The Utilities

Septic:
We are using our neighbor's engineer, Felix. He came out to talk to Russ about our septic system. He was very forthcoming with information and held nothing back. He told us not to have the property deeded to us until after the septic field was in and that would save us a LOT of money. He also had Russ take soil samples, two holes that were four feet deep. Samples at 1 ft, 2ft, 3ft, and 4ft to see if the soil would accept a standard leech field septic system (not aerobic, not low pressure). Felix got the samples and had them tested. Thankfully, we can put in a standard septic system. And Felix is letting us put the system in that he designed. He will inspect it before the county comes to make sure it will pass inspection.

Russ has found a company that is going to sell us a 1000 gal septic tank for $650, including delivery. That would usually cost us much more.


Water:
We wanted to do rainwater collection only. But we found that the roof washer and filtration system was going to cost about $2500. That cost is without the cost of a water tank. Our neighbor (Antonio) had to order a water tank for himself, his mother, and he had promised to buy one for Pat (Russ's dad). Russ went online and found a company that would charge one shipping fee if they are all sent to the same address. So Antonio put in the order and we paid him for our tank (3000 gal). We are going to use the well here on the property but we have to put in about 1/2 mile in PVC from the front of the property to our acre. We still hope to put in a rainwater collection system, but that will have to be at a later date.


Electric:
We had CPS come out to access the situation and tell us what we needed to do to get electric back to our property. Thankfully, our neighbor on the other side, has his son living pretty far back on his property. His last power pole is about 300 ft from our property. CPS wants us to set a pole 300 ft further back for $1800 and $1000 for guy-wires on our pole and the previous pole. Then we have to set our 20' meter pole. Instead of spending all that money, Russ's dad has agreed to give us right-of-way for our power pole. Then we will bury our line after the meter.


So... That is all about our utilities. We cannot start our septic system until after the building is put in place, because the building will be brought in over the top of the leech field. Russ will rent a Ditch Witch so we can bury the water line and the electric line. The lady down the road has a backhoe that she will let us use for as long as we need it.

The Bathrooms and The Kitchen

I already told you about the tub.

The time we have spent at the local home improvement stores was very informative. We knew we wanted dual flush-high efficiency commodes (similar to Mom's). Both Lowe's and Home Depot told us they we a "special order" item and would cost about $200.

Gina (Russ's mom) and I were walking through Sam's about a month ago and found they had a one-time purchase of them. Russ and I went back about a week later and bought two for $99 each, one for each bathroom.

We have decided on vessel sinks that cost about $99 each for our bathroom. We are hoping to install them on an antique dresser.



Through a contact of Russ's dad Pat, who is a custom home builder, we contacted a custom cabinet maker. Russ took him a floor plan and told him what we were looking for. Southwest Cabinet Shop came through with a VERY reasonable bid.

We will have knotty hickory cabinets. My kitchen will have a lazy susan, an appliance garage, a large panty with drawers. All but one of the lower cabinets will be large drawers. They came through with a bid of $6500. Then Russ and I realized that we forgot about our kitchen island. So we assume that our cabinets will cost about $7000. This, unfortunately will have to wait. :-(

Appliances

We have spent hours at Home Depot and Lowe's. We have looked at kitchen cabinets, bead board, appliances, carpet, tile flooring, hardwood flooring, tubs, shower enclosures, toilets, interior doors, exterior doors, sinks. We have made lists, spread sheets, floor plans, etc.

Russ and I have spent a lot of time on Craigs List. Russ spends a few hours (at least) every weekday on the website.

We have also been to Appliance Smart, a store of scratch and dent appliances.

We found that we were going to spend (for the appliances we really wanted) about:

stainless steel fridge $1500 (retail $2600)

stainless steel gas stove $750

stainless steel microwave with vent-a-hood combo $250

gas dryer $600 (retail $1450)


Russ found a guy, in a seedy part of town (Kirby), that had several of the things we needed. So we went and looked at what he had available. We bought a fridge for $1100. And because we bought the fridge, he gave us a deal on the gas dryer he had - top of the line Whirlpool for $300. We also noticed that he had the microwave/vent-a-hoods and he sold us one of those for $80.

While he was writing up the ticket, Russ asked why he didn't have any stoves. He said they were hard to come by. But he had one gas stove that wasn't working properly and they couldn't firgure out what was wrong with it. Russ called him later in the week and told him that we would be happy to take it off his hands. He told the guy we'd either figure out what was wrong with it or we had a place to dispose of it. The guy called his partner and called us back and said he would give it to us.

So instead of spending about $3100 on appliances, we spent less than $1500. But we have to pay someone to fix the stove. The only thing we still need is a dishwasher. That can wait until we are ready to put in our cabinets (which I'll write about another day).

I wrote about this stuff, somewhat out of order, because we picked up all of this TODAY! We are SUPER excited!! :-)

Survey

Even before we knew we could afford the building, Russ and I spent a lot of time on Craigs List. Back in November, we found a cultured marble bath tub that we really liked. We had several discussions about whether or not we should buy it. These tubs usually run about $600 and it was priced at $250. We decided that we could re-sell it if the house didn't come through. So we made a second trip to Seguin to pick it up. When we returned home with the tub we put it on our one acre lot. I would add a picture, but we've had so much rain, we can't get back there right now.

When Russ's dad gave us the acre, we called a few survey companies to get the cost of the survey. One company wanted $2500. One company said they could do it for $800. Now, Russ was forthcoming with all the information. His dad was giving us an acre of land but we also needed a right of way for our driveway - all the way back to the acre that we chose. The acre is about 1/4 mile back but the driveway meanders its way back there and will be about 1/2 mile long. The less expensive company said they needed the land cleared before they could do the survey.

Russ called several places about renting a bulldozer. He found that we coud rent one for a week for $1400. We decided to put an ad on Craigs List for someone to bulldoze the property. We had a lot of responses. Some were more than $2000, and some came in for about $1000. We had a guy from Austin offer to do it for $800 and said he could do it in one day. Besides clearing part of our acre, they also had to clear a path for the building to come through that was 30' wide. The guy with the dozer and his partner were available on our wedding day. So, on November 28th, Russ helped them in the morning and married me in the afternoon. :-)

When the surveyors came out, they couldn't believe how much work they had to do for $800. The guy in charge here was going to call the office. Russ explained that what they were encountering was exactly what was explained to the gentleman who gave the bid. So they did the survey. Russ realized, after they left, that they did not leave markers for the acre and they had to come BACK out and finish the job. Russ says that the moral of THIS story is to hold people accountable.

Getting started

I really don't know where to start. Some friends and family have told me that this blogging thing would be a good idea. Mostly to keep track of what we are doing on a regular basis. So Russ and I will do just that.

I drive by a place called Dodson's House Moving on my way to work (I substitute teach and tutor math). There was a cute little house for sale there. I thought it would be a good house for Russ and I. Russ and I found a time that we could go look at what they have there. There were several very little houses, less than 900 sq ft. We decided that the small houses were too small for us. This place has about 50 portable classrooms for sale as well and we decided to look at those.

Russ and I found one we liked. There is a long, boring story that goes with that. I am not going into that. We ended up with a different one that cost about $5000 less than the original one that we wanted. Dodson's put in on hold for us in December and told us they would hold it until we could get financing.

We found a way to pay for the building outright and put the downpayment on it the first week of February, 2010. We also have (we hope) just enough money to get the water, electric, and septic hooked up. Our goal is to have enough to also put in our driveway (almost a half mile long) and get an HVAC system. I know, lofty goals!