Our First LVL Home

2011-06-27T22:04:00.005-04:00

Week 91 to 94: Technically Done

2011-06-27T21:54:00.006-04:00

Technically, our construction is done. Besides a few miscellaneous clean up jobs, the construction phase is officially done. We still do not have a CO yet. The town has rejected the subdivisions' plan for the slope, so the process begins again.
We are keeping busy by focusing on landscaping and reusing some old scrap wood to build some outdoor furniture and planters. There's plenty to do around the house. Some friends came over one weekend and helped us finish our front entrance path way.

Week 89 & 90 : Furniture at last!

2011-05-30T22:40:00.004-04:00

Well, the bad news is still no CO. The good news is that the inspector is allowing us to move our furniture in.
We spent the entire holiday weekend unpacking and laying out our furniture that was delivered months ago. Just found out our media cabinet is completely damaged. We now have to claim a damage for something shipped months ago, it's going to be difficult. Besides that, all else was okay, it was an exhausting and very rewarding weekend to see the original 3D model come to life.
The last 2 weeks has been fully of landscaping activity also, the trees went in, except 2 that didn't quite make it. Having the trees makes a world of difference, the home feels finished, no longer part of a construction site anymore. The 3 tiers are now stabilized with jute mesh and we seeded in creeping thyme to help the erosion problem. The front lawn is seeded and hay covered. This weekend we saw the grass growing, it's very exciting.

Week 88: Bad News and more Bad News...

2011-05-15T09:41:00.005-04:00

This week started out badly with news from the town that they do not want to grant us any temporary CO until the entire subdivision fixes it's slope issue. Yes, we're being punished for sins of others before us. This is what I really hate about owning things, you own it, but you don't. Towns and subdivisions all have their own kind of rules and regulations.
Apparently neighbors also get a say in your project. Our trees were finally delivered Friday. Once the neighbors saw them, they immediately complained to the subdivision about deed restrictions etc, etc. I can't believe people aren't happy about others doing landscaping. It only helps the value of the neighborhood. Maybe we should have selected a site without neighbors, you live and learn.
The only good news is the Drive Way Binder layer went in this week, it looks great.
On to the next week, hoping for better news.

Week 86 & 87: Still waiting for CO

2011-05-08T20:28:00.005-04:00

April 26th, we apply for a CO, but didn't get it. Many reasons to do with the outisde of the house and especially the issue with the slope erosion of the entire sub division. The things that are under control, we can work on and hopefully get a "temporary" CO until the subdivision fixes all the issues. On of the main things is getting the drive way partially paved as required by the town. So we put down item #4 just this past Friday. Since our driveway is over 300 sq feet, it's very costly and something we didn't think about when we built the house. Other issues are very minor like putting up a house # at the drive way, at the house, etc. All has been done and we are going to try again to apply for one this week. We're not very optimistic since the inspector was vague about even issuing the temporary. Fingers crossed.

Week 85: Oh so close!

2011-04-24T23:41:00.003-04:00

The plan was to apply for OC this past Friday, but just a small amount of electrical work prevented that. The town inspector is scheduled to come back this coming Tuesday. Fingers crossed!
We spent the weekend putting in some finishing touches like bathroom hooks and more cleaning of course! Wiped down all the closets and floors in the LVL.

Week 84: Open Concept

2011-04-17T01:20:00.006-04:00

This week Devan was back on site to finish up the bathrooms. The master bath's open concept came to life. The tub looks small in the space, which is a relief since we were a bit worried about the space around it. I guess Google Sketch Up really helped out the spacing layout. All the fixtures turned out wonderful, no problems reported.
Adam sprayed the doors this week and made a neat drying contraption for drying.
Our landscaping plan is coming together. After purchasing an additional 51 trees for our site, we're ready to put them in the ground. To be safe, we used the Call before you dig service so that we can avoid planting directly on top of the wires. This service is free, and they did a wonderful job marking out all the wires. We haven't had luck finalizing a landscaping service to actually planting the trees. Just some calls, but no definitive quotes. Hopefully we can settle this coming week so that we can coordinate to get the trees delivered.

Week 83: A Complete Bathroom Part 2

2011-04-10T00:24:00.003-04:00

The shower glass went in this week, not without it's share of problems of course. We chose the 1/2" thick glass (most shower glass are 3/8"). The sheer weight of the piece made it really difficult to install, not to mention the size of it. Not sure how they even got it into the smaller guest bathrooms. After the storm, there were many dents and marks on the ceilings & walls. Poor Matt has to do a lot of the touch up paint.
We went to Manza Family Farm to pick out trees. Bought total 51 trees to fill in the now completely barren site. Way over budget. Almost all the trees are flowering type, Crabapples, Dogwood, Bradford Pears, Magnolias, Golden Willows, and just 1 type of evergreen, hemlock. Unfortunately, the bigger the tree, the bigger the cost. We couldn't wait years for trees to develop, so have to pay the price of time. And there's that cost of planting it which we have to find out about next week.

Week 82: A Complete Bathroom

2011-04-03T09:40:00.005-04:00

The LVL Guest Bathroom was the first to be completed this week. It has a working toilet, so exciting! All the fixtures looks and works wonderful together. Didn't hear of any installation issues about the Grohe Shower System that we had to get from Hong Kong. The temperature display is in Celsius, but it's kind of unique.
Matt and Adam are about 70% done with the LVL Master Bathroom tiling. Glass for the showers are coming in Thursday. We were hoping to get the CO this week, but it looks more likely for the week after next.
After contemplating on ripping down the Ikea closets depth to fit the coat closet and LVL guest bedroom closet, we decided to just go with an Elfa closet system. Bought it from The Container Store and got it delivered the same week. It was a painless installation. Can't believe people pay them to install it. It took less than 1 hour for each closet.
Meanwhile Sliding Doors are also in for the master closet, the tracks provided was a bit larger than the doors, we had to order the 2x4 beam trims to pad the left and right sides. Otherwise it looks great.

Week 81: Fire Orb & etc...

2011-03-27T00:01:00.004-04:00

Hands down the best moment this week was definitely the Fire Orb installation. If the house didn't spell modern before, it surely does now. The matte black steel looks incredibly industrial and soft at the same time.
The finish line is in sight now. All we need is 1 more bathroom to be tiled and the rest is history.
We spent this weekend, finishing the media closet and all the audio receptacles.
Found out our recessed baffle trims needed to be changed, the ones we purchased from Royal Pacific is metal, too heavy and does not adhere flush to the ceiling. Went to home depot and bought Halo brand trim instead. They work great. If we knew in advance that baffle trims are interchangeable between different brands, we wouldn't have ran into this problem. Well, live and learn.
Weeks ago, when the kitchen was completed, we weren't 100% happy with the radius of the corner. Saturday, Marcello came back and hand grinded down to a sharp corner. What a nice guy, felt bad about him working on Saturday. He did a fantastic job.
The sliding mirror and medicine cabinet was also done, it looks great!!!!

