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My wife and I are thinking about building a house
Freejack
Jake the Not-so-Wise
in Zocalo v2.0
In what is called a New Urbanism community, what do you think?:
[url]www.newtownatstcharles.com[/url]
New Urbanism info:
[url]http://www.newurbanism.org/pages/416429/index.htm[/url]
[url]http://www.cnu.org/[/url]
Jake
[url]www.newtownatstcharles.com[/url]
New Urbanism info:
[url]http://www.newurbanism.org/pages/416429/index.htm[/url]
[url]http://www.cnu.org/[/url]
Jake
Comments
Now granted this is just what I heard, read in the news, stuff like that. I cant comment on the factualness of all of it, but its worth looking into.
As far as building a house, I highly reccomend it. I can honestly say that was one of the best things my wife and I have done is build our home. It makes it so much more personal. From the little touches we did to make the plan bigger and add an office, to picking out exactly where my outlets go, to carpet colors, and countertops to plumbing fixtures and lighting.
I can honestly say, I love this house.
There are things you need to do though when building. You need to understand that the sub-contractors they get to do the actual building of your home may make mistakes, its up to you to stay on top of it to make sure they get fixed. The architect is usually building several homes at a time and cannont devote every second to your home. So visit the site and visit often. Keep a picture diary, aside from letting you see the site, it makes for a great scrapbook later.
Try not to go overbudget. Its hard sometimes especially when picking out things like brick color, flooring, lighting and plumbing fixtures. Just remember, the extra comes out of your pocketbook.
Try to walkthrough a model of the home you want to build before comitting to it (unless of course its your design for the house) just make sure your building what you need. Try to keep in mind that you will fill up a house pretty quick. A lot people (me included) run into a situation where your looking at some of your older stuff (like furniture) and say to yoruself, I dont want to take that old junk into our new home, and you go buy something new. Try to budget for it, its not easy, but it will be apart of your final costs. For us it was a new dining room table and chairs, a headboar/frame for our bed, and new bed for our daughter (she was getting too big for the toddler bed), and a new office desk, for my new office.
Im not sure where you live, and what options they will give you for your yard if any, but if hydromulch is choice, dont get it, it sucks. We hydro'd our yard and it took us the whole first year and most of our second trying to fix it. Seed where it didnt take, ect. Just get the sod, its more expensive, but it looks better, and doesnt require near as much work on your part (unless you lay the sod of course).
good luck though in your decision. I leave you with a pic of my home...
(after the backbreaking landscaping we did)
Anyway, do I believe this community is all its builders will claim to be? No but I do believe that the builder has a real vested interest in seeing it thrive, as they have relocated their offices and several of their employees into the development, which seems like a very signifigant commitment to me.
In addition all the people we've talked with who have moved out there are very happy with the community so far, even though there is not a lot of people or businesses there yet.
I am looking forward to the selection process, getting to choose the colors/finishes/etc. Since this a structured community, the exteriors of the homes is pretty well finished, and not a lot of options are needed. On the interior, we plan to go with base materials throughout, upgrading only the cabinets and doors. For what they are quoting for things such as hardwood and tile, I can do my self at a later date for 1/2-1/3 that amount.
Here is a variation of the floor plan we are looking at, main difference being our plan does not have the corridor running back to the garage.
[url]http://www.newtownatstcharles.com/2056.asp[/url]
Jake
Otherwise, looks to be a nice place!
Jake
:eek:
If I had unlimited resources, I would be doing something similar to you Jack, finding a house out on 10-20 acres, but given the way St. Louis is layed out and the location I work, not only is that option too expensive, its impractical. The two rivers that border St. Louis really limit the amount of open land to the point that buying such a parcel puts you far out on the fringes, away from most work. So given that choice, I would rather go the other direction, and live in a place with more "community" as opposed to most of the other options afforded to us, which is the standard subdivision.
Attached is the layout of the house we are looking at.
Jake
[B]... My hope is that we will be joining a group of people with a fairly like minded sense of community. [/B][/QUOTE]
Well, I hope so too... ;)
My personal experience is that THAT is a crap shoot at best and a total nightmare at worst. It's not like renting from month to month or even leasing from 6 months to a year, where you can eventuall get out of a nasty situation with neighbors, here you'd have to sell, find a new home, and move to get out.
I guess I'm just cynical and distrusting after being out in CA for too long! :D
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Freejack [/i]
[B]...If I had unlimited resources, I would be doing something similar to you Jack, finding a house out on 10-20 acres, but given the way St. Louis is layed out and the location I work, not only is that option too expensive, its impractical...[/B][/QUOTE]
Well, I understand, but I don't have unlimited resources either, just lucky to be married to a wife that knows how to deal with money, and lucky with the timing of our sell/buy/move recently.
;)
or a place to take off your shoes before going into the house...
I guess my general experience with neighbors and neighborhoods in St. Louis has been more pleseant, so I'm a bit more optimistic than that. We will, before signing anything, be conducting a kinda community sweep, trying to get in touch with as many residents as possible to get their take on the what they like so far. Our real estate agent has already helped move a couple people into this divsion, so we should have some contacts available that are not from the builder.
If it wasn't for my wife and her control and budget methods, we wouldn't be going anywhere either.
That said, Jack you are really lucky to find the place you have today, beautiful.
[B]Clay and ceramics studio...
or a place to take off your shoes before going into the house... [/B][/QUOTE]
Most likely the latter...its actually a term that goes back to the days of dirt roads and farm houses, it was the entrence that you'd use with muddy feet as not to mess up the house.
Jake
Jake
Jake
Jake