Plan B, Chapter 4

I like my job, but it can be mentally exhausting. I prepare commercial insurance policies and endorsements (adjustments) to those policies, so everything needs to be done just right and with a great deal of care and concentration. Adding greatly to the length of my work day is my commute - I get up no later than 5:25 a.m. (with a great deal of effort, being a "night person"), leave no later than 5:50 a.m., get to the office at 7:20-ish, start work at 8, leave no later than 4:45 p.m. and get home at 6:30 p.m. Since most of my commute is via ferry, I am able to crochet, read, nap, use the facilities, etc. But it still makes for a long day. My underwriter recently took on a new program I will be helping with, and between that and the existing accounts I already help with, last week was especially tiring. That was the main reason I switched one of my remaining vacation days for the year to today. But it worked out well since it allowed us to visit the remaining builder today instead of waiting till the weekend. They have a small branch here in our town, but there are presently no models there. But we wanted to discuss development costs and compare to what the last builder estimated, see interior photos of some of the plans that interested us, and find out where we could see the models in person. We felt this was the only way we could compare their models to the high water mark the other builder set two days ago and be able to make a final decision.

I wasn't real impressed with most of the floor plans this builder offered. There appeared to be at least a partial wall between the living and dining areas, which I felt would not result in the open "great room" we want. The master bedroom on the plans in the total size range we want also didn't seem quite as spacious as we would like. One plan that did have a great room, the room bent around in sort of an "L" shape whereas we would prefer an open square or rectangle. We spent a good amount of time there and when we left, I wasn't convinced we should even go and see this builder's models, with their next nearest branch being at least a 40 mile drive. We sat in the car outside the office for some time and looked over the plans again. Suddenly, one that had gotten lost in the shuffle made its way to the top. We looked at it and looked at each other. We looked at it again and brainstormed aloud as to how right it looked - the island kitchen, the not-huge but very open great room, the big bathrooms, the BIG walk-in closet - and wondered how we had overlooked it when we were sitting in the office. We went back in and the man said, oh, I have interior pictures of that one. He showed us the pictures. I am tearing up as I write this; I don't want to jump to conclusions before we have even seen the model but if it feels as right as these pictures did, I feel we have found OUR house. It even comes with a lot of extras such as the thicker walls and upgraded cabinets that we would have had to pay extra for on the other models. I will refrain from posting a floor plan here till we see the model and make our decision. But we are driving 2-1/2 hours to Vancouver, WA this Saturday to see this model in person. If you are reading this on or before October 1, I covet all prayers and good thoughts that our ordeal of seeking the housing we desperately need is about to finally come true. Chapter 5 coming soon!

Plan B, Chapter 3

I feel we are definitely closer to making our decision after visiting another Tacoma-area builder today. In fact, we may have found "the" one. We spent a good amount of time in this particular model and most everything about it felt right, to the point where we were standing in the living room discussing where things would go - the wood secretary (china cabinet) that has been in Rex's family for years, my curio cabinet, the TV, the wood stove we don't have yet but plan to get, etc. The layout, as Rex put it, "does everything we need". It is the spacious "great room" concept with no walls between the living and dining areas and kitchen. The kitchen has an incredible amount of counter and cabinet space, along with the large island in the center of the kitchen that would provide the space I need for not just preparing food and having future buffet dinners, but things like blocking larger crochet projects, cutting out garments (now that I will soon again have room for my sewing machine) and wrapping packages, which I presently literally have no place to do except to try to chase the dogs off the bed or floor. The master bedroom is good-sized; the closet is not as large as some other models we have seen. But it is still large enough that we would not have to put out-of-season clothes in storage but just move them to another part of the closet. And of course, the "me" room (for me to sit and crochet and store my yarn; my stair stepper and the second tv will also go in there) and "his" room (for his "stuff" and books) also have their own closet. There is also a 4th little room off the master bedroom that could serve as a computer room/library instead of combining that into Rex's room. Both bathrooms were also lovely, with huge bathtubs and spotlights above the mirror in the master bath. So this place seemed almost ideal, especially the kitchen and great room. The only drawbacks were the main closet not being as huge as I'd prefer and the outside looking a bit "boxy" except for the shingled dormer in the front. I can live with "boxy", especially since we can gradually upgrade with a deck, window boxes and landscaping as finances permit. This builder works with the lender we want and she has pretty much pre-qualified us for this home.

