It’s late so this will be a brief post, but I wanted to update everyone on the progress that we’ve made in the last few days. Mainly, the slab has been poured. Or, at least the slab for the interior has been poured along with the sonotubes that support the porch posts. The exterior slab should get poured on Monday, and then we’ll be totally done with the concrete contractor.
I mentioned before the predicament that we’re in as far as our financing goes for the remainder of the build. We were very fortunate that someone was willing to loan us the $10,000 so that we could order our materials. Our plan right now is to continue with the build and pay for everything else as we go. Bre and I went and ordered the materials on Friday, and the total bill came to about $10,200. That will be enough to get the structure up and framed and weather tight. We had already ordered the windows, so this will pay for the structure in its entirety. However, we’ll still have to come up with the money to pay for the septic, well, insulation, electric, plumbing, interior finishes, and appliances.
In order to help pay for all of that, we’ve been forced to list our house sooner than expected. Originally, when I thought that we’d be taking out a loan, I wanted to wait to list the house until the cabin was complete. I thought it would be much more convenient to just move out there when it was finished instead of trying to finish it around all of our stuff. However you look at it, that’s the reality right now and I’ve already accepted it. We met with our realtor on Friday as well and did the preliminary work to get it listed.
That’s why I’m up so late tonight; I’ve been moving things around and touching up the paint and cleaning for the past 8 hours. My goal is to make another trip out to the land tomorrow to bring out some stuff for storage in the shed and to clear up our burn pile that we’ve had at the house. Once that’s complete we will be entirely done with the house. All I have to do at that point is take the listing photos and the house should be on the market by Tuesday.
This is both exhilarating and unnerving. On top of Bre starting her new job and me building the cabin, we’ll also have to schedule showings around our work schedules. I’m hopeful that we’ll get an offer quickly. So much of the project moving forward is dependent upon us making a profit on selling – a healthy profit at that. Ideally we’d make enough to pay for the septic, well, and insulation. That way we could have those in and the cabin would be totally livable, and we could just pay for the interior finishes and appliances as we go.
The wonderful thing about not getting a loan from the bank is that our monthly premium won’t increase so once the house is sold I’ll have a considerable amount of money extra each month to help us finish the interior. The downside is that selling a house is so unpredictable. If we don’t make enough money on the sale to pay for the septic and well then we’re just going to have to do without them for the time being. It’ll be hard, but there’s really no other option at this point.
So, things have been and will continue to be a little crazy around here in the next few weeks. Between our normal work schedules, showing the house, getting the materials delivered, and building the structure we’ll have our hands full. I’m hopeful that by the time I write the next post we’ll already have an offer in hand!