Category: Texas house Page 1 of 4

The new house build here in Texas is on the verge of beginning in earnest. Brad has another big project that kicked off this week that is keeping him busy while we finish up the permitting from the city and he continues to negotiate scheduling and pricing with subcontractors. In the meantime, I have been working around the edges of some cost reduction. We were able to find some plumbing fixtures we liked a lot better than what Brad’s regular supplier had available. They are of good quality and the price is a good bit lower, too, so we have made arrangements for Brad to buy them at another place with his contractor discount. I am in the middle of doing the same thing with the appliances we want and have found some significant cost reductions there, too.

Our builder has suppliers with whom he works to provide flooring, plumbing fixtures, drawer and cupboard pulls, etc., etc. These suppliers also provide logistic support in case a kit has a missing or damaged part, to assure parts arrive on the contractor’s schedule and to deal with whatever issue comes up. That has value and is worth some extra cost. That being said, when we met with the plumbing fixture supplier, the design choices he gave us were no where close to what we really wanted. When Lorena and I got home after the meeting, I looked up what we had purchased for our house in Centralia, Washington that we really loved, we found that a package would replaced most or all of what the supplier recommended cost over $3000 less. For that amount of money, we can certainly handle some of the logistics.

I had pretty much the perfect chair when we lived in Godley, Texas and Oilville, Virginia, but we sold that chair along with the house in Virginia. The chair was a Barcalounger like the one my dad had when I was little. I loved that chair. Now, I have quite a comfortable chair and a wicker ottoman, but it is really not the same. I hope to get a new Barcalounger when we move into the new house, God willing. In the meantime, I have a great setup with a place to put my drink, an overhead lamp, and a window with a nice view while we wait for that.

I have been using AI to explore ideas about an auxiliary building to be used as a pottery atelier for Lorena. After several fits and starts, discussions with Brad, and advise from Lorena we have come up with the building on the right. We would need a variance from the City of Granbury to be able to build something this tall, about 10′ higher than the code currently allows for auxiliary buildings in the Historic Overlay District, but it fits the surrounding architecture and elevates the neighborhood in such a positive way that we think we have a good chance of getting the variance. It would almost certainly not include the lean-to, so we are trying to figure out a way to create the function of the lean-to as a gazebo separate from the building. This would not be built until we have the resources if it gets built at all, two or three years from now. Still, it is fun to consider and plan.

A little later this morning, Lorena and I will head down to the title company to sign the small loan we need to build our new house. We are very excited to get started. A day to celebrate!

Things are starting to move a little faster now on our house build. All of the build loan paperwork is complete and we are scheduled to close on Friday morning. The permits from the city are on the desk of the last guy who needs to sign. We have been out to the build site with Brad, our designer/builder to answer a few preference questions. We have made a few modifications to the plan (minor) to accommodate future work if we can afford it. We are excited, but actually kind of burnt out from all the moving and paper suffering. I expect the excitement and energy levels to increase some more once some dirt starts to move.

Here is the left side of the house rendering with the correct colors and materials. The AI did not get it exactly right–the door going into the main house behind the screen porch should really be a window and the two first floor windows closest to the front of the house should have transom windows at their tops, but all and all, it gives a pretty good sense of how we hope the house will appear.

I did an AI rendering of the front elevation of the house with Lorena’s proposed colors and materials. We went down to the property with our builder, Brad earlier this afternoon to talk to him about what plants/trees we want to preserve on the property and some placement requirements and ideas about the sidewalk and the approach to the house. We were surprised to see that area where the house will be built is a little bit downhill from the street on both sides and the property has a small downward slope from left to right as you face the house. Actually, because of the setting, we think it will make the house even better.