Windows and Walls and Stairs, oh my!

I'll admit I don't have a lot of positivity in me right now, but I wanted to share the recent photos. There is progress being made. Albeit in super slow motion.

In the event you didn't notice, it's mid-October. I'm told we're at least 2-3 weeks out for dry wall. The bedroom shrunk by 10 inches this week. I don't trust measurements to get a bid on closet work. Our kitchen guy can't start building off-site because he can't trust the measurements we gave him, so he wants to wait until the drywall is up. Literally every inch in this house matters, which is something the construction crew doesn't seem to get or at least care about.

Tile has been ordered. Should be all ready in a few weeks, which doesn't matter because we're no where close to being able to install it. I'm frustrated and overwhelmed, which I'm sure you gathered already. I have no idea how entire houses can be built in a matter of weeks and our tiny little house has taken 8 weeks to get this far. 

I emailed our end loan provider today to find out what their timeline looks like to close. If it's 60 days like a normal closing, we're already too late since I'm sure we don't have lien releases, and we certainly can't set an appraisal date. We already turned in our notice to say we would be out by the end of the calendar year since we have to give 60 days notice, and we turned it in with our October rent check. 

That's all I have for you today. Allegedly we're supposed to have a meeting next week to talk about timeline for all the finishing related items we're apparently responsible for, but our contractor is on vacation for the 2nd time since this build started so I can't even get confirmation of the meeting date and time. 

Brent tells me to take deep breaths, and it'll be fine. We'll see.

Fast and Furious

Well in a dramatic contrast to how this project has gone up until this point, work is full steam ahead. The lot looks different every time we see it! It actually looks like a house now!

This weekend we picked out ceiling fans and special ordered a sink (Brent says a little piece of his childhood died when we did that). Adulthood at its finest.

Tonight we meet with someone else about cabinets, and in the next couple weeks we'll meet with the contractor to place outlets and things.

It is seeming more real now - that's for sure!

Am I Dreaming?

I received an email last night from the city council member covering Beltrami neighborhood. The subject line was, "You have been approved!" I clicked on the email and this is what it said.

We hadn't heard from our contractor so this came as quite a surprise. Turns out it was true. We have a building permit to build our house!

This blog is about to get a lot more interesting!

On Hold. Indefinitely.

Well, my friends. We have nothing but more bad news. The title wasn't processed correctly when we bought it from the county. We can partially fix it, but apparently to 100% fix it we have to hire a real estate lawyer and go through a not so easy process of removing the previous owner from the title (not to mention the expense). How can Hennepin County sell us a piece of land without actually doing this first? I have no idea.

But I basically feel like someone pulled a fast one on us, and we were dumb enough to trust the system.

So, as much as it pains me to say this (and it does), the official "hold" button is being pushed. We'll pay the remaining bill to the architect and surveyor. And just hope for the best when we get this all straightened out.

I wish a miracle could take place, but I think we've used them all up. Perhaps there will be a tiny house coming in 2016. But for now, we will work on this title mess and then re-start our savings to hopefully build this house down the road.

Until then...

Still Waiting

I wish I had good news. But we're still waiting on the loan. The end of June came and went. Every deadline they gave us has come and gone without progress but plenty of problems. Last Thursday was supposed to be the day we could set our close date. No call Thursday... or Friday. Today we finally hear and there's a problem with the title. How is that possible since we bought the property from the county? I have no idea.

I am ready to walk and away. Maybe try again this year. My heart is just over it right now. I said this kind of build wasn't for the faint of heart, but it's been even more difficult than I ever could have imagined and we have nothing to show for it. Clearly we should have enlisted the help of a team who has experience with non-traditional builds because right now we are constantly nagging people for information and it is painful. Apparently there's confusion about who the paying customer is.

Brent still thinks it'll all be fine.

If he's right, the soonest we'll be breaking ground now is late August.

Rollercoaster

Let me tell you, this project is not for the lazy or weak. There are a lot of ups and downs.

First, let's start with the highlight of the week. Wednesday I had the pleasure of going to speak to some staff at Walden University about our tiny house. My good friend and college roommate was part of their Green Week committee and asked if I would be willing to come in over lunch one day to do a little Q&A about our house and the process. The good news is, they caught me on a good day. It seemed to me that the stars were finally aligning. The final documents needed for the loan had been notarized on Monday. I thought we were all set to meet with the loan guy next Tuesday. I was a little nervous no one would come out to hear about our tiny house. However, I'd say we had about 15 people been the Minneapolis campus and the folks who joined via webinar (which I consider a major win!). Of course, I'm not a tiny house expert, and I know very little about building - so there was only so much to learn about me. But going back through the journey was a welcome reminder of why we've been attempting to jump through all these hoops for the last ten months (and counting).

