Closing the Loop

It took just over a year from the day Sara and I got married until we got to move into our newly built house together, and start making it a home. It was quite a process. One that we debate about whether we'd like to do again. But thankfully a decision that will not have to be made for a long long time because we have a home we love and are excited to grow a family in.

From mid-Summer of 2009, we were introduced to, negotiated with TJB, tweaked and finalized the design, and sealed the deal in mid November 2009. From that day on, there would be countless emails, phone call, site visits, store visits and face-to-face meetings.

It was arduous, stressful, fun, exciting and rewarding, all rolled into one.

The most important thing was that it was a process that we completed together. And the product is a reflection of us and all that we wanted for us and for our future family.

Things will continue to change inside and out. But our house is now a home, and we couldn't be happier.

A Quick Look Back 5.0

Throughout the Summer and into the fall, we had a variety of meetings with TJB looking at pieces of land in both Eagan and Apple Valley. We were pretty sure that if we were going to build, it was going to be with TJB because they build a quality house, and they were offering incentives to those who owned existing homes.

We were focused on two areas specifically.

Our friends Jen and Thad were hoping we'd build East down Cliff Road just a few blocks from them. (They were a little surprised when a couple of blocks ended up being on the opposite side of the metropolitan area.) The neighborhood was just being developed and was right across a small lake from a huge regional park in Eagan. Very private and quiet. The homes that had been built were comparable to what we were hoping for. The neighborhood dramatically changed the commute; especially for Sara. And there appeared to be no guarantees (covenants or otherwise) as to what would happen with the other lots along the street we were looking at.

The other plot was about five minutes south of where we were living in Eagan, in a small, almost completely undeveloped neighborhood. When complete, there would have been about 10 homes. The lots we would have considered were owned by a builder that had gone bankrupt during the down turn. We had Jereomy from TJB seeking out the bankrupt builder, the banker and others to try to see how we could get them to offload a lot to TJB. I was just looking at an old email from Sara to Jereomy on Sept. 22nd 2009 with the subject "Land" that read "Just thought I'd check to see if there's been any noise or movement regarding the land on 128th St. Ct in Apple Valley."

At some point in here, we had decided it would be a good idea to take second jobs as care taker's at an apartment complex fairly near that 128th St. Ct. address in Apple Valley. That was a terrible idea for a whole bunch of reasons, and lasted a very short period of time.

We had no idea at the time the challenges the new mortgage restrictions would have place on us building at 128th St. Ct. in the same zip code as our townhouse in Eagan. But things happen for a reason, and thankfully (in hind sight) the bankrupt builder wasn't a good communicator with Jereomy and the folks from TJB.

A Quick Look Back 4.0

On July 6th 2009 I was working on getting breakfast scheduled with a friend of mine Todd Kruse who I had done some work with in the past.

For no good reason other than to find a convenient place for us to meet I asked if he was still in Apple Valley. He wrote back and said that he and his wife had just moved into a house they built in Inver Grove Heights.

You might recall from an earlier post that one of Kevin's friends who does mortgages had suggested some builders might be buying or renting existing properties as an incentive to build with them.

I asked Todd if they were able to sell their Apple Valley Townhomes (they owned two, five doors down from each other) and he told me via email that he was able to get the builder to purchase one of them and guarantee rent on the other. It was the exact same situation we were in (other than the geography).

Todd introduced me via email to Jereomy Fiskewold with TJB Builders. They operated up in Blaine primarily. Obviously we weren't planning on building there, but they did have a good incentive program and they were known to build a nice house.

Over the next few weeks, Todd, Sara and I talked building and process and all the nuts and bolts of building a new home.

Eventually, we met with Jereomy and started looking at a few plots of land around Eagan and Apple Valley with the thought that they'd possibly build us a home in the Southeast Suburbs. That process lasted through much of the rest of the summer of 2009.

Sodding and Landscaping

We've been in and getting settled for some time now. It is everything we had hoped it would be. We're living in a great neighborhood, with some wonderful people.

There are a couple more steps in the physical development of the house and the property that we want to capture on the blog before we wrap it up and close out this wonderful chapter in our lives and in our marriage.

The city of Blaine has a handful of requirements with landscaping, and some particular requirements for the Lakes development. For example, we were required to have two trees of a certain size in our front yard. We put in a "Spring Snow" up by our garage that will look very cool when it blooms in the Spring. Unfortunately, we learned after that it is considered "ornamental" and doesn't help us meet that two tree requirement. The other tree we put in initially is an autumn blaze maple. It is the tree up in the berm, and is supposed to turn a bold red in the fall. Later on, we decided to put an evergreen in the front off of our porch, but that isn't reflected in the pictures below.

Below are a couple of pictures of the sod arriving on the trucks. Kevin from B&D Bobcat and Landscaping was awesome throughout the process. We'd definitely recommend him.






Just like a room that isn't sheet rocked, property without the grade and sod looks a lot smaller before it is finished. As you can see from the picture above and the picture below, they had quite a few rolls of sod for the yard.


They started in the back corner and worked their way forward. Kevin had a good crew and they got the whole yard done in one day.

