That phone on your hip, use it!

Sunday, July 4th


Building permit: check! Meeting with logger dude and picking Lou's brain: check, check! Meeting with Pickle: no check...


Let me preface this by saying that if you are a contractor and you are difficult to contact or meet in the planning stages, then you lose credibility and respect quickly. Just like Fishy, Pickle was so easy to contact when we first met him. Heck, he even called at least once a week for a while 'just to check in.' Three weeks ago I called Pickle to set up a meeting to walk through a few of his contracted houses. He was in Texas for a couple of weeks training. Okay, we understand. We wait. After he returns, we get back in touch with him and set up a day to meet. I call him the day of the meeting in the morning (9:30am), left a message, only to be called back that afternoon (2:06pm) while I am in a meeting with Fishy (more on that in a minute) and cannot answer, so I call Pickle back 15 minutes later (2:21pm) and leave a message. Note -- we were suppose to meet him sometime after 4:30pm but no idea where. Do you know when he returned my call? ...8:15pm...seriously?! Saying that his phone didn't show any missed calls (that's fine, I understand, cellphones suck at times) but realized that he had voicemail messages. Why, if you knew you were meeting someone at 4:30pm, you would wait until 8:15pm to check your messages is beyond me. I have emailed him four dates that Noel and I are available over the next two weeks, so we'll try again at some later date. Okay, I'm off my soapbox now.


On a much better note, I met with Fishy on Thursday to give him our plans for a bid. (Noel was at work and couldn't make it.) Fishy's communication skills greatly improved that day. (Sounds like something from How the Grinch Stole Christmas...'and his heart grew three sizes that day.' Rest in peace Dr. Suess.) He promptly returned my call to set up a meeting time and place, and he was early to our meeting. Watch out! He went through the plans, and we discussed materials. I wish I could upload the plans to this blog, but I am either severely blog-challenged or it's just not possible. The main focal point in the house is a big fireplace in the living room. Noel and I had discussed using real vs. faux stone, so I asked Fishy about the cost difference. Real stone is about triple the price of faux. Jaw drop! Faux it is, then! We, however, are going to get a second opinion from a mason we know. Fishy said it'll probably take a couple of weeks for him to finish a bid. 


Noel met with the logger dude from Jolley Brothers Logging in Shelbyville (with an A+ BBB rating, AWESOME!) on Tuesday, who showed some interest in a few trees on our hill. He said he might not be able to get to them by September, when we'd like to start building, but we'll just play it by ear. The Jolley logger dude told Noel that we could cut down the trees, borrow his trailer, and haul them to the lumber yard ourselves. That way we would not have to take a 50/50 profit split with him. (Hysterical laughter...) Thanks but no thanks!


We are getting a jump start on appliances. A very large bundle of joy arrived for us today from Home Depot, our deep freezer!! We knew we'd need a place for Jelly and Bean, the two Black Angus steers currently fattening up in my parents' field. It's an upright, 13.2 cubic ft, auto-defrosting, Energy star, GE freezer. I almost squealed when the Home Depot boys delivered it! That's how you know you're getting old, when a deep freezer excites you. Can you pass the A-1, please?

And 2 years later...

Sunday, June 27th


First, I must say Happy Anniversary (one day early) to my amazing partner-in-crime of two years!!! I heart you no matter how goofy you think I am!


Oooo, enough with that mushy crap! We have been a busy couple of people this week. We want to thank Joel Wingard of ProMark Home Designs in Nashville for the amazing job he has done designing our home. He finished up on Thursday, and we officially have the plans! We made an appointment with Pickle for this Thursday to go see some homes. Lou (the banker) wanted to meet with us again, so we ran down to T-town on Friday for the meeting. Thinking we could kill two birds with one stone, we touched base with Indy to let him know we were going to be in the area with finished plans and wanted to get them to him for a bid. What do you know?! We ran into him at the bank AGAIN! Pretty sure he planted a homing device somewhere on Noel's vehicle. It worked out, though, because we didn't have to fiddle with chasing him down after our meeting with Lou. What does the bidding process entail you might ask. I posed this question to Indy, and he said, 'Give me the plans, and I'll give you a cost.' Well, (queue the Ace Ventura voice in my head) alrighty then. We have a sneaking suspicion that this process will be a little different with Pickle and Fishy.


We love Lou! Noel said he loves ACB because he feels like he could just waltz in there and shoot the shit anytime (I was going to clean that up and say 'shoot the crap' but I envision a shotgun and poo splattered everywhere! Yuck!). Actually, everyone there is so welcoming. People come to shake your hand when you enter and wave when you leave. Back to Lou, he had gone down to see our land. Impressive for a banker. Long story short, we hung out with Lou for about an hour and a half. Ridiculous, I know. He discussed long-term financing options with us, expected monthly mortgage note (based on a guess-timated cost-to-build), down-payment, and closing (two closings -- one for the construction loan and one for the mortgage). Lou discussed using the equity in our land as a percentage of our down-payment. It's sounds great and all, but on further thought (on Friday afternoon, of course), neither Noel nor I could reason what this means. Who the heck knows! Just a reason for me to pay Lou a visit on Monday. I think Noel got a little bummed because he asked Lou if he could buy a lawnmower with the construction loan money. Lou said no. Ha! Not sure what Noel thinks he's going to mow anytime soon. Guess he wants to make sure the dirt is nice and fluffy. What is the next step? Ordering an appraisal of the land (with the future house on it) and selecting a contractor, so we started the appraisal process.


