Calling All Grilling Experts

I've got spring fever.  Bad.  It has taken all of my effort not to play hooky pull out my laptop, forward my office calls to my cell phone, and set up shop in the grass outside out office.  Instead, I have been racing out of the office at quitting time and begging Jordan to go with me and Harley down to the greenbelt, signing up for any and every sand volleyball match I can find, and thinking up excuses to spend the weekend at the lake house.  You get the picture.

So, when we found an $200 gift card (wedding present) that had been left at Jordan's parents' place, the first thing I wanted to buy was a grill.  Nothing says summer like burgers, hot dogs, and grilled veggies and Jordan refuses to use the apartment's grill.  Plus, every respectable Texas home has a grill in the back yard.  Right?

Unfortunately, I am no grilling expert.  I know how to start a charcoal grills and recognized that gas is more convenient, but charcoal can taste better.  But beyond that, I judge grills purely on looks and price.  So, knowing that, here is one that I have picked out.

 

Jordan, of course, has his own opinion about grills, but I would like to meaningfully participate in this purchase.  So, I am asking you:  Do you have a favorite grill?  What are your suggestions based on our limited budget?

Out of Touch or In the Zone

Technology is a wonderful thing, and sometime a curse.  I often find myself working on a project when the phone rings or an envelop appears at the bottom of my screen signaling that I have a new email.  Do I stop what I am doing, switch gears and answer the call or do I let the caller leave a message and get back to them when I am done with what I am doing?  I will easily lose 15 minutes of work making the transition from one task to another and then back to the original task.  But, if I wait to respond there is always the risk that the potential client (or current client) could move to on to someone else or become dissatisfied.

In today's world of smart phones and instant access our society's patience for a response is growing ever so thin. On the not so rare occasion, I have received follow up calls from people wanting to see if I have received their email they sent less than an hour ago.

Our mortgage broker has never, not once, taken our phone call.  Instead, we are always left to leave a voicemail and hope that he will return our call.  He generally returns our call in a couple of days. This leaves a bad taste in my mouth and a feeling that our business is not worth his time or effort.  The only reason we have not jumped ship is because our builder will only pay our closing costs if we stick with him.

I like to think that while he is not at my beck and call, he is being productive and making magic happen for his clients.  But does that 15 minutes of magic outweigh the cost of losing potential clients and upsetting your current ones?

Moving Up and Out

Our little community, Ridge at Lantana, is growing up.  Linda, our sales rep, informed me that she will be selling the last house in the community on Sunday (not sure how she knows this).  Then, she will be closing up and model home and reconverting the office into a garage.

The model home was one of the first homes sold.  Instead of moving in, the new home-owners rented the home to the builders.  The garage was converted into an office and the interior was stage accordingly.  Then, three years later, when the builder has sold all the houses in the community, the sales force moves out, the garage is reconverted, and the home-owners can finally move in.

Linda also informed me that construction on our house will begin THIS month.  As in March.  Woo hoo!  We are looking forward to moving this process along.  And, when construction is over, moving into a neighborhood that is complete.

What? I could BUILD that?

So, as we continue to wait to hear from Tony,our builder, I cannot help but begin to furnish our mount of dirt soon-to-be-built house.  Our one bedroom apartment is so tiny that we are storing our kitchen table in the garage (our coffee table is doing double duty).  So, we do not have enough furniture to fill our new 4-bedroom house.

Between Google reader, magazines, and brick and mortar shops, I am not lacking inspiration.  However, between the new law practice, new mortgage, and student loans, we are lacking the financial backing to turn my imagination into reality.  Until, this lovely lady, opened my eyes to Knock Off Wood.  Now, Ana of Knock Off Wood is not your typical housewife.  She and her husband built their own house by hand -- and it is still standing!  But somehow she makes the impossible seem down right easy.  When I first discovered her, she was taking furniture from Pottery Barn and the like and recreating the plans in a step-by-step guide for those of us less talented with a saw, hammer, and nails.  She did such a good job, that William Sanoma (the parent company of Pottery Barn) sent her a cease and disist letter.

Since we currently have one bed and are moving into a 4-bedroom home, we are going to need some more beds!  As a starting off point, I would definitely like to make this beauty.  And with these plans, I can!

If kids were in our near future, we could even make bunk beds for about $50!  A farmhouse table for our dining room, also for $50.  Or maybe bookshelf or a secretary.  But, I will definitely want to make this dresser (pictured below).

Managing Expectations

Expectations are a funny thing.  In school, classes lasted a certain number of minutes, in law school it was 65 minutes.  If the professor went over, even by a couple of minutes, students quickly became restless.  They would begin packing up their bags – the longer the professor went, the louder the packing became.  But, if we were having a review session where the professor clearly stated the session would last no fewer than two hours, everyone was rejoicing when class was dismissed a few minutes early.

