We find a piece of property that we are interested in and make an offer. Our offer gave us 30 days to research the property to verify that it was buildable. We met with the city, and verified that a variance to allow the septic tank was approved. We were lucky that the sellers had already ran city water, power, phone and cable to the site. We got an estimate for a gas line from the Gas Company, and also met with the city to verify existing storm water runoff plans and wetland restrictions.

We pick the biggest and sweetest berries ever on our property with the intention of making jam and pies. We eat them all before we have a chance to prepare them.

We found a stock floor plan that we like, but it will need modifications. We purchase the basic plan and a modification license. We select Gerald Redding as out architect. He informs us that he is unable to start work on it until late January 2000.

We have our first meeting of the year with our architect. He shows us the first draft of the plans. The main floor is almost perfect, but we want to make changes to the basement. We need to have the floor plan done before Gerald can draw up exterior elevations and views. We give Gerald our feedback and he will incorporate the changes by our next meeting in late March.

We made a site visit with Gerald to make sure we could put the house where we would have enough room to put in a circular drive, and get maximum exposure. He has incorporated our changes into the floor plan and is working on the side elevations. We will meet again in late April.

June 2000

We  met with the septic system designer to see if there have been any changes in the requirements in preparation for our permit renewal in July.  Minor changes needed to be made.

We renewed our septic permit.

August 2000

We heard that the salmon laws would be changing sooner than expected, so we are forced to move up our time table from two to three years to getting our building permit by the end of the year.  We found a stock plan that we can customize and be ready for permitting much sooner.  We are having Nash Jones modify a stock plan.

December 2000

We have had the plan modified and are submitting it for approval with the local building department.

January 2001

The plan came back in three weeks with no changes required!!!!  That is almost unheard of in Western Washington!

We have been interviewing contractors this month and were disappointed.  Too little house for too much money.  A friend at work is building through a do-it-yourself contractor.  We met with Assisted Custom Construction (ACC) and have decided that it's the best way for us to get the house we want and still have a nickel in our pocket at the end of the day.  There is a one time fee of $3200 and they will charge a percentage of the overall cost.  They will do the scheduling and we will do the bill paying.  We share responsibility for bidding out the job to the various subcontractors.  We can use their list or find our own. 

February 2001

Starting to get into the bidding process.

March 2001

As a side note I bought a book titled "The Home Building Process" by Rich Binsacca.  It is a must read if you are building your first house or having a home built for you.  It is not a how-to, but a book that explains the over all process.  We are continuing to get bids.

April 2001

We are working with Al Thomas at Seattle Lighting to do a lighting design for the house.  We are going to go with a Vantage control system.  The bidding continues.

May 2001

Originally we were going to leave the basement unfinished, but it looks like we are going to try to get it sheet rocked and textured.  Bidding can be frustrating especially when you don't always know the lingo, or exactly what you want.  It is tough trying to compare bids.  We are having a company bid on our interior doors for the fourth time as they aren't what we wanted.  There are a lot of bids going this way.  It can be frustrating, but it will be worth it in the end.

June 2001

Let construction begin!  Well sort of...  We have to start construction by the end of the month (we have to start construction w/in six months of having the permit approved).  We haven't finished our bids yet, but we are going to start before we have the financing.  Everything we have paid out will count towards our down payment, so it's not like we will be losing anything. We have arranged to have the lot cleared and the foundation done while we finish up our bids.  We should be ready to get our financing the first week in July.

The lot is cleared and the footings are poured!  This week they are making the form for the walls, and they should be pouring on this Friday or next Monday.  We used 36 cubic yards of cement for the footings.  Things are moving right along!  Check out some of the pictures on our photo page.

July 2001

The walls are now up.  It took almost three weeks, over a mile of re-bar, and 89.5 cubic yards. To put that in perspective you could pour a slab 1 inch thick, 10 feet wide and 2900 feet long with that much cement!  We spent about 4 hours hammering off the pins that are left sticking out of the cement once the forms are taken away, yipes, but all in a day's work, right?  At least we didn't have to pay someone else to do it.  Every bit of savings counts!