Of course, the tiny house high could only last so long. By the time I got home from work that evening, Brent had gotten all sorts of frustrating news from our bank lender (who is impossible to track down, by the way - it's as if he doesn't understand who the client is in this equation). First, "sweat equity" is not allowed in construction loans so we will not be able to participate in the building of our tiny house without being subcontracted through someone else. Secondly (and most importantly), even if we sign the paperwork on Tuesday for the loan, we won't be able to "close" on it for 30-45 days, which means we likely won't have access to the funds until mid-July. This was a big one. Since according to the time line our architect drafted, we were supposed to be applying for permits in March/April so we could break ground in June. Now we won't be applying for permits until mid-July.

Luckily, our general contractor and the Dunwoody team seem to think they can still work with this schedule and still be done by December. We'll have more details on Tuesday after the meeting, but the way it stands currently, it sounds like we've averted the crisis.

Hopefully we'll have more good news coming next week! (A girl can dream...) In the meantime, everyone have a wonderful holiday weekend, and thanks for stopping by!

Another Box - Check!

We have good news! (Seriously!). We met with our contractor last week and signed our contract with him - the last step before we go for financing. In the end, the team ended up exactly as it was originally.

The rooftop deck is back in the plan. We still have a lot to get through between now and move in date, but we are definitely not too far from "on track" in terms of the original time line.

Hopefully by next week we'll have all the documents we need for financing, then we can sign our lives away to the construction loan, and then we can apply for permits. Once we do that, maybe this will start to feel real.

It's a lot. And each step feels like we've done so much, and yet we've barely taken any steps. But the best things in life don't come easy, which we all know. This blog is a reminder to me of all that we've accomplished so far, and I know that at the end of this road, our tiny house dreams will have come true.

I apologize for the negativity in the last few posts. Those last few hurdles were tough. I'll do better - I promise! Thanks for being on this journey with us.

Back on Track

I apologize for the delay in updating. Things have been... overwhelming to say the very least.

The good news is we are almost back on track. (insert very loud screams of excitement here!)

After our last post we pushed the pause button. We talked to some outsiders, got some other opinions, which was both really reassuring and a lot to take in all at the same time. Josh from Tikun Collective and his partner Hans both gave us a lot to think about, and we so appreciate them taking the time to do so.

Brent continued to meet with our team and made some headway. We got the costs closer to where we wanted them to be and were able to add the roof deck back in, which was sort of the whole point of the design we chose.

Hopefully in the next couple weeks we'll have everything we need to move forward with financing, which means we can then start applying for process. I know there will be more hurdles. We both do, but I feel like everyone remembers now what we're trying to accomplish here and why they wanted to work on this project in the first place.

If we can all keep that in mind, I know we really can build the tiny house we've been dreaming of.

Thank you for being on this journey with us and for sending us your positive energy and wishful thoughts. Really. Thank you.

Tiny Steps

I haven't forgotten about this blog. I just don't have a lot to report. We're making tiny steps of progress, but it's the dead of winter here in Minnesota so there aren't a lot of big monumental things happening.

We had another meeting with our architect, John, last night. He drew up plans about where he thought we should put the original design on our new lot. I'm really excited about what he came up with. He moved the windows around too, as a result of the placement, to maximize views of downtown and the big trees that exist in the yard and minimize views of the neighboring houses.

The lot is also in the process of getting surveyed by Mr. Kelly Ness, also of Dunwoody College. Hopefully that'll be done in the next week or so, then we can get the site plan finished. We'll have another meeting with John and the general contractor, Andrew, to discuss budget/costs, and then hopefully we'll have everything ready to get the construction loan in place.

From there we can do some soil testing to make sure the ground is stable enough to support the house. There was previously a house and garage on the property, so we have to see if they went through the process of repacking the soil. Or at least the area that we plan to build on.

We can also begin the process of applying for the building permits so that everything is ready to rock and roll once the snow melts and the ground thaws.

Tiny, but exciting, steps!