So, when our builders told us that our final meeting with the builder will take place about one month from our last design meeting, our expectations were set.  We would have our final meeting no longer than one month after our last design meeting.  Well, today is the one month mark and we have not heard from the builder.  So, no matter when the builder calls to set up the meeting, we will naturally feel like he has been slacking and has failed to meet our expectations.

But, if he had told us that the final meeting with the builder will take place about two months after our last design meeting and he calls next week, we would have been ecstatic and felt like he was working hard.

Across the board builders are famous for taking longer than anticipated.  Do you think that builders would receive fewer complaints and have overall more satisfied customers if they managed expectations by providing reasonably attainable goals (and meeting those goals) instead of aiming too high and repeatedly failing?  I do.

Where to Begin Your Search

Buying a house is a huge step.  It's a huge commitment.  Up until now, I have been a renter, like most people.  Renting is great in so many ways.  You only have to commit to living in one place with the same roommates for 12 months.  Then, if you like the place, you stay.  If not, you move on.    I took full advantage of this arrangement.  In fact, there was a 5 year period were I moved an average of 1,000+ miles every year.

Buying a house is different. First, there is a 30 year mortgage -- 30 years! - that is longer than I have been alive!  Of course, you can always sell your house before the 30 years is up, but there are so many costs associated with selling (real estate agent fees, closing costs, moving expenses, etc.), that generally it is not cost effective to sell your house in the first five years of ownership.  While this post does not point you to the tools of getting over those commit issues, I will show you some handy tools for locating your perfect house.

Zillow is a handy-dandy tool that pulls data from all over and presents them to you in a user-friendly fashion.  Through zillow you can find newly posted houses, view photos (and sometimes videos of your favorite homes, compare houses that have recently sold in your area, and view the tax appraisal values of all the houses in the neighborhood. If you create a free account, you can save your favorite homes and get alerts when similar homes go on the market.

Unfortunately, Zillow is not perfect.  Since it pulls data from various sources, it sometimes get out of date information.  Local real estate associations typically maintain an up-to-date listing of the homes in it's area.  In Austin, go to AustinHomeSearch.com.  You can search by price, zip code,  current status (active, contingent, or pending) or MSL listing.  Plus, you can search for open houses.  However, if you are looking to build, you will not find builders on these sites.

Also, local real estate magazines are a great way to see what is on the market.   You can see what is on the market as well as how many houses have sold in the past few months and for what prices.  These are great for gauging market trends, but since they are print, you will not find the most up-to-date listings.

Open houses are a great way to see houses.  We have found that all the open houses occur on Sunday afternoons, so it is easy to see a lot of houses in a short amount of time.  As you see more houses, you will get a better feel for what you can get for your money (and what is important to you).

Once you have figured out what neighborhood you want to be in, drive around the neighborhood!. Drive around at different times of the day.  By being in the neighborhood you will get a better feel for the type of people who live in the neighborhood -- are kids playing in the streets, or are there college coeds heading to parties.  This will give you a better feel for the area and allow you to grab fliers for houses on the market.

Smaller is Better

As we continue to get impatient waiting for a phone call from Tony, we also anxiously watching the 30-year fixed mortgage rates go above and below 5.0%.  While the numbers are small, the impact is big.  Last year the average mortgage rate was 6.2%.  So, if we had taken out a $200,000 mortgage at this time last year, our monthly payment would be $124 higher than a monthly payment at the current rate or $44,640 over the life of the loan -- that's a new luxury car, some clothes, a frisbee thrower for Harley, and maybe a toy for Jordan!

Not so Patiently Waiting

We are still waiting to hear from Tony, our builder.    How long does it take to get a survey, print some blueprints, and get the building permits? Realistically, we could be waiting another two weeks.  I feel like a am a pre-teen girl waiting anxiously by the phone willing it to ring.  Seeing as it is the 2010s and I am a modern girl woman, I would so call Tony and put an end to this waiting game...if only I had his phone number (or last name to Google). 

Timeline

I spoke with Linda, our sales agent, regarding what is next. Right now they are (slowly) going through the process of getting the plans approved by the community and getting the appropriate building permits.  In approximately one month from our design meeting (so, 2-3 weeks from now), we should be getting a call from Tony.  Tony is the contractor who has built most of the houses in our community and will be overseeing our house.  We will meet with him just before we break ground.

During that meeting we will review our design selections, specifically any structural changes that have been made.  He will pull out the blueprints for us to see!  Then, we will go out to the site and he will show up where our house will sit, where our yards will be, etc.  

Then construction begins!  Of course, we will be out the all the time, but once the foundation is down, the framing is up and the insulation is going in, we will have another walk-thru to ensure that all the wiring is correct.