Week 80: Speaker Success

2011-03-20T09:18:00.005-04:00

It's been months since we ran the speaker wires for our audio system. To save a bit of money, we did all the wiring and planning ourselves instead of hiring a professional. In these days of internet, you can pretty much learn anything by watching videos. Bought all the equipment from Crutchfield. Was a bit nervous to see if anything had gone wrong since the last test. To our surprise, it all works great! We placed all the speakers this weekend and they look great. Our only regret is that we may have put in too much recessed lining, causing some ceiling acne. It's a bit much with the speakers, lights, space pak A/C system.

Matt continued to do more painting this past week, the ceiling is finally done! Unfortunately it took 4 coats in the master bedroom because we used the green board (moisture resistant) type of sheetrock. It's not a good idea to this all over the room we learned. Caused too much painting headache to cover it up.
Adam continued with the LVM Guest Bathroom tiles. Almost there...

Week 77, 78, 79: Building Closets

2011-03-13T10:08:00.008-04:00

We spent the last 2 weekends building out the Ikea closets (Pax system in a White Stain Oak color) that were delivered to the site months ago. Error on our part: forgetting that 2 of the closets (the Coat Closet and LVL Guest Bedroom closet) were designed to be more shallow to allow for more room for the rest of the house. This means ripping down the Ikea panels to fit, I'm not sure if those composite pieces will last thorugh that process. We will see. Ikea has a 90 days return policy, too bad we already passed that point, so must push on.
The LVM Walk In and LVL Master bedroom closets are done. Turned out really great, once we got the process down, it was smooth sailing. Don't be fooled by the simplicity, it will require your entire day, even if you are a seasoned pro with Ikea furniture.

News on the rest of the house. LVL Guest Bathroom is completely tiled and grouted. It really looks beautiful, glad we decided with the marble. Adam is now working on LVM bathroom last wall. Master bathroom is get to start tiling. Matt spent the last 2 weeks painting. We made it extra hard for him since the entire master was in green board, this makes covering the green with primer and paint that much more tedious. More coats needed of course.

In a surprising twist, we just found out that Central Hudson just came last week to install our meter to account for our Solar Panel power generation! So this means we've been generating power without net metering for over 2 months! What? How did this oversight happen?
Time Warner came out last week to install internet, working out great, we have the cheapest plan and the connection is fast due to a low population. Not planning to get cable TV due to the price. It's all about streaming TV for the future anyway.

Week 76: Kitchen Dreams

2011-02-19T19:30:00.004-05:00

The kitchen ceasarestone counter tops finally went in this week. Our Kitchen dreams have come true. The Pure White color looks incredible against the concrete. We showed the pictures today to Barry and Victor (the installer) from Europe Kitchen Center. They were so impressed with how it finally turned out. It's exactly as we imagine it would be. The flow from window sill to back splash is seamless. The only minor issues were the radius of the sink corners and the grout color. Barry is going to see if they can work on the sink corner to get it sharper, but ceasarestone has guarantee only for upto a minimum radius, we can't have the sharp straight corner that we want. Also the grout color is standard optical white, versus the bluish white of the counters, we're hoping over time, the grout will blend in more.
The island had to be moved few inches due to the misalignment with the range hood, unfortunately during the moving, the oven became off level. Victor promised to stop by to check on correcting it sometime.

Week 75: Almost There

2011-02-13T09:39:00.005-05:00

The highly antipicated concrete shower pans went in this week, it looks great! Took some engineering and ice columns that Matt devised. Should have filmed the process. Medicine cabinets were finished by the expert woodworker friend of Matt. It looks fantastic. this whole thing looks much better than we could have envisioned. The Blu Dot Mirror Mirrors turned out to be a great find at 50% off especially. The metal components surrounding the mirror was a perfect base for hinges of the LVM. It's a little heavy, so Matt is going to put extra enforcements.
With these 2 components in place, we are all set for balance of tiling. Only 15 days until the Building permit expires, let's hope that we do not need to apply for another extension.
We passed the BOH Septic this week, in the middle of the huge pile of snow. That was a relief!

Week 74: Shower Pan & More Tiles

2011-02-07T07:37:00.005-05:00

This week progress was slow again due to snow. Now just 1 week from our original target date of Feb 15th. It doesn't look like we will make the move in date. Our site was completely covered in snow, which makes the house almost disappear in it.
Shower pans were cast out of concrete, this week would be the week we find out if it works. More bathroom tiles went up in the LVM.

Week 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73 : Bathroom Tile, Kitchen Template & boat load of Snow!!!

2011-01-27T21:37:00.007-05:00

These weeks have blended into each other. Between the holiday season, snow every week, the progress has been really slow. Matt and Adam have started on the bathroom tiles, but the progress is stopped by the disappearance of the glass guy. Matt found a new supplier but needed to wait for the track before the tiling can continue.
The first bathroom to get tiled is the LVL guest bath with the 12x6 inch Thassos marble tile. We opted for a 1/3 overlap instead of the traditional subway tile. It turned out to be great, especially due to Adam's meticulous efforts. Took 1 full week to do just 2 walls.
Kitchen templating was done on 1/20. Process was smooth and we had all fixtures on site which made it easier for them.
Matt has started to make a mould to do the concrete shower pans, it's a complicated process which I still can't wrap my had around. As long as he knows what to do, it's ok by me.
The target date to obtain a CO is mid Feb, but I think is slipping each day as the snow has slowed down progress to a halt. No solar power here, even though the system was technically turned on on Dec 28th.

Week 65 & 66: Kitchen!!!

2010-12-11T21:58:00.004-05:00

Our Kitchen cabinets were finally delivered and installed this past week. It looks beautiful, even without the counter top. Going with Europe Kitchen Center was the best decision. The quality is great, the drawers and doors are soft close. Very nice layout and should be sufficient for our living needs. We are not doing any upper cabinets to keep things nice and simple.
The closet doors from EZJamb were also delivered this week. It looks really nice for the price. Very heavy duty SOSS hinges, those doors are never coming out for sure.

Week 64: Dry Wall & Solar Panels...FINALLY!

2010-11-21T19:43:00.004-05:00

This week was filled with activity. Our drywall was completed for all the rooms and ceilings. The space looks completely different with it. We used 5/8" dry wall for all the rooms. It has better sound barrier and also more rigid in general. For Master bedroom, since our bathroom is open, we went with a moister resistant drywall the entire room. We have good vents, but this is a precaution.
We spent this entire weekend painting the messed up container into "Farmhouse Red" from Behr, it's a great paint brand. Covers well, but since we had that horrible white color paint, it took 2 coats to cover it nicely.
Solar guys finally came back to put up the panels. It looks great, gives the house a more "home of the future" feel. It has a low profile, so it's barely noticeable at all. We're very happy with the results.
The finish line is near...at least for the main house.

