5/5/15 - A Quick Update and the Tale of Two Yards

When we first decided to build on the lot that we chose, we were advised that since the lot was essentially a big hill, the back yard would have quite a bit of slope to it.  We were able to see our neighbors yard as their house is already completed and it does have a pretty serious slope away from their walkout basement.  For some people, the smallish yard would be a deal breaker, but for us and our lifestyle we were happy to give up the lot size in order to get the house that we really wanted.  In the area that we were looking, there was a huge premium for a house with a large lot, and frankly, other than the dog, no one would really enjoy the yard anyway,

As we've watched the footers and the basement go up, we couldn't help but notice how high up the door way was for the walkout basement.  It was well over our heads standing at the footers, so we have been quite curious how exactly they were going to grade up to that in order to make it work.

This morning I got an email from our PM about some of the non-standard options we had requested and the status of them.  He wanted to make sure that we knew what was approved, what wasn't and where we stood so there wouldn't be any confusion down the road.  This is greatly appreciated by both my wife and I as this whole process has been very overwhelming and quite frankly, I'm not sure either of us completely remember what we chose and what we didn't.  During the conversation he asked if we'd mind meeting him at the site so we could discuss our backyard one day this week.  It just so happened that today at lunch was a perfect time for me so we went ahead and agreed to meet him then.

When we got there he went over a few of our changes, the door into the garage, the full size window in the basement and the relocation of our water heater were the big things as well as letting us know about a few changes that we were just too late to get in.  (can't win them all!)  

Then came the talk about the yard.  As I said up there ^  we didn't really expect a whole lot.  We had seen the lot, and seen the height of the basement door, so we knew that we'd have a pretty steep roll off from our basement door at the very least, but we were pleased to hear that there was another option.  Rather than having such a steep hill away from the back of the house, we could opt to have a small platform off the sliding door from the basement with steps leading down to the yard which would now have a much shallower slope since it wouldn't have to be graded up to meet the house.  This was a no-brainer for us, as we'd much rather have the (in my opinion) more useful yard and have to deal with the steps, over having a true "walkout" basement with a steep hill.  I can fully understand why someone would prefer to not have the steps, but for us, this is a perfect solution to a somewhat imperfect yard.  Besides, I'm sure the puppy could use the exercise!

Other than that, construction is moving right along.  They are planning to get the floors in the basement and garage poured this week and hopefully framing will start by this weekend as well.  Here's hoping everything goes quickly.

T-minus 36 days until we have to be moved out of our current house.  

More to come!