Floorplans

This is our lot. We're hoping to build as close to the avenue at the front, to keep as much back yard as possible. The house previously approved for this lot was to be put about 15' from the road, and was 35'4" wide.

Before finding this lot, this was my favourite floor plan. I would have removed the garage, and put a bigger one in the back. I'd also swap the kitchen and "dining room" so that there's a better view of the living room from the food prep area. I think it's more important to have a view of the TV while making dinner than when eating it.

I think this main floor layout is better for this lot. It's the inside of this house. We'd reverse it (as the exterior picture is), but I've left it backwards to make it easier to read. I'd like to put the mudroom closer to the neighbour's house, and have it open to the back and side yard. MrDinks is adamant that we don't want the main floor office. We'll have 2 offices upstairs, after all. However, I like the idea of having a main floor room that can be closed off. I'm thinking about the potential for one of us to temporarily not be able to use the stairs. We could put a bed in that room. It's also a plus for resale. But it's been a big pet peeve of mine to have rooms that are never used, and we probably wouldn't get much use of it on a regular basis. Feel free to add your comments.


This is the second floor of this plan. I think the 2nd and 3rd bedrooms could be smaller. I'm also not sure I like the open view of the "great room". I've always considered that a waste of space. But another sitting area would also be a waste. And the closet space in the master is minimal.

The other question is what to do about a bathtub. We take baths about once or twice a year. Plus, for resale, we'd want to have at least one bathtub. But we don't need two. The typical thing to do is what's shown here, put a tub in the "kids" bathroom and a shower head above that. However, this guarantees that we would never use that bathroom. In our current house (which has both a kids bathroom like this, and a tub in the ensuite), I was thinking of pulling out the tub and having a freestanding shower. I would then use that bathroom myself, or MrDinks would use it. I don't like it as is, because climbing over the tub side makes me feel like I'm going to slip. Neither of us like shower curtains, and I don't like sliding shower doors on a bathtub.

So what would you do? Add a tub in the ensuite and make the hall bathroom just a shower? Or would you add a separate tub and shower to the hall bathroom? Or just leave it as shown and have a bathroom that never gets used?

Exterior Inspiration

We're meeting an architect today, so I am collecting some ideas of what we want.

If it were entirely up to me, this is the house we would build.

Traditional Exterior by Naperville Architects & Designers JB Architecture Group, Inc.

If it were entirely up to MrDinks, we'd build this.

Contemporary Exterior by Vancouver Architects & Designers Architrix Design Studio Inc.

Hmm, this is going to be tough.

This is our neighbour across the street. Other houses in the immediate vicinity are equally modern. So I think MrDinks has an advantage here. My dream house above is going to look out of place next to this.

This is a house here in Calgary that we both like the exterior of. We probably should have bought it, but it was the top of our price range, and didn't have a garage. I also didn't like the location, and most of the interior was not to my taste. And we wouldn't have the fun(?) of building our own.

Other

This house is a plan the MrDinks found. I think it might work. I like the exterior look, and the floorplan is very close to what I want. I would want the second floor window more centered, and Douglas fir posts instead of stone pillars. MrDinks would want the posts angled, but I think that would be too many angles.

Crisis Averted

After a full day of silence, the seller has agreed to honour the terms of the original contract. We should get the survey on Monday. Phew.

We're still furious with the seller for trying to extort a new closing date, but we'll play nice until the closing.

Breach of Contract?

Today was our day to remove the conditions. The bank has not yet completed assessments on the value of our existing house and the new lot. But the mortgage broker has assured us that between the two, we're okay to get the money to buy the lot. So we removed our condition of financing.

Now, the seller needs to give us the survey of the property, which our architect (whoever that will be) will need to lay out the new house in order to apply for a development permit. But he doesn't have it. So he's requested an extra few days to get that to us. We're fine with that. 

But since we're changing the terms of the deal anyway, he wants to change the possession date, too. He wants us to move it up a month. Um, no, we're not okay with that. Now, this is through our agent, but it seems that he's refusing to give us the survey unless we agree to the earlier closing date. We have responded that by not providing the report, he's in breach of contract. We're allowing him a couple more days, but that doesn't mean he gets to change the other terms of the deal.

Meanwhile, I'm in Toronto, having dinner with a friend, while MrDinks and the realtor are trying to get ahold of me, figure out how to handle it, and needing me to sign the amendment. I got it done with the power of technology, but we're still in limbo. Our agent contacted his broker, who was going to contact the seller's broker to hopefully get this resolved.  

The deadline has passed and he hasn't responded. 

Lot number 2

This lot is smaller at first glance, narrower frontage and not as deep as lot #1. But it's pie shaped, so it's bigger at the back. Much bigger. So the overall area,which was not included in the listing, is actually bigger. There is enough room along the back lane for a 4 car garage. It currently has a development permit in place for a 3000 square foot house and a 3 car garage. The old bungalow has already been torn down, so it's just the land.

It's also owned by the listing realtor. He countered our first offer just a little lower than his list price. We weren't going to go that high, but he made it clear to our agent that he wasn't willing to go any lower and would prefer to hold it. So after a couple of days of humming and hawing, 2 of which MrDinks was out of town on business, we decided to go for it and bought some dirt, conditional on financing. And once we had the financing in place, he would give us the real property report we needed to apply for new development permits.

It turns out that buying bare land is more complicated than buying a house. Most mortgage brokers can't help. The woman at the bank seemed confused and not particularly interested. But we eventually found a mortgage broker who specializes in bare land mortgages. It still requires a property assessment, and a portion of the purchase price will have to be financed against our existing house. The property assessment scares me. What if the bank declares our dirt is worth much less than we've agreed to pay? We can come up with the money, but why? Why pay more than the assessed value? We've got about a week to figure it out.