Waiting on revisions

It was Easter Weekend and that helped pass the time, but it was murder this weekend waiting on the revisions from John. We had add 100 sq. ft to the top floor to make the back gable wall flush with the back, and I guess it's a significant amount of work.

I sent him the email at 11:00am Friday morning. It's Monday night and I haven't heard anything from him. In my profession, we usually respond to any email with something letting the sender know that we have received their email. I sent an email this afternoon at 4pm asking if he had gotten the Friday revision email and haven't heard anything. It seems like things are different in the real estate/construction industry. It seems totally acceptable not to respond to emails and to take 2 to 3 days to get back to someone on a pressing question. Our lender has so far been the most difficult to get a hold of. She seems really busy- it's not like I think she's out playing golf, it's just frustrating that it takes 4-5 days to get an answer from her.

We're still scheduled to close on May 5 and it's going to be really tight. I was hoping to have the construction drawings done by the end of this week but it's looking like that is not going to happen. Last night, I sent out an email to all of the prospective builders, asking them how long they would need to get an estimate together. Most of them said between 1-2 weeks, which seems reasonable to me.

I went over to the lot twice this weekend at two different times to see how the sun came into the site. It was really nice, especially the late afternoon sun. There's a stand of trees in the back corner that will give us a lot of shade on the back porch in the late afternoon. LeAnne went to Lowes and has already found a washer and dryer that's much nicer than I planned on us having. She realizes the battle you face when you build a new house: When you buy a used one, you just sort of accept much of what's there- it's just to much work to question every single detail (and too expensive anyway). When your building a house, every little decision has a thousand possible answers and it can really wear you down. What color is the counter? What kind of pulls? Meaning what shape? What finish? Nickel? Brushed Nickel? Brass? And wasn't the washer we had kind of inadequate? Don't you need the 5 cubic foot capacity? 4.5 wasn't quite enough, was it? I've already fought that battle (and lost) with the little details that I wanted. The bunkroom, the stair tread that wraps around and becomes a bench, etc. It's very difficult to strike a balance when there are so many sacrifices to make.

Anyway... the waiting is difficult. You want to feel like you're moving forward everyday, but at this early stage it's difficult.