This afternoon, my wife and I had our most expensive date ever!
We closed on our construction loan!
Getting this loan was a long and painful process that involved an appraiser, our insurance lady (that we ended up dumping because she was messing everything up) and a few other big surprises. I plan to document more at a later date, but here are the basics of what happened recently.
Last week, we had asked for an updated estimate of the closing costs. Of course, there were all the usual “fees”, including flood inspection, etc. The biggest of the recent surprises was that the bank wanted us to deposit all the money we planned to use, up front, in their account, so they could manage the disbursements and make sure it all goes into the construction. The difference with this latest update was that the bank added 10% more to cover “unexpected costs”. This was a significant jump that had not been included in previous discussions (they had been willing to accept that I had built safety factors into each line item). We scrambled to figure out how to scratch together the additional money (imagine suddenly needing to find 10% of the cost to build your home).
We could have swung it, but I was worried about our shrinking liquidity (I still need to buy tools, rent equipment, etc. and those costs are not covered by the construction loan). We ended up deciding to take some money out of our retirement savings plan. We will need to start paying it back to ourselves immediately (it starts coming out of my next pay check) or face a tax penalty, but the interest rate (to ourselves) was good and there were no significant fees. It was actually a pretty painless process and we put the paperwork together in about 20 minutes (Sherri and I working together). We took a bit more than we thought we needed, just in case. That check arrived yesterday.
Today started with Sherri still up from the night before going over the receipts that we have already paid. I gave up and went to bed at midnight, but I assume she checked everything more than twice more (as is her nature). These receipts are required to support our “Sworn Statement” that says how much we have paid and how much we have left to pay.
We showed up for our lunch time appointment at the bank today with a big accordion-folder worth of paperwork.
The first biggest surprise was that we were expected to pay off the remaining mortgage on our land before the new loan would commence. I had thought our land may come up since the appraisal was based on the house and land and I figured it may occur to the bank that they had already loaned us something, but I thought they would take the money out of what they were going to loan us now. Instead it was added up front as closing costs before the other loan would go through. Ouch. Good thing we had more in the account that we thought we needed. But this is a significant cut to our liquidity.
The silver lining is that we now own the land outright and no longer have that land payment. Also, the new mortgage percentage went down a bit from the last estimate, so in the end, our payment is very reasonable (over 30% lower than we thought it would be for the house and land payments combined).
We spent over an hour signing papers. Sherri is very thorough and likes to read everything; she found a number of mistakes, including her name spelled wrong several ways on a single page. The lady at the bank had to make a number of runs back upstairs to reprint documents with corrections. She was getting a bit tired by the end of it.
Eventually we got through it all and the Earth Sheltered Umbrella Home is fully funded.
Sourcing
I finally got the bill for the footings today. It was a volume plus materials sort of deal, so I was a bit nervous about how the cost of materials would add up. However, it did seem reasonable. I am not thrilled about all the unused forming supplies that I bought. I hope they don’t get wrecked by the weather before we can use them on the main floor footings (I have them covered with 6mil plastic at the moment). The cost of the concrete was 6% lower than expected and the giant pump truck was 14% lower than expected. Unfortunately, the rebar and other steel was 17% higher than expected, probably due to that 18% bump in the price of steel over the past year. Overall, we are still on budget.
I also purchased a new 26ft tall scaffold tower today. I had been trying to get a used one. There were not many to choose from and most looked like rusty pieces of junk. The worst part was they were priced only 30% below new. I found one nice aluminum one for a reasonable price, but I called the guy and he had sold it for scrap. In the end, I needed one next week, so I decided to pay a little more and get a brand new one, and that was for a “delux” model with the extra wide outriggers and other safety features. It should arrive the middle of next week along with my steel studs (which were originally supposed to arrive last Friday). I should be able to sell it at the end of construction for a reasonable price.