August 2001

Well, the last of our bid numbers are in and we are WAY over budget.  I guess solid hardwood floors, doors, trim and cabinets along with Anderson windows and a vantage lighting control system really help jack the price up!  It didn't help matters any that we had most of the subs bid out the basement that we were originally planning on leaving unfinished.  In some ways it makes sense to have the plumber, HVAC, electrician and sheet-rocker do the basement while they are already on site, and some things like windows and siding still need to be done as the house is being built.....well, we will figure something out---something that doesn't equate with a huge house payment!  In the meantime we are waterproofing the basement walls, running drain tile, and  prepping the site for the slab pour.  Prepping the site entails packing in and compacting sand under what will be the slab, and running some the plumbing that needs to go in.  In addition to digging some of the trenches for pipes, we  laid some of the under slab pipes and did all of the drain tile ourselves.  We're pretty good laborers, although Annette is thinking she should file a complaint about the Union boss...!

September 2001

We have decided on a plan of attack!  We aren't in a huge hurry to get the house done, so we are going to pay out of pocket to get the rough shell done.  This means we will frame, roof and Tyvak wrap the house.  Windows and a temporary front door will also be installed to make it weather resistant.  As we can afford it, we will get the siding installed and painted as well as the masonry and gutters.  In the meantime the slab is being poured and the framer should start around the end of the month.  I will do my best to get the pictures updated more often as the framing goes up.

October 2001

We had the house backfilled and will be "winterizing" it with a final grade to make sure we have proper drainage for the winter.  The cement pads will be poured tomorrow for the front porch and deck.  We ran the PVC for the downspouts ourselves (a bigger project than it sounds).  The basement framing is almost done, the main floor decking is in place, and they are starting to frame the main level.  The house is finally starting to take shape!  

November 2001

The main floor framing has begun and now we can walk through the rooms of our bedroom, bath, kitchen, etc.  We've been doing a lot of measuring and final decisions before ordering our windows from the Window & Door Shoppe, a local Andersen rep.  We are excited that we were able to afford to go with wood windows throughout the house, with the exception of the master bath and the pool/exercise room which we left vinyl due to excess moisture.  We hydro-seeded about 15,000 square feet around the property in an effort to control weeds and keep the soil in place over the winter.  The weather has been pretty wet, but a week of sunny weather here and there is really helping to get us close to the roofing stage.  Be sure to check the new photos on our construction photos page! 

December 2001

Framing continues through rainy and cold days.  Our framer, Ken Bryant, is very diligent and has 2 apprentice framers working for him.  Some days it is especially wet and he'll say, "Okay, let's just get these two walls done and then quit for the day", so they are continually making progress.   The windows arrived at the glass store mid-December and we wrote out our biggest single check to date to pay for them!  The window guys will be installing the window jambs and applying a benite sealant to the wood windows to help protect them against moisture after they are installed.  We hired a roofer and had roofing supplies delivered to the rooftop on Christmas Eve; the roofer ran into delays that prevented him from starting until January, unfortunately.

January 2002

Happy New Year!  The framer continues his excellent work, the roofer finally got started, and so it goes.  Vinyl windows have been delivered and installed; still pending delivery of wood windows until the roof is complete and the inside is dry.  After poor response from one of our original staircase bids, we turned to a new stair expert (Scott Morrison, Northwest Stair Specialties in Tacoma, http://www.johnsonpostman.com/main.html) and had a big pow-wow between us, our framer and Scott to discuss the framing on the back and especially the main staircase.  Looks like we will buy a framing kit from Scott for the main staircase and have him install it in order to achieve the "floating" look we wanted for the upper, main staircase.  The framer has almost finished the deck and will be leaving for his next job in a few days; he'll return throughout the next couple months on rainy days to finish up our interior framing punch list.  Now we have turned to interviewing & getting bids from siding subcontractors; once that is decided, we will take a couple of months off to save up before we actually begin siding the house. 

February 2002

We have had some water problems at the site, so we have spent a lot of time putting up new and more silt fences as well as straw.  We have had nothing but problems with the roofer our contractor recommended (moral: low bid is not always best bid, moral #2: go with your instincts).  We finally fired him and brought in a new crew that finished the roof in three days and did a nice job. 

