Finding the Right House - Part I: New Construction: Single Family

Our search began with new construction... why not start new? That easily lead us to check out Shadow Creek in Harvard.

Dave & Kay had moved to Shadow Creek a few months earlier and I loved the little subdivision. We checked out the most expensive model in the subdivision... The 4 Bedroom Dogwood... It was $174,900.... VERY affordable.

The Dogwood was pretty much everything we were looking for in a house...

Excellent price, split level, 4 bedrooms (an office of my own), 2.5 baths, an unfinished basement, and a nice, open kitchen. The best part... of course... completely customizable since it's NEW CONSTRUCTION! I could wire that house till my heart's content. I could have ceiling speakers installed in various locations. We could blow over $25,000 on upgrades! Ahh.. the joys of new construction!

The ONLY downside I could find was location. It's 38 miles away from where we work.

Since Shadow Creek was over 90% complete, they only had 3 lots remaining that the Dogwood could be built on. It's REALLY easy to get caught up in the excitement of a brand new house. We actually put $1000 down on a lot that day! Is new construction really worth a 76 mile round trip commute? Later that day we discussed it further. Valerie decided that the commute would be too much, while I was still thinking... holy shit we can build this house from scratch, wire it exactly the way I want and pick everything from cabinets, tile, wall color, certain wall locations.... EVERYTHING! But as reason set in, I relented. Unfortunately... no matter how much I loved the idea and freedom of new construction.... it WAS to far.

Back to Introduction --- On to Part II