Our New Adair Home

Picking Out Paint Colors

Now for an update:  December 16 - 25:  The siding has been completely

installed.  The cedar in the eaves is so sweet.   The house looks like a

cottage to me.  I can't wait to see it painted.  My sister and I have been driving around looking at colors on houses to get some ideas.  I have finally decided on a sage green with a cedar brown in the eaves.  Our trim is called "Irish Cream."  I love that!  It is going to look great against the backdrop of trees in our yard.

 

 

 
 

On the 17th Warren (excavator) hooked up the sewer and water, and PGE put the meter on the side of the house.  Everything passed inspection.  On the 23rd we had the house rough wired for a security system.  We are now in the process of drying out.  We rented two big fans and a big dehumidifier.

 Ben (the project supervisor) should be by next week to see how things are coming. Insulation and sheetrock are next!

 

We are Ready to Roll!!

 October 14^th – Our loan closed (recorded) today.

 

October 15^th - I was at the county today to file for our building permit! 

 

October 22^{nd -} Our excavator, Warren Ewing, moved on site to begin the excavation.  He started with the utilities, digging the ditch for the electric. 

 

 
  October 23^rd - The trench was completed, conduit placed, and PGE inspected.  The pad for our electrical vault was delivered and placed.  We ordered our PGE service.

 

 

October 26^th – Warren dug the ditch for the water line and started the foundation dig out.  It was raining like crazy.  I would like to say Warren is a dedicated professional.  He did a first class job for us, and his perseverance is Herculean.  He got the job done in spite of some of the worst weather I could imagine.  He brought industrial lighting with him, so he could work until way after dark.   We are so fortunate to have him on our team. 

 October 28th - Our building permit is ready to be picked up!  

October 29^th – PGE installed our electrical service.  I picked up the building permit and the septic permit at Clackamas County.  I turned in our Lot Ready form to Adair Homes.  We are ready to roll!!!

November 3 -4th - The septic tank was installed.

November 10th - The concrete crew started the forms for the foundation.

Yes, that really is a little guy on the crew.  Paul, the concrete installer, works with his family.  Those kids work as hard as any full grown man.  We were skeptical, but soon were impressed.

November 13th - The foundation was poured today.

November 20th - The framers laid the floor of the house.   This is what it looks like with the floor joist placed.  We went up in one of our boomlifts to get this picture.

 

November 23rd - 24th -The plumber did the rough plumbing. 

November 25th - Sub-floor installed and walls are starting to go up!

November 26th - THANKSGIVING!

December 1st - The walls are finished and the interior walls are framed.  I can see where all of the rooms are now.

December 2nd - Trusses are going up! 

It is such a beautiful day out, and the house is really looking like a house!

December 9th - 11th -  The roof was installed, as were the gutters, windows installed, bathtub and shower fixtures placed, furnace and duct work installed and the exterior of the house was wrapped in Tyvek.  WOW!

Getting Financed to Build

So we started our project late this summer and I need to fill you in on what's happened since then...

 

July 30^th - My first responsibility was to make a visit to Clackamas County to make sure our lot was buildable, find out the fees associated with building, and to request a soils inspection for a septic system.  I found the county visit to be informative, and everyone there seemed to want my project to be successful.  I was even given my permanent address!

 

July 31^st - I began contacting sub-contractors for bids on our “owner to do” list.  I was also working with PGE getting our electrical service designed and budgeted.  The soils test was completed on August 3^rd.   By August 12^th my bids were in, and I had all the information I needed for a project cost.  We were ready to go into Adair Homes and order our house! 

 

August 13^th - We met with Scott and confirmed the house plan.  We then went through every aspect of the home. We made our decisions concerning carpet, vinyl, and countertops.  We chose where our media jacks would be.  We picked our options, like finishing the garage and built-in cabinets in the office.  We had several changes we wanted to make to the home.  Scott explained that Adair Homes are so reasonably priced because they are specific in their design.  However, we were allowed to change the things that were most important to us, and were charged a moderate sum to cover the cost.  We are very pleased with our budget and our house.

 

August 25^th - The appraiser came out for a site visit and to talk to us about our project. 

 

September 8^th - The appraisal came back.  It fits with our budget, so we are ready to finalize our financing.  I might mention here we were working with Adair Financial Services.  Heidi and Diane are the greatest!  Being self-employed, our loan process was a bit more challenging, and they were there every step of the way. 

