How far away do you live from your new build site?

13 years ago

We are living literally less than a mile away from our new home. I have re-worked my running route so that I run past it. I always volunteer to drive home my son's friends who live on our new street (my friend, one of the moms, laughs that she never has to drive anymore because I ALWAYS want to drive!) I make excuses to take things to people who live on the street. I am ADDICTED to looking at my house! I am afraid the neighbors think I am a crazed stalker! lol!

Now that they are bricking, I feel I have to look at it everyday because it is changing so much. Honestly, it is as engrossing and all-consuming as a pregnancy! Is anyone else experiencing this? Please tell me I am not an out-of-my-mind house-obsessed weirdo! :)

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Comments (21)

mythreesonsnc
13 years ago
I'm on the crazy plan too! I am sure the guys are like, "oh boy, here she comes again!"

I live about 5 minutes away -- some days I am driving home and I find myself turning down the road where me house is being built --- I just find the steering wheel turns itself, I can't help it!

Glad to hear I'm not the only one...
joyce_6333
13 years ago
About a mile for us, too. But outside the city limits, so hoping for much lower property taxes.
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Janilyn
13 years ago
We are a 30 second walk away. We have split six acres into 1 and 5. Leaving a 150 year old farmhouse on an acre that we have lived in for the past 12 years. We hope to break ground and build on the five as soon as we have appraisal. Marketing of the "old" house will start half way through new build.
Fingers crossed!!
mskitchen
13 years ago
We're probably less than 2 miles, will have to check tomorrow when we meet the builder to plan out the driveway. Bought the property in September and the driveway is supposed to be cut Monday or Tuesday so the equipment for the well can be brought in. On the weekends, we drive past it or pull into it both Saturday and Sunday. The neighbors must think we're crazy............
buckheadhillbilly
13 years ago
We're half a mile away. My neighbors are quite used to seeing me trudge down the street with my camera and perhaps shovel or a pair of pruning shears. I love being so close that I can realy keep an eye on things. I've prevented a few big mistakes by just being there and asking alot of quesions. Off to go water some new plantings now!
motherof3sons
13 years ago
Four miles. No construction on our lot, but I do drive by our neighbors to check their status at least 2x a week.
bevangel_i_h8_h0uzz
13 years ago
Heck, when we were building, we lived 25 miles from our build site and I drove out there at least 3 or 4 times a week! And my trips were almost never just "drive bys". I usually spent at least an hour, sometimes more, just looking things over and day-dreaming it as a completed house. By the time we moved in, I could find my way around blind-folded!

I know DH took a swing by on his way to or from work practically every single day as well. I don't think he ever spent quite as much time as I did but it added about 10 minutes to his 45 minute (each way) commute - IF all did was just take a quick drive by and didn't stop in to take a closer look.

And, the two of us always went out together every Saturday or Sunday and spent an hour or so looking over the progress, taking pictures, and discussing things. If there wasn't anything new going on IN the house, we tramped around the 4 acres and talked about what we wanted to do with the landscaping.

Frankly, I'd probably have taken a sleeping bag and a tent and just LIVED out there except that our neighborhood association has rules against camping on the properties. LOL!

You're either completely normal or we're all crazy together!
kateskouros
13 years ago
about 50 feet.
and it's getting old already.
xc60
13 years ago
Kate, how much longer before your done?

We live about 10 minutes away and I go almost daily, hubby works out of town so he only sees it about twice a month. My excuse is I "have to" check the mail. It's so much harder to stay away now that things are at the end and you can see it all come together.
flgargoyle
13 years ago
Currently, we live over 600 miles from our site, but nothing is happening just yet. I am going to get things started before I re-locate, but once the actual building starts, I'll be living at ground zero.
ImaCurvyGrrl
13 years ago
We live about 15 minutes away from our new build (in a direction we never drive). We've had it for over a year and since not much has happened since then, we probably only go visit once a month to make sure everything is okay.

But now that the build is starting soon, well, probably a couple of times a week. Thank goodness the sun stays out later now, so we can go at the end of DH's workday.
saune
13 years ago
Lucky to those of you who live close! We're not too far - about 30 minutes. We usually go once or twice a week, but the trip is made less fun by the 3 kids who dislike the drive.
motherof3sons
13 years ago
(((HUGS))) to Kate. We are all pulling for you.
bh401
13 years ago
We rent a house about 15 minutes from current build. Current build is across the road from our old house.(It faces the farm and now we are building farther off the road on our farm)

It would have been great to have not had to sell the old one first.(easy move) I go out about everyday, sometimes more than once.(cell service is spotty and sometimes you have to drive out to talk to the GC or subs)
cyngar
13 years ago
I'll be 600 miles away but will be having my father-in-law close by to help manage the build. I hope that's not a big mistake.
k_johnson11_yahoo_co_uk
12 years ago
I AM living in a house whilst major work is in progress to convert rooms into studio flats which involves demolition work
is this legal
flgargoyle
12 years ago
That depends entirely upon how your local jurisdiction views it. When I build my house in rural South Carolina, I'll be living in a camper, then in the barn. Perfectly legal there, but in some places, they would probably throw me in jail.

The tricky part is trying to get the answer to the question without showing your hand. Once they know what you're up to, it's too late to do it on the sly if it is illegal.
wwwonderwhiskers
12 years ago
22.8 miles......
Our behavior more like bevangels.
Every time I think we're over the top with this project & can at least coast a tad, I see that there is yet another rise up ahead. So we have to marshall the forces again. It's tiring.
bevangel_i_h8_h0uzz
12 years ago
Happy 4th of July WWWonderwhiskers! It being the 4th of July and then seeing this old post revived reminds me of the 4th of July that passed while we were in the midst of building our house. (July 4, 2008). That summer was dry and hot and the 4th was a windy day. Since we were building out in the country, round mid-afternoon DH and I got to worrying about what might happen is someone started shooting off fireworks on or near our property. All that wood and sawdust in our less-than-half-completed new home and nobody to call the fire department if a fire got started!

So we skipped out of the barbeque we HAD been planning to go to, dug up a couple of our battery operated camp lanterns, bought a bucket of chicken and headed out to the new house with our cell phones. We spent the entire evening perched on a 4x8 sheet of plywood up in the attic (roof wasn't on yet) of our new house watching distant fireworks and looking at the stars! Finally headed back home to bed around midnight when we finally stopped seeing or hearing any fireworks.

One of my better memories of the house-building process...

Happy 4th everybody!
wwwonderwhiskers
12 years ago
Thank you bevangel; Happy 4th to you & everyone. Hope yours was *sparkly* and safe.
What a fun memory & good story - thanks for sharing. Maybe we should start a thread with good, fun memory stories like this? Might get our minds off all the stuff going wrong & out of our control....
Capegirl05
12 years ago
Well, this is going to sound crazy...we are building right next door. We bought a house in this neighborhood 5 years ago, and there are things about this house we don't like...but we LOVE our neighborhood. Since we are doing the "cleanup work" to save $$, it makes it easy to just walk over and start working. The subs don't like you there when they are there, but other than that, it has been great. And, an extra bonus...when we sell our existing home, we can pick our neighbors...

How far away do you live from your new build site?

Comments (21)

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