Our New Home

2 years later.

This house we bought.  (You know, cause the one we were building wasn’t going to ever/seemingly be finished in time.) … That house is already yesterday’s news…. And here’s why…

The family members are getting older, and we’re going to have to start parking more cars outside.  There’s also some other things going on that have us thinking this way, but it all centers around one thing: We’ve got to get a bigger driveway, which means bigger lot, which means… buying a different home.

The market for selling a house like ours, is magical.  We’re told people are making cash offers and snapping up homes like this in a heartbeat.

So we listed, and sold the house before we could even blink.  Closing is in just a few days.  Now we’ve got to get out of here.  Yea, it’s real now.

As far as next house — We tried to find a new one already built, but we want too many things in particular, and there’s not a lot of inventory homes available in this market right now.

So we’re *building* a new house.  Again.  In 2020.

You could have asked me just a month ago, and I would reply like I don’t even know why you would think I would be doing this.  But we are.

More details will be shared soon.

 

Not much new to report here, since we’ve been waiting on mortgage and closing proceedings to take their time through to closing date.

We had our final walk-through yesterday and asked a few questions, but overall we’re in the final packing stages (most the packing was done long ago when we moved out but anyways) and we’re waiting through this week…

I took time off from work next week to have time for moving in and hopefully some relaxing from the day job somewhere during the end.

We’ll have some pictures after next week for sure.  Check back and stay tuned.

~Byron

I’ve hacked up a custom floor plan of how our particular house was built, since it contains some options (but not all of them) that vary from both the base model and the “fully loaded” one….

Here’s what the floor plan is going to look like inside, as best as we can show you:

And for people who are “local” curious where this Lucaya Lake Club  community is, here’s a map of the general area:

If you’re wondering how things are going, here’s the current one-word status of our house:   Paperwork.

That is all, thank you. 🙂

~ Byron

As you may have already read/noticed, we’re not moving into the Park Creek home any longer.  We gave up (see post a few down below this one) and have set our sights on a new, finished home in nearby Lucaya Lake Club!

It’s bigger, it’s FINISHED, and it’s just a few thousand more than we were going to pay the other guys.  And — we’re not locked into a contract with Spectrum for fiber internet!  (Which only Dad likes, but we really like that we can choose our provider!!)

So, while we get the paperwork and other arrangements in order for financing, and the packing at Linda’s so we can finally move into our new home…  Here are a few pictures of the community and amenities within Lucaya Lake Club so you can watch and wait in excitement along with us!  🙂 🙂

Above: Aerial shot showing Lucaya Lake, the clubhouse area.Above: Closer shot of same areas.Above: Some of the lakefront lots.  We’re not lakefront but we’re happy as-is! 🙂Above: Main entrance sign as you enter the community from Rhodine Rd. Above: Kids playground area near the main entrance.  Few blocks from house.Above:  Splash pad located near the Clubhouse; all near the main entrance.Above:  The awesome community pool outside the clubhouse!Above:  One of the many rooms within the huge clubhouse community area.

~ Byron

We only started working on the deal for the “new” new house just last night.  (From like 6pm to 10pm last night; that’s how late!)

We didn’t take any pictures while we were there.  We were kind of just in shock and “in the moment” I guess as we were mulling the whole thing over with our real estate agent and the salesperson at Lucaya Lake Club.

Well, I went back over to the new property today and took some pictures of the outside of the home, and got some inside shots through the windows.

So these are some of the best I can provide for now.  We’ll get some more up soon, and they’ll probably look a bit nicer. 🙂

Stay tuned.

~Byron

Well, we gave the home builder plenty of chances for missing the Feb 1st closing date.  We were patient.  My wife and I got pretty frustrated these past two weeks considering all the delays, the failed inspections, and how awestruck the sales guy was whenever we provided information we thought they should have already been aware of!

So…. With no further ado, I have to let you know we’re no longer going to purchase a home on Legacy Bright Street in Park Creek.

Nope.  I’ve just put a nice down payment in on a property nearby (1 mile away) in a community called Lucaya  Lake Club.

And the best part?  THE HOUSE IS ALREADY BUILT.  It’s brand new; we just need to close and move into it.

Estimated closing date (which is pretty much a done-deal) is MONDAY, APRIL 30th.

Here’s what the new house (ALREADY!) looks like today:

Once I get the financing stuff out of the way, we’re smooth sailing into a new house by the end of NEXT month.  FINALLY.

As far the Park Creek home, we haven’t settled on the terms yet.  We’ll probably lose our deposit.  But we also lost our desire to ever build again.

Thanks for reading and following along so far.  Stay tuned.

~Byron

Haven’t updated here in a while.   Why?

Because not much is getting done at the house unfortunately.  The builder’s failed the past three inspections for the insulation inside the home, due to small errors that were overlooked, and didn’t seem to be correct[ed] on the follow-up visits.

There was also an issue with them running two (not one, but two!) separate air ducts; one running through each sidewall portion of a single upstairs bedroom closet one of the boys would use.  By doing this, the result was leaving the closet with almost no real space!  Then, they changed their minds and ripped out one of vents, but were still intent on sealing both sidewalls off; leaving only the middle section of the closet as usable space, which would have been a pointless waste of good storage room!!  My wife was livid, and talked to the sales guy, and they finally put a stop to it… But c’mon?  What an error!

We’ve also being told the construction foreman in in process of being replaced, which is holding things up and probably attributed to the multiple failed inspections going by without much notice or correction.  The original foreman apparently got sick, wasn’t responsive, and we assume they eventually severed their ties with the guy–who knows?  (Lucky us though, right?!  I mean, what timing…)

Incidentally, my own wife is also the reason we found out about the failed inspections; not via the home builder staff or anyone within the community.  She got tired of asking the builder for answers, not getting anything but runaround and missed promises, and eventually just looked on the county permits website herself and found the issues we were asking for updates on!

SOOO … Meanwhile, our anticipated closing date is likely going to push back to either late April or even into mid-May at the rate of how things are coming along for the final work, and including any lag time for the remaining inspections that will also have to pass…  It’s been a few weeks since Feb 1st, but who’s keeping track…

OH.. HEY, at least there’s stucco on the outside of the home now!  Check it out! 🙂

 

Aside from that, not much progress during the latter month of February or what’s passed in March so far….  There’s a one-story house they just broke ground on in February rapidly going up three lots down….Already has a front door on it…

Can you sense the frustration in my tone? 🙂

Here’s a view from out front of the window that will eventually be my office room….

Patience may be a virtue, but it’s also a non-renewable resource to me and my wife here, lately.   And so we wait . . .

~Byron

Like I said last post, and have been reminding friends that have asked — We’re at the point where not a lot of “visible” stuff is going on to notice much.

They’ve added a roof since my last post, so the house is roof-covered now on all points.

They’ve also dropped off the garage door for mounting (so my wife’s told me) last time she drove by.

We’re anxiously awaiting WALLS and the other fun finishing touches… Paint, doors,  fixtures, etc etc.

I’ll post some pics soon; possibly from a trip over this coming weekend, if I can make one.

~Byron

It’s a slow period right now…  Mainly just wiring, cabling and stuff getting done inside.

But if you want to imagine what the house MIGHT soon look like, you can just look at this photo of the model.  (Ours will be a little different in color.)

Yeah.  Something like that anyway.  Man I can’t wait until this house build is done and we’re moved in!!!

~Byron