Almost closing

So the appraisal came back and it was quite lower than the total cost of the project. First, the land was valued significantly lower than our agreed upon price. Second, the construction was also valued lower than our agreed upon price with the builder. This comes as no surprise as the market is in the tank and all the appraisers have to compare this to is other newer colonials in the area that have been selling for rock bottom prices. Construction costs (labor and materials) don't really change or get lower so this situation is pretty understandable in our eyes.

Our builder asked around to other contractor friends who have been trying to get projects underway and they have been giving him the same feedback: new homes aren't appraising anymore and people are not able to build the new homes that they wanted to because the bank isn't able to lend them the money due to the appraisal.

Good Stuff

PS, Mikey and I found a hidden gem in Dover that I would totally recommend checking out. It is a Habitat for Humanity resale shop where people donate materials that they don't need or are from a remodel project. These are all around the country. What a cool way to save money and reuse materials that might otherwise go to the dump. We saw a sweet claw foot tub last week, but are holding out to see if we can find a deeper one that might better accommodate my giant boyfriend.

http://www.senhhabitat.org/

Driveway

So...the driveway has been approved. Our builder went to the Strafford town meeting last night and the permit is not going to be an issue. We are SUPER happy about this because that means building wont be delayed and the trees can stay where they are. Our driveway is going to be 400 feet long...we will definitely have to get a plow haha! Now we are just waiting on the bank's appraiser to come up with a value for the land and building plans to make sure they will meet or exceed the agreed upon land price plus the agreed upon house price. The annoying thing is that the bank really only values the building lot and the rest of the acreage doesn't mean much to them. We really hope the land will value for what we paid for it, especially since we bought it for wayyyyy cheaper than what the sellers paid for it 3 years ago.
This is a really exciting process, but I have never made so many decisions in such a short period of time. Even though I think we are getting a great deal on the land and construction, building is really expensive. The things that have cost us the most are having a nice big center chimney and having lots of good quality windows. We are willing ( and needing!) to skimp on things like kitchen counters and bathroom vanities because we can always update those things down the road. We are also able to save on doing some of the work ourselves such as painting and landscaping.
~Katie