Building a Home

The past couple of weeks we have been looking into purchasing a home.  While the timing is not ideal, the combination of decreased housing prices, low interest rates, and the $8,000 tax credit makes now an excellent time to buy.

We have decided that we want to be in the west/west lake hills area of Austin.  Now, as you may know, there is a major problem as first time home buyers with this location.  All the homes are outrageously expensive.  So, we have been looking at communities off of Southwest Parkway.

Yesterday we went to looking into the (highly unlikely) prospect of buying a new home in the community of Ridge at Lantana.   This community is four miles west of Mopac on Southwest Parkway, off of William Canyon.  Man, were we surprised that we might be able to get a new home!

We picked out a floor plan and then looked at some lots.  After having settled on those two options, we started talking about the extras (granite, 3rd car garage, patio, extra bathroom, etc.).  Still unable to visualize what our home may look like, we headed up to Round Rock to see the model home for our floor plan.

Then, we spent the rest of the day talking about pricing, locations, pros, cons, and mortgages.  Having come up with a game plan, we set up a second meeting to discuss the details.  At the end of the day, we signed a contract for a new home!

I plan to blog about the process of building our first home.  We are still waiting for the final approval by the builder and of course financing.   But for now, here is a picture of where it all begins, our lot.