Having a house built

Bodhisattva

Hall of Fame
Aug 22, 2001
21,596
2,241
287
Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
My wife and I completed our two-day visit at the design center to pick out options a couple of weeks ago, and we just met with the construction manager yesterday. They will break ground in about a month and deliver the house next March/April. We will still have some customizing to do on our own (upgraded shelving and racks in the bedroom closets; built-in bookcases in the study; expanded lanai, water features, and gardens in the back and side yards, etc.). The community has all sorts of amenities (many pools, soccer fields, basketball courts, sand volleyball, dog parks, river access, walking trails through a nature preserve, a town center with several restaurants, and even a couple of water parks). My wife and I have been reserved in non-investment spending since we've been married. Now is the time to enjoy what has been built, starting with this house. It's going to an anxious nine months or so waiting for the dream house to be built, but it will be fun filling it up with new furniture and assorted toys after that. (The garage is built for two cars and a golf cart. That's how people cruise around the community and to the Publix/restaurants/water parks/the monthly farmer's market .... on golf carts! Too funny!)
 

Tidewater

Hall of Fame
Mar 15, 2003
22,401
13,177
287
Hooterville, Vir.
My wife and I completed our two-day visit at the design center to pick out options a couple of weeks ago, and we just met with the construction manager yesterday. They will break ground in about a month and deliver the house next March/April. We will still have some customizing to do on our own (upgraded shelving and racks in the bedroom closets; built-in bookcases in the study; expanded lanai, water features, and gardens in the back and side yards, etc.). The community has all sorts of amenities (many pools, soccer fields, basketball courts, sand volleyball, dog parks, river access, walking trails through a nature preserve, a town center with several restaurants, and even a couple of water parks). My wife and I have been reserved in non-investment spending since we've been married. Now is the time to enjoy what has been built, starting with this house. It's going to an anxious nine months or so waiting for the dream house to be built, but it will be fun filling it up with new furniture and assorted toys after that. (The garage is built for two cars and a golf cart. That's how people cruise around the community and to the Publix/restaurants/water parks/the monthly farmer's market .... on golf carts! Too funny!)
Is the finished house going to be in Florida?
 

AlexanderFan

Hall of Fame
Jul 23, 2004
11,076
7,524
187
Birmingham
You’re what’s wrong with America, how dare you keep what you’ve worked for? Sarcasm sarcasm, blue font blue font.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Bodhisattva

Hall of Fame
Aug 22, 2001
21,596
2,241
287
Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
I've done it once. I'd never do it again, particularly the designing part...
We looked at a lot of homes that we really liked but didn't check all the boxes. A big consideration is that my MIL is planning to come to the States and live with us. We wanted her to have her own guest suite downstairs. She's in her 70s now, and going up and down stairs will only become more problematic. Finding a second master bedroom downstairs with its own bathroom was important. We don't want her to feel like a guest. The best arrangement we found was in this Toll Brothers community, so we decided it is worth the wait.
 

TIDE-HSV

Senior Administrator
Staff member
Oct 13, 1999
84,527
39,617
437
Huntsville, AL,USA
We looked at a lot of homes that we really liked but didn't check all the boxes. A big consideration is that my MIL is planning to come to the States and live with us. We wanted her to have her own guest suite downstairs. She's in her 70s now, and going up and down stairs will only become more problematic. Finding a second master bedroom downstairs with its own bathroom was important. We don't want her to feel like a guest. The best arrangement we found was in this Toll Brothers community, so we decided it is worth the wait.
I designed in the downstairs MIL suite also and she promptly died. I had a lot of fun creating the house but not so much living there. It coincided with the end of my first marriage, so my feelings about it are tied up with that. After that experience, I decided that I would find something and modify it to fit. Creating a new house is probably something everyone who can afford it should do once. I've worked in construction and enjoyed that part of it. I was heavy into running at the time and I used to design trim and interior in my head while I was training...
 

