be able to sell it because it is too expensive of a house). So that would mean you either need to downgrade your house to meet comps in the area or put more cash into it yourself.
    • So the amount of cash or property we needed to bring to the table at closing was $42,500 (for 10%) and $85,000 (for 20%).
    • So our land that was already purchased covered 10% down. So that was our “down payment”.
    • We decided to only do 10% at that time. The reason we did this was because 1) we planned to not really owe $382K by some of the savings we did so the 20% down when we go to convert the loan to a 15 or 30 year will be less than $85,000 and 2) we wanted to save some of our cash to be able to float while building.

4) You will also need to pay closing costs. Ours was about $5K.

5) Once you secure the loan your builder can start work and you can start to make draws. Our contract was written that 5 draws would occur after completion of certain steps. (i.e. foundation was poured was one draw, “dried in”- with windows and doors was another draw)

6) Your builder is ready for the first draw. Now what? I suggest praying and also keeping in the back of your mind it is going to take some back and forth.

    • You’ll need an affidavit….. probably. Our bank required it, but I think if we would have went with a bank our builder is familiar with we would have forgone this step and just turned in invoices.
    • We used Kim’s affidavit. (513) 528-7250 She helped walk us through getting the invoices our bank required, changing language so that our builder would sign it, and turned it all around quickly for us. We had to pay her for each affidavit but this was worth it to us.
    • On one draw you can request several checks: so we would often have one for our builder, our electrician, our heating/air subcontract, flooring, cabinets, etc.
    • You can also have yourself as someone whose getting paid back. Since Kyle did a lot of plumbing and electric work himself we did this often for the materials we bought.
    • The bank will come out and inspect to make sure that the portion needed to be completed for the draw was actually completed. So if you take out a draw for foundation work and there was no concrete poured- they aren’t going to give you money. Fairly positive that would be some sort of money laundering thing too…….

7) After you turn in for your first draw, you’ll start paying on interest for the amount you drew. So our payments started out low, $200, and then reached upwards to $2,000.

      • On a side note; construction loans are usually only good for 6 months. If your build goes longer than this (like ours did, thanks Ohio weather) you’ll need to do an extension. It shouldn’t cost any money, just a signature.

8) Once you’ve had your last draw and get your occupancy permit you’ll then want to convert your loan from a construction loan to a conventional loan. In full disclosure we aren’t here yet- so I’ll come back and update if the conversion part turns into a nightmare.

Ok I think that is all the knowledge I have. Honestly, it might not even be that great of a help because if I have blocked anything from my memory for this build it is in regards to the loan process.

So to recap: pay for your house in cash and do not take out a loan.

Farmhouse

Have It Your Way: Choosing House Plans

Sam

I feel most of you reading the “farmhouse” portion of this blog have a Pinterest board full of future house plans. Heck, I am almost finished with my house and I still haven’t came around to deleting off some of the plans I wanted in the beginning. So, I want to devote this post to all the things you might consider when you are choosing plans.

You should know what your builder can and can’t do when it comes to plans.

Many of the builders we asked for prices from gave us “pre-drawn” plans that you could modify. But to take the plans we loved on the internet and make them come to life- was either super expensive to do through them or was actually just something they flat out wouldn’t do. For these types of builders who were building “custom” houses, a better description would be “pre-selected” customization you could do to their plans. One reason we choose the builder we choose was because he truly took our exact plans and made them a reality.

On a side note:  a few questions I have been asked is if

  1. you have to buy the plans before you get quotes?
  2. if you can get quotes on multiple house plans?

The Answer:

1) No, you don’t have to buy the plans before you get a quote- just keep in mind it might be a little more high level with allowances than a detailed quote

and

2) Yes, you can bring two plans to a builder and determine if there would be a big cost difference between them- but unless you are drastically changing the structure or square foot amount they will probably be close to the same price.

What modifications should you choose?

In full disclosure I can’t tell you what would be best for your family and lifestyle. For example: you might decide you need a place to put a dog washing station in your house because your dream is to adopt 13 ½ dogs……. But Kyle and I decided that since we have three boys we basically have our hands full in the “animal” department as it is- so dog care won’t be on our list of modifications.

