update on building house

**lisettelovebug** · 08-21-2008, 12:09 PM

We went to an orientation for the program through rural development. We can borrow up to $172,000 and payments will be $742 including taxes and insurance!!! WOW! We will probably spend less - maybe around $160,000 total but the monthly amount will stay the same; they just reduce our subsidy. We picked out the split-level house that we wanted,
http://www.brookside-homes.com/5_2.htm
and made some adjustments to it: Took out the master bath (we're putting one downstairs when we finish it) and put in a closet for washer and dryer or can be used as a large pantry, took out a small pantry in kitchen and put in another floor and wall cabinet there, added a 2 car garage. We are also going to be upgrading to baseboard heat (it's better for dh's allergies), have drains put in basement for future master bath.

We are right now trying to get a septic permit (they need this before they can give us an accurate quote on the septic), need to go talk to the lawyer and have called TONS of insurance companies. We have a long list of stuff that needs to be done before they can schedule closing but a lot of it has to wait on other people before you can move on to other steps.

I can not wait to get construction started. We will be fine if they can get the foundation in before the ground freezes. So, if they have that done by December we would be ok. Otherwise we will have to wait until spring.

So, hopefully we will be moving into our brand new house within the next 6 months or so.

**Darlene** · 08-21-2008, 01:22 PM

How exciting. Does this include everything, land septic etc?
Thanks for updating us!

**mamamia** · 08-21-2008, 09:23 PM

I love it! I could look at houses all day just for the 'fun of it'. That one that you guys picked is so pretty. I love the stoop in the front, sort of an elegant touch, ya think?

Have you decided on exterior colors yet? I love the beige/brown. It's 'together' and neat looking.We just painted some time last year, and we got nice compiments from passerbys. It's camel with black accents. Also lots of black wrought iron outside. I was hoping for an Italian/Meditterean look. Nobody ever said it about the outside, but when they come in it's very European/Italian looking. I had so much fun re-doing it too. Kept my mind occupied...at least what's left of it!!

Anyways, hope you get to move in when you want. If it was me, I'd never make it to spring

Enjoy your new home. It's a beauty!

Theresa

**FrugalMomof3** · 08-21-2008, 10:38 PM

That's wonderful! Does that include everything, meaning septic, well, power lines to pole, etc?

I can't wait to see after you have moved in and got your stuff in order, we will be waiting for pictures!

**lisettelovebug** · 08-21-2008, 11:24 PM

Yes that includes septic, well, excavation, etc. The land is basically bdeing given to us - can't beat that

. Here's a pic of the land and there's a couple more in my photo album http://www.frugalvillage.com/forums/...pictureid=1379

For the exterior I want a light tan colored for siding, dark gray roof, black shutters, and we're thinking about a black/dark gray door. Here's a pic of a different house but with the colors we want. http://www.brookside-homes.com/1_7.htm
We will also have a 2 car garage attached. We will also have stone on the bottom half of the front outside wall.

For inside we are going with a stain resistant berber with blue/brown hints for the living room/hallways; gray/blue linoleum for kitchen with cherry cabinets and unsure of the countertop; basic rugs in the bedrooms; bathroom will be a linoleum w/ hints of pink and white w/ blue diamonds and a medium oak colored cabinet with a slate colored top. All the walls in the house will be antique white (this comes standard - we will repaint later).

**nodmicks** · 08-22-2008, 08:22 AM

How exciting for you!!!!!

**ktsmama** · 08-26-2008, 01:49 PM

This is so exciting! I hope everything works out so that they can get started before the ground freezes.

Good Luck!!

**beks37** · 08-26-2008, 02:06 PM

Wow, that is an awesome house. I really like the colors that you mentioned. What a great deal on the payment!

**lisettelovebug** · 08-31-2008, 01:05 AM

We went down on Monday to the company that was building our house. We wanted to give the guy our final plan for our split-level. Well..... We gave him all the information and then he gave us the news. The higher-ups had decided that they didn't want to go thru the approval process for rural development in NY (they are already approved in PA). I think it was about something that was going to cost them extra money I'm sure. He said something about $750-$1000 for the prints to be stamped by an engineer. Now mind you that this is required by all homes built in NY state, so we still don't know what the real problem was.

So, now we are trying to figure out what to do. We have the land so it would be a shame not to be able to build or something. We went and looked at modulars at one place (about 20 minutes west of here) and then went to the one that is about 10 minutes away from us. The place 20 minutes away has cheaper prices. And we can get a really nice place for less than the other one. So, we have the guy pricing one we liked that was 95,000 including the heating. We will see what he is at when all the numbers come in. We may have to go with a smaller modular - we really want a basement. So we've been looking online at various ones he can order for us.

