Ahh the year 2011, after ten years of marriage my husband Joe and I decided to finally buy a piece of property and build our dream home. That seemed like an easy decision, right?? Well, about a year ago we agreed on buying a new home in the Mclean or Great Falls area. Being a Realtor in Northern Virginia, I have access to a Realtors website for homes on sale and viewing these homes was that much easier for us. After a few months of contemplating on the exact area to move into, buying an older home verses a newer home, two levels or three, the square footage, how many bedrooms, how big of a land and the list just went on and on. We viewed multiple homes in our desired area and we just couldn't agree or grasp the idea of moving into a home and still updating the newly bought home. We simply gave up on searching and just decided for our satisfaction that we would buy a tear down and rebuild. Another easy decision, right? So again I hopped on the realtors website and continued looking for an older home with enough land for us to add a swing set for our children. I would have said this is where the stress began but who am I fooling? We found a few lots up for sale, I write the offers and after a week we receive that dreading phone call that another offer was chosen. Must I say that it is such a disappointment when someone else beats you to the punch. At this point we had broadened our horizon and added Vienna to our list. Then it happened only after a year of thinking to myself, are we ever going move?!?!
We were driven around Vienna when we passed this lovely one acre piece of land. Immediately that night I wrote the offer, called the agent to make sure that he received it and I went to bed hoping that we are the new buyers. After a few days, I received a phone call from the Selling Agent saying you got the offer, "sigh" what a relief. I called my husband saying yay we got the offer and I remember him calling me several times that day asking me if I was serious cause he couldn't believe that we were the new owners of a 1 acre piece of land and such a beautiful piece it was.
If I tell you after our settlement that we drove to this property maybe five times that day then 7 times that following day and I would snap a picture of the property every time. I wanted to capture every step because I'm expecting that dramatic difference in the end. We are very detailed and wanting everything to be perfect and follow smoothly. But where do I begin, Hmmm??!!???!! We measured where the foundation of the house should be, how far from our neighbors, where certain trees should be planted and so on . I carried pictures of other properties that I've liked and pictures from magazines in a handy folder but this handy folder got smaller and I started carrying two folders then finally I assigned a work bag to carry the lists of wants and needs, I thought the sky was the limit or more like WE thought the sky was the limit. We listed the things we had wanted in a house, I started by saying the house shouldn't be more than 5000 square feet while my husband on the other hand said between 5500 and 6000 sq on two levels with an unfinished basement. After all the decisions we made it was finally time to choose an Architect and once we did, we gave him our list and he responded with "Ill see you both next week to go over your house plans". It took me a second to realize "whoa this is actually happening".
That following week couldn't get here any sooner. Its unimaginable on what to expect. Once those plans were laid in front of us, we honestly had no clue which way was upright and what certain objects meant. After two and a half hours, I left with a headache as big as Texas and thats a mighty big state. It literally took us an entire hour on placing a sun room on the main level, at the end I threw in the towel and said I don't want a sunroom any more.
We worked with the Architects over a course of four to five months. I say "Architects" with an "S" because I would get impatient with one and ask to work with another only because they couldnt seem to grasp the image that we had wanted even though I showed them multiple pictures. I wasn't sure what was worse, visiting a dentist or visiting the architect. Till now I doubt we are one hundred percent satisfied with the outcome of the house plans. We were drained with every visit and I craved a cold caffeinated coffee every time I left that office, I needed to get my strength back somehow.
I gota explain this house to everyone. It was built in 1926, it was so old that part of the materials used to build this old house was brought by a horse and carriage. It offered a bomb shelter, that everyone told us to keep. Please people work with me here, why would we want to keep a bomb shelter, hmm?? Plus it couldn't be kept since it will be in the middle of our new basement.
There were thousands of pounds of steel, hundreds of tires laying around the entire property. Metal pieces so old that trees encircled these pieces. There was a well that was 250 feet deep and 3 feet wide that had to be abandoned, an old iron which was incredible to have been found. Part of the property was reserved by the county for the railroad that was to happen back in the 1950s but failed to go through.
Now we get down to business. Since the old well was abandoned we had to bring in public water and this is when my husband got all excited. Living (almost) on a major street, the county has to put up traffic signs, they had to dig the main road in order to bring the new pipes up to the property line, it was major work. We drove to the property as they were working and my husband Joe was like hurry get out of the car and take pictures, I was too embarrassed that I sat in my car and snapped a couple.
