First Draft Floor Plans

We are going to get floor plans for both the upstairs and downstairs. However, as previously mentioned, we are probably going to start by just building the two bedroom downstairs apartment. We are thinking that it makes the most financial sense to build the downstairs and live there for a few years. Then when we have some more money, we will add on the three bedroom upstairs.

This is the downstairs floor plan. We are probably going to make a little larger, add closets and remove some of the windows.
We are also going to make some changes to the upstairs floor plan: adding closets, doors and deck space.

All Ours

We closed on our land today. Hooray! We spent about an hour and a half at Scotiabank signing papers and waiting for photocopies, and now we are land owners.

With My Own Hands

I wish I could build a home with my own hands. Don't you? Well, Tony is. Check out his blog, Building My House: http://n74tg.blogspot.com/

Conceptual Drawing

This is the conceptual drawing we received from our draftsman. Paul and I are going to sit down together tonight and figure out what changes need to be made.

The drawing is of the main home upstairs and a rental apartment downstairs. The main home will have 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and the apartment will have 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom.

Most homes in St. Thomas are designed with at least one rental until. Unfortunately though, when we do begin construction we probably wont have enough money to build the apartment. It will just have to wait until we save up some more money.

Baby Steps

We finaly heard back from the draftsman yesterday. We had basically given up. Paul left him two or three messages over the past two weeks and I left him a mesage a few days ago asking him to tell is what was the status of our drawings or give us our CD with the land's topographical map back. After not getting a response to any of our messages, Pablo and I decided that we just wanted our CD back and wanted to move on. We called our possible contractor and asked for the name of other draftsmen. Then I checked my email yesterday and found an email from our draftsman with a Conceptual Drawing based on my original drawing. He also suggested that we meet on Thursday or Friday to discuss. So at this point we are planning on meeting him on Thursday.

When we meet with the draftsman we are gonna have to let him know his attitude over the last couple of weeks sucked. If you get busy and don't have time to work on something, you don't just ignore your customers' messages. You call back and let them know you need more time because you are busier than you expected.

DAC-ART

While I've been waiting to hear back from our draftsman, I started searching the web for all kinds of home building stuff. I found this DAC-ART site that has some pretty neat concrete homes (a must in the Virgin Islands). I love the way the blocks look. It really adds character to the homes' exteriors and interiors. Also, you don't have to worry about painting your home.

I emailed our soon-to-be contractor and asked him if he knew anything about DAC-ART. I think this would be a great way to go, depending on the price, of course.

Good Thing I didn't hold My Breath

I'm still waiting for the email with the draft floor plans. Need I say more?

Still Waiting...

So, we are still waiting to close on the land and for our house plans.

Closing- I'm not that upset we haven't closed yet. We are waiting for the seller's lawyer to prepare some documents. I know that we will close, so I'm ot worried- I haven't had to make any loan payments yet. Ideally we would close as soon as we have our house plans and construction estimates. That would reduce the number of loan payments we'd have to make before we begin construction. Building is not cheap, so we need to count all our pennies.

House Plans- Our draftsman said that we would have the final plans by the second week of May, but we have yet to even see a draft of the floor plan. Today he told my husband, Paul, that he would email us the draft floor plan tonight. I've been checking my email all evening, but something tells me I shouldn't hold my breath.

Not Happy! Survey/Topography/Bound Posts

At our bank's suggestion, we hired Brian Moseley to do the required Survey as well as the Topography and bound posts. We didn't get an estimate before starting because of the bank's recommendation and because of representations that Brian Moseley had made to us about the cost when he did other work for us. However, we were very surprised when we received the bill from Brian Moseley. It was alot more than what we expected based on our prior conversations with Brian Moseley. Our Loan Officer was also surprised by the amount, but I must admit that he is not accustomed to seeing the price of the Topography and bound posts, since they are not required by the bank. It also didn't help that Brian Moseley had sent an estimate to the bank that was approved by the bank, but that never made it to our Loan Officer or to us. So, I guess we are already over budget.

Road Cleared!

We spent a couple of hours working on the weekends for 4-5 weeks and we finally finished. The road to access our land has been cleared. Next step is to close on the land and get the plans drafted for the house.