Author: <span>JanneZack</span>

A new Investment home to consider

I had a conversation with an Engineer yesterday morning. He actually did the inspections on my current investment house that is being built. During our conversation he mentioned that a LOT of investment homes/rent homes are being built in our area, especially North Mississippi. I was surprised to learn this, it is rather a weird thing to build a brand new house strictly as an investment property, well, in my circle it is. Apparently it is done in other places quite often… I’ve always thought that apartments were built just to rent which seems to be normal in most areas until they convert them to condos and sell them, which is strange to me as apartments in our area tend to become war zones, a place where sane people don’t even think of entering. But I digress.

This is a new plan that I developed specifically to fit onto some lots in a particular neighborhood. The footprint is really small, but given the available building area, it works. It really isn’t a bad layout, if it were a house for SALE, I would like to fix a lot of things, the master bedroom/bathroom situation for starters, and the laundry room location and size for another. But if you think about it, this could really be a great living plan given it’s size. The bedrooms upstairs are actually pretty large! There are even 3 walk-in closets in this house, which is unheard of as a rule in a 1300 sq. ft. house.

In 1388 sq. ft. there are 4 dedicated bedrooms! There is even an expandable area over the garage which could make yet another bedroom (if a window were added).

Think about the life many people live today with blended families. One week you have 2 kids a dog and a cat. But twice a month (or more) you have 6 kids and stuff everywhere! A bunch of kids who all want to watch a different TV program, half of the kids wanting to play video games. A bonus room in a small home like this could be invaluable!

This 4 bedroom, 2 bath, 2-car garage works, though tight. It was designed as a rental, for people passing through a phase, however, with a few tweaks it could be the ideal down-size home for those who don’t want much space.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about this one.

Freshly designed – open concept – with a SAFE room!

I get questions from people in the south every day… do you design houses with storm rooms for when there are tornadoes in the area.

YES!

Here is a prime example. I recently designed this home for a couple who will be living in North Mississippi. Tornadoes tear through our area of the country every year killing hundreds of people. New homes are required to have Earthquake equipment, and hurricane clips to help hold the roof on during high winds, such as are present in a tornado, but there is no code that requires a storm shelter of any sort.

This is one of those things that makes me do one of those silly side-cocked head movements (not unlike a dog) and ask myself WHY!?

I don’t know why, but when people want one I am so happy to oblige!

The safe room has 8″ concrete blocks with rebar and poured concrete in the voids of the blocks. The ceiling of the the safe room is 8″ of concrete with rebar. The closet will be finished out with sheetrock and will look like a normal closet. The door to the safe room will be metal and will swing INTO the closet in the event a bog tree falls across the bathroom, the door will still be able to be opened. There will also be 3 vents for air exchange in the event the occupants have to spend a long time in the room. The owners have been advised to always keep water/food, batteries, etc. inside the closet for emergencies.

So, here’s the house. It will be pretty when completely built and I hope to have pictures once it is under way, but for now, take a look and give me your thoughts:

Overall, on a scale of 1 – 10 do you like it (1-bad; 10 = excellent)
How do you like the safe room?
Would you rather have the safe room somewhere else?
Do you like the open concept personally? Do you think you would enjoy living in a space like this?

Marines

I think of the marines who served with my son often. I tend to keep up with them on Facebook as they tend to post often and I read their stuff, see their kids and feel their pain.

Garrett’s 4th anniversary passed on 27 Dec. 2014 and for the Christmas season, things are often hard for me. Once Christmas passes, the Anniversary of Garrett’s death hits. The truth of the matter is, he was actually killed on 26 Dec, but the military records say the 27th. I can honestly say this because I was in the tub in Southern California when I received a call from my daughter who was at home when 2 uniformed Marines showed up on my front porch with the news that he was killed. It was December 26th in the evening. By the time I got the call, it was approximately 9:30 p.m. California time.

Anyway, because my mind has trouble saying “yes it was the 27th,” and not explaining that it really was the 26th every time, I just suffer for 2 days rather than one… although, every day holds its own suffering. Someone once said that it was like carrying around a rock in your pocket. It is always there, but you get accustomed to it being there, so you don’t always notice the bulk or weight of it all, but it wears on you and suddenly you notice its there. You beat yourself up because you kind-of forgot it was there for a few moments or days, then because you forgot, your mind makes you feel awful for forgetting though in forgetting you were able to get along a few days as if life was normal.

There’s nothing normal about your kid being murdered by terrorists.

I say all that to say this. During those days surrounding the 25th, 26th and 27th of December, many of Garrett’s friends stop by my Facebook page (or tag me) to let me know they don’t forget. They truly don’t! They remember the day as much as I remember the day. I don’t know how they do that, but it certainly feels good that they do. They post photos and tell stories about their time with him. Here are just a few pictures that they shared this year.

Plans Change

So, while working with my builder on the new investment house construction, we made an executive decision about the Master Bathroom. In trying to keep a great bathroom, but reduce costs, we decided to flip the entire bathroom so that we could change the window that was over the shower. I am adamant about having natural light in bathrooms, but the long window over the shower was going to be more expensive because I wanted to have a cultured marble window sill (knowing that tenants will store their shampoo bottles, etc., on the window sill and it needed to be indestructible!)

