And thus it begins...

 No, I'm not talking about the inevitable holiday season that is just around the corner and making me feel all sorts of Christmasy and everything even though it's not even Thanksgiving yet (lets please get through that first, please!), I'm talking about what I have lovingly nicknamed "La Casita Papita."  Or, as I like to call it "The small pool house that I will convert to a guest house so Dad can come and live with us when he finally retires."  

I've been in real estate for over 8 years.  Did I mention that before? I honestly can't remember.  I may have said something somewhere down the line.)   I have been on the buy side a bunch, I've been on the sell side.  This is the first time I've personally been on the build side and well... It's a whole new experience for me and it's been... Well, if I'm being honest, aggravating.  It ALMOST makes me wish we were doing a new build in a subdivision but me and the burbs down here?  Yeah.... That would mean HOA and I'm sorry - I don't do well with HOA's.   I am a big yard, paint my house whatever color I want kinda person.  I don't want someone telling me I can't have a giant skeleton puking into a fake barrel of toxic waste if I want to have that up for a Halloween decoration.  And if I wanna put a Santa hat on it at Christmastime and leave it up in the yard?  Yeah, I'm gonna do that.  Not that I've actually done that, but we've only been here a year and I'm trying to build up our pile again. 

We started interviewing builders in the middle of March when my Dad was visiting.  I wanted a builder he would be comfortable with and someone that I had also vetted because my Dad, as much as I love him, still does business the "old fashioned" way with a spit and a hand shake.   Me? I go by gut instinct, personal recommendations and reviews.  The biggest thing for us hiring our current contractor (and the contractor has been great, it's the subs that I'm having issues with) is the simple fact that our dog Kara did not bark at him once his entire visit.  It was like she said "It's okay, he's cool.  He can be here."  Seriously - when we were walking around the yard, discussing where we wanted the little house to go, how we wanted the porch for my dad, patio, etc.  Our dog didn't bark once.  

Like I said, we haven't had a problem with the general contractor.  The subcontractors, however... I almost feel like if I had hired him as the general and then hired out the subs myself I would have had a lot more forward progress and I'm fairly sure that my Dad would have had his house built right now if Kacy and I had the time to actually "produce" the thing.    I'm hoping that the rest of the build goes smoothly, but we'll see.   

The problem began with the architect.  Carmine.  Ugh.  Yeah, I tried to be nice.  I really did.  He had many personal problems and I didn't understand what was taking so damn long for our blueprints.  They took MONTHS longer than they should have and even then, when I got the first set of rough plans, it had absolutely nothing as far as what we wanted or discussed.  I kept sending back emails saying "No, this is wrong."  Finally, I ended up just popping his plans into my iPad, grabbed my apple pencil and started marking it the plans up, copying in the general contractor in every single email.  Eventually, the only thing we were waiting for from Carmine was the plans for the truss package.   And that was where the fun and the Jess wanting to scream at the guy really began and I'm fairly sure it was what got him fired from not just our project but also by the general contractor.   

With a little help from my friend Melissa (who I've known since 6th grade, but we weren't really friends until junior high), she got me not only the truss package plans, but was able to change some stuff that Carmine had failed to change, we added our patio to the plans (because Carmine had neglected to do that to begin with) and she also has been able to point me in the right direction to go.  Melissa has been such a massive help to this whole project and we're just now, 8 months after the fact, getting to break ground.   The casita itself is only 720 square feet!  Seriously!  It's nothing huge at all!  Guest room, office, bathroom, kitchenette.  We're putting a carport so Dad can pull straight up to it and a porch.  The plans aren't elaborate, Ikea will be where we get most of our cabinets, and the ReStore for flooring, it's really not a fancy house at all!  

I've watched my dad build three houses.  Kacy watched her parents buy fixer uppers and flip houses and her parents also ran a concrete company.  Between the two of us, we have seen it done but I've never really been in charge of one of these projects and Kacy?  While Kacy has been in charge of big commercial projects, she has never run a house and well, we're feeling a little out of the loop on a lot of stuff.  

I honestly don't think we would have had progress today without Melissa calling him (and a nasty email I sent as well, I'm not going to discount me channeling my inner Karen) and telling him "Hey, the trusses will be delivered the week after Thanksgiving."  Between that and me being like "Um, you're not leaving the trusses just sitting out there," I think this is the whole reason we have forward progress.  

But now we've got a tropical storm watch, so nothing else will probably get done until next week.  

The concrete guy is out there clearing the area, though, so I'm calling it a win.  Now, I get to figure out our next milestone.  I'm gonna call that foundation being poured. 

Soon enough we will have this lovely little casita added to our FLarm (Florida Farm).