Weeks 8 and 9 – Final Lot Selection and Advancing the Custom Architecture

We have finally selected the lot on which we will build our custom home.  The lot is in the northern edge of what one might consider Milton, GA or Alpharetta in Cherokee County.  We looked at many lots as well as several tracts of undeveloped land but ultimately decided on a location within a subdivision due to the architectural controls but without lots of amenities due to the high HOA fees that tend to go along with an overly branded mega-subdivision such as White Columns, Blue Valley, Echelon (The Georgia Tech Club), The Manor, Country Club of the South, River Club, etc.  There are a lot of subdivision options in the Milton / Alpharetta area that have done well preserving the natural charm of the area and do not force amenities on the buyer, such as Lake Haven at Crabapple, Six Hills, Blackberry Ridge, The Oaks at Crabapple, etc. 

The rural location is ideal for building a countryesque custom home with a large yard and private outdoor areas as well as the other features we desire in a custom home.  The all-in cost analysis provided by Artisan Custom Estates was invaluable because the list price of the lot we selected compared unfavorably to several other options and we nearly ruled it out, but when the full cost was evaluated (including supplemental dirt, erosion control, landscaping considerations, etc) this lot was not only preferred but also less expensive.

We also had two incremental meetings with our architect from Caldwell Cline in Marietta, both attended by the builder / project manager from Artisan Custom Estates.  The involvement of Artisan Custom Estates throughout each aspect of the planning and lot selection give me confidence that they completely understand our vision as we near the start of construction of our custom home.  The custom architecture has now definitively taken shape and includes a huge wrap around front porch (which suits the hilltop lot especially well), a two-story great room with a stone fireplace from floor to ceiling, an open kitchen / breakfast area / keeping room combination, a mudroom with lockers for each of our children, a second laundry room upstairs, and a separate structure for Bill’s office.  Our custom architecture was certainly expedited by Caldwell Cline due to the general slowdown in the housing market, so this part of the process has likely taken several fewer weeks than under normal circumstances.

We expect that we will have the final version of the custom architecture in a couple more weeks.  The site planners, which are engineering firms that combine the architectural footprint and the lot survey to create the lot configuration, are already beginning to prepare the information we will need to pull construction permits in Alpharetta / Cherokee County.  There is also a final architectural review board signoff that must be obtained from the HOA of our new subdivision.  Artisan Custom Estates has coordinated every technical aspect of preparing the site plan and construction permit application and has served as our advocate with the architectural review board.  We should be ready to begin construction within a few weeks of Caldwell Cline’s completion of the custom architecture.

Weeks 6 and 7 – Lot Selection and Beginning the Architecture

We have further narrowed our lot options in Milton / Alpharetta from three to two, ruling out the third option due the HOA fees at the subdivision for amenities we do not expect to use.  For the final two lot options, Artisan Custom Estates prepared a total cost analysis, which goes beyond the lot listing price, and provides an all-in cost analysis which includes earthwork and site prep costs, drainage and water analysis, and future landscape design, among other technical details.  The costs needed to prepare a subdivision lot for construction can be a very significant consideration and we have already seen that it is important to work with a custom home builder partner with land development experience.

We also had a meeting with the architect from Caldwell Cline and both the client manager and builder / project manager from Artisan Custom Estates at the site of our most likely lot option.  Now that the architect has seen the site we can begin designing the custom architecture.  This meeting prompted a lot of thoughts including a more detailed discussion about which sides of the home will have a daylight basement as well as how the outdoor living spaces might work with the topography.  Our top lot option is situated at the crown of a hill with a great western view of the sunset and the ability to have two sides of daylight basement.  This lot also would be less expensive to landscape and have fewer drainage issues than the other option.

We followed-up the site visit with a meeting at the architect’s offices in Marietta to begin a first draft of the custom architecture.  We were amazed at how well Caldwell Cline was able to bring our ideas together so seamlessly.  There is certainly a lot more planning that needs to be done but now that we have started on an initial draft of the custom architecture I am beginning to feel like the project is really progressing.  This is a large investment of time and money and Artisan Custom Estates has managed the planning part of the project very well thus far.