Week 61, 62, 63: Interior Insulation & a few deliveries

2010-11-14T23:20:00.003-05:00

The last few weeks were filled with finishing off loose ends, media wiring, electricals, plumbing rough in. Finally interior insulation was done last week in the ceilings and walls. We used R30 for the ceiling since we have that rigid foam under the EPDM roof. R19 in the walls. Since the house is a double wall, there is more than enough insulation to keep out the elements. Our radiant flooring is on at 65 degrees, it's very warm. I remember we were skeptical at first about using radiant flooring as the only heat source, but now we realize how powerful the heating is. The best part is that you don't feel any force air circulating around causing dry air.
Our 5.8 Kw system is still not yet finished. When they showed up, they realized the ballast system needs adjustment. Another delay.
Adam put up the curtain tracks this past week, it looks great!
Next week is the drywall...we can almost feel the completion coming. Starting to purchase more furnishings and housewares. Can't wait!!
We had a few deliveries this past week. Master bathroom tiles from Porcelanosa, they are great. The custom 12 foot container that our forwarder had his friend help cut down from a standard 20 foot container. The quality was poor, note to self, don't hire chinese people to do construction related work.

Week 60: Front Entrance & Interior Doors

2010-10-23T19:46:00.007-04:00

This week the exterior of the front entrance is finished. It looks great, with the massive glass door. All the interior frames were installed and the door was installed. A really nice feature is the magnetic latch, it feels just like a regular latch, but no strike plate is visible. The doors are super clean. They are well worth the price tag.
We went to Bowdoin part which Ken had mentioned that he saw our house across the river. It's a bit surreal to look at our house from afar. The long horizontal line made it easy to spot immediately. Also found the local road on our side of the river with a closer view of the house from down the cliff, Mount Rose Road, which is a deadend road that services the houses down the cliff.
We spent the day in Rhinebeck, checking out Sawkille Co. Decided to submit a request for quote on a custom credenza. Rather support some local artists than big city companies. Let's see how it goes. Walnut with bleached sycamore, with 6 drawers.

Week 58 & 59: Local Artists and Furnishings

2010-10-16T20:08:00.002-04:00

The last weeks were filled with furniture shopping. We found the artist that does the wood stumps for BDDW. Visited Kieran Kinsella's studio today in Rosendale, NY (just 30 minutes north of us). It's a perfect artists studio with several works in progress. We've commissions Kieran to make 6 pieces for us in the next year or maybe 2 years time. Kieran's pieces were picked up to sell at BDDW, so naturally he's quite busy trying to fill all the orders.

Matt and Adam finished the TV framing this week, the way the mount is set, I think we can hang a 100" TV and it wouldn't be any problem.
Our Solar system is delayed till end October due to the frame not being ready, but as long as we turn on the solar this year, we can still quality to get the tax credits from the gov't.

Week 57: Interior Framing + Last of the wiring work

2010-10-04T22:35:00.003-04:00

This was a rainy week, torrential rain poured down on our site. More interior framing was done. We went up on Saturday to finalize the remainder of the audio and video wiring.
The good news is that we should have some resolution on the slope and non-disturbance issue. The drill sample the engineers took seem pretty stable, so the town should be happy about the results to settle the issue.
Once that is done, we can proceed to get a deck plan approved.
Otherwise things have been slow, we are moving on to purchasing interior items and fixtures. Custom designed a chandelier for the dining area. Going to fill it with Edison bulbs. Can't wait.

Week 56: Correct Interior Doors & Tree Auction

2010-09-26T08:07:00.009-04:00

Interior Doors! Take two - finally has arrived from Modern Doors (again) this Wednesday and the measurements are good. The old set of doors with the incorrect measurements got returned with the same trucking company that dropped off. These doors are so nice and truly fits the modern aesthetic we were looking for. It's too bad that they do not supply closet doors at a better price. We went with 8 foot high doors for all interior doors, the height of it makes the ceilings appear even higher. It's not some many people focus on and they normally end up getting the standard measurements, but it can really make a difference to the overall look of the interior. Finally, we can proceed with the rest of the interior framing. Matt and Adam had wanted to wait until they arrived to ensure the most accurate fit possible. We love our GCs, they are so meticulous, they've really affected the outcome of this home and our love for it.
We have an area in the front of the house where a lot of water gathers, Matt and Adam spent this week building 2 beautiful rock ponds where the water would run through. It looks..dare I say...AMAZING (inside joke on the word Amazing..because I dread using it because of my work).
We went to the MANZA family farm (Montgomery, NY) this Saturday to bid on some trees. Never again will buy full price trees and plants, they were practically giving it away. Bought several Maples, Cherries, and Plum trees to start us off. Plum tress for $25.00 each and they were about 10 ft high. $65.00 for Japanese Maples!!! We would need a whole lot more. Just haven't worked out the plan yet.

Week 55 : Sealer hmmmm

2010-09-19T22:32:00.002-04:00

We had decided to seal the cedar slats to avoid it going grey in the near future. It was a beautiful color to begin with. We decided on Sikkens Cetol 1 as the sealer, it has pretty good reviews. The lightest color is Natural Light. There was also a Cedar color choice, but it makes it very red. Since the Natural Light color was delivered late, we just received it Friday, we didn't get a chance to test it out. Went out to the site on Saturday and started applying, it really makes the wood look much darker, which we do not like because it contrasts so much with the cedar ceiling. I was very disappointed and really hope it lightens up during the next few weeks after it dries out.
The last small window above the Kitchen got delivered and now the house is fully secureable.
The correct interior doors should be delivered coming week.

Week 53 & 54: Leach Fields, gas tank and Space Pak

2010-09-12T09:33:00.006-04:00

We missed 1 weekend to go on labor day holiday. The last 2 weeks were full of activity. Leach fields were assembled, gas tank was installed and filled. We finally went with a 500 gallon tank since our swimming pool is no longer in the picture. Space Pak AC system is done in the main house. There were tube after tube of smaller pipes, it was quite a lot of work for our plumber Devan. Majority of electrical rough-in has been done.
Cedar ceiling is almost completely up in the courtyard, it looks incredible!
Our tomato harvest is picking up speed, we missed 2 weeks and this time we were up there, we harvested about 1 full pound of it.

Week 52: Floor Polish and Septic

2010-08-29T00:09:00.003-04:00

Our floor polisher finally finished with the last stage and got the courtyard polished and sealed. It looks unbelievably luxurious, completely feels like another room in the house. We are so happy with the results of the floor. There are some lighter spots but that's the natural concrete look, if we wanted a more uniform it, it would have required a lot more sanding to bring it down even more. But the inconsistency is quite beautiful.
The Septic tanks went in this week while the floors were being polished. It was good timing but met with rainy weather. This was the rainiest week all August.
Today we also met with Barry at European Kitchen Center, the company we decided to go with for the kitchen. He's a total kitchen dictator, but that's why we clicked. We also stopped by NYKB last weekend, what a joke that place was, I can't believe anyone uses them.