Instead, I’d like to walk you through our modifications and why we choose them. I am hoping that you can see a trend of the types of things to think about when you start to choose your own modifications.

  • Dining room conversion: we replaced the dining room with a bedroom, then added an attached bathroom with a shower. Our reasoning behind this was because 1) we have 3 kids and 2) we didn’t have the money for a dining room, breakfast area, and 4 bedrooms- so we had to work with the space we had (2,500 sq ft). And that is my point with this modification: just because in the original plans it shows a dining room and half bath- really think how you want to use the space in that room. Maybe it makes more sense to convert the dinning room into an office on one side and a pantry on the other?
  • Made the breakfast area larger: since we converted the dining room into a bedroom, we needed to make sure the breakfast area was large enough to fit our farmhouse table that Kyle built to fit 52 of our closest friends. Although, I am exaggerating a bit, we did need to make this bigger. In general, we found that we really had to pay attention to room sizes and make sure that our furniture was going to fit. This includes outside spaces too! The attached garage in our plan was only 21×21 and wouldn’t fit Kyle’s truck, so we made it larger.
  • Moved the laundry room and connected it to the master closet: a lot of our modifications had to do with future proofing our home as best we could. We selected a home with the master bath and laundry on the first floor so that we wouldn’t have to do stairs as much. We widen the doorways and halls to fit wheel chairs through them…. just in case. We added a full bath vs. a half bath to the converted bedroom in case an elderly parent needed to move in with us down the road. We wanted to build a home that fit our needs now, and hopefully fit our needs in the future too.
  • The original sketch of the outside of the house vs. what we did: Our plans had a huge wrap around porch with a railing, extra windows in the garage, vertical siding, and a half moon shaped window in the peak of the house. Don’t steer clear of plans just because of the exterior. You can change roof pitches, do stone work, add porches and dormers, and drastically change the exterior into more your style. I mean…. Joanna Gains does it all the time on her show- and she’s using pre-existing structures- you get to start from scratch on your new build.
  • Deleting structured posts, adding pocket doors, and planning where to put mechanics: Another great thing about building a house is that you can figure out ways to make it as open as want. So if you want your basement to have only a few posts in it you can put a heavy duty steel beam to support the weight of the upper floor. Or if you want a super open living room you can buy bigger trusses, thus eliminating a support beam. The same thing with pocket doors or where your air condition will be. You can choose to not put plumbing/electric/ducts in a wall so that you can add a pocket door. And you can plan where you want your heating/cooling inside unit at the beginning to make it the most out of the way. That has been one of the nicest parts of building for us. Instead of walking into houses we wanted to buy saying- we’d like to take this wall down and then realizing it would be way too expensive to do that- we get to start from scratch.

You know what plans you want… now what???

There are so many ways you can purchase plans. Like I said before some people might choose a builder who already has existing plans and they modify them for you, some have CAD programs and will draw them up, you can hire an architect to draft them, you can buy them off the internet (this is what we did), and in rare cases (like where my builder’s from) you can submit a rough sketch drawn on the back of a napkin…… I’m only sort of kidding. In most cases though you are going to need blueprints done by a professional that have basement plans (how tall are the walls, where are the windows, outside doors, where do the footers need to be poured, etc.), a first floor and second floor plans (detailed with square footage, built-ins, where center beams are, etc.), a roof plan, all the sides of the house elevation plans, building section plans (r-values, flashing, vents, etc.), and then an electrical plan.

I have a few basic things I want to tell you about this.

  • Some counties will require an engineer stamp on your plans. In full disclosure I don’t know how they determine that- I think it is if your house structure is out of a normal range of support (i.e. you have an open concept without any supporting posts that is so huge that there is questions on whether it is structurally sound). I also think they may require an engineer stamp if you do rafters vs. trusses. Rafters are built on site by your builder and trusses are common roof dimensions that are built off site and are engineer approved when they are built. In our specific county with our specific plan we did not have to have an engineer’s stamp. My brother who also built in our county did………
  • The electrical plan we bought online was not detailed enough for our county. We needed carbon dioxide and fire detectors outside of each room, where the original plans had can lights and fans were not where we planned to put them, etc. So we had our electrician look over everything and add to it where needed.
  • Like I said before, we bought our plans off the internet and we had them modified. We could have had them modified by anyone we choose- but we decided to go through the preferred vendor of where we bought the plan. I think this was a mistake on our end as it took 10 weeks to get the modifications done. If I had to do it over I would have taken the plans we found online and asked someone familiar with our county to draw them up. My only hesitation to do that in the first place was the cost of online plans seemed to be a lot cheaper, but I didn’t actually get quotes- which I regret.

