I took a ride out past our new house after my MLS class this afternoon....and... we have even more concrete!
The concrete blocks that will become our exterior walls have arrived.
Someone posted a comment to one of my Facebook updates, saying, "It's not like building in Illinois, is it?"
NO IT IS NOT...
First, "national builders" are much more common here than at home in the St. Louis area. (And, they have a better reputation here, too.)
If we were building in Illinois, we would most likely be having a true custom home built... one where we tweak the floor plan for weeks maybe months before any construction begins. Then we'd traverse the greater St. Louis area selecting brick for the exterior, tile for the kitchen, wood for the living room, chandeliers, cabinets, bathtubs etc., etc.
Here, we found a neighborhood we liked, chose from 4-5 available floor plans, and then picked our exterior colors from some pages tucked inside a three-ring binder. After that, we made one trip to Ft. Myers to sit in the builder's "Design Center" for four hours and choose every possible customizable interior option. (I plan to blog more about this later... a little teaser... I hid in the bathroom for a while.)
Second, there are no basements here. Either because of the soil make-up, the high water table, the risk of flooding - or a combination of all three... basements are essentially unheard of in Southwest Florida. (I fully intend to blog more about this later, too.)
Next, CONCRETE... and more concrete. "Wood frame" construction can have a negative connotation here - due in large part to the phrase, "hurricane force winds".
Sheer terror (and laziness) convinced us to pay an additional $9000 to upgrade to impact glass windows. (Meaning we don't have to mess with storm shutters AND we can actually see out the windows as our pool enclosure gets blown away.)
And, the last real difference I guess we've noticed so far is price... We have been completely spoiled by home prices in the Midwest - and we experienced some sticker shock when we started looking at houses here. We didn't adjust our budget by tens of thousands, we adjusted our budget by hundreds of thousands. (We were very, very conservative homeowners in Illinois, and we've had to reevaluate our comfort zone here.)
It's all good, though. I am exceptionally happy and excited. And, I KNOW Matt much prefers this process to what I would have tortured him with if we were doing a true custom build.
Another, "I'm not in Illinois anymore" occurrence today... As I was walking from my car to the condo earlier, a couple called out to me from their car to ask about our condo complex. They're looking to rent short term and then buy. (Realtor radar! Realtor radar!) In Illinois I was busy enough that I wouldn't have pushed much at all to try to snag some buyers, but here......
I'm rusty. I gave them one of my Illinois business cards (I feel another blog post coming on.) And, told them to feel free to contact me. I felt myself letting an opportunity slip by as I visited with them for ten minutes and just never asked for their contact information...
One last thought: "Toto" and "Otto" have the exact same letters; and I miss my little Otto pug.
Comments(4)