Week 51: Slat Wall Done!

2010-08-22T09:00:00.004-04:00

Slat walls in the courtyard are done. It's so beautiful. Matt decided to go with white aluminim behind the slats instead of Kynar just in case of future rust issues. He also slatted the mechanical room door which was such a surprise. We have to move the outdoor outlet and audio cable to prevent interference with the clean lines.
Cedar Ceiling is going up now, we can tell it's going to be AMAZING!!!
Also, we found out this past Monday that our door company Modern Doors made a mistake on our received door order. Instead of 8'0" height doors, we got 80" doors. Unfortunately, they had a new assistant and placed the door production order entirely wrong. We should be getting replacement in a about 1 week. So it all works out for us, but we feel bad about Luis, the owner of Modern Doors since he didn't make any money out of this at all.

Week 50: Big A** Front Door

2010-08-15T10:12:00.005-04:00

Our custo m size front door finally arrived from Solar Innovations. It took about 3 months for this custom order. Size 9 feet x 5 feet, double pane, argon filled glass. The locking mechanism is something I've never seen before for residential applications. There are 6 closure points once you lock it along with 6 hinges that make it smooth to operate. The hardware is not our style, but I think we rather not mess with that serious lock.
The slats in the courtyard is almost complete. Devan, the plumber has started the rough-ins for the bathrooms.
It's all coming together now. Meanwhile, I received a letter from the town about renewing our building permit for 1/2 year. Apparently only 2 half year extensions will be granted for $100 each. Our permit expires in September, so half year extension should do it.

Week 49: Courtyard Slats

2010-08-08T10:06:00.004-04:00

Our decision to put cedar slats in the courtyard proved to be the best decision ever made. Even in it's current unfinished state, it gives a totally new dimension and feeling to the house. Looking at the slats and large sliders give the house a very modern and expensive feel. The slats + workmanship added another 10K to the project but it's well worth it. This house may be the most expensive looking LVL/LVM. Next week the cedar ceiling is going up. Can't wait!

Week 48: Framing and Harvesting

2010-08-01T20:43:00.005-04:00

This week, the LVM interior walls went up. Walk in closet, Bathroom and Mechanical room. This allowed us to continue our wiring. Speaker cables, Ethernet cables all were tested and they work! This whole wiring process was much easier than expected. We're no longer afraid and need to rely on "experts" to do these kinds of things.
We're full force ahead with the cedar courtyard slats...costly but we're going to build only 1 house in our lifetimes, so why not!! We chose the clear expensive grade of cedar, they are beautiful and knot free.
Our home security system arrived this week, it's very cost effective but requires a bit of deciphering on the manual. It's so cryptic, can't understand it at all on the first read. The forums have been very helpful and we hope to attempt testing this weekend.
On another note, our watermelon and squash (first ones) was harvested yesterday. Going to bring it to work tomorrow and finally enjoy the fruit of our labor.

Week 46 & 47: Framing & Farming

2010-07-25T09:51:00.006-04:00

Some interior walls have gone up this week, the Utility Room, LVL Guest Bathroom, LVL master toilet room and closet. Getting a feeling for the overall space already. Once the walls go up, everything actually starts to feel bigger.
We've also put in coaxial, ethernet wiring which took 1 entire day of Han's intensive hole drilling labor. Minus a small injury on his shin, everything came out well. Note to self, get a first aid kit.
Other fruits of our labor: Our water melon and squash is doing very well, we're most likely going to harvest the few fruits next week.

Week 44 & 45: Windows!!!!

2010-07-10T14:03:00.005-04:00

We have windows, massive ones. They said it was too heavy, too big, but we prevailed with the design. It's beautiful and gigantic. Sticking to our guts was definitely the right thing to do. They did cost a pretty penny, but worth every single cent.
We also finished Speaker wiring on July 4th. It was the hottest day of the year so far, we both had stomach virus, but nevertheless, it was done...nothing is going to stop us.

Week: 43 Frames & Harvest

2010-06-27T15:48:00.004-04:00

Exciting week! The Windows were ready. The frames are in!! Looking at the window with the frame truly defines the scale and size of the design & layout.
On another note, the first batch of potatoes are done.
We also laid out the entire electrical lighting layout for the electrician, this will help us save time and hopefully that translates to less money.
Next week, home audio wiring!

Week: 39, 40, 41, 42 Potatoe Harvest & a new electrician

2010-06-20T22:20:00.005-04:00

Weeks have gone by quickly as more siding goes up. We found a new electrician to start where Frank had left off. We've sent a few letters to Frank hoping to get a reply, however nothing had come of it. Steve the new electrician is not officially licensed, however had years of field experience, so it should be ok.
We've harvested the first few potato plants that flowered. The plant was still in the early stage of development, so the harvest was small.
The concrete on the courtyard is finally done, it looks great and feels luxurious.
We have to decide if we should keep the courtyard siding as corrugated or change it to wood slats.
We've already changed the front of the entrance to wood slats, the extra costs are starting to add up.

Week 36, 37, 38 : More Siding and a small potato farm

2010-05-24T23:10:00.004-04:00

Additional siding has gone up these few weeks. Meanwhile our missing electrician has finally appeared on the video finishing some exterior lighting work. However none of us can reach him via phone, email or mail. It's getting really worrisome as he's a very good electrician and we would ideally like to keep him on the project.
Our Potato farm is coming along. We also planted watermelon, carrots and beets.

Week 35: Some squatters

2010-05-02T22:02:00.005-04:00

More siding was put up this week. The front facade is almost done.
We found some unwelcome squatters in our master bedroom. Three birds nest and a wasp hive in the early stages of building.

Week 33 and 34 : More Siding / looking like a real home

2010-04-24T23:54:00.003-04:00

These 2 weeks have been exciting, more siding has gone up and the feeling is more like a home. The corrugated part looks better than I would imagine. We are glad we went with the white color instead of the aluminum one. Our house is definately the longest LV home combination out there.
On a side note, we are growing some Potatoes on the land for the first time. Last weekend we planted the first batch. To our surprise we found 3 spuds have been dug up. Although whatever small vermin that did it didn't even eat it. Spoiled animals! what's wrong with a juicy potato? In any case, we planted another batch and hopefully that vermin won't come back. We really need a fence around the plantings. The soil is extra hard, too many rocks and weeds, it's hard labor to till the soil.

