Builder update – final plans and estimate!

Hello! A lot has happened since my last post with the initial estimate. We were in constant communication with the builder and making tweaks and changes to our plans, which made summarizing them in a blog post difficult! Things have now settled down, and we’ve pretty much landed on our plans and estimate. In fact – we’ve sent them to the bank, and we’re currently waiting on the appraisal report! The builder has also taken a look at our lot to get a feel for the slope. The builder and the bank both want our current house torn down as part of the final step of the build – the bank for its own assurance that it will be done and the builder for the dirt to do final grade of the new house.

Also, we got a little busy with having a baby! Our sweet baby girl has been doctor diagnosed as perfect two times! She sleeps and eats so well, and she hardly fusses! Despite such a healthy baby, we’ve also been a bit distracted by me developing postpartum preeclampsia a few days after being released from the hospital. Although it’s been a bit of a hiccup, I’m feeling better and excited for our home build to get going! The appraiser thought he’d have the report done by the end of the week, and that’s the main thing the bank is waiting on. Once the bank gets its side done, then we’re ready to go under contract with the builder! We really do think we’ll have a hole in the ground this month if all goes well!

Now that we’ve really slowed down on changes, I thought I’d go over some of the decisions we’ve made since our last update. Our changes have involved both those that increase price and those that decrease. I’m pleased to say with all the changes, our estimate went up less than 10k from the initial number! That said, we know our flooring will be over the allowance for sure, and we have to save separately for appliances since those aren’t included in the build.

Electric fireplace in living room

We decided to go with an electric fireplace instead of a wood fireplace. First we were going to go with a gas fireplace just for ease of use and cost, but when Brandon was talking with the builder, he made some good arguments for just going with electric. This should save quite a bit of money and also give us more flexibility over what materials we use on the fireplace for now.

As far as the mantel and surround, I have a pretty wild idea that I’m not sure is feasible. I really like the look of a stone surround, but it’s so expensive. I also really like our laminate choice of Wilsonart Black Alicante we have picked out for the perimeter countertop in the kitchen. How cool would it be to have a surround built out of this same laminate sheeting? We’d have no fire rating concerns by going with the electric fireplace, so it’d mainly be a question of whether the laminate sheeting can be molded around the trim pieces. It’d be super durable, and I think it would look so cool if we could make it happen. Plus if it looked nice, I don’t think I’d be in any hurry at all to get a real stone surround!

That said, I’d also be perfectly happy with making something work within our fireplace allowance if it’s easier to just have them build a mantel for now and pick an inexpensive tile for the surround. We could live with that for quite some time.

Simplify pantry for now

We’ve decided to really change up this space and use our dollars elsewhere. Before, we were going to do full cabinetry, a prep sink, and a second dishwasher (that the builder didn’t even know about or they probably would’ve questioned us). Instead, we’re going to have the window be a half foot wider to match the kitchen windows, run a simple countertop of some type of laminate (wood look? marble look? matching the perimeter countertop?), and have more open storage versus cabinets. As far as what we’ll do with our storage, I’m not sure! I do like the idea of curtains, but I’m not sure I’d want the entire area to be curtained. I think this will be a case of us building it with just shelves and deciding what coverings, if any, we want after living with it for a bit.

Primary bath vanity

We made a few changes with the bathroom vanity. For one, we switched out the Carrara marble countertop with a simple white Onyx countertop. This was what was quoted in our initial estimate, so we decided it’d be a good starting countertop that’ll last many years. We also changed from two sinks down to one! The main driver here was that we have no problems sharing a sink today, and an extra sink decreases cabinet/countertop space and is just one more thing to clean. Some additional benefits of going down to one sink also include purchasing one faucet versus two, two sconces versus three, and one big mirror that we’ll actually just bring over from our current house and frame out ourselves.

I also found a wood toned cabinet on display at the Omaha CKF showroom that I liked much better than the earlier cabinet selections I’d noted beforehand. I’d even be happy with this door style too!

Overall, we’re pretty happy with the changes here!

Kitchen

I think we’d initially rendered a 48″ range in our kitchen, but we’ve since decided that a 30″ like we have today would be just fine. We have our eyes on this Cafe one, which is dual fuel (gas cooktop and electric oven) and has two ovens. This would be great for when we’re making my vegan chik’n and Brandon and the boys’ regular chicken at the same time.

Flooring!

When we did our initial estimate, we were prepared to find a laminate or LVP that fit in budget. However, the more we thought about it, the more we preferred hardwood that’s stapled or nailed down instead of a floating floor. This is going to have us over our flooring allowance quite a bit, but flooring is so important that we’re willing to make it work. We’re still not sure what flooring brand/color we want – but we’re leaning towards engineered hardwood floors instead of solid hardwood. The day we went into labor with our baby, we spent all day looking at flooring while staying near our hospital just in case. We found a few flooring samples we like, and we plan to have our builder (or the designer they work with) help us track down a good quality option that matches what we like.

We’re still set on our laundry room floor (the marble from Floor and Decor), but it seems like the builder would prefer a click/lock flooring or tile instead of vinyl adhesive for the guest bathroom. We’d initially switched from tile to help save money on material and install, but it seems like it may be in our best interest to go back to tile. We’ve got some time, but I’ll need to find another option unless I want to go with the more expensive tile I found at TileBar!

Those are our main changes we’ve had up until now! Here’s hoping that our appraisal comes in where we need it, and that the ball gets rollin’ soon! Once the build starts, I’m sure I’ll have lots to post with progress pictures and links/pictures of our brand specific choices for all the finishes!

Thanks for reading!

Davien