March 2002

We got new gutter bids and decided to have Leafguard gutters installed.  They look very nice on the house.  I wasn't sure how they would look, but I was pleasantly surprised.  We have had all the windows delivered and all but the biggest installed.  We are firming up siding bids, and hope to have it started by the end of this month.  First the framer has two or three days of work before we can get the shear wall inspection, and we still need to figure out where we want to put the brick on the front.

April 2002

We passed the shear wall inspection and are bidding out the siding.  The framer has some more blocking to do around the deck, and needs to install the garage to deck door before the siders can begin. End of month update: Siders are just about finished.  It looks great.  We opted for fiber cement siding.  We will paint the house sometime this summer.

May 2002

The framer is continuing to work on his punch list as he has time between other jobs.  We need to renew our building permit this month.  Other than that we won't be doing anything on the house until late June to build the bank account back up.  This summer we are planning on installing the septic tanks, doing a final grade around the house, install retaining walls, do some basic landscaping, painting the house, installing downspouts and a storm water detention pond.

June 2002

Not much is happening this month.  We are continuing to finalize bids for things will do later this year.  We are also trying to pick out brick and paint colors. 

July 2002

Not much is happening this month either.  We are trying to figure out what we can afford to do before the site gets wet this year. 

August 2002

We are having the septic tanks installed.  We may have the drain field set out as well.  Later this month we will have the storm water detention pond installed and the final grade done. 

September 2002

We hit a minor snag with the design of our storm water detention system.  We have had it re-designed.  Our drain field is in and waiting for inspection.  We have a rockery permit and are hoping to have them installed by the end of the month.

October 2002

We are running behind on the rockeries.  We will hopefully get started next week.  We have just poured the back patios using stamped concrete, and will be pouring the front porch soon.  Garage doors are on order and our septic system was signed off today.  The storm water detention pond is done.  We will have the mason start next week and hydro-seeding done in the next few days.

November 2002

The mason has started, and our garage doors have been delivered.  They need to be stained before they can be installed.  We are taking bids for that now. The rockery guy will arrive tomorrow and it will probably take a week or two to finish.

December 2002

Garage doors have been stained and installed.  The mason is done except for touchup and a chimney.  The rain has finally hit, and the mud is slowing down the rockery.  The front is done, we are just needing to finish the two rockeries in the back, and add some additional drainage.  The weather has also delayed the sealing of our porch and patios.  After the masonry, and rockeries are done, we will level and re-grade the driveway.  We also need to do a little more siding work. That will be the last thing we do for the next few months while the checking account recovers.  We weren't planning on doing the porch, patios and septic this year.  The amount of rockeries we had planned for almost tripled as well.  All taking a toll on the budget.

January 2003

Still working on finishing the rockeries.  Have run into major drainage problems because they are not finished.  Water that is not ours is running down from the road above and across our property, bringing a lot of silt down to the wetlands.  The City of Brier building inspector has been out regularly checking on this and can see that we are doing the best we can to fix the situation.  No one of experience offered any help, so Adam came up with a really great solution, himself.  We installed a catch basin at the top of our property and then ran an 8" pipe all the way under our property to the wetlands----that way, we are not adding any silt to the water as it enters our property.  A few more solutions like this and our rockery guy finally showed up and finished the job. 

February 2003

Re-leveled and graded the driveway this month.  Now just watching the budget and the rain.  We are having some problems with water coming off our neighbor's property (he has a big, cleared area that he plans to plant grass, but has not done so yet). 

March 2003

Ah, springtime is almost here!  Still regularly checking the drainage every time the rain falls, but it's looking good.  Our storm water detention pond is a regular little lake! The dogs love it.  Still watching the budget and planning for summer.

April 2003

Hired Rebecca Rosman to do our landscape design.   She did some beautiful drawings (worth framing!) showing the house with completed gardens and it's fun to see our house through her eyes.  She'll be doing a complete plan for us over the next month, including CAD version of the plan and a complete listing of the plants for each area.  I asked her to create that list in an Excel worksheet including the plant name (both Latin and common), the bed it's in, the size of plant to buy, and an approximate cost.  That way I can sort by price, by plant or by bed before going shopping at the nurseries.   She did a beautiful job and is very knowledgeable about NW native plants, so we hope to have a beautiful yard that is very low maintenance. 

