Window Poll

This is a post especially for Becker, who has been wanting a more interactive blog. We are trying to decide on the color of our window frames and the options are chestnut brown or cranberry red. So, let us know what you think! (Also, you can now see what the metal clad siding will look like.)

Curse of the signed contract?

We're hoping it's merely a coincidence, but since we signed the contract we've had a bit of bad luck. The microwave died (only needed it 6 more months!), our stereo's central speaker went out at the amp, and yesterday our clothes dryer and digital camera passed away. ARG! So, we have ordered our new washer and dryer a bit earlier than expected. Fortunately we have discovered that architects can get great discounts on appliances through a special website, but the entire situation is just so frustrating!! Special thanks to Kiki and Seth for the use of their microwave for the rest of the year.

The Contract is Signed!

It's official now! On Monday night we met with Tim and signed the contract. Now we are able to get our financing settled and get to work. We hope to close on our construction loan the first week of July. Once that happens, we will get the septic system installed and have the well dug. We will also put our down payment on the SIPs down and those will be fabricated off-site. While we wait for the SIPs to arrive, the garage will be built. Once things are really underway, it will be time to sell our old house...anyone looking for a nice 3 bedroom with a fenced-in yard on Madison's West side? It's going to be a busy summer!

Floor Plans

Budget Crunch

Well, it has been a BIG week...it appears we are significantly over budget and are having to take a lot of our ideas to the chopping block. Our biggest and saddest loss is the geothermal heat system. This is so unfortunate because it really is the best way to heat our home on this site. However, Tim assures us that our house will be so "tight" because of the SIPs construction that our heating and cooling systems will still be a lot more efficient than the typical house. Other items to be changed are the exterior siding (from cement board to metal clad - sounds strange, but I'll try to post an updated sketch...Matt really likes this change!), the chimney (from stone to possibly stucco), eliminating some upstairs windows, and various other things. We're hopeful that most of the changes will not affect the integrity of Matt's design and that we can still shoot for a December completion date. More to come...

We have an address!

No longer do we have to refer to the lot as "0 Balden St." - It is now 2501 Balden Street! That's the big news for the week. (not a big week) Next week we get the budget numbers...I'm sure that will be a BIG week! Yikes.

Kitchen Pendants

Our weekend trip to Chicago was productive - we got some final quotes on the kitchen and worked on a lot of the bathroom fixtures at Ikea. Our most fun, though, was walking around downtown in an area of the city that seemed to be entirely composed of modern furniture and fixture stores. We happened to find a great floor sample sale...and came home with three of these "bocci" pendants for over the kitchen island. We already have the dining room fixture, which is in our current home...it will look much better in the new home. (In fact it was purchased about 6 mos before we became serious about this project or even had the land - and was some inspiration to the new home!)

Dirt Pile

So now we have this giant pile of dirt that will sit here until July. Tim is going to spread it out a little more, but the excitement is over for a while. We are heading to Ikea in Chicago this weekend (thanks, Nanny!) to figure out the kitchen and closets. Matt continues to pour over catalogs and is glued to the computer tweaking plans...but I think he's still enjoying it!

It has begun!

A big day today.... the driveway has been created in it's new location and the tennis court has been removed. (It is actually now part of the driveway!) Last week we had 4 trees removed - 3 for the driveway and 1 large red oak (which we hope will someday be our dining room table) where our septic will be placed. We obtained our erosion control plan permit last week and now have silt fence surrounding the site. Tomorrow the footprint of the house will be raised 4 feet - 2' for the foundation and then 2' more for the surcharge that will sit until the beginning of July. Our car in the photo is parked approximately where the garage will be, and the large piles are in our dining room/kitchen area. I'll try to get a floorplan posted here soon.

Invisible Progress

Today Matt got all the requirements turned in for our erosion control plan as well as the driveway permit. He and Tim also met with the man who will be doing the excavation and tentatively scheduled our "ground breaking" for the first week of May. Things are moving along!