Week 31 and 32: Siding! and the end of Erosion

2010-04-11T09:51:00.003-04:00

This was a exciting week as the first of the sidings have gone up. Summer like weather helped aid this process.
Also noteworthy is the end of the town erosion summons. We had to hire a landscape company to finish off the rest of the slope to free up Matt and Adam to work on the house.
Luckily the owner of the company were friends with the town inspector and the summons is off the table...hopefully for ever. Glad to put this costly episode behind us.

Week 30: A very long trench Indeed

2010-03-29T23:11:00.003-04:00

Our trench was over 500 feet long from the road. This made it a challenge to get the utilities companies to come out with the right equipment. Time Warner only provides 250 feet of cable and the rest has to be paid for. Luckily Verizon didn't charge extra, however it did take them coming up twice to get the wire length right.
The ground water above the well seems to be coming out non-stop, strange how there is so much ground water, but when we do the drill down, it's only at 1.5 gallons at minute.

Week 29: Trench and 2nd polishing of floors

2010-03-20T17:43:00.004-04:00

This week was the inspection of the erosion control measures we were supposed to put in place. On friday 3/19, the town inspector came along with the main sub division owner. We got the March 23rd court appearance canceled, however, we are still lacking some additional work that needs to be done. I'm not sure what else, but we are supposed to get a letter detailing additional work to be done.
The trench was dug to put in the well water, tel, cable and electrical lines. it's a massive trench about 500 feet long. Bit unbelievable when you think about it.
The floor polisher returned to sand down the floor bit more, now it looks more uniform and you see the veins of the concrete which is quite nice.

Week 27 & 28: Exterior Insulation

2010-03-13T16:27:00.006-05:00

Weather has finally started to turn for the better. We enjoyed a week in the 40's and 50's for a change. Matt and Adam had a chance to put in the exterior insulation and get the house wrapped.
The concrete floors are sealed and prepared for final polishing.
We're about to put in the deposit for the windows. Arcadia is having issues with the spec of our front door. We've decided to do an expansive front door running the entire width of the front entrance, which is about 5 feet wide by 7 feet high (we wanted 9 feet originally, but I don't think the engineers are going to go for that). Arcadia refuses to make the front door since they can't guarantee it due to the weight of wide door. Checking with 1 more supplier before we give up.

Week: 21 to 26 zzzzz.....

2010-02-27T14:39:00.004-05:00

Unfortunately mother nature had decided to prolong winter. Not many things were done during these freezing weeks.
We received a court summons for the storm water management problem coupled with the erosion problem. The problem is two fold. We have to work with the local court and also the DEC for erosion. Part of the erosion was taken care of when our builder was able catch a few days of warm weather. We'll see how the rest works out depending on weather.

Week: 20 Roof Baby!

2010-01-17T10:36:00.004-05:00

The roof materials was finally delivered on 1/14/2010. Work promptly began and progress was smooth thanks to some badly needed pleasant weather. It was in the 40's, pretty good for January weather. Weather proofing materials EPDM membrane was all laid on Saturday. Very lucky since Sunday had some rain in the forecast.
Some bad news: Matt broke his ankle and needs some pins and a cast. Sounds very serious and we all hope for a smooth recovery. Adam has been putting in extra hours and got some of their child hood friends to help while Matt is out.
Other bad news: Due to the issue with the rundown on the slope, we decided to delay the swimming pool and jacuzzi to years down the line. We may just put in a above ground hot tub instead for now and disguise it somehow since we hate the look of the regular hot tubs. Found a good idea in Dwell, we'll see how it works out. The DEC is now fully involved and it seems to be an issue with our entire sub division, not just our lot.

Weeks 15, 16, 17, 18, 19: Cold Cold Weather

2010-01-10T10:29:00.004-05:00

Cold weather and the holiday season has slowed things quite a bit.
Week 16 : Initial stages of floor polish was done. We decided that we needed a more consistent look and polish down the floors a bit more than Matt's previous jobs. The floor polish guy was nice enough to stop in the middle of it to let us decide. However, we lost the window to finish up the job and now we need to wait for warmer weather to continue.

Week 17: Found out that someone in town had complained about our land. That someone turns out to be the head of the building department. The rubble that was pushed over the edge of the cliff during excavation apparently is now a major problem and they want to get the Dept of Environmental Conservation (DEC) involved. What a headache, we received a letter from the building department on Dec 29th that we need to do another plot plan and resolve the erosion with some kind of silt fence. Can't people mind their own business? the property in front of our cliff is also ours, I'm not really sure what they are complaining about. Any erosion is still on our property.

Week 18 and 19: Not much happened. Some window frames with plastic is built to keep snow and rain out. However it's too cold to get roofers to do the roof which we badly need if we are to keep the house dry.

Week 13 & 14: I Joists

2009-12-05T22:36:00.004-05:00

Thanks giving holiday slowed things down for a couple of days. I joists went up the past 2 weeks. The house is starting to feel like a home. Today was the first day of real snow this year, hopefully it won't stick. We really need the good weather to keep going and get the roof done.
Started to buy furnishings for the house already. It seems too soon, but since we have everything stacked in our apartment living room, what's another few boxes anyway.

Week 12: WALLS & Balloon Project #3

2009-11-21T22:18:00.005-05:00

Exciting week! Walls are up this week along with some beams. The house feels much more spacious now with all the walls up. We did a walk through and it feels great! Visualizing is now much easier.

We did another balloon project which was a complete success. The secret is to double the amount of balloons used to counter the small breeze. We finally got some good shots. The balloons went up about 200 feet.

Week 11: Concrete Floors

2009-11-16T00:35:00.003-05:00

Biggest item this week was the concrete floors. 5 inches thick and fully dried. We are ready for walls to go up.
Received news this week that the well pump and lines would cost double than we originally thought...bummer! The Distance is more than 450 feet to run the electrical lines from well to the house, and we need a constant pressure pump since we have a low flow rate.

Concrete Pour!

2009-11-09T22:34:00.003-05:00

Today, the concrete for the main living areas were poured!
Everything went smooth. These are pictures Matt took. Hopefully the animals stay off the concrete while it dries!

Week 10: Rebar & Balloon Project 2

2009-11-08T18:47:00.003-05:00

The last preparations were done this week for the concrete pour coming Monday. Additional Rebar recommended by Matt cost $3000 more to prevent the floor from cracking. We also attempted our 2nd balloon project. Too bad it was way too windy and only managed to get a few usable pictures. Next time we would have to go to the land first before filling the balloons.
Han planted carrots and spread the rye seeds everywhere as a cover crop. Will we regret it later..maybe...or we could be eating lots of rye.
Also "realestate" Steve stopped by...try to give us some advice and sell us services... annoying.
Additional backfill cost us $3000, ouch!

Week 9: Radiant Flooring

2009-11-01T20:51:00.004-05:00

Major item tackled this week is Radiant Flooring. Our plumber is an expert in this type of installation. He carefully marked and tested all the tubing, a very important step since we're pouring concrete right over the top.
The cost of the Radiant is very expensive, we have total 3 zones covering the all the living spaces.
Coming up is the concrete pouring.