SO, rather than having that expense, we decided to just flip the room so that we could put a regular window and wooden window sill. This window will open so that during the 2 weeks of the year that Memphis has nice weather, it can be opened to let the four breezes blow!

Personally, I think this helped the overall decorating possibilities of the Master Suite anyway. It allowed for a HUGE LONG WALL for decorating. (I’m assuming that the BED will be along the left wall and directly across from the bed will be a great place for a long dresser with a TV on it, etc.

New Construction – Investment Home

I mentioned a while back that I was going to build a new home for the Rental market. I recently bought 4 lots in a subdivision at literally 10 cents on the dollar, so this helped make my new venture affordable. So far the construction is going as planned. Well, maybe not as planned as I didn’t really know how it would go exactly, but it is as I expected having seen homes being built in the past.

I pulled the permit back last year and the slab was poured around the 1st of February (2015). We have had an extraordinary amount of rain, ice and snow this year, so this has made construction progress a bit more slowly than summertime building, however, I am pleasantly surprised at how quickly it is going in spite of the weather. Here are some pics of the progress.

Here we have our slab and our first delivery of lumber… the fun is only just beginning! Slabs ALWAYS look tiny no matter the size of the house. This will eventually be a 1700 sq. ft. house! (Believe it or not!)

I just love seeing the hits on my credit card for lumber… it’s more expensive than you think! BUT just think of all those miles I’m getting! After this is all done we should be able to fly somewhere warm for vacation!

Framing begins… excitement grows!

Yes, I’m sure we are annoying the neighbors, but they are rarely home during the day.

Not a lot of new framing going on because of this skiff of snow which turned into a huge icy road situation.

Second floor framing begins.

They are cutting the rafters and getting them all ready to go on top.

Doesn’t it look bigger now that there is framing going on? Man that slab looked SO SMALL!

Notice the right side of the garage has a big space where the sheathing is above the door? There is a piece missing there… it’s for our Earthquake codes. Although Memphis has not seen an earthquake since the 1800’s with any magnitude to hurt anything, we are still required to put certain products related to earthquakes in each build. It’s crazy, but alas…. government at its finest!

Fun Fact: Memphis’s Earthquake Seismic Zone is the SAME as San Francisco’s! Really?! Yep!

Now the sheathing goes on.

More exterior work going on… we now have a cornice and roof decking. It’s really starting to look like a real house!

The balance of the house will be brick. This will keep the structure very low maintenance. The siding was put on the front to help make it pretty. This should be very low maintenance as well if we will just keep it painted well.

As of today, we have some windows in and we are getting our jacket put on (this is the house wrap). It is made out of the same material that “wind breaker” jackets were made out of back in the 80’s.

BY THE WAY: Thanks 84 Lumber for giving me GREAT PRICES on my products! Gotta love my 84 Lumber dudes!

Calling all Marines!

Garrett Misener 2010 — Complacency Kills

Calling all Marines! Especially those of the 2/9 and 3/2 Marines. If you served with Garrett Misener between 2004 and 2010, I’d like to hear your stories and see your pictures. So many of you have shared things with me, but I am sure these are just a drop in the bucket. SO if you knew him, dig deep into your old computers, cameras and, memories to give me the low down!

This part of my blog is dedicated to him! I will soon post a story about his singing. If it is possible to do so (I’m still new to Word Press) I will post a mp3 file of him singing.

Let’s get writing! Believe me, it will feel good to talk!

MamaZ

Getting Started

I know it’s been an awfully long time since I blogged last… I have never been disciplined at writing a diary like my mom and my grandmom were. I just get so distracted by everyday life that I seem to find it hard to sit and write on a consistant basis. HOWEVER, I am going to try to be better, but no promises.

Today’s topic is Getting Started.

So where does my new Rent House stand? Just to catch up, I bought four building lots late last year from the Shelby Co. (TN) Land Bank. This took a lot longer to do than I thought it would, but they are all mine now.

I designed a couple of houses just to make sure that I COULD design something that would fit on the weird lots with easements running through them before I put money on the table.

I finalized the house for lot 11 since it was going to be almost impossible to fit something great on it. I wanted a double garage but the buildable area of the lot was only 23′ wide, so there is only a single garage, so I plan to pour a double wide driveway out front so that someone can park in the garage and if there is another car involved, they don’t constantly need to move their car out of the drive way in order to let the other car out of the garage. Plus this is a neighborhood with lots of kids, so this will also give the kids a nice place to play (sidewalk chalk and all).

I’ve pulled a permit to begin construction.

There is lumber laying on the lot waiting for the ground to get a bit firmer (we’ve had a bit of rain lately) so that the foundation can be started and the plumber can do his initial thing.

We’ve got the steel for the foundation all bought, so once the plumber does his thing, my slab guys can get out there and hop to it! Can’t wait until the framing starts!

Three houses have recently been built about 10 -15 houses away from mine. They look a LOT like my house will look in that they were also very narrow lots (20′ wide footprint for the house). They too, have a single garage, but they chose to put more grass and only a single driveway. The subdivision has such narrow lots that there really isn’t a place to park a second car if not on the lot. But that’s their problem.