You will see below our little Honey Crisp Apple Tree. This is a gift from Grandma Labadie in honor of Sara's Grandfather. We're having some deer issues as it relates to the tree, but we're going to take care of it and help it grow into a nice Minnesota Honey Crisp tree. We're told it will be a few years until we see apples. We're excited for Grandma Labadie to visit us in Minnesota as the tree grows and can't wait until she can bake us a pie with the fruit from the tree.




This is the view from our front porch of the newly sodded yard. We've got a great sunset view and (at least until that lot is built on) a great view of the lake across the street.



Se have a lot of work to do planting shrubs and flowers in the berm and in front of the porch, but here is our house with the new yard starting to take root. We're really excited about the way it turned out.

We're In (and Have Been) - Now for Landscaping

We (Sara) started this blog so that we could track the progress of the construction of our home both with photography, and written words that would reflect our thoughts throughout the process. We ultimately wanted to look back and be able to recall how the house was built, and how we built the house.

We've been closed and living in the house for about a month, and haven't really finished the blog. In a way, the silence describes the process pretty well over the last month. It sort of ended, not as planned, and with a variety of frustrations and difficulties.

But. . .

We are in the house and are totally blessed. It is a gorgeous place and we've very happy with it. There will be little things here and there, we know that to be true, but it is going to be an awesome place to make a home and eventually grow a family.

With the finality of the house will come finality of this blog accounting for its construction. I have a couple of last posts kind of "in the can" in my head, and we have some great photos of the completed product that I still want to get into this format so we can put together our own book showing the process from start to finish.

We closed on June 4th with everything basically done but the landscaping and the touch ups we know will exist for the remainder of this calendar year at least.

We quickly learned that the neighborhood we were looking for seems to be where we've landed. We've had many of the neighbors stopping by with gifts and introductions, starting with the Hansons two doors down who brought us a very nice picnic basket full of goodies the first day in case we hadn't moved with any grocieries. Very very thoughtful.

The next step for us was to get the landscaping in. We wanted to do so quickly, but we also wanted to get it right. Blaine has some restrictions and mandates for new construction, and we wanted to at least get those mandated things done (sod, sprinkler system and a couple of trees) along with some of the key hardware (retaining walls) right away. We decided we can make shrubs, perennials and annuals a little longer term project, which we'll take care of over the next months and years.

We got a few bids and decided to go with Kevin from B&D Landscaping. Kevin came back with a very good bid for us, and he has done quite a few homes near us and is around the neighborhood frequently. Plus he comes across as honest and genuine, and he clearly loves his work.

First, however, another look out into our then blank back yard at the deer. I think these are the same deer that have already been munching on our wonderful little Honey Crisp Apple Tree. I think Blaine might have an ordinance that prohibits me from placing the crosshairs across the back of their shoulders (setting aside my natural inability to "shoot a deer" that I aim at).

We're seeing a lot of these guys, and it is a very cool addition to the neighborhood.



Kevin spent the first days installing retaining walls and adding rock or mulch where appropriate.

This is the view out of our dining room window. Eventually, there will be a deck extending out towards these retaining walls and some tall shrubs serving as a protective wall on the side of the patio you see that will eventually house a big hot tub.




Here they have dumped piles of red mulch which over the last week has been spread over a section of the berm and on top of a few of the retaining walls. I know this is going to require constant maintenance and yearly refreshing, but I really like the color and I much prefer it to a lot of rock.



This is the berm structure we had Kevin put in. Everyone who bid came back with a much bigger structure than this (including Kevin). We had to dial them all back so we didn't lose our whole yard. I think it adds some character, but we also really like the grass. This tree is an Autumn Blaze Maple, which is supposed to be bright red in the fall.





Mr. Sprinkler came last week and installed the tubes for the sprinkler system and then the system itself. Todd and Mark have been great. Todd came out early the other morning and gave us a training session on the system. They also offered up the first fall blowout and first spring start up as part of the package after we asked them for it.







This is the back of the house outside of what will eventually be another guest room when we finish the basement. We ended up opting for some rock because of a lot of advice suggesting mulch all around here would be a nightmare.

The rock is a limestone, which is sort of poetic since both Sara and I attended St. Olaf where all of the beautiful buildings are limestone.


Here is the final product on the front of the house pre-sod and pre-shrubs/flowers. I love the way this turned out.



And this is the final grade with the new sprinklers running. We have more photos, but I'll save those for another post.

Well. . . Whatcha gonna do

So we're totally blessed and very fortunate in every aspect of our lives. It wouldn't be fair to those who might not be so fortunate to wade into a moat of self pity at this point.

It is Memorial Day, 2010. We didn't close on our house last Friday as planned, but will hopefully next week; a week later than we were scheduled to.

Maybe later on we'll post some pictures, but for now just a brief recap of the story.

I last posted Monday the 24th and joked about how the time seemed to be getting longer the closer we got to our closing. Sara was scheduled to leave for San Francisco on Wednesday morning for some important work meetings so we went out to the house together Tuesday evening around 8:30pm to see how they were progressing on all of those little items from our Monday walk through.

