Victoria Cottage in Central Arkansas

misspriss · April 24, 2016, 08:19:42 PM

Well, here it goes. I figure I might as well start a thread, who knows how long this project is going to actually take or when we can actually break ground. But we are settled on the plan, the location, and most of the details. We are currently preparing our current house for sale as quickly as we can, then we will be moving in with my in-laws while we build like mad to get out of their house and in ours as quickly as possible.

We plan to do a crawlspace foundation, the full upstairs option, and put a partial loft over the master bedroom.

I'm super excited, I just kind of needed to get some of the excitement down on paper. Wish us luck!

ajbremer · April 25, 2016, 08:10:41 PM

Nice to see you misspriss, I hope you get to break ground soon.

April 26, 2016, 03:23:58 PM

Quote from: ajbremer on April 25, 2016, 08:10:41 PM
Nice to see you misspriss, I hope you get to break ground soon.

Thanks! We plan to have our house up for sale hopefully in early June, and then spend all of our extra time on the new house. We will be staying with family while we build, and will probably go ahead and move out when we list the house to keep it nice and tidy for sale (two small kids & pets).

azgreg · April 26, 2016, 03:25:43 PM

Can't wait for your build. The Victorian is one of my favorite designs on this site.

misspriss · June 10, 2016, 08:50:56 AM

Well, just to update, it's early June...and we still don't have our old house finished and listed. Maybe by the end of the month. If we drag our heels too much, we will miss the summer window. We are hoping to get a lot done in the next week.

We have in the application for our financing to build the new house, it is not what we wanted to do - we wanted to pay for it as we go; but we simply don't have the time to build on the slow trickle with two small kids. Our payment will be significantly less than our current mortgage though and we will be able to get the house up faster.

Anyway, we will get there sooner or later. I need to make sure I have my camera handy so I can take pictures.

July 05, 2016, 03:13:37 PM

Painfully slow going. This will definitely be an exercise in patience (isn't everything?).

Here is the lot where we will be building (from the back, the road is on the other side of the fence, the house will be about in the middle of the picture facing the other direction)

Here is the first bit, we added on to our inlaws storage buildling to store all of our stuff while we are living with them and building the house.

misspriss · August 05, 2016, 11:20:57 AM

Well, slow but steady. We got the financing we need, and we are getting quotes for the septic today and early next week. Getting started!

Hopefully I can get some more pictures when we get the septic going in and what not.

misspriss · August 07, 2016, 09:37:21 PM

Staked out the house (roughly) for the perc test guy and the septic guys to come out this week.

I took pictures, but picasa has changed and I haven't quite got the hang of it yet.

Seeing it all staked out makes it feel smaller, although it's only 100 sq ft smaller than our current home. It's because the lot is an acre, and our current home is on a quarter acre....and it has footage on the second floor and ours is a ranch.

I'm super excited! it was so nice to be able to walk around and see exactly what the view from my kitchen will be, what our bedroom view will look like, where we will park the cars, etc.

misspriss · August 07, 2016, 09:53:48 PM

Well I have pictures but I can't seem to get them posted by picasa or amazon drive. Who lets you embed pictures anymore? I feel old not being able to figure this out.

August 08, 2016, 01:20:39 AM

Quote from: misspriss on August 07, 2016, 09:53:48 PM
Well I have pictures but I can't seem to get them posted by picasa or amazon drive. Who lets you embed pictures anymore? I feel old not being able to figure this out.

I like Imgur for hosting. Works great until they decide to mess it up like everyone else does.

Don_P · August 08, 2016, 05:39:23 AM

That optical illusion to me continues until you have a roof on the box. I think the eye is comparing size to the great outdoors until then.

The first time you crawl onto the bare roof needing shingles or metal, it looks huge

I got a cheap website, ~$15/year to keep pics, sketches, etc on. I control how the files get screwed up

misspriss · August 08, 2016, 08:05:41 AM

Quote from: ChugiakTinkerer on August 08, 2016, 01:20:39 AM
I like Imgur for hosting. Works great until they decide to mess it up like everyone else does.

I have been using picasa for years. The pictures earlier in this thread are still on picasa, but I can't make it give me the link anymore. So irritating.

misspriss · August 08, 2016, 08:09:26 AM

Quote from: Don_P on August 08, 2016, 05:39:23 AM
That optical illusion to me continues until you have a roof on the box. I think the eye is comparing size to the great outdoors until then.

