Oh, yeah, we're building a house, too

I've been so busy with the flip project, I'd practically forgotten that we're also building a house - two actually. Last year, we worked with our architect to design a home on a large property we own in the Heights (large for the Heights, at least). After running the numbers, we got major cold feet in investing so much into a single property, especially since I was considering leaving my job to stay home with my daughter.

I was talking with my coworker, bemoaning the woes of having to decide whether to move forward with building, and he casually mentioned, "Why don't you subdivide the lot, build one home to live in, and sell the other?" Hey, why didn't I think of that?

I discussed it with J, and he and I approached our architect and builder, and long story short, we are in partnership to build two homes. We've already had interest in the home that we had planned to live in, and it's likely that we will sell that one as well. Actually, we've already made the decision to put it on the market and we're actively looking for another property on which to build our personal home.

The houses will be narrow "row houses on steroids", approximately 3000 sq. ft with an additional 600 sq. ft. garage apartment above a 3-car garage. Posted is a computer-rendering of the front elevation of the first house. Like our last home, it's in the Craftsman style to keep with the architecture of the historic area where we're building. It's actually slightly larger in square footage than our previous home, but with a much more narrow footprint (leading to the "row house" designation I've given it).

Part of me is excited about our first foray into spec-home building, and part of me is asking myself, "What are you thinking?!" I liken home-building to childbirth - after going through the pain, tears, and need for drugs, you forget all about it after you see the end product. Hopefully this baby will turn out as nicely as the last one.