I believe I mentioned stress earlier on but Im going to emphasize on the word stress now. Its such a BIG word. I had visited the county numerous times in the previous months that at one point I met a very helpful lady and we'd strike a conversation every time I was there about kids, work and life. She knew my address by heart so she never needed to ask for that.
As the house plans were being finalized in that fifth month, my visits to the counties (let you know, there is more than one county office to visit but luckily all in Fairfax) grew. Before every visit, I made sure I was fed, the kids were fed, my purse was full of snacks and my coffee was in my hand. The one thing that I learned a bit too late was before dropping off any forms, make sure you make a zillion copies because some people tend to lose them but that my friend I learned the hard way. When I did arrive at certain counties, they will ask me for so so form and so so form and I will stare as if they are talking in a whole new language, I do speak Arabic, but I believe they were talking in Chinese. I would then ask them to either email me or write it down cause my ears were bleeding and I couldn't hear a thing. In order to pick up a form, you'll need a form from another county in order for this county to approve it. You also couldn't submit your house plans and site plans unless every form has been filled out, some notarized, fees paid and other counties approved them.
WHEW, by the way I'm writing about my experience a few weeks after everything was finalized. Imagine me writing as I was going through it, umm no I cant imagine it. And I should have rented an apartment in Fairfax since I basically was in that area for so many months visiting all the counties.
The first step was to hire a company to lay the gravel and place the silt fence surrounding the property line. Clear out certain bushes and trees in order to prepare for the demolition. Oh Lord, when we drove up on the property we were in shock, the land looked enormous.
Again my husband gets extremely excited but I on the other hand need more time for everything to actually sink in.
Well what can I say except that the land looked incredible and let the digging begin...
Hi Ho Hi Ho its off to work we go
We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig
In our Mine the whole day through...
(I have two daughters, so I've watched Snow White a few times)
My little munchkins, I honestly have the slightest idea of how they got down there and climbed back up. Needless to say that I vacuumed about ten pounds worth of dirt from my car during the digging process.
Is this a fantastic sight or what ??!!?? They dug for days and hauling the dirt took maybe an entire week. The top layer was soil and below that it was all pure white clay. Since the old house had no basement, there was more dirt then you can possibly imagine. It was like a never ending rainbow.
They found a few of these boulders but I should have called NASA cause this reminded me of a space comet. While the ferocious machine traveled back and forth, a six foot deep sink hole occurred not to far from this comet, I mean boulder. Beneath the sink hole was a rusted sewer tank that erupted and caused an odor so strong that luckily I was not there to smell.
These pictures don't do justice on how deep this hole actually is. I mentioned to my husband there is no point in flying out West to the Grand Canyon cause "AAHHHHHHHH" I just witnessed the Grand Canyon in my yard.
Wow, its been a few months since I've updated my blog. Every day I'd say to myself tonight after putting the kids to bed, I will sit and write in my blog. I honestly need and would like to update this but once night time arrives, my mind is too physically exhausted to even begin thinking of the blog. So here I go, after digging took place we had piles of dirt that was hauled off, the land was being prepped and certain trees needed to come down. We had two beautiful hundred year old trees that I really tried to keep but unfortunately they were marked to be taken down. As you see in the picture the two gentlemen looking up and wondering on where to begin. In my mind I thought they would begin at the tip of the tree and chop it down slowly but seriously what year was I living in?
They brought in the first bulldozer that clawed at the lower branches in order for the mother of all bulldozers to grip hold of the tree trunk and pull it to the ground. Sounds crazy right? I wouldn't believe it either if I didn't see it with my own two green eyes. It took about forty minutes but while the bulldozer was clawing away at the branches, the gentleman was sawing the trunk of the tree to loosen it up.
I mean it looked like a piece of cake to these guys, the tree came down and the guys walked away as if they had taken a leaf down. Both beautiful trees came down and that was that.
The laying of the house has begun. The footings were done, the concrete beams were being laid to pour the concrete for the basement walls. The rain had such an effect during this process. They kept putting off the project till a warm sunny day with no rain but once things got going there was no stopping these men.
The man you see in these pictures should have been on video. I watched him work the entire time thinking why isnt this man in a circus.