Rex stopped short of having the man in charge of site development make an appointment to evaluate our site (which already has had the septic and well for up to a 4-bedroom home for years) since we have one more builder to visit (who will also work with our lender). But the more I think about this home (especially the kitchen!), the more right it feels. I am just about ready to sign on the dotted line, but agreed to wait to see what the remaining builder has to offer. Rex, who knows more about construction than I do, feels the builder we haven't visited yet uses superior foundation materials and methods while remaining comparable in price, and they have a lot of floor plans we need to see before making a final decision. So, while my heart is in that wonderful kitchen we saw today, we shall proceed to Chapter 4....

Plan B, Chapter 2

Today we visited the Tacoma-area location of a nationally known manufactured homes builder. We liked some floor plans we saw on their site. There was one in particular that interested us, but they didn't have a model of it on site. However, they phoned a couple who they had recently built the same model for, and these people were gracious enough to agree to have us come over and look at their home. We drove the 14 or so miles to their home and loved what we saw. It was laid out attractively with generously-sized rooms, and the kitchen was wonderful. We also were impressed by the quality materials this builder used and the documentation in their office about their homes having survived major hurricanes on the same block where others didn't. However, when we returned to the office and drew up the estimate, it would have turned out to be literally as pricey as the stick-built home we originally had selected last Feb. (This was even with what they called a "red tag discount".) So we realized we would need to do a bit more comparison shopping. We went online again once we got home tonight and found a couple more builders to visit next weekend. (My work schedule limits me to only being able to visit the model home sites on weekends.) Stay tuned for Chapter 3....

Plan B (as in New B-ginning), Chapter 1

This is the day our dream was awakened, after laying dormant for several months. All my life, I have ached for a cute little home to call my own. When my husband Rex and I finally were able to graduate from being renters to owners in 1992, it was not what I had in mind to say the least: 10 acres of rural acreage south of Port Orchard, Washington (the original game plan was to live in Seattle, but that became financially infeasible) and a small, used, 12 x 56' singlewide mobile built in 1973 which had definitely seen better days. This mobile was intended as a temp residence that would need to last only till we were able to build our log cabin in the woods. For reasons I won't detail here, we were never able to make that happen and 13-1/2 years later, here I still sit in the same mobile which has gone from slightly rundown to barely liveable. I go into a bit of detail on a few of the things that are wrong with this dump, I mean "home" on my My Dream 1 page, so I won't repeat those here. But suffice it to say it has been inadequate both sizewise and condition-wise from the beginning, and I have never felt like a "homeowner" - and have continued to ache for the day I could have a nice little home to live in and not have to be ashamed of.

In late 2004, circumstances arose that made it finally, FINALLY appear possible to vastly improve our living conditions. The following February, we visited a home builder that Rex had become familiar with through his days as a real estate agent. We had looked over their web site and selected a floor plan - a palacial 2-1/2 times bigger than we have had for 13+years - that we agreed would work out great for us. We visited the model home and fell in love with it. We picked out the options we wanted and signed the papers. The home was supposed to be built by June, provided things went well with the unfamiliar lender that the builder was contracted with. And that's where things stalled. The contract ran out and things stayed stalled - till today. I won't go into what jump-started the process again or how that happened, only that it did happen. We realized we would need to go to Plan B and that this could turn out even better than Plan A. Namely, it looks like we will be going with a new mobile as opposed to a stick-built. We won't have the step-by-step, dramatic process of watching the house gradually emerging before our eyes. Instead, it will be moved to our acreage in one piece and then gradually tweaked/improved as finances permit. But for impatient me, who wanted the home to be ready yesterday, this could even be better.

For those who don't like mobiles, I guess you don't have to read on. But all I know is, we visited a local manufactured home dealer today and saw some truly beautiful models. One model in particular had the type of huge kitchen I have always longed for and a walk-in closet almost big enough to be a bedroom. It will be difficult to find something we like even better, but a red flag arose when the rep admitted he would not work with the lender we want to use. But we plan to visit at least a couple more builders to compare what they have to offer and then quickly make our decision. I do feel that in the long run, this will be a better choice than the home we originally selected which, though it had an interior I loved, looked very "boxy" on the outside. Chapter 2 of Plan B coming soon! (By the way, if you want to read the home planning chronicle I originally started with details of the home we originally picked, go here. I will leave that page intact, with a link to the blog you are reading now which is replacing it.)