Life's Lessons Learned...

It has been a week of thinking, usually between 2 and 4 a.m. as to how we should proceed from here.  While my building team was looking at the quote and trying to find areas where we could save money, I was feeling as if I were hurling down a slippery slope without direction, going faster and faster.  Losing control was very real and, as most of you who know me realize, very difficult for me!  What to do? 

The bank is telling me that because of my earnings to debt ratio, I am not eligible for a home equity line of credit and my mother is not eligible because she has only charged her Cape Cod Times subscription in the last few years.  A lesson learned, if you pay cash for things, your credit history is skimpy and you cannot borrow money.  I really worry about the state of our economy if my mother and I are risks.  We have investments, own the condo outright, have money in the bank and have never been late on bills.  To whom, I ask you, is the bank loaning money?

 First lesson learned: if you have a home equity line of credit keep it as getting another one would be difficult at best!

I had hoped that this process would be easy and fun: get the line of credit, put on an addition or build a new house, and then sell the condo.  Nope!

Needless to say, there has been much advice coming my way.  All this while, I was reading a book where the heroine asked the question, “What do I want versus what do I need?”  You can imagine that I began to ask the same question.   During these difficult financial times, that might be the best advice to get.  Certainly, I would love to build the cottage that was designed for me.  It is a great house.  It has an unbelievable price tag.  Do I really need it?  I still am not sure but I do know this, I cannot move forward before I have the money in my hand.  Then and only then will I be able to relax and enjoy the experience. 

So, the condo will go on the market and we will wait to see when it sells.  That will become my budget and we will revisit the options.  Do I build the new cottage or do I go back to the drawing board and design a more modest addition giving me what I need, a water view from my bedroom and three bedrooms?

Second lesson learned:  As seductive as it is to do what you want, it might be better to do what is needed.

Making the phone call to Toby was the next step.  The Toby Leary team had given me just what I had asked for and having to tell them that I was putting the project on hold was difficult. He was very understanding telling me that they had already cut about $90,000 and were able to keep the great windows.  He also suggested that we keep the two appointments with the Board of Health and the Conservation Committee to see if they would approve the plans and issue their permits.  I agreed with him on this as these permits are good for a year.  Hopefully the condo will have sold within the year and we all will have a better idea of the budget and the vision. 

2012 was getting crazy for me and now things have settled down.  I am breathing easier already.  Getting the condo sold and one less property for me to manage will make life simpler anyway.   I don’t have to empty out the cottage right now, I can get the condo ready for the market, I can now go to Florida for most of the winter, I can enjoy a girls’ trip to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons in June and my 65^th birthday celebration with college friends in September. 

Third lesson learned:  If you have too much on your plate, remove what is making you crazy.  Life is too short to be stressed.

I am going to continue writing the blog to keep a record of the experience and keep you updated on the little things I do to get ready for whatever I do with the property.  

I went to Falmouth yesterday looking for fabric to recover the Haywood-Wakefield furniture my mother has in her condo.  Found fabulous raspberry linen with white embroidered coral for the cushions and a multi stripe for the barrel chairs I got at the swap shop.  I am off this morning to the reupholster to start updating furnishings.  Will put the finished items in the condo to update and brighten it before putting it on the market. 

Now The Real Work Begins!

When you design your dream house with your wish list in front of you, it gets very hard to then go back and have to cut or settle for less.  And believe me when I tell you that all on my wish list was not in the original estimate!  There never was radiant heat in the bathrooms!  Since we are over budget at this point and I haven't price appliances, sound systems or furnishings, we are having to revisit many things on my list. 
Already gone are the cedar shake roof, all of the built-in with the exception of the fireplace and surrounding bookcases, the Ipe decking, and most disturbing, the fabulous Ultimate windows and doors. 
Today we spent the morning looking at other window options and there are many.  As of this moment we are getting prices on the Anderson "A" Series to see what the savings would be.  The nice feature of this series is that they come in black and since we are not having shutters on the new cottage, this might be a beautiful architectural feature.  The best part is that the black is no more expensive than white!
Then it was a stop at the kitchen and bath shop.  I had originally wanted vanities in all the bathrooms but that too is not cost effective.  So, guests, you will have to deal with pedestal sinks in the guest bath and the powder room.  Then we get to the hardware.  Thank goodness I love the look of chrome as it is the least expensive finish you can buy.  Having this vision of wanting the cottage to look vintage only adds to the cost of everything.  We picked out fixtures for the baths and the kitchen sink that hopefully will be under the allotment bid and one thing can be checked off.
So we now have Phase I and Phase II for the building of "The Cottage".  When the dust settles - both literally and figuratively -  and the condo gets sold, I will see what monies are left to revisit the built-ins. 
An another topic entirely, I want to mention the difficulty I have had in trying to get a home equity line of credit on the condo my mother and I own.  I thought it would make a lot of sense to use the banks money to build the cottage and then when the cottage was almost finished I could sell the condo.  NOOOO!  Even though we own the condo outright, have what I consider a substantial amount of money in investments, have a balloon payment coming from the sale of the Blue Anchor in December 2012, and both my mother and I have good credit ratings, the bank will not give us a line of credit.  Now I ask you, if I cannot get a line of credit who can?  
 Needless to say it makes me very nervous to be spending my money during this financial downturn, but I am going on the old adage that you only go around once so for now we are moving forward.  Wish me luck!

More on my Plate!

