Aspen Bay

For friends and family that don't know Blaine or don't know the development we're talking about, we figured it might be a good idea to give a little more perspective on where we are building this house of ours. First though, when we were there Sunday night and saw 10 deer roaming the back yard when we visited the lot with Jes, Adam and Jackson, Jes took a picture of Sara and I out among the stakes.



A few years back, when people were "building homes" and the real estate market was booming, a developer planned for a fairly large, multi-purpose development in Blaine.

This screen shot from our builder's Web site does a good job of defining where in Blaine the Lakes development exists.



The development itself consists of a series of neighborhoods connected with lakes, ponds and bays. We had a chance throughout the fall, and during the Parade of Homes, to tour the area and really get a sense of the entirety of the community. The development has a Senior Community, lots of Townhomes/Condos, retail, parks and trails, and some very cool pedestrian areas and beaches surrounding the lakes.

This is a good representation of the lakes and bays.





Within the larger plan is a series of neighborhoods around a chain of man made lakes.

Aspen Bay is a three phase development starting West to East. Most of the lots in Phase 1 are full. Many of the lots of Phase 2 have houses built. And part of Phase 3 (where we will be) is built up.

When we finally decided that Aspen Bay was where we would build, we had 5 or 6 lots in mind, all across the street from the lake. For a variety of reasons, we narrowed in on two lots. One was a "look out" which would have required us to adjust our "walk out" design. The other was on hold by another prospect who apparently got very serious about building about the exact same time we were coming to conclusions.

After much discussion, our TJB offered up a solution, which was a cul-de-sac lot that we really liked, but had dismissed because of the expense. It was a "look out" in Phase 3, that was everything we were looking for in a lot. Even with all of the leaves off in the woods behind the house, you'd hardly know there were houses through the woods. And even thought the lot is in the least developed Phase 3, all of the other lots in the cul-de-sac have homes (some of which are neighbors to be who we've met over the last few weeks). In fact since we signed our Purchase Agreement, even the Model Home just off the cul-de-sac now has a sold sign in the front yard.

This map is of the Aspen Bay portion of the development, with each of the three phases shown, and an arrow pointing towards our new lot. Interestingly, the tip of the arrow points almost exactly to where the 10 deer were Sunday evening when we were there with Jes and Adam.



The more we visit the neighborhood and the lot, the more excited we get. Sara has traded emails with TJB about some of the first decisions we're going to need to make in the next week or so. More on all of that later. We're just so excited to break ground on Monday the 7th. I'm sure a lot will happen between now and then, and we'll keep everyone posted.

Lots of deer

Tonight we went over to the lot to show our good friends Jes and Adam where we are building. We arrived around dusk which is about 4:30ish these days. We were absolutely delighted to see two groups of 5 deer each in our back yard. The builder was right when they told us we'll need to put up protection around our garden if we want it to last. How amazing though to have the deer right in our future back yard!

Another new development in our neighborhood as well. When you're looking at our house the house directly to the right of us was a model home (for a different builder). Chris and I walked thru the home a couple of weeks ago and it is beautiful inside. We were happy to see a sold sign out front tonight. So we'll have neighbors on both sides of us when we move in.

The Survey 2.0

Ok, yesterday was kind of desperate. I wanted to get out there the day when they staked out the yard, and even though it was dark and the pictures didn't turn out, I posted about it anyway.

I was able to get to our property earlier today, and even though it was cloudy and a little rainy, I was able to snap a few decent pictures.

Justin's crew (Justin is one of the TJB Family who is actually on site throughout the build managing the process) was out down the street on the lake side of the road constructing another one of our future neighbor's homes. It is fun to see our future neighborhood developing.

Here is what our property currently looks like as TJB pulls the necessary permits to start digging in just over a week.

The Survey

One of the disadvantages of starting to build in late November or early December is that it gets dark really early, which isn't very conducive to seeing progress unless you're there during the day.

Today was the day that they officially surveyed the land, and actually staked out the position of the house. I tried to get up to Blaine early enough to get a picture with at least some sun light. As you can see, I wasn't successful.

This may not mean as much to anyone happening to read this blog as it means to us, but this is what the property now looks like with the position of the house staked out and ready to go.

We'll have to get out in the daylight in the next few days to get a better snap shot of this. But as you can see, after surveying the land based on the positioning of the house we agreed to yesterday, they placed a series of stakes out in the yard in preparation for the big dig in a couple of weeks.

