Wooohooo! We actually closed on the house this morning. Everything happened by the book, no surprises. Of course the listing realtor wasn’t there, she sent on of her worker bees to do the closing for her. So, now we have to take care of the place (ugh!). Luckily our realtor Gail Wallace is going to help us get it rented and will watch over the place until we are ready to start construction.
We’re working hard on the due diligence and everything is looking good so far. We’ve had a standard house inspection and everything looks great with a few minor exceptions. We’ve also met with an architect and some builders to discuss what it will be possible to build on the site. Luckily there are no building restrictions in the covenants for the neighborhood so we look good from that standpoint. The standard building codes for the City of Denver apply to the site and there is nothing really to keep us from building what we would like to. So, it looks like full speed ahead.
Click on the pictures to see a larger view of the area.
Well, after some back and forth and a cooling off period to let the buyer know that we were serious about our final offer, we are under contract for the house at 830 S. St. Paul. Part of the negotiation was for a quick closing, which is complicated by the fact that we are in New Mexico and on our way to participate in Ride the Rockies next week. So, we’ll have to scramble to do our due diligence the week after that so we can close right around July 4th. How exciting!
We’ve looked at a lot of lots in the various target neighborhoods and each seem to have their advantages and disadvantages and we’ve ruled a number out. We are down to three potential building sites in Eisenhower Park, Observatory Park, and Bonnie Brae. In Eisenhower Park we have our eyes on two lots totaling about 18,000 square feet that are on the Highline Canal just across from the rec center, a nice and convenient location. In Observatory Park there is an 8,000 sq ft lot that is on a half block and fronts and backs on a street. The lot in Bonnie Brae is 11,000 sq ft and is on a southwestern corner with an alley. The prices are all about the same, but the neighborhoods are very different. We think that the Eisenhower Park area would be the riskiest because there are not that many large expensive houses and we could have trouble selling. On the other end of the spectrum, we could do almost anything in Bonnie Brae and the market would bear it. So, we are thinking of making an offer on the house in Bonnie Brae! Stay tuned.
Okay, we’ve looked at enough stupid spec houses and have decided to try to build our own. It’s nice to have that decision behind us, but of course that opens up a whole other can of worms and decisions to come. The first one is where do we want to build this house? From our experience so far we have decided that we definitely don’t want to live in Hill Top, so that rules out one neighborhood. We really like the Observatory Park area and would love to find a lot there. We also want to look at the Eisenhower Park area, just south of University Hills. It seems to be an up and coming neighborhood that has a nice location. Also, if we can find something in Bonnie Brae that would be good since we wouldn’t have to change our habits.
Please join Evan, Elizabeth, Maggie & Jennifer Anderman in our journey to build as sustainable a house as possible. The ultimate site for us is located at 830 South St. Paul in the Bonnie Brae neighborhood of Denver, Colorado. These pages document the decisions that we made in the process of designing and building the house. Enjoy!