Bye bye big city!

[Texas82GP]

Lumber prices are dropping. Hopefully they continue the downward trend so you can benefit. Looks like a nice area!!

What the material prices do between now and the end of the year is definitely a factor that will influence when we go to construction. We all want to get out there sooner rather than later but each month we save and pay on the current house improves our situation.

 

[Texas82GP]

It's been a month. We all went out to check on the progress as a family. We were pleased with what we found. Our whole section is now paved except for the creek crossing. This is looking east, up our street towards its T intersection. Our lot is on the left, basically out of frame.

The power poles haven't been set yet but they are staged out there and the surveyors have set the laths marking where they will go. The limbs they were trimming off of the right or south side of the road are still laying on the roadside ditch as you can see in the picture above.

Here's a pile of poles in front of our lot. You can see the Kudzoo vine is flourishing.....

Here's a look back to the west, towards the creek....

And another shot, west of our lot, where they stopped the paving, looking towards the creek.....

And another, further west, past my sister-in-law's car, looking downhill...

We're all excited about the construction progress. It's been an unseasonably wet summer so far.

We'll likely have the underbrushing done in the next month or two. I'm planning on doing the survey in October or November, after it cools off.

We're doing a good job with our savings goals and lumber futures have come down significantly from their peak in May. We're hoping to go to construction early next year.

The situation at my storage has changed and that's providing additional motivation to get the shop built and get moved out there. The complex my storage is in was bought about a year ago by a big corporate chain. It used to be family owned and pretty laid back. The new owners are fairly uptight. They don't want anybody working on anything over there. The property manager is trying to be cool about it but his boss makes surprise visits so it's not a good situation.

As bad or worse than that they went up on the rent by +34%, effective on 8/1. It's way more expensive and they don't want me doing anything over there. It just makes the math on the build/move make that much more sense.

 

[airboatgreg]

Looks awesome. I moved to rural SW Georgia in 94. Do not regret. Dirt road and internet sucks but could be worse. Surrounded by big property holdings.

 

[g3chevy]

Dealing with a similar situation at my storage. They had a 25% increase across the board and are not allowing new renters to work on their vehicles. My days are numbered here as well. Hope to lock in on property before the end of the year. Glad things are progressing out near your property. The rain has really screwed up schedules for just about everyone. Be glad when it dries out.

 

[Texas82GP]

Small update. We went out to check the progress yesterday. Most of the power poles in the section have been set. They haven't been set on our street but they have been staged at their respective installation locations. There are two large spools of wire sitting in one of the side streets so I'd say they'll likely finish up setting the poles and get the wire strung in our section in the next few weeks. There doesn't appear to be any movement on the bridge yet. My guess is the structural steel has been delayed by COVID but who knows. We're about to move forward with the underbrushing. We're probably going to schedule the underbrushing for September and then do the survey in October or November, when the weather is good (low 80's or below). We may go ahead and have the geo-technical report done as well so we have that done. We've pretty well settled on a floor plan but want to make some minor changes. We might get the Architect going on that in the next few months so its done and we own the plans.

The latest look at the financial model is looking encouraging. Hopefully between now and when we pull the trigger on the construction loan the material prices will come down a little. I think we are going to want to pull the trigger by the time the interest rates start going up. We're doing well with our savings plan. I've nearly saved enough cash to buy the basic metal building kit for the shop. We're currently looking at a 40'x50'x14' building. I recently did a little sketch showing how it and the footprint of the house might fit on the lot. It looks good. It drives home how much bigger 1.5 acres is relative to the 8,400 square feet we currently reside on.

We've waited too long to make this move. None of us want to live where we do anymore so the motivation to make this happen is serious.

I'll leave you with a shot of one of the other streets in the section that has the power poles up....

 

[Supercharged111]

I don't see a single set of stripes on that road. . . are you going to be the one to christen it?

 

[Texas82GP]

I don't see a single set of stripes on that road. . . are you going to be the one to christen it?

 

[Texas82GP]

I called the Property Owners' Association Architectural Review Committee yesterday to make sure we understand the restrictions and requirements for underbrushing the lot. That sounds a lot more formal than it was. It was just a conversation with a regular guy. A very nice, down to earth regular guy with a thicker Texas accent than me.

He recommended a specific company to do the work. We had already received the same recommendation so I also called that company and spoke with the owner. Another really nice guy. I scheduled a meeting with him the afternoon of Friday 8/20 to look at the job and discuss the options. Unless if he comes back with an outlandish quote, he's got the job. He has a backlog but doesn't see any difficulty with getting the lot underbrushed in September. We're all excited.

I also requested another quote from Mueller Steel Buildings. They are nearby in Willis, TX and will likely get our business. I asked them to quote a 40'x50'x14' with two 12'x12' roll up doors, an 8'x8' roll up door, a 3'x7' man door and six 3'x7' windows. Like this....

We're figuring on getting the same crews working on the house to do gutters, plumbing, electrical, insulation and HVAC. We'll see how the quote comes back.

Now we're working on getting educated on pools.

 

[L92 OLDS]

What is under brushing the lot mean? I’m a licensed Michigan builder and we don’t use that term here.

 

[Texas82GP]

What is under brushing the lot mean? I’m a licensed Michigan builder and we don’t use that term here.

They will remove underbrush and small trees (3 caliper inches, measured 5' from the ground or smaller). Right now the lot is fully wooded and the brush is fairly thick. Underbrushing will clear out all the small garbage. It will make surveying the lot much easier. It will also make the site work much easier. When I survey the lot, I'll obtain elevations on an approximate 25' grid and I'll tie all the remaining trees. That will help us decide exactly where the shop and house will go on the lot (to save as many healthy, substantial trees as possible). Underbrushing will also remove the majority of the Kudzu vine from the site, which will get it to a point where my brother and I can work to eradicate the rest of it.