Mike & Stacey's New House: January 2013

19 January 2013

Stacey and I finished finalizing the floor plans today with Andrew at Saddletree. We also met the owner and president of Saddletree, Lee Bolin. Lee likes to interact with buyers and it a pretty down to earth guy.

We tried to remove some cost by removing the air condition pre-bumbling but added hot and cold water ( with wash basin) to the garage, added a rain shower head (separate control) to the shower, and second natural gas line to the upper deck. Oh well, so much for cost savings.

We found out that Saddletree won't even start digging the foundation for at least another 3 months. Big backlog of home manufacturing. We might be able to be in the house by Thanksgiving.
We took a few pictures of the lot. You can see the slope, kinda the size, view, and the two houses already built on either side. The house on the right is a monstrosity.

The lot...

Street view. 60' wide, 141' deep. There is a minimum of 5' offsets to the property line so houses can be as close as 10' to each other. The garage is left justified so the side of the 3rd car garage will be only 10' to the house on the left.

Stacey is on the precipitous of the slope. This is what makes the walkout possible.

Stacey working her way down the slop into where the backyard will be. Pretty sure the house in the back there is empty and for sale. You have a "lil" peek at Pikes Peak. The view isn't that great.

View back to the street. Dirt looks like it belongs on the moon.

The monster on the right. It's bigger than the picture portrays.

Home on the left. This is the only house on the street that isn't a Saddletree home. It is built by Campbell homes, another great home builder here in the Springs. This is also the only home on the street that isn't stucco.

View looking NW from the back property line.

Another peek at Pikes Peak. We need to set the home on the lot so at least we have this view. That house hiding the mountains is sorta big too.

We have about 2 month to wait until we can start picking out colors, tile, and granite. Patience is a virtue.

16 January 2013

Stacey and I are going to do it. Buy a Home! We decided to build our home instead of purchasing one. We spent a few month going through Colorado Springs inventory of homes. There are some great homes and not so great homes. What we really learned about CoS neighborhoods was where not to live. Some of the neighborhoods were just " 'hoods". After weighing the pluses and minuses of what CoS has to offer, we decided on Saddletree Homes to build our home in Cordera. We just became those people.

We decided we wanted to build a ranch design and chose the Monarch floor plan with the Craftsman elevation.

We chose the Elevation B plan and added a 3rd garage. This Elevation has brick\rock on the bottom, then stucco above the rock and finally some type of siding above the windows. Stacey said "no way on the siding" so we are going to get stucco to the roof.

Interesting external standard features from Saddletree are..

24' main garage and 8' garage doors with door openers included
18' wide concrete driveway (hand swirled texture)
Covered entry porch
8' Entry door

One of the harder problems to solve was finding the right lot. Stacey "needed' a walkout basement. The lot has to be able to accommodate the walkout with the correct slope. We learned that walkout lots are the first lots to be sold in any development.
The view from the back of the house was also very important. We wanted to be able to see Pikes Peak from the back of our home. Again the lots with the best views are the first to be sold. Finding a walkout lot with a view is going to cost you and the developers know this. We had to sacrifice some view for the walkout lot.

The Monarch floor plan includes...

4 bedrooms, 3 baths with Master Suite on main level
10' Ceilings on Main Floor
Finished Basement
Great Room
2 1/4" Hardwood flooring in Entry, Kitchen, Dining, and Great Room.
Open Kitchen with Island
Stainless Steel Appliances
Gas 4 Burner Range
Granite Counter Slabs in Kitchen, and in Baths.
Rounded Corners
Ceiling Fans included in Master Suite and Great Room.
Two-Tone paint throughout with ceilings and walls one tone and trim and doors a second tone.
Home Automation System, Thermostat and Alarm panel