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New Home Chapter 1
July 7, 2002
As many of our friends and relatives are already aware, we have decided to buy a new home here in Texas. For the last few months, we've been spending our weekends looking at show homes. After a while, and a few horror stories from friends and co-workers, we finally settled on a Developer (Antares Homes) and a sub-division (Hidden Creek, Burleson). Burleson is about 9 miles South of where we are now, in Fort Worth and the subdivision is brand new. They are only just finishing up the three show homes and our salesman, D, is still working out of a construction trailer.
The home is what they call a Production Home. The entire sub-division, all 116 lots, is being developed by Antares Homes. They have about 12 models to choose from: one-story homes that range from 1641 sq. ft. to 2318 sq. ft. and two-story homes that range from 2283 sq. ft. to 3392 sq. ft. There are also a limited number of options that you can pick from, some standard, at no extra cost, and some upgrades, that do cost.
Although we really wanted a two-story home, we just didn't see anything we liked. We finally settled on the one-story 2318 sq. ft. model. It has room for everything we wanted room for; three bedrooms (one for L, one for J, and one for guests), a Study/Computer Room for our computers and stuff, a room for our crafts and hobbies (puzzles, needlepoint, etc.) separate from the Living Room, and a real kitchen with room for both of us to move around.
Floor Plan, Show Home Kitchen
One feature that we saw on one of the smaller models was an optional third-car garage. All models come with a two-car garage standard but, for a not-so-modest fee, you could get the third-car garage added on. This was perfect for us because it allowed us to have a workshop and still park both cars in the garage. Unfortunately, we had to add to that not-so-modest fee another almost-as-bad fee to get a larger lot. With an extra ten feet added to the side of the house, it was too wide for the average 60 ft. by 120 ft. lot. We had to pay a premium to get a corner lot that was 71 ft. wide by 120 ft. deep. Apparently, though, from everyone we've talked to, three-car garages are envied around here so it should help increase the house's resale value.
Front elevation.
One of our biggest decisions came early on: picking the brick. It may not sound like much but it took us two and a half weeks to finally settle on one. D said that the bricks needed the longest lead time so, the sooner we picked them, the better. On a Saturday, we went to their subdivision in Crowely where they had some samples (remember, D was still working out of a trailer). There were about two or three dozen samples from US Bricks and Boral Bricks as well as another dozen or so from Acme Bricks. The Acme Bricks were upgrades (i.e. they cost extra) so, since nothing really leapt out at us, we gave them no further thought. What we really wanted was to get away from the traditional red brick and go more for a light and dark gray, a salt and pepper kind of look. We picked out three styles we liked but the girl there said that these were new samples and she didn't have any addresses listed where we could go see the bricks on an actual house. She promised to call the brick company and have D get back to us. D called us on Monday and explained, very apologetically, that they don't use any of those brick styles because they are not clay-fired and tend to absorb water during heavy rainfalls (which we do get on occasion). He then sent us to another of their sub-divisions in Arlington where they were building the same models as in Burleson and he knew that the brick samples were correct. We were also able to see, for the first time, the exterior of what our house would look like. They had changed the exterior of the model 2318, adding gables over the garage and the Study/Computer Room.
The old 2318, and our choice, the 2318-B.
We finally settled on three new styles and they eventually found some addresses for us to go see the bricks in actual use. That coming Sunday sent us on a 100+ mile trek around the Metroplex (i.e. Dallas, Fort Worth, and all the various cities in between). We finally settled on Bedford Gray Heritage by Boral. The house that we saw it on was in a sub-division the likes of which we are not likely to ever afford in our lifetime. Although our house, at 2318 sq. ft. was quite large and we are quite happy with it, it seemed to shrink to insignificance compared to these homes. L fell in love with the stone facing on many of the homes and the way it blended in nicely with the brick. Oh well, maybe our next home....
It has our bricks but not our budget.
Quite the neighborhood actually, just not our neighborhood.
Having spent two and a half weeks just picking the brick, we were worried about how long it would take us to pick the other options. There were Construction Options that we had to pick out with D and there were interior design options that we had to go to a special Design Studio to pick out.