UAH

All-American
Nov 27, 2017
3,595
4,129
187
I designed in the downstairs MIL suite also and she promptly died. I had a lot of fun creating the house but not so much living there. It coincided with the end of my first marriage, so my feelings about it are tied up with that. After that experience, I decided that I would find something and modify it to fit. Creating a new house is probably something everyone who can afford it should do once. I've worked in construction and enjoyed that part of it. I was heavy into running at the time and I used to design trim and interior in my head while I was training...
I modified a design and hired a builder, on a bankers recommendation, who turned out to be basically bankrupt. I was in a very stressful job and it turned out to be an awful mistake. It was incredible to have someone cutting corners every step of the way and not have the time to manage it. I have upgraded two houses generally on my own and that has gone without the heart aches involved in my "money pit" build.
 

Go Bama

Hall of Fame
Dec 6, 2009
13,785
14,078
187
16outa17essee
A lot of people in my neighborhood have golf carts and judging by how much they use them they love them. In fact, more have them than those that don’t. It must be the new thing.

For whatever reason, the golf carts aggravate my wife.
 

RTR91

Super Moderator
Nov 23, 2007
39,407
6
0
Prattville
A lot of people in my neighborhood have golf carts and judging by how much they use them they love them. In fact, more have them than those that don’t. It must be the new thing.

For whatever reason, the golf carts aggravate my wife.
There's a planned community in the Montgomery area that requires golf carts with the intent of limiting car travel within the neighborhood.

When we lived in Mississippi, several of my friends and I had golf carts and/or ATVs. That's how we got to each other's houses since we didn't live right down the street.
 

DzynKingRTR

TideFans Legend
Dec 17, 2003
42,213
29,372
287
Vinings, ga., usa
I was always told, if you want to get a divorce or come close to it, build a house together.

I designed an addition for a couple, they are now divorced. The fights they would get into over trivial stuff amazed me. They once got into a very heated discussion over the color blue (from 2 different companies). Best part was the RGB was the same for both.
 

TIDE-HSV

Senior Administrator
Staff member
Oct 13, 1999
84,527
39,617
437
Huntsville, AL,USA
A lot of people in my neighborhood have golf carts and judging by how much they use them they love them. In fact, more have them than those that don’t. It must be the new thing.

For whatever reason, the golf carts aggravate my wife.
They're illegal for street use here in HSV and they enforce it...
 

Go Bama

Hall of Fame
Dec 6, 2009
13,785
14,078
187
16outa17essee
They're illegal for street use here in HSV and they enforce it...
We live about 4 miles outside the city limits in a neighborhood where everyone has 1-2 acres. There are about 60 houses so it’s a pretty big area. It’s such a great area to walk that I won’t consider a golf cart until I can’t walk.
 

TIDE-HSV

Senior Administrator
Staff member
Oct 13, 1999
84,527
39,617
437
Huntsville, AL,USA
We live about 4 miles outside the city limits in a neighborhood where everyone has 1-2 acres. There are about 60 houses so it’s a pretty big area. It’s such a great area to walk that I won’t consider a golf cart until I can’t walk.
Here, as most other cities, there's more people outside the city proper than inside. And, of course, they're not illegal in the county, so you do see more use there. There's the occasional fatality, also. They're probably less suited for use on county roads than in the city on neighborhood streets...
 

TIDE-HSV

Senior Administrator
Staff member
Oct 13, 1999
84,527
39,617
437
Huntsville, AL,USA
Peachtree City near Atlanta, they are everywhere.
You'll appreciate this. The house I designed was an English Tudor, with a "T"-shaped floor plan. The crossbar was a 27' high great room. I had framing details in the drawings, with that room to be balloon framed. I checked by each day and did the day they were framing that room. The framing crew either never looked at the detail or they didn't care. They were trying to platform frame it, with a double plate in the middle. Man, did it look wobbly. I managed to get it stopped and they order the proper length rafters to make the studs. Later I did have minor cracking problems where the two wings joined because of the lumber shrinkage in the platform portion joined the balloon...
 

UAH

All-American
Nov 27, 2017
3,595
4,129
187
Somehow, when I see them other than on a golf course, I think of The Villages, in Florida...
They are ubiquitous in Las Vegas from garage to golf course. It served as a good example of what I never want to do with my retirement years!
 

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