 

Hopefully this was helpful and answers some of your questions about the house plans, modifications, and next steps. If you have any other questions or I didn’t explain something well enough, please comment below or send me a message. In the meantime- keep finding amazing plans that fit your lifestyle!

Family, Farmhouse

Marriage Proofing Your House.

Sam

Has anyone told you that building a house is tough? Or that it really tests a marriage?

If you haven’t heard this before let me be the first to mention it to you. And if you have heard it let me serve as confirmation of this information. Building a house will be tough on your relationship. 

In fact, want to know what I am doing right now? I am holed up in my room, listening to a marriage sermon that my friend sent me, and I am sulking. Kyle and I had a big fight last night. Like one that ended in me driving around for 3 hours with a stop at Walmart at 1 am with my PJ’s on. I am super dramatic like that.

Want to know what the fight was about? Our house. I am frustrated and upset that we are 6 months into our build and we still do not have our septic in and we’ve been on a waiting list to get it in for almost a year.

Actually, I am just frustrated (period).

The thing is, when building a house it gets frustrating a lot. You’ll get frustrated that it is taking too long, something comes in over budget, a subcontractor messed something up, you have to pre-plan out all these things and you are afraid you might forget something, or you have to make a choice on wood flooring and the choice you want doesn’t work out so you have to go with something else that you aren’t quite as satisfied with…….. and the list goes on and on.

I have only been married 10 years and I don’t think I am qualified to offer any marriage advice. 1) because when we fight I do things like go to Walmart at 1 am because I am throwing a hissy fit and 2) Kyle and I haven’t really been faced with any big complications in our time of being married. But if it is OK with you I’d like to walk you through a few things that might help you if/or when you might build a house. And mostly because I need a list to refer back when these “house” fights happen again…… because they will.

  • Reach out to the one or two friends who value marriage and relationships. You know who they are. Bonus points if they too have built a house together or even tried to plan a simple home improvement project. They are the ones who won’t ever say a negative thing about your spouse even when you are saying ALL the negative things. They are the friends who listen, pray for you, and then send you sermons to listen to. They aren’t judging you and saying “what a terrible marriage you have or you should be more like my perfect marriage”. No, these friends are telling you that you are just frustrated and offering to go to McDonalds at 10 pm once the kids are asleep just so you can throw a pity party over a McFlurry.

 

  • You have to look at your spouse through the lens of LOVE. There are gonna be some tough times. I can’t tell you what those tough times are. For me it is because I want it to stop raining so we can put a septic tank in. Yours might be because your husband can’t tell that there is an OBVIOUS off color piece of flooring in the middle of your living room….. wait no that’s me too. You need to remember some basic facts: your spouse is not error free, they need as much grace as you do, and when you stop looking at them as a child of God and instead as someone whose letting you down- you will fail. Your marriage will fail. Your family will fail. (Note to future self: listen to this sermon when this happens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QSJSjNQM68)

 

  • Separate the truth from lies. During this current fight; I am not mad at Kyle, I am mad because our septic is not in and I am still living with my dad in a house that isn’t mine. I am frustrated at our circumstances right now. The truth is that Kyle feels the same way I do but expresses it differently. The lie is that I sometimes get so worked up that I think Kyle can control things that are really out of his control: like the weather. I know it sounds dumb, but honestly during this build I had to remind myself a lot that we were at the mercy of different contractors and the weather… both things that we can’t control. And the biggest truth I had to remember is that we still have the same goal in the end.