Weeks 4 and 5 – Selecting an Architect and Lots more Lots

We officially selected an architect last week and we are very excited about working with Caldwell Cline in Marietta, Georgia.  It is a bit of hike over to the offices, but Roger Caldwell seems to have an especially good understanding of the themes we are seeking in our custom architecture.  We have already established a number of elements of the elevation such as a wrap-around front porch and a separation of the main house and the garage with a breezeway.  Caldwell Cline also has a lot of portfolio plans that represent the mix of exterior materials – we do not want just brick and stone – that we would like.  We have continued to put a lot of thought into the elements we want in our floor plan as well.  Our next meeting with the architect will be onsite once we have finalized a lot selection.

On the lot selection, after reviewing numerous options in subdivisions across Milton / Alpharetta / Crabapple, we have narrowed the lot options down to three.  Once we narrowed the option pool to three, Artisan Custom Estates assisted us in a preliminary engineering assessment of each option since significant earthwork costs can be incurred to prepare a buildable lot for construction.  My tendency is to compare the lot prices directly to one another, but I have seen that the lot preparation costs can be a significant percentage of the all-in cost to prepare to start building.  Some of the specific considerations include basement configuration (i.e. which side of the basement will be daylight), water and erosion control, and landscaping plans.  Having a builder with experience developing land has been important in this part of the process.

The ball remains in our court at this point to narrow the lot options down to one.  At that point we can get started in earnest on our custom architecture.  Then, it will seem like we are really getting somewhere. -Bill

Weeks 2 and 3 – Getting Organized, Meeting Architects, and Lots of Lots

We have spent the last two weeks organizing hundreds of pictures from the multitude of houses that we toured prior to deciding to build a custom home.  This mostly consisted of setting up folders on my computer that organized the photos into general themes such as exterior/elevation, cabinetry, flooring, plumbing hardware, lighting, interior decorating, etc.  Now that we know we are building a home from scratch (yeah!), I also spent lots of time flipping through home décor magazines and browsing design books to find our ideal style (my ideal style, Bill has no style).  I now have a filing system with torn-out magazine pages and fabric swatches.  I think it will be easiest to work with interior designers and Artisan Custom Estates if I have visual examples of my ideas.  This is also ideal prep work prior to meeting with the architect, which is another big theme of the last couple of weeks.

We have now met with two architects that Artisan Custom Estates suggested based on the luxury rustic motif we are going for.  Bill and I both felt good chemistry with both.  We reviewed a number of different custom home plans with each architect, several of which Artisan Custom Estates has built for previous clients, and we picked out a number of features that we would like to include in our plan.  Ultimately, we concluded that we are going to start from the beginning with our plan rather than doing a derivative of any existing plans we saw.  We just like the idea of building a custom home starting from scratch.  We have an especially good feeling about one of the architects in particular and we plan on working with him once we have a lot picked out.  I think we can get a fast start once we know where we will be building.

We also spent the last couple of weekends looking at different Alpharetta subdivisions (Lake Haven at Crabapple, Blackberry Ridge, Blue Valley, The Manor, Echelon, The Oaks at Crabapple, Six Hills, White Columns, Hawks Ridge, etc) and a number of different land listings that Artisan Custom Estates assembled for our review in the Milton area.  I think we are going to build in an existing Alpharetta neighborhood rather than buying and developing raw land; I just like the thought of having neighbors with kids who are somewhat close (somewhat!).  On the other hand, I don’t think we want to live in one of those mega Alpharetta golf course communities or a subdivision with lots of amenities.  I just don’t think we’ll get good use out of it and I’d rather just have a pool in my backyard.  I also don’t want to pay high HOA fees.  We have narrowed things down quite a bit with the time we have already invested but we still have some work to do to find the ideal buildable lot in Alpharetta for our home.  One thing we have learned is that comparing lot prices is not necessarily apple-to-apples.  Some require a lot more work (cost) than others to truly be buildable.

Having already selected a custom builder partner has been important since they have done a lot to help us understand how the options stack up. - Louise