Before Second Inspection

The grade beams are being inspected tomorrow, and if all goes well, we pour the grade beam cement next week. You can start to get a good sense now of how the ground floor will lay out.

Plans are in!

The "final" plans are in and SDG has done the wonderful job we expected. The house will be beautiful! It is laid out perfectly for the way we live. The design is so much better than the plans that came with the lot. This new design should fit the area better, will look much nicer, and will allow us to have both the communal and also private space we want. 

The things we liked about Steve at first have really shone through as we've rev'd the plans. His explanations are very thoughful and confidence-inspiring, and we leave each meeting very excited about what's to come.

Lame

We encountered our fist bit of lameness in the process. When we bought the lot (out of foreclosure), it had approved plans. We aren't using those, but all the various docs exist, and as part of the closing, any outstanding items were supposed to be settled out of escrow funds.

Today our architect needed some base map CAD files and called the civil engineering firm to get those. Here's the firm:

So they claim that they were never paid for the grading plans they created for the old developer. And they won't release the CAD files unless we pay them for the work that we a) didn't contract for and b) don't need or want. All we need is the topo survey that Fuscoe used to do it's work. Never mind that they didn't bother to file the lien that would have gotten them paid in the closing. Now it's my problem.

After a week, we get to a price. It's bascially extortion, since I am not the one that screwed them over, but since I don't want a multi-week delay beyond the delay that Fuscoe has already caused me, I agree to fedex overnight a check. In return, they will release the files.

I scramble to get the check overnighted to them and then...nothing. No response. When I call I am told that the exec I have been speaking with is out and he will call me back next week. All those emails where we agreed that he would send the files apparently didn't matter. So I am delayed a bit more. Apparently when a developer stiffs you on some work, the proper response as understood by Fuscoe Engineering is to screw over a completely unrelated guy, in this case: me.

On Monday he comes back and sends the files, along with a request that we call them to do more work when we are ready, they'd love to be a part of the project! Oh yeah, that sounds great. Let's see, you delay my project by over a week, when I scramble to pay your extortion price for work I didn't ask for or need, you can't be bothered to hit the f-ing send button on your email, but I am going to pay you to do more work. That sounds like an excellent deal and you guys sound like an excellent firm.

On the plus side, since you are located in SoCal, there's a good chance that the RE implosion down there will force you out of business.

We're Off and Running!

We've had our first meeting with our this week! This is the architect we had selected last year. When that deal fell through, we were really disappointed not to have the chance to work with him. Steve is a really reassuring guy who has a ton of experience designing homes in this area, particularly in the hills. In addition, we really love some of his houses. He has a lovely aesthetic that combines traditional elements with a contemporary feel. So, when this Palomar Oaks project came up, we knew we would go back to him. We did talk to a couple of other architects, just to feel like we performed our due diligence, but it was an easy decision to select Steve.

Anyway, we met him on Wednesday to give him our initial download of ideas. It was so exciting to talk with him about what we wanted and start the process of visualizing our new house. Rick and I have actually spent a fair amount of time discussing every room in the house and how we will use them. For example, we almost never use our current living room. So, in the new house we don't want it to be very big. We want it to be big enough to accommodate a piano and a couple of chairs, but it doesn't need to be this impressive showcase of a room -- it's just wasted space to us. We covered every room with Steve in detail talking about what we like and don't like, about ways in which we will and won't use different rooms. For instance, we don't keep a television in our bedroom -- so we don't need to build in any kind of space for one there.

We also discussed the overall style of the house. Rick and I really like a lot of Craftsman elements, but don't want the house to stick strictly to that aesthetic. Steve got it. He helped us articulate that we want something that is Craftsman-inspired, but is more contemporary in execution. Since the meeting, we've found a few pictures online of homes (just the facades) that we like and have passed them along to him so that he can get a better idea of what we're envisioning. We're still in the "getting to know you" phase of our relationship with Steve, so it may take a few tries before we all understand each other.