 

  • Marriage differences are tough. That might be the most underrated sentence I have ever spoke. Kyle and I are different on so many levels. He’s focused on the structure of our house like the electric and wouldn’t help on selecting what color we should paint the walls. He likes the hot hot summer and I look better in layers in the winter. He is so laid back that at times it comes across like he doesn’t care and I am such a hot head that I jump to conclusions. It’s not easy being so vastly different. Sometimes we can’t see where the other one is coming from and it leads to frustration. It’s during these times that I just have to embrace our differences and be thankful. I have to look at them as an opportunity to grow and widen my view. I have to embrace that differences mean that we are being thorough and that it brings diversity to our relationship. I cannot let the differences divide us. Because again when that happens things in our relationship start to fail, like communication.

 

  • You are not justified. This is really important. When I am mad at Kyle or hurt by really anyone who I have a close relationship with I can really easily fall into a hole where I feel wronged. But we are called to stay humble. And we need to get humble fast. I can perfectly recall a lot of the things that I have gotten mad about over the past 10 years with Kyle. He can’t. It isn’t because I haven’t made my fair share of mistakes- probably even worse than his ever were. It is because he has a terrible memory. But jokes aside you will need grace at one point in time in your relationship. Extend the type of grace that you hope to get when you mess up.

 

This isn’t my way of saying I have this marriage thing figured out or that I resolve conflict really well. I am so far from that. I just want you to know that building a house is not for the faint of heart and it will be tough- even for those of you who have a pretty strong relationship. I also want to tell you that the house you are building is not worth a broken relationship. And in case you need to be reminded……….. your spouse cannot control the weather so that it stops raining so you can put in a stupid septic tank.

Farmhouse

You need a Builder’s Contract?

Sam

So as some of you might know from my other posts, we decided to be our own General Contractor and we choose a Builder who although did quality work, wasn’t exactly on the up and up for legal contracts and such. Not in a “trying to evade the law” type of way, he just builds quality houses and his word is something he takes more value in than a contract. In fact, when doing loan draws and such, we had to omit the language “I solemnly swear” because it went against his beliefs. Anyways……. so when our bank said we had to have a contract vs. a hand written out sheet of notebook paper that our builder provided us as our “quote”, we weren’t really surprised and even a little relived that our house would have some type of paperwork aside from a loose leaf piece of paper and a handshake.

However, our Bank wouldn’t supply a sample contract and we were the general contractors so it was up to us to figure out what a builder’s contract even looked like.

After some Google research I found a few samples all of which I borrowed from (so this isn’t my own original content), and I also had to modify to apply to 1) us building on our own lot 2) agreement from our Builder that once he signed it he would uphold it and 3) that we were building in Ohio (different states have different regulations).

I want this site to be a 1 stop shop for all your building questions, so I want to provide you with my modified sample of the contract that our Builder and our Bank accepted. HOWEVER…… this is meant to be an example only. I am in no way a lawyer nor is it my intent to provide you something that you haven’t completely vetted with your legal counsel that you intend to use as a legal contract. So again, DISCLAIMER: FOR EXAMPLE PURPOSES ONLY. I’m in no way responsible if you decide to use this to submit to your Bank/Builder.

Instead I just want you to see some of the categories and typical language in these type of contracts. For example: “the draw schedule” is a really nice table to compare to your contract to see if it lines up. Or it is nice to see the clause that the Builder isn’t responsible for weather delays is a typical statement.

I think this gives you one reference to make sure your contract isn’t missing anything, but I also encourage you to have a lawyer look this over and look at other contracts.

BUILDING CONTRACT (EXAMPLE ONLY)

 

 

Farmhouse

Building Timeline

Sam

So here’s the deal. I am going to give you an actual check list of what order things are typically done when building. But I need you to know that building a house is dependent on………. weather, humans, and where you are building. Which means that if you have terrible weather (thank you Ohio) this list might change and timing might be adjusted. And because building is so dependent on sub-contractors, if one is running behind it can mess up timing of other things too. Also, depending on where you live this list can have things it is missing or things that need to be added to it (i.e. a structural engineer stamp or added township inspections).