On the way out of the neighborhood, I passed by our mortgage guy's home and he and a neighbor across the street were out visiting. It was good to get a chance to say hi, and meet another friendly face in the neighborhood. So far, knock on wood, that's been a consistent theme, and it makes us more and more enthusiastic about this process.

Here we go!

Sara posted some great photos a few days ago of the property we were hoping to break ground on.

We've been extremely excited as we've worked through the design and the specifics of our house plan with our builder TJB. (www.tjbhomes.com). After considering a handful of different lots within the Aspen Bay development in the Lakes of Blaine, TJB came back to us and offered up the same house on the cul-de-sac lot you see in the photos from Sara's earlier post.

For us, it is really cool to be able to see the empty lot, the neighboring homes and be able to picture the home we've been designing situated right there on the land you see vacant.

Thursday night, we met with TJB to go through the edits we've made to the spec book, and discuss how the home would be situated on this particular lot.

At the end of that meeting, we signed a purchase agreement!!!

The lot Sara photographed is. . . ours!

We are very excited about the next steps, and the many decisions that are quickly coming. The first big decision was to decide exactly how the home will be situated on the lot. We rotated the house a little bit from where they initially positioned it to get a little better view of the lake across the street. We didn't rotate the home quite as much as we initially thought we were going to, but the end result is something the builder seems to like better than what they proposed to us initially.

By tomorrow afternoon, the lot will be fully staked out on the property, and TJB will be off to the races (racing, of course, methodically and with great care).

When we were there this evening we had the opportunity to meet (once again for Sara), the immediate next door neighbors. Along with them, a neighbor two houses further down was also there. First impressions are always important, and our first impression of the neighbors makes us enthusiastic about the people we will be living near starting later next year. They were very friendly, and seemed excited that the empty lot would soon be occupied by us. The next door neighbor coaches his young kids' hockey team, which is an added bonus.

This week will be permitting, surveying and other preliminary issues before they can start construction. I'm excited to post some pictures in the next couple days of the land staked out with the outline of our home.

Stay tuned. . .

Lakes of Aspen Bay Photos

We are hopefully moving forward tomorrow night with our last meeting with TJB Homes before we sign the purchase agreement. Tonight Chris and I spent the evening on the couch reading thru lots of pages of paperwork. I think we have our pricing sheet done, our spec book reviewed, and have done a preliminary review of the purchase agreement along with the two rental agreements for our existing properties.

I'm ready and excited to make it official. Since starting the evaluation process 5 months ago we've had a new house on the brain since then. We believe we are thoughtfully moving forward after having evaluated all of our options.

When Chris was away deer hunting I went to our lot to snap some pictures. I was still battling a nasty cold then so hadn't showered, was in comfy clothes, and was without make-up. I drove by our lot and our future neighbors were in their driveway with some friends so I kept driving. I was hoping that by the time I got back they would be inside so I wouldn't have to meet them when I wasn't ready to make a great first impression. Needless to say they were still outside when I drove back around. I decided to stop anyways and started to take pictures of the lot. Their dog Lucy came over to greet me almost right away along with two of their kids.

The boys were 7 and 4 and were very well behaved and curious. I told them that my husband and I were looking at the lot and were going to potentially be their neighbors. The first thing they wanted to know was if we had any kids. I told them that we didn't yet but we would hopefully some day. They went on to tell me all about the other wonderful kids in the neighbors. Eric, their dad, came over shortly thereafter to meet me. He was very, very kind and offered to help in anyway thru the building process. They also used the same builder and were very happy with their house.

Eric did mention that he coaches one of his son's hockey team along with one of the other dad's in the neighborhood. Chris was very excited to hear that!

Below are some pictures of the neighborhood, the lot, and the surrounding houses.

"Settled" in Blaine. .. . well almost

On Saturday, Sara and I hauled our stuff up from the Southern burbs and got settled into our temporary place in Blaine.

While we have stuff sitting all over the place and are still a ways from being actually organized, there was a certain peace of mind that comes from being just two miles from where we'll be settling into next Spring.

We are so excited to be able to document this process, share it with photographs.

We're hoping to sit down with TJB this week and finish rooting through the massive spec book to get many of the details just right. At that point, we're going to get settled on a plot of land with the hopes of breaking ground in the next few weeks (after permitting, of course).

We're without the Internet at home until Thursday, but we're going to try to get some photos posted of the area very soon.

In the meantime, lots of moving, stacking and unpacking of boxes.