I now am the proud owner of.. a mortgage!

[carynb]

Well, it's done. Yay! I've signed the contract, so I'm committed to lots of years of lots and lots of debt. Heh. I've taken one night to celebrate and laugh and feel great and ... still not sleep, dammit!

I'm still kinda nervous about the whole thing, but I think I'm starting to settle down a bit. Hopefully, sometime in the next 10 months, I'll start getting some sleep. *g* For now, it's all about the debates about upgrades - do I need the roughed-in bathroom in the basement? How about the vaulted ceiling in the family room? Should I get the oak staircase, or not? I have to set a budget going in and not spend more than that, but it's gonna be difficult. *g* At $80 a pop for the phone/cable/network outlets, how many do I want? Is the tiled backsplash in the kitchen necessary? How about potlights over the fireplace? Should I run a cold-water pipe to the fridge for a water dispenser, even though I'm not planning on getting a fridge with that in it right now? All these questions! I have to balance between what I want and what are good touches for resale, and not spend more than x. This is NOT going to be easy.

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate making decisions? The next 6 months should be fun. *g*

I took my camera with me last night, to get some shots of the lot.

	The empty lot This is where my new home is going to be. As you can see, there's not much there, yet. *g* The sewers, electrical and gas have already been run, though. They should start digging the hole very soon - they're going for building permits for the models going on the lots this week.
	Out my (future) front door Looking to the southeast, out what will be my front door, this is what I see. Those trees are zoned to remain an open woodlot/green space area, with walking trails and such. Should be nice. I was kinda obsessive about looking for a place with green space nearby.
	Other direction Looking out my front door, looking north east. That's a high school being constructed down at the end of the street. You can see a little of the funky streetlights, too.

Comments

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

As for the decisions, I think the best way to look at it is: if you don't get those things, will you regret it later when it costs more to rip things out and put them in if you change your mind?

I'd say that the water pipe to the fridge is a good thing, even if your fridge doesn't have that capability just yet. As I recall from when I was living with my ex and his parents, an ice dispenser is a godsend.

Speaking only for myself, if you plan on entertaining, the second bathroom would also be a good thing to have. Everything else just seems like window-dressing to me. (YMMV.)

Now go take a nap! :P

[mycrazyhair.livejournal.com]

Hooray! And ((((hugs)))). It's gonna be great.

[moonlight-mile.livejournal.com]

WOO HOO! That's awesome! Congrats!! And good luck with all you have left to do. *HUG*

[carynb.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

if you don't get those things, will you regret it later when it costs more to rip things out and put them in if you change your mind?

I think that's the way I'm gonna go. The rough-in for the bathroom in the basement will be a huge deal to do later, so that will almost undoubtedly get done now.

A lot of the other stuff is really up in the air, though. It wouldn't be so bad if I liked making decisions, but I have trouble deciding what to wear in the morning, let alone stuff like this... *g*

[carynb.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It will be great, once I stop having panic attacks about the hugeness of it all... *g* (I think poor M is gonna get whiplash, my moods are changing so quickly! *g*)

[carynb.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

I can't wait until I can show it off to everyone next summer! (Even if it will be sadly lacking in furniture. *g*)

[halfabee.livejournal.com]

Congrats!

Now, my opinions:
roughed in basement bath - depends on whether you have a (half) bathroom on the first floor, if you do then you can probably do without. And one can be put in in the future, they'll just need to cut into the slab to run the drain.

vaulted ceiling - a matter of taste. I'd say yes, just to make that area more formal (and so you can have a bigger Christmas tree :-)

oak staircase - probably a good idea, although you will need to put down a runner or you will risk slipping in socks, slippers, etc.

As I've said before, the one regret I do have is not having them run phone/cable/network to every room in the house. Thus there's a long Cat5 running through the hallway. (Yes, I could go wireless, but I still have security concerns.) IIRC phone is dirt cheap. If you don't splurge on whole house wiring, do some thinking beforehand, i.e. a phone can plug into an RJ-45 jack. Also spend some time with the houseplan and think about where you want the jacks.

Tiled backsplash - do it yourself. We'll help, we did ours this year.

Potlights - probably not. On a related note, when we first moved in I was kicking myself for not getting potlights over the porch like the other end of the row. However, thinking about it not, neither one of us use our porch much (not wide enough).