There are also 2 builders on the list who build stick-built homes in this county. We found one who had a site online, but their cheapest was a ranch with 3 bedrooms on a slab for 125,000. That won't work. We either need a 4 bedroom on a slab or a 3 bedroom on a basement, so we can put a bedroom down there in the future. Plus, we can get a 4 bedroom modular for less than 100,000 with a game room. We will be calling the other builder on monday to see what he can do.

So we will see what happens. The modular dealer also has a pretty simple modular that is 27' by 52' for 73,999. It is a very simple home, nothing fancy - that is also a choice. WE could also go back to looking at already built homes. But in this area, they are hard to find. We woudl be eligible to get between 4,000 and 10,000 towards closing costs thru a grant program we did qualify for. All the houses that would be suited for us are all over 140,000. we have to keep it lower even though we were approved for 172,000 because our taxes in the area we want will be $3000 - $4000 a year.

So we are starting over again in the whole house building / buying process. So frustrating.

**Greebo** · 08-31-2008, 09:20 AM

You might consider Deltec homes. Round designs, personally we think they're really cool, and they've been around 20 yrs and are equipped to help you get the paperwork done.

http://www.deltechomes.com

**lisettelovebug** · 09-05-2008, 10:16 AM

Well since finding out a week ago Monday that our builder had decided they did not want to build our home because it was through rural development, we have been doing a lot of research and of course driving.

We looked at modular homes in 3 different locations around here. We are looking at probably getting a Commodore or champion modular. Does anyone have either of these either in modular or double wide? Or anyone you know? If so, how is the quality? How nice are they?

So, the one guy gives us a price of I believe $80,500 for the one we like. He adds on all the stuff we need/want and it's now up to $85,000!!! OK. not that big of deal. We take the list of additions home and start looking at it. Of course, we can't read it because he's got chicken scratch for writing. So we scanned it into the computer and dh is going to email it back to him and ask him if he can type it up or write it better - because we can't read it. Well anyways what we could decipher on it, we started looking at what is standard in a commodore (from the commodore web site for that individual model we want). Here are some of the things that are standard but yet he still charged us: vent for hood range, double sink (this is already in there - pictured in prints and everything), antiscalds in showers, medicine cabinet in master bath. He also told us that we could have rope molding at the top of cabinets for $85, otherwise there would be no molding. Wrongo bongo! this model comes with crown molding. He also was trying to tell us that snow load has to be 65 pounds now in this area - we are in the southern tier of ny state. We looked it up, and effective August 2007 it is 40! We are going to call the town of the place we are moving and just double check - but this was found on the state website. Ever since the first day we met this guy he seemed like a swindler. And seems more so now. I don't care how low his price, we will not be working with him. I think that even borders on fraud. What if we were less educated when it comes to this stuff and didn't know to look online at the standards? what if we were elderly? It just burns me to know that he may be doing this to other people and getting away with it.

Then he tells us as we were leaving yesterday, that in order to lock in those prices we would need to put down a deposit of $2000! We don't have that kind of money. We are going through Rural development for our loan for goodness sake. We have to pay for all the costs associated with dh's uncle selling us the land (it's going to be almost $1000) plus all the permits - another $500. He's nuts! We could have done like a good faith down payment or whatever - like you do when you put an offer on a house - a few hundred bucks. He told us that most people put down more than $2000 - well that's because traditionally people going thru a regular bank need a down payment. He's worked with rural development before, so he knows that people getting a loan thru them don't have a lot of extra cash hanging around.

We will check out what this other place has to say. She had quoted us $88,000 for the same place, but was going to call the company and see if there was a $5000 rebate. I really don't care if they are $1000 or so more. They seemed alot more friendlier and more genuine than the other guy. we will be getting in touch hopefully today to see what price they have for us. PLus they said it could be 4-6 months to get us in our house - as long as the septic is in before December. The other guy said 6months - a year.

So we shall see. I'm so wanting this whole process to be over. Of course, once we figure out who we want to go thru and get quotes for land improvements, we still have like 14 more steps to go before they can schedule a closing!!!

**lisettelovebug** · 09-09-2008, 12:40 AM

I think we have finally decided on a modular. http://www.palmerhomes.net/ We took out a few of the optional things that we really don't need and have it down to a little under $94,000. We will have a quote from the one guy on Wednesday. Hopefully the land improvements will be less than $50,000. Though we did find out that w/ the star program our taxes will be a total of $3750 approx. This helps because at $4000 a year we can only get a loan for $ 144,000, but at $3500 it was $161,000. So with it being right there in the middle we should have plenty of room for closing costs if the house and improvements are less than 145,000.

Tomorrow we will call the surveyor and arrange that to be done (could be up to $500). We also have to pay fees to have uncle's mortgage rewritten ($200) and lawyer fees (350). We will have $250 left this month and next month $650. Though his uncle did say we could borrow at least $600 if need be.

Once we get the land transfered to us, we need to do about 17 more steps in order to get a closing date. Uuuuggghhh!!!