Week 8: Mechanicals & Gardening

2009-10-25T19:15:00.006-04:00

More plumbing and electrical were laid this week in preparation for the concrete slab pouring. Planning is crucial at this stage since there's no way to correct it afterwards.
We were planning to do another balloon project, couldn't fit it in the car after filling with helium, thought we would be OK with hanging it out the sunroof....not a good idea. One balloon popped immediately after the car started and the other had a small hole that ruptured. Will try again when the kit starts to get assembled.
My parents did some light gardening to see how the seeds would do with the native soil, just a test really.
While we were on site, some neigbors stopped by to check out the property. They were really nice and told us some history of the land. It was farm land about 20 years ago.
We found a lot of rounded rocks, this place must have been under water at one point in time.

THE BIG DAY: 10/15/09 - KIT DELIVERY

2009-10-16T00:14:00.005-04:00

We had our Kit delivered on Thursday 10/15/09. Truck arrived promptly at 9:00AM. Was unloaded in about 4 hours. The weather was cooperative right till the finish line, then it started pouring, so we are super lucky in this aspect.
Unloading took a lot longer than expected because the factory didn't load it up with unloading in mind. A lot of maneuvering needed to safely unload each pack.
After everything was unloaded, plastic tarp was used to cover up the wood to protect it from the elements.
Also, opened an account with Porco, the propane supplier to start the 1000 gallon tank installation.

Week 6: Stem Walls & a Very Deep Well

2009-10-11T22:40:00.003-04:00

This week, the stem walls were poured. Kit delivery date has been pushed back about 3 days due to bad weather in Missouri, now rescheduled for Wednesday or Thursday of coming week. Our garden cam failed, we were just a bit too greedy, taking too many pictures (every minute), it drained the batteries. We've finally figured out that as the cause of the problem and we've now set it at 30 minute intervals and will swap out the battery every week.
Bad news on the well, 400 feet deep and still only 1.5 gallons per minute which is too low compared to an average home. We're going to try hydro-fracture and hope that gets us 4-5 gallons per minute. Supposedly, it has a 97% chance of success, so let's hope for the best. The cost of the hydro-facture is flat fee of $2200.00 (ouch!!! + that 400 feet deep well). Everyone assured us that we would not face any problems in the area, so it was a complete shock that we're having this issue.
Finally brought my parents to the land. They are super excited about it, potential farming endeavors. Lots to plan for them.

Foundation Walls Inspection

2009-10-05T23:58:00.001-04:00

Just a quick note that we passed the foundation wall inspection today!

Week 5: Balloon Project & Foundation Wall

2009-10-04T17:43:00.006-04:00

Han had the idea to launch some balloons and attach a camera to take some aerial photos of our site. After hacking a canon camera with scripts provided by tech specialists, researching a camera attachment mechanism, some fishing wire and getting some kiddie party balloons, we were all set. The script for the camera in essence hacks the program on the camera and allows the user to take pictures continuously. Started out early today (8:30am), went to Walmart, party balloon shop, avoided some major roadblocks on Rt. 9W and we were all set to launch around noon.
Took many continuous shots set at 5 second intervals to get some good pictures. This was a good test for another round sometime in the next month. Learned lessons: do not get too many balloons. we wanted some rubber balloons about 30" diameter, but the party place didn't carry it, so we ended up getting 5 kiddie party balloons. (Cinderella, transformers & party zone theme). I think the party place got a kick out of what we were trying to do. We barely was able to fit it all in the back of our car.
After we got back to the city, we finally found 36" rubber balloon in Tribeca's Balloon Saloon. $ 6.00 each without helium and we plan to fill it up in route next time. The party supply place is in Newburg and it's only a 20 minute drive to our place. We won't be able fit the helium filled balloons in our car, so will have to hang it outside the sunroof.

The foundation walls were erected this week. Concrete not yet poured in them. Septic trench was dug this week and the electrical junction box is finally up on our site.

Footers : Week 4

2009-09-27T20:08:00.003-04:00

We began officially September 1st. As of today, we are at end of Week # 4.
Inspection of foundation and Footers were done this week. Passed the inspection with flying colors. The Well drilling guy didn't show up this past Thursday as scheduled. Hopefully it will happen the coming week.
Central Hudson & Verizon was on site the past week to bring in the phone and electrical service...finally after 6 months of delay.
We also found a cheaper porcelain alternative to marble bathroom tiles. The price is at $12.95/ sq feet, just a small fraction of what marble costs. The Kitchen Bath company is located next to Ikea Paramus, and as expected, it's much more cost effective than looking in Manhattan.
Our LVL/LVM/LVC kit has been rescheduled to deliver on October 12th instead. We decided to push it back 2 weeks due to the rainy whether this summer. The cost of just changing the delivery schedule is $250 admin fee + $200 of storage charges for the month. So just be careful on the scheduling.
Our Fire Orb is schedule for delivery mid coming week (Week #5). The owner of the FireOrb company is really nice and helpful. Love hands on people and especially small business owners who have pride in their product.

The Foundation

2009-09-19T22:57:00.006-04:00

What a difference 2 weeks make. Today we visited our site and the foundation has been dug the past week. Almost ready for foundation pouring scheduled for next Wednesday.
2 old shipping containers are on site for storage of equipment and supplies. Our land in the front side of the house is now tiered. Reminds me of Bali's rice patty tiers. We hope that no retaining walls are needed hopefully, but we do have plenty of rocks that was found during the digging. Our contractor may buy a sifter of some sort to get out all the usable rocks.
We have also received the finalize plumbing bid for the project, much costlier than expected...much much more...

Sofa Sofa

2009-09-13T23:40:00.002-04:00

We found our sofa this past weekend. Settled on Vitra's new Place Sofa by Jasper Morrison. This is a splurge by all means. Luckily we won't have to purchase this until a year later, that would give us some time to save up for it. Color would be cream or ivory, should look great against the grey concrete floors.
But the price tag really hurts...ouch!

The leveling...

2009-09-07T21:59:00.003-04:00

1st Week of September, 2009. Our land was leveled to get ready for foundation digging. We've been using the garden cam to record weekly events at the site. Our contractor is super fast, within 3 days, most of the site was ready for the foundation and the layout of the drive way is already defined. Interestingly, we also get a glimpse of the site at all hours of the day and also wind conditions during the day.
Our land is a little sloped, about 10 feet per 20 to 30 feet of land. We might have to build a small retaining wall somewhere to prevent soil erosion.

Meeting of the Minds

2009-08-29T08:49:00.002-04:00

On Friday, August 28th, 2009, we finally met the entire team working on our project.

Plumber Devan

Electrician Frank

General Contractor Matthew (whom we way back)

Very excited about the entire team as everyone is very experience and truly dedicated to their craft. We've couldn't have asked for a better team of people.