I had also been looking at buying turnbuckles to help me plumb the steel stud walls (tricky because I don’t have a top track to attach to). I was looking at the sort of thing that ICF installer’s use to straighten and plumb their walls before a pour. I found them to be very expensive, so I designed my own and priced it out. I figure I can make equivalent hardware for less than 1/10th the price of buying them. The only catch is that I will need to buy that MIG welder sooner, but I planned to get it for the main floor steel anyway.
I have a 25% off coupon for a nice MIG welder (another thing I couldn’t find second hand), and will probably pick that up this weekend.
Construction Birds
Some of you may have caught my video on the river swallows at the construction site… Here it is anyway.
Eye Candy
Yes, time for some eye candy.
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As I prep for my electrical work, this struck me as funny…
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When I saw this Cow on the roof, all I could think was, “I bet he wishes that was an earth sheltered roof.”
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I like these leaf pavers, may be a fun thing to do with any extra concrete.
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I also like the idea of a drill bit for tying the rebar.
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An interesting tool for tying rebar…
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A Bank swallows nest
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Another S-type quonset hut similar in size to my own (which I ordered last week)
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This Quonset hut looks big, but it is actually an S30x40. Perhaps this one is 17′ high, mine is 15′.
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I liked the simple design of this turnbuckle… In inspired my own (totally different) design.
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This is the 26ft tall deluxe scaffold tower I bought this week. Should be pretty scary to work at that hight.
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My extra “forming supplies”. Actually, the pile is bigger now since they stripped the forms and put those boards back on the pile.
Steel Ordered
Well, I managed to get the steel studs ordered this week. I had to pay the 20% higher price then the previous quote from the other distributor (who ended up unable to get me the MarinoWare studs because they only ship when he has enough orders to fill a truck). Anyway, this first order of studs for the basement isn’t very large and the difference was really only a few hundred dollars, so I pulled the trigger and ordered. They said it may be delivered as soon as tomorrow.
Joe is walking down the street and passes a new butcher shop with a sign in the window that says “Sirloin Steak; 5¢ per pound”. He goes in to buy some stake, but they are all out. So he heads over to his regular butcher. “Hey Mac, your competitor down the street is selling steaks for 5¢ per pound. Can you match it?” The butcher smiles, “That’s a great price Joe. Did they have any left?” Joe says, “No, they were all out.” “Well”, says Mac, “When I am out of steak, I can sell it for 4¢ per pound.”
In the meantime, I ordered the track and metal lath separately (from the cheaper distributor) and will pick that up, with my new trailer, Friday morning.
I am buying my Quonset hut from SteelMaster Buildings. I heard that June 16th was the last day to get the 2013 steel prices, so I called and managed to get a great deal. I had budgeted for the list price of about $10,000, but I managed to get it on “sale” for $7200, including all the nuts and bolts and delivery and the kit to connect it to the ICF end walls. That is not bad for more than 4000 lbs of galvanized 22 gauge steel. They will hold it in their warehouse and deliver it when I need it.
This is a construction photo for the same size and type as what I ordered (S-30-15×40). We will need to have a steel raising party ;^) I will end up building the end walls out of ICF forms.
Footings are done.
It has been nearly a week since we poured the footings. The forms have been stripped. But the site was a bit of a mess (chunks of concrete, cigarette packets, nails, etc.) I wanted to return things to the nice soft sand situation I started with, so I took an hour and cleaned things up. I dumped all the concrete chunks in one section of the footing where no one was likely to walk. The wood scraps made a very small pile of kindling and I had a bucket of trash dropped by the crew.
I got out my cell phone and made a quick video to show you where we are.
The exposed aggregate finish looks kind of nice, and will give the shotcrete something to grip, but it may be a bit of a bumpy hassle for laying the track.
The bleeder pipes were made of flexible corrugated drain pipe nailed to either side of the forms. As the heavy concrete was poured, the light weight pipe floated up in the middle, which is probably not ideal at all. The guys pouring the concrete made brief attempts to hold it down by stepping on it. Next time, I will bring my own 2ft sections of rigid PVC so I can get the slope I want.