 

September 20^th - Our loan was approved today.

Here is how our story begins...

It is a cautionary tale of how the robust economy of the 90’s blinded us to the pitfalls of “bigger is better.”

In 2003 my husband and I purchased a beautiful home on 22 acres in Beavercreek, Oregon. The house was in foreclosure, and we bought it for a very good price, about $250,000.00 below taxed assessed value. Being self-employed, we thought this would be a good investment, as well as a wonderful place to live. It would be a great place to entertain our seven children and 15 grandchildren. Our plan was to live in the home for 10 to 15 years, sell it when we were ready to retire, and have enough money to buy a more modest home and pay cash. Real estate prices were climbing, and we wanted to jump on board. We put $136,000.00 down, and immediately invested another $40,000.00 to make repairs and improvements. All of this money came from the sale of our previous home.  It was an investment.

As time passed, we realized that perhaps we had taken on more than we had originally thought. The property was demanding. Blackberry brush and thistle kept us busy. The 4,000 square foot house was a chore to maintain and keep clean, not to mention the cost of heating and cooling. The elaborate patio and swimming pool needed constant attention. We had a power surge that cost us $800.00 for a burned out computer chip in the built-in refrigerator. Mice got into the privacy gate motor - $1,000.00 repair. The county said we needed to do some re-forestation - $2,500.00. These were routine happenings. As the economy cooled, our retirement plan concerning the house began to look like a huge mistake.

We decided the best thing to do would be to sell our home and purchase something smaller, house and land wise. In October of 2006, we put the house on the market and began looking. We weren’t looking to build necessarily, but we found a home plan we fell in love with through a local builder and made that our focus. However, our home didn’t sell. We had it on the market for about six months and decided, rather than drastically reduce our price, we would put our plans on hold and stay there a while longer. Little did we know the economy would only worsen.

As time wore on we knew it was definitely in our best interest to sell the property. In July of 2008, we once again put the house on the market. We had many showings, the location and setting were stellar. However, the price range we were in was not moving. We reduced the price a number of times to no avail. We were beginning to feel trapped. There was a point where, if we reduced the price any further, we would no longer have enough equity to buy down.

On Mother’s Day, 2009 we were out for a drive, once again looking at property and discussing our dwindling options. My husband had seen the Adair Homes sign and suggested we stop in. So, at about 4:30 on that Sunday afternoon, we walked into Adair Homes in Aurora, Oregon and met Scott. We were very impressed with the product – we even found a floor plan (the 2382) that was quite similar to the one we had liked so much several years ago. But what really caught our attention was the owner participation part of the building process. Scott told us it was possible to build a home with little or no cash down. We would have a few small responsibilities as the house was built, but that would allow us to build equity in our new home before we ever moved in. We were encouraged that this might be the answer for us.

The next month, after almost a year on the market, we received a very low offer on our home. As unhappy as it made us to sell for so much less than our house had been worth, we negotiated a deal and let go of our big mistake. Not only was our original investment and all of that lovely equity we had planned on gone, we had to take a check of $11,000.00 to closing. We sold the house for over $500,000.00 less than it was now tax assessed for. A very sad day, indeed.

But a new journey was just beginning.

We had stayed in touch with Scott, and had even applied for a loan through Adair Financial Services. Our credit was excellent, we just had no money for a down payment. We were pre-approved for a loan pending the sale and close of our home. We had located the perfect two acres in Eagle Creek, so when our home closed, we started the process that has brought us to this point.

Scott was correct when he told us we could feasibly get into the new house without any cash investment.  Our appraised value was about $115,000 higher than what we are paying for the house.   This allowed us to obtain our loan with no money down. We even got $500.00 of our earnest money refunded to us at closing! Our mortgage payment will be less than half of what is was in our former home. We feel extremely blessed.

I had decided to keep notes of my progress when I began tackling the owner-to-do list. It helped me to know how long it was taking to accomplish each given task. I also realized it would be fun to jot down what was happening each day so we could look back and see how far we had come. A friend mentioned blogging and it sounded fun, and since I already had my notes, it was pretty easy to get started. I hope our experience can help others in making their decision to build with Adair Homes.