The first time you crawl onto the bare roof needing shingles or metal, it looks huge

I got a cheap website, ~$15/year to keep pics, sketches, etc on. I control how the files get screwed up

LOL, yes although I think it will still feel small since we have increased our land size so much. It will be so great for the kids growing up. I'll give the pictures another shot later, I'm really excited about it.

misspriss · August 09, 2016, 10:32:44 AM

YAY figured it out! I kept trying the share button, but it was under the embed button. Finally.

This is the view from the north, facing the street. The front of the house will face the street and the south, with the porch shading the downstairs windows. The upstairs window I'll have to think about, maybe some kind of sunshade until our trees get shady enough.

This is the view from the east. We are mirror flipping the plan so the master will get east sun in the AM and will not have evening sun (we cosleep with the kids right now, and they go to bed and it's still light out). This will also allow us to have a patio on the east side of the house, which will be shaded from the afternoon heat, good for grilling in the summer.

Obviously the stakes are set out in a rectangle, not the L shape of the house, but it is for the perc test guy and this is sufficient.

Makes it feel so much more real, I can't wait. I think this is the point that I no longer feel like our current house is home. Some people say as soon as they decide to sell their home they feel like they are living in someone else's house. I have not felt that, this has felt like home and I was sad to be leaving it, but now I don't feel that. I can't wait to get out of here.

Doesn't make it get here any faster though.

We will be moving in with my husband's parents while we build, it's a good thing I like my in-laws

We are going to go ahead and move in with them this weekend or the next, because it is really hard to get a house ready and list it with two little kids who don't attend school or daycare....they just make mess, all day, every day.

August 09, 2016, 07:00:52 PM

I hear ya on the kids. My first grandkid arrived in Jan. and my house has been a wreck ever since, and she's not even walking yet.

misspriss · August 10, 2016, 09:33:38 AM

Quote from: nailit69 on August 09, 2016, 07:00:52 PM
I hear ya on the kids. My first grandkid arrived in Jan. and my house has been a wreck ever since, and she's not even walking yet.

Just wait...my in laws are going to be in for a shock though, I mean they know it is coming...but MIL is used to having the kids 1-2 days a week and having plenty of time to clean up after. Here they are walking mess makers from the moment they wake us up until they fight bedtime at night. Occasionally I have to scarf my food just so I have time while they eat to pick up the house or wash the dishes!

But we are going to build a house

Yes, we are officially crazy.

misspriss · August 16, 2016, 12:45:22 PM

Well turns out we need a soil composition test, not a perc test.

Anyway, this means we have to dig some big ole holes before the guy can come out and test. And well, it's raining. It's been raining. It will be raining....as far as the 7 day forecast can see. The same system that is FLOODING Louisiana is soaking us. We aren't flooded, we are just wet. And wet. and wet.

So we are stalled until there is a break in the rain, then we get our soil composition test done.

But we've officially moved in with the in-laws, which means getting our old house cleaned and on the market as soon as possible.

misspriss · September 18, 2016, 11:50:12 AM

Old house hit the market yesterday, hopes and prayers for a quick and easy sale!

We got the septic tank soil tested (came back great), installed, and inspected. It's good to go.

I got on here with the intention of posting a bunch of pictures, but they are on my phone and haven't backed up because we don't have wifi. We only have a mobile aircard right now, and I can't waste the gigs just for uploading pictures.

*pretend there is a picture of holes in the yard*

*pretend there is a picture of a septic tank being lowered and leveled*

*pretend there is a picture of lots of dirt where the field lines now are*

There, done! (As my friend said, if you've seen one septic tank, you've seen 'em all...)

I'll get pictures later.

We intend to start the actual build the first week in October, if not before.

Living with the in-laws is....character building.

Rys · September 18, 2016, 12:34:20 PM

Looking forward to seeing your progress!

misspriss · October 06, 2016, 04:16:44 PM

Well, our old house is under contract. Had a signed full price offer within 6 days of listing (great agent and we DID put a lot of work into getting it ready to sell, not money, but sweat, it was worth it). They have already done the inspection and things are running perfectly smoothly. They also bought a good deal of our old furniture from us (that we staged the house with) so we won't have to store it while we build our new house, which is good. We will have to buy new stuff in the future, but we probably wanted to buy new stuff in the new house anyway.