Also, I know you know this but planning is key. I highly suggest you read First Things First: Building a House. This list is really for after you have your land secured and builder selected. Also, because I am super nice if you want this in a PDF list scroll to the bottom.

  • Address
    • Through Township- Our township trustees are only there a few times/hours a month, but we got it approved the day we took it
    • Also register mail address with USPS- took a few weeks
  • Driveway Permit
    • Through ODOT (Ohio Dept. of Transportation because we built on a State road)
    • Ours came within a week
  • Soil Samples
    • Took about a month
  • Site Survey/Septic Design
    • We gave a set of plans we drew up that showed approx. footage off the road, size of house, angle of house, etc.
    • They used this for official plans which was sent to the Septic Designer who overlaid Septic Plans
    • Site Survey said 6 weeks out but took more like 8 weeks- dependent on how backed up your contractor is
    • Once the Septic Designer got the Site Survey and soil results this only took a few weeks
  • House Plans (working on at the same time as septic etc.)
    • This took almost 10 weeks and I had to stay on top of them
    • We did not have to have an engineer stamp
    • Our plans had trusses not rafters (trusses are stamped by the manufacture of the trusses)
    • Our plans had the basic electric work up (i.e. pointed out where the double oven was, smoke detectors, etc.) but did not include the number of circuits needed which we got that number from our electrician (we needed this for the permit application)
  • Township Permit
    • Through our Township- they are only there a few times/hours a month, but again this was approved the day we took it
    • You will need your Site Survey
  • Septic Permit
    • Through the Board of Health
    • You will need your Site Survey, Township Permit, and Septic Design
    • Approved within a week, typically whoever is doing your septic gets this for you but he was busy so we just went ahead and got it
  • Building Permit
    • Through our County
    • You will need your approved Septic Permit, multiple sets of plans, Site Survey, Township permit, and plus we had to fill out an application
    • We had our plans not accepted once because we needed to mark two small things (CO detectors outside all bedrooms and bathroom exhaust fans needed to vent outside)
    • The process of turning them in, rejection, then resubmitting and approval took 5 days
  • Temporary Electric
    • This was through our electric company and our electrician helped set it up
    • We had to wait on land clearing and loan completion
  • Loan Process
    • Pre-approved in March, construction loan finalized in August. (6 months) (I think this can go faster if you stay on top of the bank. We were not in a rush.)
    • Items the Bank requested
      • Financials Records (W2, Tax Returns, paystubs, etc.)
      • Cost breakdown (Builder’s cost plus all “other” costs)
      • Builder’s Contract
      • Builder’s Risk Insurance (through your agent)- this is good for one year
      • Additionally, since we did do some land clearing and half driveway before our loan was approved we had to send a Letter of Intention
      • Application fee, plus down payment
  • Final plan design with Builder
    • Once we had the loan closing date we scheduled a time with our Builder to go over the plan one more time.
  • Foundation Poured (footers and basement walls)
    • Two weeks out from loan closing
    • I think this depends on what projects they have going and where you are on the list
    • Footers need inspected.
    • Also, if like us you do a roughed-in future bathroom in the basement, this will need inspected before you pour concrete.
  • Framing
    • Completed within a month of ground breaking
    • Framing needs inspected.
  • Dried In
    • This includes outside wall sheeting, windows, and doors installed
    • Within 2 months of foundation being poured
  • HVAC, Electric and Plumbing
    • Once your house has doors and windows and can be locked you can start on these projects
    • These all take a lot of time. I’m hesitant to even give a typical time frame as it is really on-going the entire time you are building.
    • All this will need a “rough-in” inspection and a final inspection.
  • Water Tap and Permanent electric
    • Through whoever your utilities are through.
    • From applying for the taps/meters to install this was about 10 days.
    • Make sure you meet with these utility companies before they install so you know where you’ll be running these from the road to your house.
    • Once the tap/permanent electric is done you can run these pipes/conduit to your house
  • Septic Installation
    • This can actually be installed as soon as your basement walls are up and your pipe is through the wall. Again, we did not have city sewer and the wait list for contractors in our area was a YEAR. Seriously. It is based on how wet it is, and for us we picked the wettest year in Ohio.
    • This will need an inspection.
  • Exterior and Interior Insulation
    • Took a couple days to do.
    • This will need to be inspected too. When in doubt get everything inspected.
  • Drywall
    • You have to have insulation and HVAC done. Side note: make sure your HVAC does not run when they are sanding drywall. Trust me.
    • This take about 2 to 3 weeks.
  • Painting and Staining
    • About a week.
  • Doors and Trim
    • About a week.
  • Flooring
    • Again about a week.
  • Kitchen Cabinets, Appliances, and Counter-Tops
    • You want to make sure you are timing this right. Our cabinets came in about 4 weeks too early, which the company who we bought the cabinets from was nice enough to let us store them in their warehouse.
  • Final grading
    • This will typically include some final landscaping and sidewalks.
  • Final Inspection
  • Occupancy Permit
  • House warming party that you invite me to and serve wine at?