Hadn't thought about running a cold line for a fridge. But I imagine it would be easy enough to put in when needed, as long as you don't have a finished basement. (Good drill with a tile/masonry bit.)

I would recommend having them put the pipes in for a central vac.

I'd say buy for what you want & can afford rather than some hypothetical resale. If it's really valuable to a future owner, they can put in what they want. However, if you do it, there's no guarantee they will value it as much as you paid for it.

One cool thing we did during the build was take a picture from the same spot (a fire hydrant in our case) facing the same general direction.

And if you think you're excited now, wait until there's a hole in the ground! :-)

[marahsk.livejournal.com]

Imagine it's five years from now: are you kicking yourself because you wish you had the upgrades, or are you short of money and wishing you hadn't splurged?

A second bathroom is a good thing, and it sounds like that would be easier to put in now than later.

The rest of the stuff sounds like it could be put in later if you decide you need it; but how much will it cost vs. how much do you want it?

Re: the fridge: do you drink water/like ice in your drinks? If so, it's a nice feature. But your fridge won't be able to use it. But will your next fridge?

I would do what *you* want, and not care so much what some hypothetical buyer might want. Right now having outlets in all the rooms is important, but by the time you sell, your buyer might have all cordless phones and a wireless network. Or something that hasn't been invented yet.

I think what I would do is list all the upgrades in the order of how important they are to you, and start buying from the top of the list until you run out of money.

[carynb.livejournal.com]

I think what I would do is list all the upgrades in the order of how important they are to you, and start buying from the top of the list until you run out of money.

Best idea, yet. And most logical. I think I'm just so caught up in all the options that I can't think straight. *g* The fireplace is the one thing I truly, truly want. Everything else, I'll just see what I can do. I'm also trying to look at difficulty to do later, if I change my mind, and I think that is what's throwing me off, a little.

I mean, I don't really want a roughed-in bathroom in the basement right now, but doing it later would be an absolute bitch. If I ever get around to finishing it and setting up a media room down there, I'm gonna want it.

[carynb.livejournal.com]

The pipes for central vac (along with the rough-in for AC) is already there as part of the base these days, which is good.

The vaulted ceiling is tempting - but I've just got a partial list of available upgrades, so far, and I would imagine that if I have the vaulted ceiling I'll find it impossible to resist the undoubtedly-offered skylights that will do with it. Talk about scope creep! *g*

I figure I'll run the cat5 to all three bedrooms and the family room - I don't think I need it in the kitchen... *g* That'll just be a phone jack. The fact that I have to decide where to put all these stuff is gonna drive me crazy, though. I've gotta decide where my furniture's gonna be already? That's insane! (To be fair, I imagine I'll have a few weeks for all that - hopefully they won't be doing any wire pulling type stuff until after Christmas - I can't imagine they would be doing it before then)

I'm planning on taking a series of pictures from that same spot, so I can track the progress. I think that'll be a neat pictorial history. *g* Wait 'til I have time to start making animated gif's for userpics!

[marahsk.livejournal.com]

Difficulty (ie cost) to do later is very important. Do you have a second bathroom? If so, it's less important to have a third one unless you're going to be spending time downstairs. But if you don't, some day your one toilet or shower might break...

And there are some things no one can really advise you on; how *I* feel about an oak staircase is completely irrelevant to how much *you* might want one. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and think about how much it matters to you. Is it worth having a larger monthly payment or a longer mortgage? Will you hate the inferior one, knowing what you could have had?

[marahsk.livejournal.com]

We ran cat 5 between the two rooms that we're each using for offices, because that's where we figured we'd use it. By the time we think of selling, who knows if anyone will still use cat 5 at all? We ended up getting a wireless router, so it's already a moot point.

[halfabee.livejournal.com]

If you don't have Cat5 in the kitchen, how are you going to have an Internet connected fridge? :-)

Seriously though, coax is as important as Cat5. Have an outlet for each (phone, coax, Cat5) in the living room, family room, and each bedroom. Put it on the short wall in the corner farthest from the door or where the bed/sofa would logically go.

Oh, and speaking of fridges, you may also want to budget for an upgrade to any appliances the builder is providing. The one's we have are functional, but kinda quirky. The dishwasher doesn't have a sprayer for the top rack, the fridge doesn't have a thermostat (it's timer based), and the stove doesn't have a self cleaning oven. And don't forget the appliances which aren't included, i.e. washer / dryer.