After several months, Thursday we closed on our construction loan! This was a long, drawn-out process, and I haven’t been making updates because it’s been frustrating paperwork and contractor wrangling and not worth sharing. We’re working on new permits, but we’re expecting that will be done in as little as a few weeks. Things are about to get pretty crazy, so I figured I should get back on the update wagon and keep everyone appraised. If you’re interested, we went with US Bank for their loan program. It lets us start from an unfinished state, and it converts to a traditional mortgage at the end.
We have most of the drain plumbing done, save some odds and ends. I have a list of things that I need to get wrapped up that is collecting new items faster than I’m getting things checked off. The top priority is the remaining roof and wall penetrations, which need to be in before the new roof and the siding.
The roof will be Owens Corning Duration Flex shingles, which should last through hail and wind and all the rest so I don’t have to get back onto that stupid ladder and the death trap of a roof again (except for the aforementioned penetrations).
Unfortunately, all of the house wrap will need to come off since it’s been exposed for too long. The windows that I installed I used the clips they gave me, which are apparently the wrong clips, and as a result all of the windows are at the wrong depth. They’ll put on Blueskin instead, which is a better product anyway. On top of that will go the two inches of rigid polyisocyanurate insulation and furring strips. If I had it to do over, I’d probably have stepped down to one inch, because we’d have a lot more siding options. As it is, with two inches of foam we basically have to use Hardie Plank cement fiber siding if we want it to be covered by warranty.
I wish the house wrap and the windows were the only thing that needs to be re-done, but they’re also going to redo some of the front porch structure as well because the wood we bought twisted and warped after we installed it. Our builder doesn’t recommend buying lumber from Menards, and now I can see why.
With the pandemic dragging on, we’re still working from home and the kids are at home for school. We’re not sure how this will work with construction taking place and we’re considering our options for vacating by the hour, day, week, and month. So, there’s a lot of exciting work about to start, and I need to go add a couple more things to my to do list!