Plans - Draft #1

They're HERE!!!!

The 1st draft of our house plans arrived in my email last week. To be honest, it took me a few minutes to actually open the email. I had mistakenly thought we'd also be getting the cost of the house with the plans but the cost won't be determined until the plans have been finalized. Totally understandable now that I think about it, but I was a little terrified of seeing the number this soon (even though I REALLY want to know what it's going to cost). We are praying it starts with one of two numbers and if I see a number that isn't one of those I might cry.

I expected the first draft to need a LOT of changes, especially since I wasn't able to attending the meeting on site with the designer/builder (and 92% of the design is in my hands - Nick is a SAINT!!). Let's just say, there's going to be a whole lot of changes between draft #1 and #2. We know now where our designer/builder is coming from and now it's time for us to show him where we are coming from.

Without further ado:

Elevation

Details of Draft #1: 

• Carport on left (may turn into a garage, money permitting)
• The 2 left windows on the first floor are kitchen windows
• The 3rd window on the first floor is in the living area
• The window to the far right is in the guest bedroom
• Second story windows go into kid bedrooms
• Second story tiny window is in kids bathroom
• First floor keeps the concrete on the outside of the house
• Second story has wood siding on the outside of the house
• Side view shows first and second story porches

First thought from me: meh, so bored. Honestly, I pretty much emphatically hated this at first sight. Now that I've had about 24 hours to mull it over, and talk with Nick, I don't hate it as much but I sure as hell am bored with it. It lacks personality, depth, character, etc. 

First thought from Nick: he didn't hate it as much as I did. He reminded me that with landscaping, shutters, etc. it'll look much better. 

Updates we are making to Draft #1: 

• Extend wood siding, in a dark slate blue color, over the entire house
• Kitchen windows: add cedar shutters
• Living room window: extend to full length window and add cedar shutters
• Guest bedroom window: extend to full length window and add cedar shutters
• Front porch: enlarge to accommodate either a larger door cased by windows or a double entry door; raise front porch roof to make presence bigger
• Trim: white
• Second story windows: TBD depending on if we move bedrooms upstairs; I want the windows to look symmetrical though
• Add a window in the second story attic (top right) to create symmetry on front of house (Nick nixed this suggestion because it would probably add too much $$)
• Side view: there are two windows missing on first floor
• Second story porch will be nixed if budget is too high (I really love the look though so I'm hoping we can keep it)

First Floor

Details of Draft #1 (keep in mind the dimensions the first floor is 2,300 square feet): 

• Top left room will be the only bathroom downstairs but it will be a full bath with either a shower or shower/tub combo
• Bottom left room will be the pantry
• Hallway between bathroom and pantry will go to the carport (or garage)
• Kitchen cabinets: lower cabinets along bottom wall; we will not have upper cabinets - we will be using open wood/steel shelving
• Kitchen misc.: stove will be along lower wall; fridge will be on wall of pantry along with upper and lower cabinets; rectangular kitchen island
• Open space to the right of kitchen will be the living area
• Wall next to bathroom will be a dry bar
• Next to dry bar will be a table that seats 12-14
• 3 windows next to dining table
• Open space to the right of the dining area will have a piano / bear rug
• Entry way will be open to the ceiling of the second story
• Staircase to second story will be L-shaped
• Top right room will be the laundry / craft / gun safe room 
• Bottom right room will be a guest room / office
• Cove between guest room and laundry room will have a bookshelf or something similar
• Large porch off top wall (wall of dining area / piano area)

First thought from me: well honestly, there isn't really much that can be changed on the first floor since all the walls are basically unmovable (unless you want to pay boat loads of dollars to demolish solid concrete and rebar, no thanks). There's a couple of tweaks, but overall I am pretty content with the first floor. 

First thought from Nick: overall happy

Updates we are making to Draft #1: 

• Close off outside doors to pantry and bathroom
• Add in bathroom items (toilet, shower, sink, etc.)
• Enlarge island and center with kitchen cabinets on lower wall
• Add farmhouse sink to island
• Move stove to bottom wall
• Middle dining room window will be turned into french doors that will open out onto porch
• Add fireplace to living room
• Add built-ins to living room (might be added at a later date to keep costs low)

Second Story

Details of Draft #1: 

• Far right will be unfinished attic space that we can, at a later date, finish out into more bedrooms, office, storage, etc.
• Entry way open from the bottom
• Large open space closest to the stairwell is a rec room
• Large room on top left is master bedroom
• Bottom left is master bathroom and then the master closet
• Two bedrooms with a bathroom to share

First thought from me: I mostly like it but I feel like something is just missing. The open rec area just seems MASSIVE and might be wasted space. We've talked briefly about adding in a smaller room to use as a workout room but we haven't decided 100% on that yet. 

First thought from Nick: He agreed that it didn't flow right and the rec space was just too big.