YIKES. Are you still with me????? Did your eyes glaze over???? I’ll admit it is a lot. This was by far my least favorite post to write because of how overwhelming it is. Even now I’m afraid I might have missed something. I still think it gives you a good approximate timing of projects and order. And in full disclosure since we aren’t 100% moved into our house (again thank you Ohio weather) I will update this if it changes. If you just want the PDF of this list click here.

If I missed something please let me know!

Farmhouse

You did WHAT yourself?

Sam

So I told you in 5+ Ways to Save $ on Building a house that Kyle and I (heavy emphasis on Kyle) did some of the work ourselves. So I wanted to provide you some honest feedback on what worked for us and what didn’t.

I’ll be real (and maybe a bit braggy) Kyle and I rarely fight. It’s not because I’m an amazing person who solves conflict well or never does anything wrong- it is mostly because Kyle hates conflict and is really easy going. Ah– but that was prior to building a house together. I still think we weathered the house building storm well as a couple but if we did fight about anything on the house…… it’s most likely on this list.

  1. Being our own general contractor. The beginning part of building and being your own contractor is hard. Knowing what steps you have to start with and filling out permits are a bit confusing. Thankfully, we found a lot of helpful people at our township and county, plus some friends who had built/build houses for a living. The biggest part is how time consuming it is. Being there for inspections, filling out the permits, scheduling the temporary and permanent electric, etc. I would suggest only doing this if you have some type of flexibility. Kyle saved up all his vacation time and he scheduled things on his lunch hour. Not to mention the time before work and after.
  2. Some land clearing. We bought 8 acres of trees. Tall trees, small trees, dead trees, beautiful trees, just lots and lots of trees. Kyle started cutting up trees for where our driveway and house would be in February 2018. A year later and he is still cutting up trees. Two of our builders’ quotes included tree clearing at about $10K. This is a high price because DISCLAIMER cutting down trees is dangerous. I still lean on the side that this was probably worth doing it ourselves  Kyle doing it (the boys need their mom so I wasn’t cutting up any trees!). We could work at our own pace and the only thing it bothers is that the outside of the house is a little messier than I’d prefer. But for $10K I can handle it looking like a tornado went through. (We also spent money to have a landscaping company clear the undergrowth and cut ATV trails in our woods. This was about $1,500 and well worth it!)
  3. Electric and Plumbing. Well. Here goes. It was nice being married while it lasted. My answer is this is absolutely not worth it. We saved about $2K from our original quote and Kyle spent about 90 hours in total to save that amount. Now here’s the thing, Kyle needed to have a part in our house build. I am not sure if your spouse (or maybe you do too) find worth in having your hands in the actual building of the house, but my husband finds worth in this. He doesn’t care about the paint color or kitchen cabinets, he was about as useless as they came when picking out flooring or tile. But he wanted to run the electric and plumbing and there is value in that. Plus he now knows intimately all the workings of our house. So although my answer still leans towards the not worth it column on this in general, if I wanted to be a great supportive wife I’d tell you that by doing it ourselves we saved some money and the quality can’t be beat.
  4. Fireplace Installation. Kyle did all the framing and installation of the fireplace. This took about 5 hours and saved us $900. One thing I want to make sure I mention here is that for $50 the same place who was going to charge us $900 to install the fireplace came out to inspect my husband’s handiwork. This ensured our warranty was able to be enforced (just in case) and honestly gave us peace of mind. Totally worth it.
  5. Fireplace mantel, hearth, and surround. We are still working on this so I’ll update this post once we are finished with a full report.
  6. Kitchen Cabinet Installation. Between the Builder helping (for free!) and my husband we saved about $2K on installing our kitchen cabinets. I can’t recommend enough to just check with your Builder to see what they would charge to install the cabinets vs. what the company where you buy your cabinets will charge. Like I’ve said before get multiple quotes for everything!
  7. Island knee wall and stove vent hood. This is another thing we are still working on, so TBD. But I’ll let you know that custom shiplap vent hoods are super pricey! Like over a thousand dollars pricey. So I think it’s probably safe to assume this is in the win column for saving money but I’ll update once it is 100% done.
  8. Running Water/Electric to house. So first, a big shout out to our brother-in-law Joe who helped Kyle with this! Along with hiring a friend who owns a mini excavator, Kyle was able to run electric and water from the road to our house for about $1.5K. This took one 8 hour day and was worth it. We’d estimate we saved a few thousand dollars by doing this.
  9. Interior Insulation. We spent $760 on the actual material to reduce the sound in our walls since we have an open concept living area. It took Kyle, his dad, and myself 3 hours to do this one night. We probably saved at least a few hundred $’s and honestly it was some of the most uninterrupted conversation time Kyle and I have had….since….well….. since having the first kid. Well worth it!