The Construction Options that we selected with D's help included additional TV and phone jacks (the default was only 2 of each), additional electrical outlets in the Workshop (they supplied more than enough outlets through the rest of the house), full insulation in the garage (having worked in our present, un-insulated garage both in winter and in summer, we appreciate the need to be able to heat or cool our new workshop), and the fan-hood over the stove will be vented through the roof instead of just filtered and re-circulated. We also upgraded the wall insulation. The standard is to put R-30 in the attic space but only R-13 in exterior walls. We upgraded the walls to R-30. It cost a bit to do it but we should get it back in savings on the electrical bills over the next two or three years. At D's suggestion, we also got a couple of floodlights mounted on either side of the main garage. That way, the boxes and wiring are in place so that we can replace the floodlights with nicer looking carriage lamps later.
Oh, and the Security System comes with the house and we can upgrade, free, to a wireless system (complete with two key fob remotes) if we sign a three-year monitoring contract with ADT. J, having worked for ADT for twelve years, says they are probably the best of a questionable bunch. For those who might be interested, by the way, the Central Monitoring Station for this part of the country is in Colorado.
For the interior designs and options, we had to go to a place called The Design Studio. Our consultant, MD, explained that they provide consulting and selection services to about 30 different builders and developers and Antares Homes was just one of the numerous clients that she, herself, serviced. To make a long story short (I know, "too late"), we picked out exterior paint, interior paint, kitchen appliances, lighting fixtures and door hardware, carpets, tiles, vinyl flooring, kitchen cupboards, and counter tops.
We picked the exterior paint from five choices and the interior paint from only two choices. There were no upgrade options on the paint. We picked the kitchen cupboards from among four standard choices (not the darkest stain, not the lightest stain, but one in between with a nice wood grain pattern). The upgrades for the cupboards all had nicer raised panels instead of the flat panels that we got, but that was alright, we can always make nicer ones ourselves later. The counter top we picked was also a standard one. There were no upgrades available for counter tops but they had lots to choose from and we quite like the one we picked. We had three choices in lighting fixtures and door hardware: antique bronze, pewter, and copper rust. We had already seen all three styles in the three show homes and had already settled on the pewter. I actually think that its just brushed aluminum but it looks like pewter and we really like it so, no contest. I don't know if there were upgrades available here or not.
These fixtures were in one of the show homes.
We picked a standard tile for the entrance way that was quite acceptable. Some of the upgrades available got rather expensive but we plan to remove the tile some day anyway and put in our own design (don't get us started on tiles, trust me). We also picked a standard vinyl for the bathrooms and the laundry room but we picked a optional vinyl for the Kitchen and Breakfast nook. Again, we will probably tear it all out some day and put down tile but the optional vinyl didn't cost too much extra and it was much more attractive than the standard vinyls.
The stove we upgraded to a nearly top of the line ceramic top stove. L had visited J's mother in May/April for a couple of weeks and fell in love with her ceramic top stove. "No burners to clean. No pans and rings to scrape and scrub. I want that stove!!!). The dishwasher, we upgraded only one level. It's similar to the one we have now and we really don't even use all the options this one has so, why bother getting anything fancier? By the way, we bought a good washer and dryer when we moved to Kentucky and, when we moved to Fort Worth, we got a good portable dishwasher and an inexpensive frig. I guess we should have gone the other way around since Antares supplies a dishwasher but not a frig (and no, we don't get a credit if we nix their dishwasher and go with our own).
Our biggest expense was upgrading the carpet. Shag just didn't cut it for us. We wanted a good berber carpet that would last and would go better under our various area rugs.
All together, the house, the third-car garage, the larger lot, and all the various options, all came to about the maximum that we were willing to spend. Financing was no problem at all for J and, with mortgage rates the way they are right now, we hope to lock in at around 6.5% if not lower.
As of July 6, 2002, they have started putting the forms up for the concrete pad for our house and D has just moved into his new office in one of the show homes. L plans to be on site regularly to see how they are doing (complete with coffee and donuts once in a while so she doesn't wear out her welcome too soon) and we hope to have lots of pictures to post here. I've picked a specific spot for taking regular pictures from so that I can put together a kind of time-lapse slide show of the house going up.
Birth of a new home.