Of these three new homes, two have sold, and rather quickly too! The builder sold the first one last May and the second around September and the third one is almost finished, they just poured the driveway. Even though I’m not looking to sell mine, at least the comps for the bank (and my eventual mortgage) will be really nice given that there have been a lot of foreclosures in this subdivision in the last few years, these 3 new sales will help me greatly.

I’ll keep you posted as to how the construction progresses. Already a million questions from my builder about windows, cabinets, stained concrete floors, etc.

I’m terifyingly excited! Never done this before and want it to go well!

Deer View

So, while out and about… while waiting for my lots to be listed on the County Register’s site, I thought I’d drive by them the other day just to see what traffic is like at that time of the day… are neighbors home at 9 a.m. or are most gone off to a job of some sort? So, I’m driving through after dropping off my hubby’s dry cleaning and discovered his little thing hanging out on my lots.

I watched her for a while, then did the block and came back to see if the sound of my car would scare her off. Not a chance, as it turns out. She was still there munching on grass.

I find it fascinating as these lots are TINY and they are right in the middle of a subdivision with cars passing by often. This, by the way, will be the view out the Master Bedroom of 2 of my houses… just some nice woods. No one knows for how long, but the land behind these lots is totally undeveloped. At least for now, the view will be wonderful! Maybe I’ll add a small deck off the Master Bedroom (on the back of the 2nd floor) so that the future tenants can sit out there and watch this kind of wildlife. I wouldn’t mind that at all!

Finally in the Game!

I’m FINALLY in the game. It’s been a LONG time coming, but I’m finally able to say that we are moving forward… FINALLY!!!!

Let’s just get one thing out there in the open… when you buy property from the government you can expect that they don’t move very quickly… it’s pretty much like waiting in line at the DMV!

I believe I mentioned in a post that I had bought 4 lots from the Shelby County Land Bank. Well, there is a process that has to be followed… in triplicate it seems, like all government work. I had to put a sizeable deposit down and pay for the newspaper ads that told the world (well, anyone who reads that paper) that I had made an offer to purchase the 4 lots to a tune of $200 per LOT! OUCH! BUT I kept a cool head knowing that the purchase price was really a great deal.

After waiting 3 weeks I discovered that no one came forward to bid against me for these lots, WHEW! My first hurdle down… 47 more to go!

Then, there was a City Council vote… who knew! That would happen at the end of the month… yet another 3 weeks waiting for that to happen. It was a mere formality, so just time served I suppose was my payment for that bit.

Then, the letter stating that I had 30 days to pay the balance on the lots, or if I failed to purchase them, I’d be barred from buying any more properties for a year. So, I got my attorney on the horn and got him to get HIS stuff going… Lord only knows what all he did, but he did manage to get me Title Insurance and Surveys and things of this nature so that I wouldn’t lose anything else if I went through with this deal.

All that came back good to go, so I went and paid for my lots the last week before I lost them.

Now, there is another waiting period, the Land Bank said that it would take 7 – 8 weeks for me to receive my Deed in the mail. Seven – Eight WEEKS!?!?! My attorney wanted to go down and pick up the paperwork and walk it over to the court and have it registered immediately, but the Land Bank kept not wanting to do that for some odd reason, so now I’m in a holding pattern yet again, but this too shall pass. My attorney also said that I didn’t have to wait to get the mailed Deed before construction, only had to wait until the Deed showed up as Registered through our county Register’s office. So now, I check daily to see if it got registered. Not only am I chomping at the bit to get going, so is my builder. It turned off cold here this week and it has rained a bit over the last few weeks. I really just want to get the foundation in the ground before all the winter rain and nastiness starts. If that can happen, I can keep a few folks employed this winter, which works out well for all of us.

So, above you see the plan. This is the final plan. I do not plan to change it again, but reserve that right as I am a woman after all.

Hopefully this will be a profitable venture and the other 3 lots remaining will have an easier go at this home building venture.

{{{{{{ Aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh! }}}}}}}

I hate waiting, but better cool my jets down so that I don’t make mistakes… especially those with lots of “zeros” at the end!

Visit again soon to see how things are going. I hope to post photographs as we go. First step already accomplished, we have an address now…. Well, the builder got one, so just holding on until the gate opens!

Another Investment Plan

Hello everyone,

I have had a great opportunity to create yet another investment home. I’ll define this again, for those of you who won’t like this house. An investment house has very few cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms. It also has small bathrooms… well, for the style of homes I typically design, for a NYC apartment, they are luxurious.

This home has 1350+/- sq. ft. with 4 bedrooms and 2 full baths. It is a 1 1/2 story home (it has a second floor, but appears from the front to only have one. The Master Bedroom and bath are on the first floor. This home has an open concept living/dining/kitchen so that those who love to entertain will have a great place to do that. There are 3 bedrooms and another bathroom upstairs for the kids, or an office, etc. There is a walk-out attic for the mechanical units (water heater, HV/AC, etc.

Have a look and as usual, I’d love to hear your comments.

Thanks, Janne