Catching Up on Mt Sharp Progress

We are building on Mt Sharp Rd in Wimberley, it is about a 10 minute drive from town in the hill country. From the slide show to our right, you can see the raw land transform with a new entrance/gate and some of the clearing we have done to date, including a peak at a nice little view. I want to give a shout out to my Grandparents who have passed. Without their gift of this land we would not have a place to build, nor the instant equity to use as collateral for the loan. Typically banks will only loan up to 85% of cost to build. We are so blessed that we have more than enough equity to use a small portion for collateral and will not be out of pocket any of the remaining 15%. -Love you guys!

Today I met with PEC (Pedernales Electric Co-Op) about getting electricity out to our home site. Evidently we just recently missed the window that we pay $1300 for "membership" and they cover all expenses to run electricity to your home from the closest existing utility pole. Customers now pay $325 to join and they cover up to $2000 of the expense...I thought, "oh that will cover it for sure, there's a pole about 100 yards away on the road." Guess what...that's not a utility pole, it's a TELEPHONE pole! "About $12-15K, maybe more..." the nice gentlemen from PEC tells me. WHAT! Anywho, this was a very rough eyeball estimate and they did not know my parents have a pole inset into there land that is much closer than the one on the road they estimated from, but this is still just one of those expenses you just don't think about when you've only owned homes in the city. Let this be a lesson to you all looking to build in rural areas. Septic, well AND electricity are major expenses!

Here you can see a neato aerial photo/survey overlay of our land showing the utility path we hope to take.

Next week I hope to post our final floor plan and elevations of our home to be. We have a big meeting on Monday with designer and builder to make sure we're still on track to be within our budget before saying "yes-this is it!" and the designer produces the actual construction plans to send out for bid. Then we can get the plans and cost sheet to the bank to complete our file and proceed with the construction loan approval process.