My wife and I have been casually looking for the last year at houses in our area. Part of it was getting familiar with the area while the other part was to get decorating ideas for our current house.
During that time it had started to weigh on my mind that our house was going to become too small in the way of bathrooms in a couple of years.
The reason for this imminent bathroom shortage was that my oldest son had just finished potty training. I realized shortly after that my other two kids were only a couple of years away from needing to visit the restroom on their own (Hey, I am a new dad, I am still learning this stuff). This coupled with my Mother and Father-in-laws living with us our two bathrooms were just not going to be enough in a couple of years.
So about 5 months ago I stopped in a neighborhood in the next town over to look at a new housing development they had started. I really wasn’t looking to buy but came across a house that at the time was the best house I had seen to accommodate our large family. It was 5 bedrooms with 4 baths with one of the bedrooms and full baths down stairs (this is what we had wanted for my mother/father-in-laws).
We thought about buying this house but really liked the area that we were currently in so kept on looking.
A few weeks later I decided to check out the large houses that were in the neighborhood next to ours that were built by our same builder. I had always thought that these house were really expensive because they were so nice and big.
I finally went to the sales office and was blown away by the square footage they offered for the price. The house that we zeroed in on was 3126sqft and had 5 bedrooms, a study, formal dining room, 2 family rooms, and 4 1/2 bathrooms. 1 1/2 bedrooms were downstairs along with a large bedroom that is Jack-N-Jill style with the half bath (for my M/F-in-laws). All of this was placed on an oversized lot and was walking distance from our other house. It was even in the same home owners association.
We had looked at a lot of houses in our general area that were far more expensive for no where near the square footage and lots sizes that these houses offered. I asked the sales person what the catch was – why were they so cheap – and she informed me that the company had bought the land 7 years ago so they could offer the houses cheaper. This was the same builder that our current house was built by so I was aware of their quality so I felt confident with her answer.
My wife and I thought and prayed about the house for the last few months and finally felt the “OK” to put the deposit down on the house and get building. We signed the contract today.
It seems so weird to be building a house we a lot of people are losing their houses at this time. The difference here is that the housing market in Texas never got inflated, it always stayed steady. The Job rate is up and this is a house that we can comfortably afford.
We are not going to sell our current house but are going to rent it out. The extra money from the rent will be a nice addition to our monthly cash flow. Our current house will turn into an “investment” property with the move (retirement here I come!).
The other nice thing about the new house is that my sons will not have to share a room as they do know once we move into the new house. Everyone will have their own rooms with room to spare for extended guests.
So as you guessed this blog is going to see some revival since their are so many things that go into building a house. We are building from scratch this time as opposed to a spec home so there are a whole lot more decisions that we have to make. I think it will be fun though.
We have already given this new home the title of “The 20 year Home” since that is about how long we are planning to stay in it. In about 20 years the kids will be gone off to college and the house will be way to big for just my wife and I.
Anyway, expect more regular posts to come!
Technorati tags: New Home Builders, New Home Construction, Second Home, Housing Market, DR Horton, Round Rock TX, Ausitn TX, Central Texas