My husband and FIL have been working on the footings and the foundation this week. My father in law, bless his heart, decided to do it the hard way (in mine in my husband's opinion) so it's taking a long time. If it were up to us, we would have just had a truck bring in concrete, sounds like the way to do it, no? But my mother in law wanted gravel for the driveway, so they decided (and they are providing funds until our sale goes through) to buy and mix it ourselves, and made the choice and placed the orders before even talking to us about it...but oh well. It will get done

My husband usually works in an office, he's a bit sunburnt at the moment. At least the weather has let up a bit, although it still gets pretty hot in the afternoons.

November 19, 2016, 12:45:28 PM

Finally about to close on the old house, gave 45 days and we still had to push back closing!

We have been working hard weekends since the beginning of October, it feels like it's been forever but really weekends only for 6 weeks and one long week (with some setbacks). Throw in a stomach bug and a nasty tooth infection, I think we're doing pretty good!

That aforementioned septic tank:

Preliminary trench digging:

DH and FIL setting first row of block on the footings:

Now we have the block finished, brought it above grade enough to finish the crawlspace walls with a cripple/pony wall. We want a generous but not too tall crawlspace so if want we can put some mechanical down there and/or use it for storage. We do plan on doing a closed conditioned crawlspace.

We also got an address finally, so we have a separate 911 address, we can get a mailbox eventually, we will have one ready when it comes time to run the electric and what not.

Although I have seen it said that there aren't other ways to do the Victoria's cottage, we have decided to rearrange the inside a bit. Mostly because we value a larger bathroom, and since there are 4 of us already (and perhaps more little ones in the future) bathroom space is prized. That and my husband really, really, really wanted in his dream house a bathtub he could soak in.

In general, we lengthened the main house from 28' to 32' so we could fit two equal bedrooms in the upstairs instead of a single code bedroom and an open space. Also, I saw no point in having a 4' bumpout for laundry, when bumping the whole thing out would allow me to have two child bedrooms.

Anyway, maybe I'll try and update sooner next time!

misspriss · January 07, 2017, 12:14:51 PM

Things are going...slow. The weather is not conducive to getting things done this time of year.

Things are difficult living with the in-laws during this process. Not so much for us, but for my MIL, who has decided it is her purpose in life to make everyone else miserable if she's having a bad day.

On top of all this, we found out a little bit ago we are expecting our 3rd child in August. We really, really want to get the house done before the baby arrives, but now it will be a lot harder for me to help, especially into the summer when it comes time for really getting stuff done and doing the more finishing work. Not that I can't work while I'm majorly pregnant, but my last two pregnancies have been difficult towards the end. I had severe pre-eclampsia at 32 weeks with my first and delivered at 33 weeks. My second I was considered high risk and was put on restricted duty in my 3rd tri. That and the two other kids, my MIL used to help me watch them from time to time, but she has all but completely quit doing that now.

So on the house, we are up to the floor joists. We have a few little odds and ends to wrap up but it's just the decking than the walls. We plan to be on the walls not next week but the week after. DH and FIL have some time off work and have some extra hands planning to come help.

misspriss · June 25, 2017, 08:54:39 AM

Well, I haven't updated in a while. Things are still chugging along. Looks a lot more like a house now

John Raabe · June 25, 2017, 09:36:03 AM

Looking good.

Yes, those two gables go well together and make wall area for lots of windows.

misspriss · June 25, 2017, 01:17:13 PM

Quote from: John Raabe on June 25, 2017, 09:36:03 AM
Looking good.

Yes, those two gables go well together and make wall area for lots of windows.

We've got the windows already bought and ready to go in, there are a lot of windows! I was surprised at how big windows have to be for egress too, but you got to have egress windows. It will look a bit better with the front porch on as well.

I just realized I hadn't posted pictures since we dug the trenches for the foundation, a TON has happened since then.

We no longer live with the in-laws, that did not work out. I am positive we will be fine neighbors though as our relationship is better than ever now that we don't live with them. I'm now 6 weeks away from my due date (the unexpected 3rd baby) which has slowed things a bit. But otherwise, we are quite happy with the progress we are making.

Is it unrealistic to think we might have it livable by the end of the year? I think things will go a lot faster and easier once we get it dried in, I know the interior takes time and money but we will no longer be at the mercy of the weather or daylight.