What we saw (what Sara saw first) was horrifying. Through the ceiling in the kitchen above the center island, water was streaming down onto the new floor, into the basement. The ceiling had already started to buckle and bubble, and the wood floor joints were buckling in certain places.

It was raining hard Tuesday night and for some reason our initial inclination was that it was something from the rain. We called Justin who said he'd be there right away, and then he quickly called back and said it couldn't possibly be the rain and that we should shut the water down at the main immediately (which we did).

Justin, Jason and one other guy were there within 5 or so minutes, and they went to work cutting parts out of the ceiling, putting out fans and dehumidifiers and tearing back carpet.

I'm trying to imagine what would have happened had we not gone over there Tuesday evening and water would have been flowing for 24 hours or more instead of 7 or 8.

Of course we'll reserve final judgment over time, and work through the necessary paperwork to secure some further peace of mind beyond the typical warranties, but for now, they were very responsive and helpful moving quickly to prevent further damage.

I won't go into the issue much further now other than to say it was determined that one of the employees of TJB hooked up the washer and dryer incorrectly sometime earlier in the day which resulted in hours of water flowing from upstairs to the bedroom adjacent and through the floor into our kitchen and then into our basement.

Sara left as planned (well, not as planned as she didn't plan to leave thinking about a water damaged house we were supposed to move into Friday) Wednesday for San Fran. Before she left we met out at the house Wednesday morning with Tom, the owner of TJB and a whole team of all of the vendors who would have to work over the next week to recreate what had been damaged.

Since then, they've been tearing up floors, cutting out sheet rock, wrapping the whole main floor in plastic and starting to fix the problem.

We moved as planned on Friday. . .

Ok, that isn't quite true. Uhaul gave us a truck two feet shorter than what we booked. "Strong as a Bull" was two hours late. . . as a bull (I guess) and midway through the second swing over to the house (that two foot short truck was just not enough) they simply left, leaving us to unload the second truck.

All of our stuff is sitting in the garage at the new house completely disorganized.

We're somewhat nomadic until the end of the week. Tom put us up in his gorgeous home for a couple of days. We decided to spend the remaining days in a hotel or multiple hotels.

Rather than spending our first anniversary in our new house, we went back down to the Edina Westin where we spent our wedding night a year ago yesterday.

Everything will work out in the end, and we'll be in our new house hopefully later this week.

More pictures to come.

Happy Memorial Day!

Final Stages

Who would have thought that the closer we get to closing, the longer the days would go. It turns out that days near closing of a new house have 36, then 56 and then 72 hours in them. Very strange.

We went through the house last Friday, and one of the things that they finished up with was getting the hot/cold spicket in the garage. I think they might have forgot to put this in. But here it is now.




Monday was our big, generally final walk through. We were told to schedule 3 or 4 hours to basically tell them every paint chip and other mistake we could find. After being a 1/2 hour late to the house, TJB was actually awesome with their attention to detail. Justin and Steve put blue tape all over the place where the painters needed to touch up or one of the other vendors needed to fix something. They'd been gone fishing for almost a week, and I think they were a little surprised and frustrated at how many little things that still need to be done in the next four days. Or perhaps they recalled from past experience that the closer one gets to closing, the more hours that exist in the day (see above). My guess is that strange issue with time only exists for the buyer, so in the case of the seller, they just have a ton to do in a short period of time. Good thing they left after the walk through to go finish landscaping the old man's lake home.

While we were there, our new fridge was delivered. There was a small snafu when we ordered all of our appliances and the dishwasher and fridge were left off the original order. Both are here now, and the fridge should be plumbed in and ready to go.



Sara and I had a second meeting at the house yesterday evening with a very nice lady named Mary Poppins from Budget Blinds. I guess her actual name was Joy, but you get the point. She had all sorts of ideas for window coverings. Wow, those things are expensive. For those who have been in the house, you will recall that we have a couple of very big windows overlooking the cul-de-sac in our Master Bath. That's about the only windows that we really care to get covered ASAP for obvious reasons. We'll also likely cover the windows in the Master Bedroom so the sun doesn't wake me up at 4:00am on Saturdays.

While we were there, the installers with Village stopped in to install the hearth and back splash around the kitchen counter. This was sort of last minute because it took us a long time to decide on what we wanted to do. We knew the style we liked, but without seeing the granite next to the walls next to the cupboards, we weren't sure exactly what colors worked (they had two or three possibilities).

We really like what we ended up picking out and by the looks of these pictures think it will end up turning out great. One of the pictures makes it look like there is some green. There isn't.




They've also now installed the vessel sink in the powder bath and stained part of the interior of the kitchen drawers that needed staining.

We're spending our "free time" (term used loosely if you've talked with Sara lately) packing up. We got the living room, most of the kitchen and the pantry done last night. Second bedroom and loft will be totally packed up tonight. Carpets and cleaning service are scheduled for Friday and Saturday after we close and are moved. Cable and Internet is scheduled for the new place for late Friday afternoon.

Everything appears to be on schedule for our early Friday morning closing (which if my new theory on time holds out, will seem like a month or so).

Sara leaves tomorrow morning for San Fran until Thursday night.

But we're right there on the doorstep. Should be an exciting next few days.