Working With a Builder

We closed on our property loan December 16th and everything went smoothly. We were going to wait a few years before we started the process, but the excitement of building our home and the current climate of the real estate market has us working with a local builder.

The majority of our time over the last few months has been figuring out what finishings we want (ex: what exterior cladding, whether or not we were going to have a pool installed, debating between optional things like spray foam and big picture windows facing the lake). We have poured over the details, constantly refining our wants versus our must-haves and balancing them against our agreed upon budget. Getting to the point of signing off on all those small details this past weekend was a great relief and we are excited to move on to the next phase, clearing the waterfront portion of the lot in preparation for excavation.

Here is the floor plan and basement layout we decided on below. Not many homes in this area will accommodate a walkout basement, and when they can, you can’t afford not to. It’s an immediate equity opportunity, so we went for it (the pool, on the other hand, we decided will have to wait until later).

Here is a concept picture we sent to the builder to use for the wall of windows we will have in our two story great room facing the lake.