Updates we are making to Draft #1: 

• Rotate kids bedrooms so that one will be along wall of entry way, bathroom will be in the corner and the other bedroom will be closer to the master closet (allowing for a jack and jill bathroom) 
• Enlarge master closet
• Add double doors to master
• Add door to master bathroom
• Add built in desks to kids room (might be added at a later date to keep costs low)
• Decrease size of rec room

Update on our giant list of to do's

Happy 2016 everyone!!! I can't believe how fast last year went and I wonder if this year will be the same. Hopefully not! I am really trying to be more present in each day and stop wishing for the next event, next vacation, next big to do, next weekend, etc. and really appreciate each day as it comes.

We've made a "teensy" amount of progress. Here's a little update on our giant list of to do's (Completed tasks has been moved to the bottom):

In process tasks:

• Apply and get a pre-approval letter from our new bank. I've filled out all of the online paperwork and finished sending in our W2s, bank account info, tax statements, pay stubs, our blood type, 401k statements, etc. today. We are now waiting to hear back. Cross your fingers and your toes!
• Put cost into excel spreadsheet in a fancy new tab called "Dairy Home" Done! And it's already starting to add up and we really haven't done much yet! That's scary.
• Plan out our dream home with the home designer / builder I heard from our designer / builder yesterday that he has the 1st floor done in CAD and he's working on the 2nd floor. He wants to meet next week to give us his plans for our 1st markup!!
• Receive contract / MOU for blueprints We will receive this next week at our meeting!!
• Crazy crack down on our budget This is a really good goal to have anyways, but with building a home and all of the costs that go with it, I want to make sure we are really good stewards of our money!

To be completed tasks:

• Try to get the plan right the first time so we don't end up paying for multiple sets of blueprints
• Cry and stress that I've made the right decisions
• Send approximately 1,750 more emails to our home designer / builder
• Get final blueprints and approve
• File our 2015 taxes
• Apply for construction loan / mortgage (we will be rolling our construction loan into a mortgage with the same bank, so less fees, less hassle, etc.) 
• Receive contract for building our home
• Tell everyone we know that we cannot go to your wedding, your birthday, go out to eat, buy new clothes, participate in bake sales / fundraisers, travel to see you - until the house is complete and then we'll have you over for dinner but will you please bring the food / booze because we've now spent all of our money?
• Receive schedule / task list from builder
• Pray that it is super detailed and organized
• Possibly re-do schedule / task list to suit my brain and email to home designer / builder
• Pray he sees this as endearing and not irritating (it's a 50/50 shot)
• Start building
• For once in my life, pray for no rain 
• Install hidden cameras on the land to spy on construction (just kidding, maybe, that's expensive - I have my mother-in-law for that)
• Find reasons to visit the ranch to check on progress
• Pick out finishes, appliances (just wait till you see the stove I am getting / want to get / oh please to everything that is holy pray to get), furnishings, paint colors, etc.
• Cry and stress that I've made the right decisions
• Pick up every piece of furniture I can find at garage sales, estate sales, on the side of the road, at antique shops, at flea markets, etc. and make something beautiful out of it
• Spend weeks planning where art / dead animals will hang on the walls downstairs since, well, concrete walls and where something gets hung is where something will stay. For life. Or until Nick buys himself an impact drill. Christmas gift anyone??
• Finish house (these two words seem so simple)
• Move into house
• I know there is more involved in the whole "finishing" and "moving into" the house, but at the point we're at, that's the gist of what I know right now

Completed tasks:

• Research and find a structural engineer to certify the home is structurally sound to build on AND can support a 2nd story
• Try not to laugh at the guy on the phone who told me this would cost $35,000
• Find and hire a structural engineer who we won't have to name our second born after
• Hire a survey company to do something with the elevation / flood plane - we have to do this to make sure we build above the flood level (something like that, I was not in charge of this step of the process). All I know is if it floods, I'll thank God our floors are remaining concrete and break out my squeegee.
• Research architects
• Almost cry at cost of architects (you want to charge me WHAT per square foot?????)
• Google "how to design a home by yourself using the internet, a pencil and graph paper"
• Read somewhere on the mighty internet that a home designer can do the plans for a home at a fraction of the cost
• Research home designers
• Get irritated that there's a lack of home designers down here that do anything other than a beachy cottage vibe - keep your starfish shells and coral away from my house, please :)
• Find a few home designers that I can stand
• One design company is in Wyoming and apparently Texas is too far away for them - fine, don't take my money
• Interview home designers (Nick had to do this task with his mom, along with me on the phone, since I'm chained to a desk and my current prison sentence only allows for a 60 minute meal break)
• Talk to Nick about the designers we interviewed and decide on one guy 
• Get excited that our decided home designer will also be our builder (and pray for him that he has to deal with me from start to finish)
• Send lengthy email with 914 questions to our decided home designer
• Include link to Pinterest board with 100+ (and growing) pins of our ideal home (how did people design anything before Pinterest???)
• Realize how grateful I am to have a husband like Nick who is on board (99% of the time) with my design aesthetic and is fully supportive of letting me design my dream home - his only requirement: home cooked meals and desserts come out of my fancy kitchen every day - DONE AND DONE
• Hire designer (and silently cheer that he wasn't scared away by my lengthy email signaling possible neurotic and OCD problems)