Weeks 10 and 11 – Finished Custom Architecture and Financing Origination

Caldwell Cline in Marietta, GA has completed our custom architecture and we feel better than ever about our future home.  Roger Caldwell was great to work with and Artisan Custom Estates provided great technical and aesthetic support throughout the architectural design and planning stage of the project.  Now that we know definitively what we plan to build, we have prepared the financing package for the bank to originate construction to permanent financing (CP Loan).  We had the financial and credit portions of the package together and submitted a couple of weeks ago but the approval was awaiting the appraisal of the architecture.

We formally placed the lot under contract after a brief sequence of back and forth with the developer.  This is a great time to be purchasing a lot parcel from a developer in the Alpharetta, GA vicinity because the market has several years of inventory.  We were able to use this leverage as part of our offer and obtain what we feel like is an excellent value in the property.  We did not retain the services of a real estate agent in this process and our project manager from Artisan Custom Estates has been a fierce advocate of our interests in the negotiations and even got us a 3% discount on our final offer since there is no buyer’s agent fee in the transaction.  Once the CP loan has been approved and is ready to close we will purchase the lot.

We finally settled on the Blackberry Ridge subdivision in Alpharetta, GA.  Blackberry Ridge is an amazing piece of property with about 40 lots of various sizes, each larger than 2 acres.  Blackberry Ridge was developed in two phases with the second phase now filling up.  The property borders the Georgia Tech Club golf course and the Echelon subdivision.  Blackberry Ridge was the perfect combination of lot size, privacy (gated community), absence of amenities, and location in Crabapple / Milton / Alpharetta, GA.

The site plan, which specifies how the architectural footprint will fit on the lot, will be finished next week and then, once the loan closes, we will be ready for Artisan Custom Estates to seek construction permits.  After that comes the part we have all been waiting for – construction!

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.