There are still some areas of the house we are working on but for the most part this is what we tried to tackle ourselves. If you are going to build (and want to do some of the work yourself) I would sit down beforehand and make sure you have a good estimate on how much time it would take you to do something and if the potential savings is worth it.

Looking back on it we were really happy with the projects we decided to do…… and we are still happily married.

Farmhouse

Who Built Just Another Farmhouse?

Sam

Blah. I am sure you are going to hate seeing this as the opening line to every single one of my posts….. but here it is again…….. this is just who we used to help build our house. You can take this list or leave it. Although, I think they do quality work and I would recommend all of our vendors (which I think is unique for someone whose built a house because boy oh boy have I heard horror stories!) you might not have the same experience as me- or know even better vendors. Also, if you aren’t in the Cincinnati area this is probably a pretty useless post for you to read.

  1. House Plans: Architectural Designs- House Plans
  2. House Plan Modifications (used by AD- House Plans): UO unlimited options, inc.
  3. General Contractor: Tritek, LLC  (even though we didn’t use a General Contractor Joe Speeg was more than helpful at the beginning and answered a ton of questions)
  4. Builder: Ernie Miller (937-515-0894)
  5. Foundation (used by our builder): Mark Edenfield
  6. Electric and Plumbing: Kyle and Kena Willingham (OK so here’s the deal he also goes by Pineapple so if you are from our area and are thinking “who is Kena?” it’s Pineapple’s real name) (513-238-0611)
  7. HVAC: Carney Heating and Cooling
  8. Painting: Adam West (he gave us an amazing quote and we’ve seen his work- unfortunately our Builder had us use his sub-contractor.)
  9. Flooring: RJC Flooring and Construction (513-233-5581, he also gave a great quote and does quality work but we had to use our Builder’s sub-contractor.)
  10. Fireplace: Vonderhaar Fireplace, Stoves and Masonry 
  11. Land Clearing: Libbee’s Landscaping 
  12. Driveway: Foebar Excavating (513-616-9595) & Borcher’s Excavating (513-623-8387)
  13. Kitchen: Kelley Hensley with The V Collective
  14. Septic: Jest Enterprises LLC
  15. Percolation Test (soil test): Clear Creek Environmental
  16. Site Plan: Robert Shannon
  17. Water Tap/Electric Tap: dependent on your area

OK, I think that is the list of the vendors we used. What is not included in this list is the sub-contractors our Builder used for drywall, tile, and flooring. They did great work, we just don’t know their contact information since our Builder sub-contracted it out for us.

Also not included is what all we (aka Kyle) did to help build our house and cut down on cost. Check this out for that list!