We've also just received and paid for the final Kit cost balance to Rocio, luckily the final kit price did not exceed what we expected.

However we just found a wall height mistake on the LVL

Our freight for LVM + LVC + LVL is $3600 + another $500 deposit.

Delivery expected date is 9/28/09 Monday at 9:00 AM

Finally things are taking off and we're so excited about breaking ground.

In the mean time, we're ordered and received some supplies

- Grohe rain shower system

- Starck Tub Filler + Rough In valve (don't forget this part if you ever need to order the tub filler)

- Recessed lighting housing.

- Lutron light switches + switch plates

Ordering more supplies this week.

We have compiled a list of items we need to purchase for the house and it really helped everyone in planning. We highly recommend doing this before getting started, it makes the process go much faster and smoother.

Mini WaWa House

2009-08-09T21:15:00.005-04:00

Officially, the name of the house will be WaWa House, named after our 13 year old dog and queen of the castle.
A miniature of our house was made in plexiglass. It's long...longer than expected.

Also, this past weekend we visited our general contractor and another couple's finalized LVL in Elizaville, NY. Stepping into a real LVL was exciting since we're never seen a finished interior other than websites.

We've also begun ordering some fixtures like shower heads, etc, just to get a head start. We had also proceed with Kynar drawings with Rocio Romero. Just received another design fee bill and our total design fee costs tops over $11,000.00 now. Hard to imagine how we got to this point, honestly we made no changes from our original plan, hardly emailed her or the project manager, was precise as possible. Seems that Rocio is sticking to a % of kit cost for her design fee. I wrote her a email stating our concern over these high design fees, but to our surprise, our email was ignored, not even a response at all. This kind of client service was probably the most frustrating part of this process.

Next steps, pay for the balance of the kit, get home owners construction insurance. It's not required, but a good thing to have in case the site gets burglarized. At least the insurance will cover items you've purchased.

The Cost

2009-07-26T22:41:00.002-04:00

On Saturday 7/25/09, we finally had the meeting with our contractor to review costs and layout the house at our land. Boy, it takes a while for the cost to set in to our heads. It's much more than we have anticipated. This is no longer a pre-fab home. It's a full fledged house with real costs involved.

We only received the site preparation, foundation and exterior finishing cost and already we are $100000 over budget. It's incredible to see today's building costs, I don't know how old houses can be sold for $200000 or less.

Would we have gone into this if we had known??? Maybe....
It's not for the faint of heart. We are basically putting everything we have into this house and essentially starting again with no savings, after more than 10 years of working. It's a bit unsettling...

On a positive note, we did get our building permit last week (finally!). There was a bit of a scare because initially the building inspector had told our contractor that he would not approve our plans. He hated the look of our house and the modern aspect of it that really made it look like a trailer home on paper. Luckily our contractor was able to win him over by patiently explaining the house in detail.

One hickup we had was that Rocio's project manager that was working on our plans had neglected to pass along the local residential code to the engineer that stamped the plans. At the last minute, the building inspector requested the engineer to stamp off on the residential code and the engineer refused due to technicalities. Basically they had to redo the calculations and then stamp off on it. I bet Rocio is going to charge us for this even though this is not our oversight.

We should be breaking ground in 2 weeks and hopefully all goes well.

Waiting...waiting...more waiting...

2009-07-11T22:23:00.002-04:00

Seems like ground breaking is so close yet so far. We've learned in the past week that our local building department HATES the look our house. We were on the verge of being declined a building permit. Luckily our contractor was able to convince them otherwise and now the only thing standing in our way is a stamp from the engineer that originally stamped our plans.

Apparently, there was an oversight by the project manager at Rocio Romero. I had specifically passed along the local building code requirements to the project manager before we started this whole project. However this little bit of detail was not passed to the engineer. It has do to with the seismic requirement of the plans. We've just chosen the easy way out and asked the engineer to redo the calculations and get 1 peice of paper stamped for the local building department.

Whatever it is, we're pretty sure that Rocio Romero is going to try to bill us for the recalculation fees which then we will have to argue about.

Just remember, even though you've hired "professionals" to do the job, it doesn't mean that they are looking at all the details. One thing we learned is to be as paranoid as possible. The bottom line is that we have to pay more and more delays...

Off the grid....Almost

2009-06-03T19:30:00.003-04:00

In an effort to be more environmentally conscious, we've decided to put up a 6kW PV system on our roof. Since our home faces perfectly due South without any obstructions, we should not have any major issues with the install. The initial cost is quite high, but hopefully it will pay back in 15-20 years. More importantly, we want to do our part in reducing our independence on cruel oil. In the future, once we install the batteries, we will be able to live completely off the grid. But for now, we will have to live with net-metering.....

This is a picture of an install from the company that we will be working with. Looks great!

The Stake...

2009-05-11T22:58:00.004-04:00

Saturday, May 9th, 2009
We staked the property and approx location of the house. It's really really long. Didn't realize it until we saw it in person.

Another worry surfaced while we were up there...ticks!!! Our land is not fenced and the area has not fully developed yet with houses, apparently deer have been grazing on the wild flowers. We noticed a tick crawling up my leg!

Living in a large city, you forget about nature from time to time. Now we have to look into deer fencing systems to control the deer population. The costs keep going up!

15 pages...

2009-04-28T23:29:00.002-04:00

We received the finalized construction documents from Rocio Romero today. The process has taken several months. We submitted our 1st payment of 15% deposit for the kit + 1st of many $1000 design fee deposit on Dec 19th, 2008. Today is April 28th, 2009. It's taken a full 4 months, much longer than anticipated. Also costlier than expected, to date, we have paid about 10% of the kit fees just for design process.

We'll see how fast the kit can be built and shipped. At least now we can go ahead to apply for the building permit. In order to beat the winter season, we should be assembling the kit no later than August/September.

Mystery Solved...

2009-04-27T23:33:00.000-04:00

After 2 months of waiting for our BOH approval, we finally found out the letter was mailed to our old address. Not sure how this could have happened since nothing on our application indicated the address. In any case, glad that's finally over with. The magical letter has arrived in our hands...finally.

3 Seasons

2009-04-20T23:05:00.004-04:00

Pictures of our land from fall 2008, Winter 2008/2009, and Spring 2009.
it's been 3 out of 4 seasons since we initially saw and started this process.
only missing picture of Summer now. will post it in 2 months.

The land looks beautiful in all seasons!

Hooray! BOH Approval

2009-04-15T21:34:00.004-04:00

After 2 months of waiting for the Ulster County Board of Health approval on our home site, we finally got word that it was approved more than a month ago! Due to some paperwork oversight, we never received the permit letter.

We hired an engineer (which also happens to be the owner who sold us the lot) to design the septic system with a pump. Our home is going to be located downhill from the septic reserve area, so a pump is required.