After Lou and Indy, we headed down to Lynchvegas, and Noel got a brilliant idea while sweating on the top of our hill. Now, I have mentioned that trees are going to have to come down. (Tear, crinkling chin, tear.) We have several healthy poplars, oaks, and hickories that can serve another purpose. Why not have it logged? Our future driveway is a former logging road anyway. Noel contacted the logging company in Shelbyville who logged it ten years ago and is meeting with them at the land on Wednesday. I realize this sounds counter-intuitive to the 'green' movement we are promoting but not really. The trees will be repurposed, not just cut down for us to build a house.


On a much lighter note, for months we have been racking our brains to come up with a road name for our driveway. We have Googled street names, spouted off outrageous possibilities and still haven't quite settled on anything. The other night while I was cooking dinner Noel found a website that listed all of the street names in one Virginia county...and proceeded to read off EVERY name to me. I just can't for the life of me understand why Noel hasn't jumped on any of my suggestions: Noel's Knoll, Hannah Hill, or SoxyPaws Lane. Any ideas out there? 


Agenda this week: celebrating two years of wedded bliss, building permit and Lou meeting on Monday; logger meeting on Wednesday; Pickle meeting on Thursday; big glass of wine meeting my lips on Saturday.

Show me the money!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

You know we only get one weekday off together each week, and that one day is typically filled with house business -- meeting with Joel, meeting with contractors, fencing. Our most recent venture was to one of the banks in Tullahoma that was recommended by Indy, American City Bank. Indy mentioned that local banks are much more customer-oriented than the bigger banks and are better choices for construction loans. And, boy, do we believe him now! Words of advice: Make an appointment and know what paperwork (tax returns, list of assets and debts, a budget, house plans) you have to bring (and have it in some semblance of an order). The bank will think you are the coolest thing since sliced bread. We are a pretty anal-retentive couple so we had our ducks in a row. I think some people just decide one day that they want to buy/build a house without any forethought. According to the banker, Lou, people prance into the bank without an appointment (forget even about the paperwork), say they want to buy a house, and then look at the bankers like they have three heads when words like down-payment, mortgage terms, and God-forbid closing costs are spoken. What? You need a job to be approved for a loan. To those clueless customers (who unfortunately are not readers of this blog) step aside. Noel and Hannah will show you how it's done.

Lou, the banker, was great! He answered all our questions before we could ask. He made this information meeting painless. He explained how a construction loan works at ACB and explained mortgage loan options if we choose to get our mortgage through them. We could easily choose a mortgage term based on the payments we would like to make each month, and there is no penalty for early repayment. He was so friendly, and...(wait for it)...he's very anal retentive, too!! Love it!! Funny thing is when we were wrapping up our meeting who should waltz into the bank...none other than Indy. He previously mentioned that he was always down there taking care of business. Well, we wasn't kidding. 

I think Noel's about got his mind made up about a contractor. He likes the idea of a local contractor who has a lot of local ties. Even though I agree with him, we need to follow through one more meeting with Pickle (who is at some training thing in Texas for two weeks). We owe it to ourselves to be thorough.

As for the final house plans, I emailed Joel the other day to tell him that we were ready for the final plans but that we wanted 2"x6" exterior walls. He said that thicker walls changed a few things on the plans that needed to be addressed. Now, Joel can be a little...umm...flighty...so we hope that his brain didn't omit the word 'exterior' before '2"x6"'. We can just see him making EVERY wall 2"x6". Talk about sound-proof rooms. So we are going to check in with him tomorrow, then meet with him on Friday and, hopefully, walk away with plans.

An afternoon with Indy

Yesterday afternoon we met with Indy again. We have decided that he's not a phone person. On the phone, he's very cut and dry and to the point. No frills. But, in person, he certainly does the talking. According to the Dummies book, the person you're interviewing better be doing all of the talking otherwise you are the one being interviewed. Yep, check! He did that.


He met us in Tullahoma and took us to three houses he is building all in three different stages of the process. We got to see a house in the framing stages with the electrical work run, another that was about a month from being complete, and one that was about a week or two from completion. He orchestrates all of the framers, masons, electricians, plumbers, drywall dudes, etc.; but he and his compadres actually do all of the painting and trim. He is the most local of the three contractors that we have interviewed, and he's a walking tub of information. (That's not to insinuate that he's a chunk, even though he's got a bit of a gut on him.) In the homes that he builds, he uses sprayed silicon insulation. Sprayed insulation fills all the little cracks and crevices. He gets his lumber from Builders' Supply, and this particular company picks up any unused lumber to return for credit. If you don't use it, you don't pay for it. AWESOME!!! He is the person who introduced us to Hardie board (or fiber cement siding). Umm...thank you, Indy. In this last visit, he recommended 2"x6" exterior walls, too, for energy savings. In the first house we visited, the basement (partially above ground and partially below) had 2"x6" exterior walls and the internal temp (without the AC on) on a 95 degree day was.....wait for it.....65! Sold! He said in a year you would make up the cost difference in energy savings. Quite possibly the most important information he gave us was about the actual construction loan. He recommended a couple of local banks that don't cause headaches. 


Now we want to meet with Pickle again. Fishy isn't lucky enough to get a second interview.