May 2003

This month we bought Adam's riding lawnmower at Sears!  It's great---can mow the back lawn in less than 30 minutes (he timed himself).  We also joined forces and budgets with the folks who own the property next to ours on the road and built a beautiful rockery on the border between our properties.  They have started to level their side and put in some nice rhododendrons around the perimeter, also some pretty fruit trees on the part that it right between us, so we can share the fruit.  Spent some time clearing out the larger rocks from the planting beds and fixing some of the power & gas line conduits that got broken during rockery work.  We also ordered the appraisal for our construction loan.  With interest rates continuing to be so low, it doesn't make sense to keep using our own money. 

June 2003

We renewed our building permit for the last year and have applied for our Construction loan!  Once approved, it means that we'll be finishing the house and moving in sometime in the 12 months ahead, which is very exciting.  We are using Dave Angrove at Golf Savings (helped us with our land loan on the property) as our broker and applying through Washington Mutual.  We have heard all kinds of horror stories about them, but they clearly have the most attractive programs.  We'll see how it goes.  Adam rented a stump grinder through a neighbor and leveled out some of the stumps and roots that were still sticking up through the back lawn.  Our lawn has come in beautifully, despite the late October hydro seeding.  We've been struggling over the electrical and home automation design for quite some time but this month we decided to hire Dennis Erskine of Design Cinema Privee to do our home theater design for us. 

July 2003

We are still waiting to hear from Washington Mutual.  They have come back to us several times for the same information in a different format, each time saying "2 more weeks".  The home theater design is complete and now we have a clear blueprint for the plumber, HVAC and electricians when they start (hopefully as soon as we get our financing approved!). We now have water at the property and were able to test the water line.  It tested fine, but is made of PVC, so we are considering running a second line of more flexible, strong pipe to use as our main and leave the original PVC one for a backup.

August 2003

Big month!  We finally closed on our Construction loan --- 2 months from when we submitted the application and appraisal!  Washington Mutual was definitely extremely difficult and frustrating to work with, but between Dave Angrove & team at Golf Savings Bank and Kathy at Exceptional Escrow, we lived to tell the tale.  Even after we'd signed documents, Wa Mu held up funding the loan for a week because of a single document (to set up the auto payment from our checking account) that had not been provided by them, so we hadn't signed it.  Out at the property, we're working hard with the help of the neighbors back hoe to dig the trench all the way down the road, past their house and then continuing down to ours so that we can have the gas line laid.  It has to be 3' deep by about 3' wide, with 3" of soft sand (no rocks) in the bottom, then Puget Sound Energy will come out and install the gas line.  We saved several thousand dollars by preparing the ditch ourselves, but it was hard work.  While we had the ditch open, we laid that second water line and also a bunch of the electrical and cable conduit to the gate and such.  Now that we have water AND financing, we had Dave Randall (our plumber) back to begin work.  We have bathtubs! 

September 2003

Continuing work for the plumbers, and now the HVAC guys (Mitch Davis & team) are working alongside to install our 3 furnaces and the water heater and about a million miles of venting.  Have never seen that much sheet metal!  The framer (Ken Bryant) is also back to finish his punch list, and we had our architect (Gary Nash) out to do an initial inspection of the framing, specifically all the supports.  We also hired an irrigation guy (James Hill, AJ's Landscaping) to do our sprinkler system.  He'd been on our sider's crew and had good references, but he flaked out (stopped showing up or calling) 3 days into the job so we had to fire him.  We've finally learned our lesson----do not hire independent subs unless you want to have to baby sit them, and if you DO hire them, do not pay them anything in advance of completing the job.  Stick with the professionals whenever you can and you don't have to worry.  We've hired Dean Curow with Millennium Landscaping Inc. to come in and do the job, instead.  He actually gave us a bid that is very reasonable and we know we won't have to worry, it will be done right and on-time. We got some great end-of-summer deals in the nursery at Home Depot and then spent a few hours checking out the plants at Flower World, too. 

October 2003

Landscaping, Paint & Electrical

November 2003

Electrical, Fire Sprinklers

December 2003

Electrical & Stairs

January 2004

low voltage, framing

February 2004

Low voltage, framing, insulation