So, after another night of sleeplessness I now have to empty the condo that we rehabbed and staged as it has been taken off the market and is being rented.  In some ways it is a blessing because I cannot keep as many balls in the air as I have going right now.  So today, instead of wringing my hand and watching movie after movie, I went and straightened up our storage unit so we can move our staging furniture out of the condo and back into storage.  I have included two pictures of the job we did because I think that the wall hanging, which was meant to be a floor cloth, will either hang in the new cottage or be on the floor in the foyer.  (I designed and painted the compass rose, not bad!)

I am going to hang the unfinished picture of the two girls on the rocks by the ocean in my cottage too. Got it at the dump, can you believe it? 

I have spent some time today thinking about some ways we can cut the cost of building the cottage but keeping  the heart of the design.  Will keep you posted as to the changes we agree on and how much we save! 

It's only money, right?

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As you can tell by the framing of today's entry, we talked money....lots  and lots of money!  Many of my friends and family are going to be very excited about this as I have been very willing to spend their monies on outfits, building projects, really anything, over the years.  I am sure that they will be there every step of the way encouraging me to keep spending.  What had started out as a simple renovation soon moved into a tear down, and now has become the project of my lifetime. 

All input to date has been..."It is only money and you can't take it with you" so we are moving forward.  There are going to be some things which have to go or at least moved to phase two, as the original plans were based on my wish list...now I wish I had more money! 

That being said, the plans are just amazing!  It is a fabulous design and I look forward to having many years in a new and improved cottage.  I cannot wait to get the drawings of the facade for all to see.  It is truly my dream come true. 
Toby promised me that we will have a great time, I am going to hold him to it!
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Internet Day!

So, I ask you, what does one do when there are so many thoughts in one's head starting at 4 a.m.:  Am  I doing the right thing? Am I spending too much money? Will the new house look silly on my quaint lane?  How much is it going to cost to outfit the cottage?  Well, the first thing you do is go on line and check out prices. 

• Do you know that you can buy a dishwasher for over $3000?  Does it load the dishes also put the dishes away? 
• Do you know that you can buy a waterless hot water system for over $3000?  Does it run the hot water through the pipes to heat the house as well?
• Do you know that you can buy counter tops made out of granite, soapstone,cement, recycled glass, laminates, man made materials that look like granite, soapstone and cement? 
•  Did you also know that if you are trying to be "green" it costs much more than if you use materials that are bad for the environment?
• Did you know that a simple, chrome faucet can cost up to $500, and I need at least four?  Just to get hot water from a $3000 waterless heater!
• Did you know....I won't bother you with any more now!

So,  after surfing the Net and realizing that, although I have done many a room over, with many decisions to be made, designing and building a house is a daunting task. 

So,  you might think that I turned off the computer and went for a walk, started drinking early, cleaned the house, or washed my hair.  NO!  I joined Netflix for a free month and had a movie day.  Watched all three "Girl" movies, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.  After my movie marathon, I am ready to go to my meeting tomorrow morning.  After watching Lisbeth getting molested, getting shot, being buried alive, and having to go on trial, I ask you...How difficult can it be to build and furnish a house!  (P.S. If you haven't seen the movies or read the books you must, they were fantastic.  And, you too can join Netflix for a free month.)
More tomorrow, this is just the beginning! 

Preliminary Drawings for "The Cottage"



"Front" of the Cottage

My amazing team from Toby Leary, Fine Woodworking have designed these preliminary drawings for the new cottage.  My team includes Toby, David Murphy, Rachel Almeida and Bill Swanson.   All the plans are based on my wish list and we will make decisions later when the budget raises its ugly head and I have to decide what I really want.  So you can understand the drawing,
the right side of the house is facing the water, the left  is facing Cedar Lane.  Not surprising, we have already made a change. There will not be an oval window by the front door but a rectangular one.  Didn't think that the oval shape matched the other very straight lines.

First Floor

You will enter the cottage from the porch into a two story foyer with the stairs in front of you.  Turning right, you will pass a powder room and the laundry before entering the great room.  All windows and sliders.  There is a step down to the deck allowing us to have a deck without railings, want nothing to block the view.  Master bedroom downstairs for when I can no longer do stairs.  Behind the LR is the Family room, cannot call it a den or office because the planning committee will think it is a 4th bedroom, REALLY?!  Will have a fireplace, wall mounted TV and Internet.  Do not plan to ever leave this house!

Second Floor

I have tried to crop this picture five times and it does not want to be cropped so here it is!  There is a landing with a coffee bar at the top of the stairs.  Might even have a small frig, budget will dictate, so I don't have to go downstairs for coffee in the morning.  How decadent is that?  Have always dreamed about sitting on the balcony in the early morning with a cup of coffee and the sun coming up. 

Both the shower in the master and the tub in the guest room have windows in them.  You will not be able to get away from the view, even if you wanted to! 

Let the Games Begin!

When I first saw the view from the driveway of my cottage I knew that I had to buy the property, it didn't matter what the cottage looked like.  In the five years I have lived here, not being able to wake up and see the water has bothered me. 
Now it is time to fix that problem!  Unfortunately, everyone involved says that in order to do this correctly, the old cottage must come down and a new one built.  Yikes! 
I am going to try blogging while I go through this process, explain the pitfalls, the expense (and I think that is going to be huge!), the decisions, as well as post pictures as we move along.
This week, after having the engineering studies completed, preliminary drawings revised, and many hours of thought as well as much hand wringing done, we are about to sign on the dotted line.
Please join me as I travel down this road, I would appreciate any comments and suggestions you might have!  I plan on building only one cottage in my lifetime, this better be good.