About a month ago we moved into the house we've been constructing for a year. Even though everything is not complete and I am angry with the builder, I am still proud enough of the shack to post some pics...

We back onto a small lake (looks like a river):

Swimming pool (still fiddling with chemicals to get colour/clarity right):

Dogs investigating back yard:

Wow does not do it justice.....
S

It looks fantastic. I don't want to know how much that would cost here in New Jersey!

nice house!! man

We sold the first house we ever owned for $630k about 13 months ago in Chester NJ (beautiful farming town west of Morristown - also had that house built and then lived in it for only 3 years). This is custom built and double the size and much less than double the price - got to love the cheap land and housing in Houston. Of course they screw you eventually (property tax will be about $30k per year or more :mad: ).

Originally posted by pelucidor
We sold the first house we ever owned for $630k about 13 months ago in Chester NJ (beautiful farming town west of Morristown - also had that house built and then lived in it for only 3 years). This is custom built and double the size and much less than double the price - got to love the cheap land and housing in Houston. Of course they screw you eventually (property tax will be about $30k per year or more :mad: ).

Dam...you've lived just about everywhere! Seriously, that area just west of Morristown is one of the nicest parts of the state. It sounds like you sold at a pretty good time (although the housing market here has shot up even more since then). I don't know much about Houston, but my brother bought a house in Dallas for peanuts compared to what it'd be here.

$30K/year????? Are you like the only taxpayer in a town with tons of kids??:confused:

[list=1]
When's the housewarming?
Are we invited? ;)
[/list=1]
Hope you're getting a rotary-powered ride-on mower!

The swimming pool is worth more than my house. In fact the dogs if at a pet store are worth more than my house.

the water in the pool looks very pellucid in those pics.

rx8 meet at pellucidor's house!!!;)

Looks beautiful! Hope you get all your probles solved with your builder. From looking at your pics it looks like heaven!

Wow- beautiful house! Congrats on ALL the new additions!

Wow! THAT is a "SHACK"?!

if that is a shack i live in a cardboard box

*punches hole through cardboard box*

HOLEY SMOKES... now that's a HOUSE!!!

If you were to put that puppy on the market right this instant, how much do you think it would go for.. honestly..

Originally posted by revhappy


Dam...you've lived just about everywhere! Seriously, that area just west of Morristown is one of the nicest parts of the state. It sounds like you sold at a pretty good time (although the housing market here has shot up even more since then). I don't know much about Houston, but my brother bought a house in Dallas for peanuts compared to what it'd be here.

$30K/year????? Are you like the only taxpayer in a town with tons of kids??:confused: We absolutely LOVED living in Chester - truly English countryside with rolling hills and woods. Autumn was especially nice. Now we live in a hot and humid flatland with mosquitos the size of canaries - even the flies bite. We are among the first 10% of residents in a 10,000 acre development project (eventually over 10,000 homes) that will take another 15-20 years to complete - so everyone has to pay insane property taxes to pay for all those schools, roads and parks etc that the developer is putting in (about 3.5% or more of the value of the house every year).

Originally posted by zoom44
the water in the pool looks very pellucid in those pics.

rx8 meet at pellucidor's house!!!;) No problem - just let me know when!

Originally posted by bwayout
Looks beautiful! Hope you get all your probles solved with your builder. From looking at your pics it looks like heaven! Yes the outside does fool people a little. We just got our Master Bath shower working last week (after 4 weeks living here). The air-con failed upstairs two weeks ago and the tech found one of the freon tanks was totally empty. He could not find the leak after doing a nitrogen test, so started making holes in various walls to check the pipes. Turns out there was no leak - perhaps the tank was never filled... Phone points and network points don't all work, floor tiles need to be replaced, powder room still not complete, window cleaners (from builder) scratched several gas filled double pane windows ($800 each) which need to be replaced. And so on. In the middle of all this building and fixing work we had a baby girl two weeks ago.

Originally posted by RX-Nut
HOLEY SMOKES... now that's a HOUSE!!!

If you were to put that puppy on the market right this instant, how much do you think it would go for.. honestly.. We are in a little gated community of 30 houses on a little peninsula. We have about the cheapest house here (I actually work for someone - everyone else runs their own business or is retired or into sports). One of our neighbours has a new Bentley and a Diablo and perhaps a Ferrari (but never drives anywhere except in his pickup truck). Another plays for the Texans football team and yet another 19 year old plays for the Seattle SuperSonics. I hope the house would be worth $1M, especially after they build the tollroad to downtown Houston from here in 2-3 years which will make a 45 min journey a 15 minute one (or so the marketing says).

But you want to see something REALLY expensive...

Congrats... house, baby.. and then another 'baby' when you get your RX-8!

Hopefully I'll be saying I bought a house in a few years too :P

Congrats my man. I just purchased a house last year. The garage seems empty without the RX-8

I certainly won't be able to fancy something like that...with 48% in math...

Congrats in the new house with the new baby. I was in your exact shoes a year ago. New house and new baby coming within 3 weeks of each other. Luckily the house came first. Moving with a new born would have been really bad.

Our house is also a custom house. We were able to pick out all the little details of the house directly from the supplier as opposed to a prepackaged option. From what I've learned from custom homes, that there are always problems when one moves in. I'm sorry to say that your problems are a lot more severe than what I encountered, but I also ended up hating my builder too. Actually, the whole development (only 5 homes) hates them.

I only have a couple of regrets, 1) significantly bigger closets in the Master bedroom and 2) a larger garage. I originally thought that a 3 car garage would be big enough for the cars and a workshop, but it isn't. The next house (in 25 years) will have a significantly bigger garage. :)

Good luck with the builder.