The concrete bulged in a few places and some of the edges were a little rough, but overall, it worked out nicely…
Funny thing is, I am still waiting on a bill. I have not paid a cent yet. I actually texted Doug today asking if they would send a bill so I can pay it. I am more eager than usual to pay because anything I can pay out before we close (next Tuesday) means I don’t have to bring an extra 10% (safety factor) to closing.
Some of you may have noticed a section of the swallows nest collapsing in the rain during the last video, click here to jump to just before the sand collapses. Did anything bad happen to the swallows? Well, I didn’t find any dead birds, but I found an egg… Oh well.
The building inspector said these swallows were great for eating the bugs flying around the site. I just hope the excavated sand holds up until the little birds are ready to fly.
Steel Shipping Container
Since my construction site is so far from my home, I needed a way to lock up construction equipment (generator, welder, table saw), supplies, etc. I ended up deciding that a 20’ steel shipping container would be a pretty good idea (thanks to John H. for the tip). They are pretty cheap ($1300 to $1600), so I was tempted to buy one (and later bury it), but I got such a great price on rental (79$/month, which is less than half of what others were charging) and delivery from MACs Storage Containers in Lansing that I couldn’t justify buying one…
I had leveled the “perfect spot” across the driveway from the rest of the construction site. But the sand on either side of my driveway is very soft and the heavily loaded tilt truck was just tearing it up. It was quickly stuck up to its axels. Eric, the delivery guy from MACs, started “unloading” where he was, on an uneven spot of sand half overlapping the driveway and pretty much in the way of all the future trucks that would be coming thru. I thought, “Oh well, now I really need to buy a tractor so I can drag this into a proper location.” But it turned out that Eric was just using the tilt bed like a clams foot to push the truck out of its hole and try again. He tried a couple other approaches as I looked hopefully on. Eventually, he asked if I minded him driving on the grass behind the spot, I didn’t. But to make that work, he would need to turn the container around so the door would be on the right side. He slipped it off, drove the truck around and scooped it up again with evident expertise, which I always appreciate in anyone I work with. After that, the delivery was easy and he was out of there quickly.
I will probably need to go and jack up the the front left corner a bit to level it out before I move in. I will also need to buy a couple locks. The container has 4 vertical locking bars so it is pretty secure (unless the theif has a tilt bed truck like Eric). It smelled a bit musty inside, but it has the secure storage space I need. John also gave me the idea of putting a tarp off the one side for a shady place to work.
Here is a video of the delivery, just because I could.
Next steps
Friday (June 20th), I plan to put the basement door bucks together and head out there to lay the basement track. My vertical studs may arrive and so I can start to go vertical on Saturday. I still need to buy some scaffolding, but I will take my 15 ft ladder for now and start with the shorter pieces.
According to my original gantt chart, I should have had the whole footing done 6 weeks ago, not just the basement. We got a late start and both the excavation and footings were stretched out over too many days. I really need to try and catch up before winter sets in.
The latest little thing to go wrong was my steel stud distributor breaking up with the manufacturer of the Marinoware studs that I wanted to use. The distributor tried substituting for another brand that does not include the triangular cutouts that I need. These are critical because they allow the shotcrete to go thru the studs and tie everything together.
I couldn’t accept the substitution, so my order was canceled and I needed to start again with another distributor (from the next county over). However, the new distributor quoted me a price ~20% more than the original distributor for the same products. I know the price of Steel has gone up about 18% over the past year, but ~20% over 1 week is a bit more than I could accept. Thursday and Friday I was making calls trying to get the price back down again. Every time they called me back, I was on the phone in another meeting (at my real job). I will need to pick that back up on Monday (which actually looks fully booked already).
In the mean time, I ordered a 20′ steel container for the site. I will use it for secure storage and as a workshop. I had been very tempted to buy one (for $1300 plus delivery), but at only $76 per month to rent, I couldn’t justify the purchase.