At least this first step is over, now onto the building permit process, which hopefully is a bit quicker. We have to start on the foundation soon, if we need to finish the roof before the winter hits.

$7,115.15 later...

2009-04-14T21:19:00.003-04:00

The design fees are adding up really quickly. We have already paid $ 7,115.15 as of today for our "design". We thought for sure that our design fee was going to be $4000 or lower given that we pretty much designed the entire layout by ourselves before going into this whole thing. We keep getting invoices from Rocio, seems like a lot of time is being spent on our project, but we still have not seen the final product yet, which is just a bunch of drawings needed for the building permit process. We really made only 1 minor change that was suggested by Rocio from our original google sketchup layout. Seriously, this getting out of hand. Our first phone meeting with Rocio, she even said herself that with our detailed plan and layout, this project would be "very straight foward". Not sure what changed from the time of that conversation till now.

We've been comparing some old projects that people have posted up and their design fees are not nearly as much. I'm beginning to wonder if it's because Rocio is on maternity leave and due to this, a lot of delays and extra fees have been accessed. This really puts a damper on building an affordable prefab home.

We should be in the home stretch now, only expecting 1 more invoice and that's it! I hope...and with each design invoice, we have to give up on something else.

Still waiting for final plans.....

2009-04-08T11:41:00.003-04:00

It has been 2 months since we started the process but we are still waiting for the final structural plans. The latest update is another 2 weeks. Then we can finally submit the plans to the county for a building permit. I guess this has given us more time to save some $.

Meeting at another LVL

2009-01-17T19:43:00.002-05:00

Jan 17, 2009
Today we were fortunate enough to visit another LVL project currently in construction. It really helps to see things in person to finalize some more details previously not thought of.

We also had our first design meeting with Rocio last week. The process went pretty quick and smooth. We sent a packet of paperwork and files before the meeting to help facilitate the meeting.
A couple of tips before the meeting:
- Try to make some decisions of your own layout. We used Google Sketch Up to finalize our layout. Having the layout in actual measurements helped us a lot with the plan.
- Decide what type of heating and ventilation you'll most likely be installing
- Decide the kitchen cabinetry, this is really critical if you are not going to shell out big buck for a custom made kitchen. We went with Ikea, the size of the cabinet widths ultimately decided our Kitchen layout and width.
- If you have any special items like fireplace or range tops, that location needs to be decided and incorporated into the construction plan.

We did most of our homework before hand and listed all the fixtures and cabinetry materials we were going to purchase. This not only helps Rocio finalize the construction plan, but also gives you a good idea how much total cost you need to prepare to pay for.

Next steps : Design of our Septic system. Our septic is going to be on a higher elevation than our house, so a pump design is needed. Will have to hire an engineer to design it and get it approved by the town. Fingers crossed, hope this is not going to cost too much.

2009-01-02T00:25:00.004-05:00

Our land deal was finally signed on Dec 18th, 2008. At the same time, the contract and deposit was also sent to Rocio Romero.
Signing the land deal definately sealed the decision to go ahead with the process. We've put in a desposit for LVL+LVM+LVC. Attached is our design idea, we haven't seen any other projects with our linear aesthetic yet.
Hoping to save some money by having the foundation of all 3 sections done at the same time as well as the roof installation.

Google Sketchup has been really helpful for us making decision on the layout. We want to fanalize the details before having to meet to Rocio. From all the blogs, seems that the design fees for just talking or asking questions can really add up. The more specific we are, the less design fees at the end (hopefully). Knowing that the house resell value would probably not be higher than the cost to build in this market really puts some pressure to make smart decisions and compromise on certain aspects of 'needs' versus 'wants'.

Additional miscellaneous costs of purchasing the land also was unexpected for us since this is first time we bought just the land.

Title Fees Approx $1000

Soil Condition report Approx $ 1000 (we had to do this since the land was used previously as an orchard, high levels of Arsenic is harmful to live on)

School and Town taxes Approx $200 for the year, this is very minimal for land. After the house is built , the taxes will go up significantly for sure.

Overall, this has been a great learning experience.

The Signing

2008-12-03T22:31:00.001-05:00

Finally, a momentus day, the contract has been signed.
Eagerly awaiting the closing date scheduled for Dec 17th to really seal the deal.

Contract - still in progress

2008-11-16T12:54:00.002-05:00

The lawyers are still working through the contract. We had to revised the previous contract to allow for some kind of fencing near the cliff and planting of trees over 4' tall. Looks like the contract will be signed next week. The closing has been scheduled already for 12/17.

Furniture Already!

2008-11-01T12:16:00.005-04:00

11/1/08 received the dining table and garden bench that we bought 2 weeks ago before even purchasing the land. our apartment has been turned into storage and design area.
Still waiting for the land contract to be drawn up. In the mean time reviewing Rocio Romero's general contract for details.

Visited a few showrooms today to get some ideas for the design of the kitchen and bathroom. The usual mix of highly out of reach stores..Boffi, Valcucine, Gauggenau...gave us a good idea of what we need to do.

Offer accepted!!!

2008-10-28T22:46:00.002-04:00

After two days and three rounds of negotiations, our final offer was accepted. Hooray, on our way to become official land owners, just need to get the formalities and legalities out of the way.

The Offer

2008-10-26T23:57:00.002-04:00

We put in our offer for the land today, fingers crossed. Learned anther party has some interest in the same plot of land. What are the chances, after a year sitting on the market, all of a sudden, all this interest at once.
The slow economy is probably helping us out with this. Normally this type of home aesthetic would have never been approved by any subdivion of colonials.
So far, no other plot in the community have been sold, so we might be the first ones there.

First conversation with contractor

2008-10-26T13:42:00.000-04:00

10/22/08 Had a first conversation with Matthew King of Mecca Projects in Elizaville. Matthew built the Meeks LVL home in Gallatin, NY. The conversation went really well. We learned quite a bit about the Meeks home that we can apply to our final design. Matthew is currently building another LVL home near the Meeks and has invited us to visit the actual site. Looking forward to Saturday's meeting (10/25/08).

Second visit to our future home site

2008-10-26T00:40:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was a great day. It was a second visit to our future site and it looked more beautiful than the first time, which was back in mid-September. The partner of the subdivision (also the surveyor) walked us through the parcel and gave us a lot of information regarding setback requirement, home site, septic systems, etc...

Our contractor Matthew King showed up after to take a quick walk of the land. He liked the site and doesn't foresee any potential roadblocks. Suggested we think about have a walk-out basement or half basement for better resell value. Plus, it'll elevate the home for a better view.

We then drove north to Gallatin, NY to see the Meeks home. Unfortunately, they were not home. The pictures are from the current LVL home that Matthew is working on. It's perched up high, with a walkout basement, so the view is expansive. The bone white is beautiful when you see it in person so we've decided to go with that color instead.