February, 2005
To begin, I thought I would write about the decision to build my own house.
Julie and have lived in Carlsbad for decades, we are engaged to be married, we are putting our families and lives together as we begin our lives together as a couple. We talked about my house to live, we talked about her house to live, and we talked about building a house to live, we decided on the latter as the best course.
After being in my home for 16 years it was a big emotional jump to sell the house. I had been looking for a lot to build my own house on for a few years and I knew that one day I would be chasing that dream. In November of 2004, I found that lot. I subscribed to an email alert property site that allowed me to keep tabs on about eight different streets in Carlsbad that I would have an interest to build on. If a house came on the market I knew about it immediately.
This property came up, I called the realtor, she was shocked because she had just listed the house 10 minutes before. I asked her a few questions over the phone and I knew I had the property I wanted. I made a middle of the road offer on the property over the phone, site unseen, I shocked her again! She said the property had not been improved and that the house was 30 years old and in a bit rough shape. That's good to hear was my response. The offer was accepted and escrow was opened that day.
I bought the lot/house sight unseen because I knew where it was, how it was situated and what I wanted to do. The sale was not contingent on the sale of my house so that was not an issue for me but none the less, I wanted to sell my house so that I could access the equity to build with. My house sold in a little over thirty days for a good price to a very nice family, I am happy for them. It was a great house and neighborhood to raise my family for 16 years as I am sure it will be for them.
Moving day into the new house/lot. The existing house will be a life raft while we plan and build our new house.
I severely underestimated the emotional toll moving after 16 years took on me and my daughter. Even though I was steeled for it and the move was only a half a mile away, it still rocks your world. Heck my dog Thor kept running away for the first few weeks. It was a huge adjustment to go from a very nice well appointed home, to the world of sea foam green carpet, Formica counter tops and linoleum flooring with leaky toilets, showers and non insulated house. My daughter said it had a serious case of smelling old and dingy. She hated it at first but we both new what would be at the end of the road.
We have friends that lived in a trailer on site while their house was being built so this would be a cake walk.
As January turned into February we were able to basically redo the entire inside of the Egret. As we made progress inside, we really started to love the location and the house. Our initial design ideas were starting to emerge with the architect and we knew we had something very special in this property. We had new pets such as egrets, rabbits, raccoons, a roadrunner, quail, and tons of birds. Everyday was an adventure.
:) Peder