Plenty of work to be done

While we may be in a holding period waiting to hear word about financing, we are going to have to keep working like we are getting the loan in order to be ready for the bank to say go. This will be happening on several fronts: finalizing blueprints and permits,working on finalizing design choices, and driving down cost by looking for cheaper options on materials for the home.

From an architect's standpoint, we are far from finalized on the plans. While the guts of the home are generally set, we have to firm up everything from the lighting plan to the HVAC setup. We have little less then three weeks to get these documents set, and get them to the permit office to be taken care of. This is a very tight time line, and its going to take quite a bit of effort on all fronts to make it happen. The upside is that permit-wise we shouldn't have too many issues as the place we are building is far under the allowable height and square footage for the zoning. Furthermore, we also have to get a separate permit for the demolition. This permit requires approval by the local city government office (Ward 30) and by both of our neighbors. This way the city is sure that all parties know we are going to make a mess.

The design choices are proving to be difficult to say the least. We are working on straddling the line between nice and cheap. The good news is that there is a line to be straddled, and there are a ton of good products out there that are far more affordable then what can be found at Merchandise Mart etc. The bad news is that we have to get a really good feel for where we are going to cut costs and save money, and then pick the places where we don't want to cut corners. A really good example of this is with our master bath vanities. We found a vanity at the Merchandise Mart that we loved, and knew we couldn't afford ($15,000) but we have found several since then that embody some of the same qualities for 10% of the cost. In this case we are sacrificing the want for something that is EXACTLY what we want for something that is pretty much like what we want because we never really had that $15,000 piece in mind until we saw it. Either way, we have about 100 of these decisions to get an idea about over the next few weeks. That means field trips!!

We are working through kitchen and bath this week, I will post as the week progresses and we make more decisions.