He plans to have us our first set of drawings to review in a couple of weeks. I can hardly wait to see what he comes up with. In the meantime, I am continuing to look at sites, magazines, and books to get some more ideas.

The Lot Pics

So here are the first pics of the lot at Palomar Oaks. 

Here is the cul de sac at the top of the drive. 

From here you enter our driveway:

Here is the as-yet unbuilt driveway. 

Garage gets cut into the hill on the right:

Here's the west-facing view:

Here's the east-facing view:

Here is a view from what will be the west side of the house:

 

And here is a view down into our neighbor's long driveway:

The Beginning (or is it the end?)

Well, we've done it. We've bought ourselves a lot. Not "a lot" as in much. But, a "lot" as in a parcel of land. And we're going to build our dream house on it.

To some degree, it all happened so quickly. But in reality, it has taken us a year to find the perfect place for our family. So, while this is just the beginning of our foray into home building, it's also the end of a long search. We actually bought a different lot last summer. But, after having various soil tests and geological reports done, we found that we couldn't build the house we wanted, and had to pull out of escrow. We then spent the ensuing year looking at dozens of homes in Menlo Park, Atherton, and Redwood City. Nothing seemed to meet our expectations, and as we continued through the process, Rick and I kept thinking that we could design a better house than the ones we were seeing. Finally, after about a year we decided to put the home search on hold. We figured that we weren't going to find anything good right now, and the declining market seemed to suggest that we sit tight for a couple of years. Instead, we were going to work on improving our existing house with a bunch of cosmetic changes. We even had a landscape architect come out to redesign our backyard. And as these things seem to happen, just as we had settled in with this new plan, all of a sudden we learned about this new lot.

At the beginning of July, Nino the real estate agent who had helped us with the purchase of the previous lot, emailed Rick to let him know that he had a great new lot that he thought we might be interested in. He said it was in the hills, large, with a view, and within a gated community. Rick and I were ready to dismiss it, but decided to take a quick look just out of curiosity. On our way out of town for the July 4th weekend, we tried to see it but couldn't get past the gate, so we gave up and left for the weekend.

Over the holiday weekend, we kept talking about the lot and wondering more about it. So when we returned, we tried again to see it. This time we got past the gate, drove up the road, and ended up at the top of a cul de sac where there were four empty lots. We walked over to the one that Nino had told us about, turned around to face the cul de sac, and... Holy Cow what a view! We could see straight to the San Francisco Bay. It was a gorgeous almost-270° view. At that point I was pretty sure it would be ours. And by the end of July we owned an acre of land in the hills of Redwood City.

So why "Palermo Oaks"? Well, that requires a little background. My husband's family is Italian. Not just Italian descent, but born-in-Italy-emigrated-to-the-US-Italian. In fact, most of their friends are Italian immigrants too. We know Nino through their Italian network -- he's the son-in-law of one of their closest friends. And with a name like Nino, you had better believe he's Italian too. Anyway, a few years ago a developer was building a new development here in Redwood City called Palomar Oaks. There were 12 lots on which they planned to build "executive homes"; we're still not sure what that means. It seems to have something to do with the fact that the houses were large (approximately 4500 ft²). They built five houses on the lowest, smallest lots and promptly went into foreclosure. Our friend Nino saw an opportunity when he saw one and bought the remaining seven lots from the bank: he got a deal. So he sold us the best lot -- an acre of land, at the top of the cul de sac with killer views. He kept two lots for himself and his brother. They each plan on building their own family homes up there at the top of the cul de sac. So out of the four homes that will be at the top of the cul de sac, at least three will be occupied by Italian families -- if Nino has any choice in the matter, the fourth will be too. He and his brother are already talking about building Mediterranean villas (the existing houses at the bottom of the hill are Craftsman-style homes) complete with olive trees, grapevines, and bocce ball courts. Hence, Rick and I dubbed it "Palermo Oaks".

Stick with us as we document our progress. This is just the beginning!