I also ordered the steel track (from the first distributor) so I can start laying out the walls on the footings. The track doesn’t need to be MarinoWare, and actually ClarkDietrich has flexitrack for less than half the price of the MarinoWare track. I just really wanted to get started, and I needed to put in the track before the studs anyway. But even those were a special order that will take a few days to come in…
So, this all left me with nothing to do on the site this weekend.
I decided to focus on finding some of the things I will need later. Buying a pickup truck is pretty expensive, and my car just won’t die, so I long-ago decided it would be financially prudent to buy a small trailer instead. I already have a hitch on my car from my bike rack, but my car can only handle pulling about 2500 lbs. It also turned out that getting temporary electrical service was more expensive and much more hassle (it requires its own inspection) than just buying a generator. I started looking on Craigslist List Friday night and found a few good prospects for trailers and generators.
Saturday morning, each of my kids had a Soccer game. I decided to go to the games and call Craigslist list from there (to setup meetings). I drove separately so I could come and go if I needed to. Before the game even started, my wife mentioned my plan to one of her friends within earshot of my son’s coach. He happened to have a generator that he had been trying to sell. He came over and told me his price, which was quite a bit higher than I was seeing on Craigs list (which is probably why it hadn’t sold). I just handed him my smartphone (with a Craiglist app) so he could browse and get a better idea of the prices I had been seeing. He quickly saw that he would need to drop by over $100 to get into the right $/Watts ballpark. We agreed on $285 for his nearly new 5500 watt Porter-Cable generator. I would have paid closer to $700if I wanted a brand new equivalent. It will power my hammer drill and table saw with ease and even be able to handle a MIG welder (using its 240V socket). When construction is done, it will be a decent backup power source for the house.
We also got talking about trailers and he told me about his folding trailer. I liked the way it could be stored more easily than the trailers I was seeing on Craigslist List. He told me where he bought it (Harbor Freight Tools) and even gave me a coupon.
With the trailer/generator plan sorted out, I could relax and watch the games.
On the way home, picked up the generator and two boxes that contained the parts for a 4×8 folding trailer. Due to a combination of a special deal and the coupon, I got it for only $260 with tax. This was pretty good compared to the $650 trailers I was looking at on Craigslist, the only catch was I needed to assemble it and buy some wood for the deck and side rails.
Fortunately, my brother-in-law, John, had come to the soccer game and was willing to spend his afternoon helping me out. It wasn’t “hard” to assemble, but it had a lot of pieces and having a second set of hands (with their own socket set) helped a lot.
This next week will have a lot of rain and I have a lot of “work work” to do. I plan to get back to working on the house on Thursday or Friday. With any luck, I will be putting up studs by next weekend.
We could have swung it, but I was worried about our shrinking liquidity (I still need to buy tools, rent equipment, etc. and those costs are not covered by the construction loan). We ended up deciding to take some money out of our retirement savings plan. We will need to start paying it back to ourselves immediately (it starts coming out of my next pay check) or face a tax penalty, but the interest rate (to ourselves) was good and there were no significant fees. It was actually a pretty painless process and we put the paperwork together in about 20 minutes (Sherri and I working together). We took a bit more than we thought we needed, just in case. That check arrived yesterday.
Today started with Sherri still up from the night before going over the receipts that we have already paid. I gave up and went to bed at midnight, but I assume she checked everything more than twice more (as is her nature). These receipts are required to support our “Sworn Statement” that says how much we have paid and how much we have left to pay.
I also purchased a new 26ft tall scaffold tower today. I had been trying to get a used one. There were not many to choose from and most looked like rusty pieces of junk. The worst part was they were priced only 30% below new. I found one nice aluminum one for a reasonable price, but I called the guy and he had sold it for scrap. In the end, I needed one next week, so I decided to pay a little more and get a brand new one, and that was for a “delux” model with the extra wide outriggers and other safety features. It should arrive the middle of next week along with my steel studs (which were originally supposed to arrive last Friday). I should be able to sell it at the end of construction for a reasonable price.
