Document Actions

We broke ground, but...

by Jeffrey Rous — posted on 01-22-2007 15:38 — last modified 01-22-2007 15:38

Editorial Rating:

Reader Rating:

( 0 votes)

...then the rains came. Now we wait. I think it has been about a year since the last posting. It has been a very slow process that would go about 3x faster if I started today. In any case, here is a first look at what is going on.

After three years, when people ask when our house will be finished, I view the question as irrelevant. We have now been through several rounds of design changes and meetings with contractors and suppliers. Every part of the process takes its time. It now seems like this project is just a regular part of our lives, like brushing our teeth or driving to work. Instead of continually being frustrated by delays, I have adopted a more "zen" approach whereby I do what I can to hurry things along, but I don't get upset by delays as getting upset gets me nowhere. Of course, after two years of official drought in Dallas, the rains have finally begun. This would be bad enough on its won, but the foundation contractor seems to be juggling at least two jobs so when there was a three day break in the weather two weeks ago, no one showed up. Currently, the site is just a muddy mess.

Here are the first photos of the lot from the front and back and the forms you see are for the garage.

photo1otfront

photolotback

photofuturecourtyard

And the latest image of the house as it will be:

imagehouse

This page Copyright © LiveModern, Inc. and by the Contributing Author(s) above, if any. Rous, J. (2007, January 22). We broke ground, but.... Retrieved November 23, 2008, from LiveModern: Your Best Modern Home Web site: http://livemodern.com/Members/Rous/blog/blogentry.2007-01-22.9530459251.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Cite/Attribute Resource.

great to see the site

Posted by Gregory La Vardera at 01-22-2007 18:51

After all this time its really great to see the site. The street looks great. Narrow deep lots like an old neighborhood. The context is - well, lets just say I hope you don't catch flack from them. Its a shame those "new" houses did not put the garage at the back of the lot like you are doing. Such a nicer pattern of building than two big garage doors on the front of your house...

Where in Dallas is this?

Posted by Jason at 01-29-2007 21:02

Where in Dallas is this?

Not quite Dallas, but close

Posted by Jeffrey Rous at 01-29-2007 21:40

I hate to admit this now, but the lot is in Farmers Branch. Just south of Valley View and between 35 and Josey. You can look at earlier postings in the blog and get a lot more detail on the neighborhood. When we bought our lot (3 years ago) there were about eight new houses up, now it is closer to 20 and there are about four in progress at the moment. There is even one lot one across a side street from the neighborhood for sale and it is not subject to any architectural restrictions. Oh, had that only gone on the market 3 years ago! My guess is that one will go for about $80k-$90k.

New build

Posted by Shannon B at 03-26-2007 12:07

Are there any lots in this area still available. Would love to be neighbors with similar design conscious aesthetics.......Any new pics? Any advise for a someone looking to build new? Who was the Builder/Contractor/architect?

What is your square footage?

Posted by cdrmemphis at 02-05-2007 14:47

Heated square footage? I was looking at one of your previous posts talking about costs per square foot and trying to compare numbers. I shouldn't do this because really costs per square footage are so arbitrarty and it doesn't really tell you anything about the house. But still- just curious how your numbers are coming out and how you are progressing. I totally understand your "it'll get built when it gets built". It took us two years to find the lot and a year and a half to be even getting close to maybe breaking ground this spring. So we are entering our third year of htis wild process also! But at least we will have a cool (or strangely intersting) house that fits our needs.

Congrats to you!

Posted by Carina at 04-20-2007 10:34

I was excited to come across your blog. We are also in the process of building our home (Arlington) though currently we live in Richardson. I've read a couple of your previous posts and it's a similar story to ours. We bought our lot 2.5 yrs ago and just started actual construction. Granted, we'll be doing a lot of the work ourselves to keep the costs down so it'll take longer but it's nice to see actual progress after so long. I look forward to watching your progress as well!

Best Regards,
Carina

LiveModern: Your Best Modern Home

Sections

Personal tools

Document Actions

We broke ground, but...

great to see the site

Where in Dallas is this?

Not quite Dallas, but close

New build

What is your square footage?

Congrats to you!