Cheers!

Friday night we went to the lot, parked the car, and walked around with a beer to celebrate the future site of our new home.

 It felt bigger. We have real trees, grown up trees.

We talked about what it might look like.

Next week we hope to meet with the architect to talk about design changes that might need to take place as a result of the new lot.

But this is real. It's happening.

The first part of our tiny house dream has come true.

Going once... going twice...

I'm pleased to announce that we have quite the update for you today! But first, let me rewind. The last post I made was that we were on hold. Someone else had submitted a proposal before we were able to. We knew that was always a possibility, and as it turns out, the process was more challenging than we anticipated (definitely designed for builders not regular humans - they wanted an actual list of every material going into the house, where you were buying and how much it cost, which wasn't an ideal for two people who wanted to used a lot of reclaimed and re-purposed items). Anyway, there were tears, and we started looking for other options... privately owned lots or really anything that didn't have to do with the City of Minneapolis.

We knew we were in a bit of a time crunch due to the school trying to plan their curriculum, but certainly this was a big decision that we weren't going to rush into. We weren't willing to compromise the location of our long term home. 

Our builder recommended that we check out the upcoming Hennepin County real estate auction of tax-forfeited properties. There was a cute little lot in the same neighborhood of Minneapolis, not that far from the original lot. I will admit I scoffed initially. City owned? No thank you! Until Brent did some research. We found out that the way the auctions works are pretty simple. You're the highest bidder, you win the lot. Period. Still have to go through normal procedures for building permits and such, but that's it. 

Friday morning Brent headed down to the auction with a cashier check with our earnest money in hand. We all figured emotional, anxiety-ridden me would be of no help at the auction so I went to work. At 8:30am (auction started at 9am) I got a call from Brent. Closing is immediately following the auction for the winning bidder. Two problems. One, the checkbook was at home. Two, I wasn't there to sign. So I hopped in the car and headed back downtown. Grabbed the checkbook and booked it through the streets of Minneapolis, while I got updates from Brent about how crowded the room was getting. By the time I got there, I was a sweaty ball of stress, but I made it before the initial item. 

There were more than 50 properties for sale that day. Ours was in the middle of the list. So we sat and watched. Some properties got no bids, some had bidding wars. It was stressful. That doesn't even sum it up sufficiently. Our hearts were beating out of our chests. 

Finally our lot came on the screen: 

Brent was ready. I was just trying not to pass out. Brent made the initial bid. We heard going once... going twice... and inside our heads for a brief moment we allowed ourselves to think that we would get it for the minimum bid. Then someone from across the room took the next bid. Back and forth, back and forth. Then they passed. And inside we got excited again, and then behind us came the next bid. Back and forth, back and forth. 

At this point I must say we were nearing the dollar amount we had set as our limit. So I could really just hear my heart pounding in my ears. Back and forth. Back and forth. And then they passed, and we heard, "going once... going twice... sold! To bidder number..." and Brent held up his number and that was it. We gathered our things, walked out the door, and dared to breathe. 

Then there we were, signing the papers and writing a big check (and check half as big as the one we would have had to write if we got the original lot). Official land owners in the City of Minneapolis. 

Tiny house dream back on track.

A First Glimpse

Last night, we had a meeting  at Northeast Social with a member of Team Tiny House, our architect, John. He sketched out a couple things with us before, so we had a vague idea of what this initial drawing would look like.

Basically, our objective is to get a set of drawings done so that we can start the approval process with the City of Minneapolis. Once we submit everything, the lot gets taken off the market - so no one else can try to buy it while we are in the approval process. This would be huge. Obviously.

The concept is two car garage, living space on top of that and roof top deck on top of that. The living space will be 500 square feet - the minimum required space by the City. This is different from the initial vision Brent and I had, We had thought we would do all one level - no stairs - except for maybe a possible loft area, which would be a guest sleeping area. However, during the first meeting with John, he saw our view of the skyline and suggested we go up, and it seemed silly not to take advantage of the great location.

Last night we talked a lot about the interior space, while we were there, but really a lot of that will come later once this first hurdle (City approval) is cleared.

We have another meeting set in a couple weeks. By then, we might have the drawings ready to submit to the City. In the meantime, we have to work on collecting everything else we need for that first step.

Seeing it all on paper last night made us even more excited! We know it's going to be a long process, hence this blog - to remind us along the way of how far we've come.