Originally posted by pelucidor
Yes the outside does fool people a little. We just got our Master Bath shower working last week (after 4 weeks living here). The air-con failed upstairs two weeks ago and the tech found one of the freon tanks was totally empty. He could not find the leak after doing a nitrogen test, so started making holes in various walls to check the pipes. Turns out there was no leak - perhaps the tank was never filled... Phone points and network points don't all work, floor tiles need to be replaced, powder room still not complete, window cleaners (from builder) scratched several gas filled double pane windows ($800 each) which need to be replaced. And so on. In the middle of all this building and fixing work we had a baby girl two weeks ago.

Big pimpin! And to think, here in Westchester houses much smaller than that go for much more. Where is the justice!?!

Originally posted by max_stirling
Congrats in the new house with the new baby. I was in your exact shoes a year ago. New house and new baby coming within 3 weeks of each other. Luckily the house came first. Moving with a new born would have been really bad.

Our house is also a custom house. We were able to pick out all the little details of the house directly from the supplier as opposed to a prepackaged option. From what I've learned from custom homes, that there are always problems when one moves in. I'm sorry to say that your problems are a lot more severe than what I encountered, but I also ended up hating my builder too. Actually, the whole development (only 5 homes) hates them.

I only have a couple of regrets, 1) significantly bigger closets in the Master bedroom and 2) a larger garage. I originally thought that a 3 car garage would be big enough for the cars and a workshop, but it isn't. The next house (in 25 years) will have a significantly bigger garage. :)

Good luck with the builder.


Congrats on the baby. How did you handle the lack of sleep the first few weeks - its tough to say the least.

What's sad is that the owner of the building company and his wife had become friends of ours - the pain is more the fault of the incompetant retarded monkeys that were used as new sub-contractors for various things like plumbing and have since been fired - but too late to help me.

And our only two regrets are 1) should have had bigger closets for the master bedroom (our neighbour has closets bigger than our master bedroom!) and 2) wider passageway upstairs between library and media room/bedrooms (big columns eat up half the walkway).

Originally posted by MRocks
Big pimpin! And to think, here in Westchester houses much smaller than that go for much more. Where is the justice!?!
Houston is the 4th largest city in the USA but not even in the top 25 for cost of living and housing (although I would prefer to live in the countryside). That is the only reason I could afford to build my dreamhouse here (nightmare the last month?), and one of the reasons I accepted to relocate here from the North East when I found my new job in Houston.

Unfortunately we will probably decide to move to a new state (preferably New England) or another country (my wife favours Australia/Singapore, I prefer England/Canada) within 5-7 years. Anyplace else we ever live will have much more expensive housing compared to income, so we'd better not get too used to the size of this place (about 5800 sq ft - getting a bit crowded with 3 of us here now we have the baby :)).

English countyside?

This is English Countryside! Take my word for it, I live in it:D

Cheers
Oilman

Ah the English Countryside ... and here I was about to make a joke about how it's a good your not living in the "Village" with Patrick McGoohan as your next door neighbor and his address is #6 ... but I won't becaue everytime I've made a "Prisoner" themed TV reference no one appeared to "get" it ...

http://www.rx8club.com/attachment.php?postid=48499

Just beware of "Rover!"

;)

Originally posted by pelucidor
But you want to see something REALLY expensive...

http://www.rx8club.com/attachment.php?postid=53646

She is priceless!

:D

You will eventually get used to sleeping less. I Luckily for us, our baby is very good and almost always in a good mood, but there were still many, many long nights rocking her to sleep or just sleeping with her in the rocking chair. Especially when she is sick or teething. Another benefit of having a baby, eventually, nothing will gross you out anymore.

Were didn't have the problem of being friends with our builder. Initially, they were very nice (family business too), very accommendating. We were their biggest fans. Then they realized that they were selling the house $150K under market value (something we knew the whole time) and tried to prevent us from going to closing. They had even toured our house to many prespective buyers and had a few of them already lined up to buy our home just weeks before settlement and this is after waiting a 16 months for the house to be completed.

After they failed in this attempt, they have been very slow to respond with warranty claims and have took our $1K landscaping package way from us.

Another example of their business ethic. They sold a house to one of their long time business associates, one of our 4 neighbors. She's, the buyer/associate, is even on the cover of their business brochure. Anyway, months after settlement, the builder suits the buyer for more money claiming that she didn't pay enough for the house.

Now, I don't want to give the impression that all builders are bad, just the one we had to deal with. We love our house and it is very solid. I would not move from it unless we had to move from the area and we don't have any plans of that until retirement.

On a lighter note, I agree regarding the wide hallways and stairways. You won't regret it when you have to move a large piece of furniture.


Originally posted by pelucidor

Congrats on the baby. How did you handle the lack of sleep the first few weeks - its tough to say the least.

What's sad is that the owner of the building company and his wife had become friends of ours - the pain is more the fault of the incompetant retarded monkeys that were used as new sub-contractors for various things like plumbing and have since been fired - but too late to help me.

And our only two regrets are 1) should have had bigger closets for the master bedroom (our neighbour has closets bigger than our master bedroom!) and 2) wider passageway upstairs between library and media room/bedrooms (big columns eat up half the walkway).

Congratulations Pelucidor! Ok cmon, let's see the money shot... the garage! :D

Congrats on an amazing house and an amazing baby (she is really beutiful)!:)

Congrats Pelucidor!
You shall be my role model from now on...
A gorgeous house, gorgeous baby, and gorgeous RX-8.
now that combination is priceless :D

Originally posted by REX8
Congrats Pelucidor!
You shall be my role model from now on...
A gorgeous house, gorgeous baby, and gorgeous RX-8.
now that combination is priceless :D

if that was in california that would be nice, but land is sooo expensive here