Let me start this out by giving a little back story on how and where we decided to build. 1 week ago we were not building a house. Lam and I have always known we eventually wanted to build our own home and move a little west, not too far from Lynette. The communities there are full of young families and seem like such a great place to grow up. We just didn't think it would happen for a couple more years. 2 years ago Lam's oldest sister and brother in law built a new house in Gainesville, VA, exactly the area Lam and have been thinking about. We have been there many, many times and absolutely love the neighborhood and development. Of course his sister has tried to convince all of Lam's family to move out there. She finally roped her youngest sister and her husband in. They announced a month ago they were building a house just a block away from Lam's oldest sister.
After hearing this news we then found out the development was ending sooner than expected due to a new county law and there was limited lots left. We really felt like we needed to look into their development a little more to see if we should consider moving sooner. The two things about our current property that we love so much are that:
1. we border woods and no one will ever develop behind us
2. we are in a cul-de-sac.
We knew if we didn't have these same features in our new property we would regret not waiting for a better location. We took a drive to look at the lots and decided if we didn't like any we would drop the whole idea and wait a little longer per our original plan. Well of course we found one we really liked. It's about 1/4 acre (Lam's excited to do less yard work lol), it's off a pipe stem of a cul-de-sac, has the Broad Run river behind it and farm land on the other side of the river. Seeing the property I think really motivated us to make a decision and we decided it was time to build. If we waited we might miss the opportunity to be in the same development as his family, something we decided we really wanted.
The builder is Drees Homes and we will be in Glenkirk Estates, Gainesville VA. Definitely Google it and check it out. There are MANY things close by like a movie theater, Wegmans, Giant, SuperTarget, Lowes, multitude of restaurants and more. School systems are top notch as well.
Our plot is in yellow (29), Lam youngest sister Lieu is in red (36) and his oldest sister Linh is in blue. The green is protected trees around our area. Yes... We will be very close to his sisters and yes... I have thought about it thoroughly lol. I love his family and I'm excited about it. His parents will be moving in with us eventually as well so we are basically creating an Ung family commune. There is no doubt in my mind we will be recognizable in the community and I am prepared for that, lol.
Here is the basic floor plan. I'll explain our changes in a later post but we aren't changing it too much. We are expanding the owners suite, keeping the study on the main floor and adding the den and some other amenities in the basement for his parents. I'll get blue prints of our house in the next month and post those as well.
This Sunday we will put down a hefty chunck of change to start the build process and finalize our structural changes to the floorplan. Here is a generalized list of steps we will have to take to move into our new house. They say it can take about 6-8 months... really fast!
1. Finalize structural changes and put down earnest money to start the build
2. Within a month go to design center to pick out everything from shingles to carpet to bathroom faucets. They will not break ground till you pick out fixtures and such.
3. They break ground and build foundation/frame.
4. Have pre-drywall meeting before drywall goes up. This is where we give the ok that the structure is correct and that it matches our changes to the floorplan. It's harder to go back and change that stuff once drywall is up. We get our estimated closing date then as well.
5. House gets finished!
6. Settle mortgage and place our down payment.
7. We close and move in!
I'll take pictures of our land on Sunday and make sure I post it in my next post! Happy Building!
Amanda and Lam
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