House Hunters: South Padre Island couple with a $1m budget
jewelisfabulous
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
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lascatx
8 years agoRelated Discussions
My Texas House Build...
Comments (13)Last night they finished up glazing the walls and cabinets. Right now we're scheduled to move in Thursday! Hope it stays that way but wouldn't be surprised if it got moved to Friday or Saturday. @homeagain... I don't know exactly how much we paid the architect. The builder just took our plans to the architect he usually works with and we approved the architect's drawups. It was part of the quote for the whole house. From talking to our Builder, whose actually a family friend, I think the Architect charged around .45 cents a square foot, which is actually a pretty good deal for this area. After the architect, it went to the structural engineer for the post-tension slab. And yes, I'll definitely post photo's of the kitchen. @worthy... Yes, closed attic. The Vent is decorative only. @mdc08... We love the stain floors, although when we took off the protective paper, there was some efflorescence (moisture that gives this white, cloudly look) evident. But they are in the process of fixing it, which is a relatively easy. The color is Golden Harvest...a dark rust, amber color....See MoreFunctional home and resale...what can be skipped
Comments (13)Thankfully I live in Texas where building is cheap. We are realistically in the $75/ft range to build the house due to the fact we own the land. Building in Texas is so much cheaper than other parts of the US that it is amazing when I see what others build for. My biggest concern of resale is due to the fact we probably wont live here that long.. Im assuming 5 years or so. Even at 3500sq ft, that would be the smallest house in the neighborhood. The next door neighbor is 5600sq ft on one side and 4600sq ft on the other. If we decide to move in the next 5 years, Im hoping to make a few hundred thousand dollars in the process. A 4000sq ft house with moderate finishes is going for close to $700k. Land value is about $200k and the house was built in 1998. Our land value will be about the same and the house can be built for $300k (estimate from a friend who is a builder). Im hoping to be around $400-450k total with land. These are the numbers we are going by. Building 3500-4000sq ft does not bother me as I see a potential for large gains in the future. Picking up the land for 40% of its value was a great help. Luckily when we add land purchase price and house building price, we theoretically will be quite positive equity wise. While I would like to stay in the house (forever) the taxes will probably run us off. Luckily in the beginning the county will add land purchase price + house building price and tax off there. I can afford taxes on that. They have rule it can only increase 10% per year, so I have a few years before taxes get outrageous. If they do not reassess the house yearly, the longer we will stay. I can afford the taxes but dont want to :D...See MoreCost of kitchen and house
Comments (27)Williemon - I feel the need to chime in here. I would run far away from this builder. I have been through hell for the past year, and your builder sounds like my first one. It starts with the odd excuses like the cabinet company not being able to do a mock up. That's ridiculous!! I used an amish cabinet maker from PA - same cabinet maker as lucretzia - and I'm paying about 15k, which is pretty low. They gave me several mock ups (hand drawn)before we decided. I think you could get IKEA cabinets if you're trying to stay closer to 10k for cabinets only. I'm not sure about those windows, never heard of them, but I'm sure macv and others can give you some advice about those. My first builder wanted to put in silverline 8500. When I researched online I found nothing but horror stories. With the new builder he preferred Andersen 400, and we went with those and love them. Worth the extra expense for sure. I would look at changing your floor plan a bit. Maybe cutting down the square footage. Please take the advice of the people on this forum and spec things out first. If I could do it over, I would pic everything out. My new builder is wonderful, but there have been some mess ups due to misunderstanding what I wanted. If you spec it out then you can prevent too many overruns. If you are more concerned about space, and you have a large or growing family, then you can go low end with some of your finishes and change them later. Like others have said, the lower builder is sending lots of RED FLAGS, make sure you see all of the builders work and they should offer you references, and you SHOULD call them. Learn from my mistakes...and whatever you do DO NOT GIVE ANY MONEY UPFRONT - NOTHING. Not everyone has the horrible experience we had in the beginning, but if I can help anyone avoid it happening to them I'll do my best. We didn't listen to warnings from others because we thought we "knew" him better than they did, and he offered us such a LOW PRICE. That low price has costed us lawyer fees and lots of $$$ and headaches. Best of luck to you. Lori...See MoreBuilding a forever home a family of 3.
Comments (51)Well, I'm in my late sixties, hubby is in late seventies, and we're delighted with our single story house :) Smallish master bedroom (but BIG shower) for us, plus two spare bedrooms, one of which is the guest bedroom and the other of which is our gym/music room. We also have a TV room/library. Decent sized kitchen, with lots of storage (so much that I almost never have to climb onto a step ladder to reach things up top). All rooms are used every day (except the guest bedroom, although hubby has been known to have an afternoon nap there). Incidentally, in the 2 1/2 years we've lived in the house, we've had family visiting overnight precisely twice. The kids are spread out across the country, pursuing their different careers/businesses, and the grandkids are starting to scatter as well as they go on to their own schools and careers. People are much more mobile than a couple of generations ago, and that's the reality of today's world. I wouldn't build an oversized house to accommodate guests who may never come. What I'm saying here is that your house should be designed around your life, your interests, your needs for today and the immediate future; they shouldn't be designed around someone else's view of what is idyllic (just see the arguments for and against baths/showers or wood/tile floors on other threads!)...See Morematti5
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