All Forum Posts by: Todd Whiddon

UP UP AND AWAY!

Everything on this project was much more EXPENSIVE than we are accustomed to building on small lots in the City of Atlanta.  Since the Front Setback was 60' and our house and our deck footers about 64' more past that we had to get a GINORMOUS pump truck to reach the back of our build site.  Not only that, but because of the size of our build site AND the fact there is a creek on our lot, our silt fencing and other erosion control measures cost over 10k!! 

While not a total first in that I enjoy drawing the plans for many of the projects we do, this was by far the LARGEST custom home my team and I have imagineered up to this point.

Framing went pretty fast, which helped make up for LOTS of lost time in the Roswell Permitting department and our FEEBLE first attempt at lot development. 

We slowed down again when it came time for exterior veneer, since we had to find some higher end dudes for our stonework than we normally use.

But the time we spent using guys that take their time and know what they were doing was well worth it!

We also asked around and found some trim carpenters that had been around the block a time or two...

That again cost us abit more than usual...

But the results SPEAK for themselves!!  Let's check out the inside!!

Here's another project we are just wrapping up and it involved so many "Firsts" for me I figured I'd share.  Most of the new construction I've done in and around Atlanta has been Infill teardown which didn't involve much site development.  This project was the COMPLETE opposite, a veritable SHERWOOD FOREST  on the side of a CLIFF! 

I'll detail out some of the build over a couple posts, but here is a sneak peak of the finished project.

Since I didn't have much experience in land development, AND I couldn't really get a good feel for the lay of the land because of all the trees...I only budgeted 5k for extra dirt to make the lot "buildable", well over 130 TRUCK LOADS of dirt and 27k later did I finally end up with a lot fit for a house!

Bringing in the extra dirt to raise the lot also required a Soil Engineer to be ONSITE for several days to test the compaction of the soil as we lifted the site, and also some additional heavy machinery that we don't normally run across...like a "Vibratory Sheeps Foot" which kinda sounds like something you would find at one of those trucker stores...

After a hundred and twenty something loads of dirt, we were close...but not quite close enough, so we decided to stop bringing in dirt for the moment, and incorporate a SUBWALL into our foundation so that we could bring in dirt only for where out house sat and stop "bringing up" the whole lot.

With the "development" portion almost done, it's time to go vertical!

 Rick-

Little as possible!  I've never had much of a green thumb / interest in landscaping, and most of the landscaping at my projects suffers because of it.  I tend to focus most of the budget cool stuff inside tile, trim, ect.   We did sod the entire yard since it wasn't that big, but didn't install irrigation.  We spent some money at the front of the project renting a bobcat for bamboo removal "much like at your pop-top house" and also installed a new fence.  I've been pretty happy with the landscape install guys we've been using lately and happy to share if you could use some additional folks!

For a yard this size or a little bigger we have been in the 5-10k range with the higher end of that spectrum including irrigation if we install it.  For our larger builds we have been in the 20-30k range for landscaping which includes more sod for bigger yards and more/better trees and bushes.

@Andrew Cordle Thanks for lunch and the opportunity to meet Mike!  Looks like wearing my Mike Holmes™ glasses paid off and I ended up getting an Autographed pair from him!

Also good seeing @Heather W. @Azeez K.  @Delon Hall  @Damir Kamber @David Bateman and everyone else I got to chat with!

 We're actually selling this house just down the street for 700k and closing on Tuesday!

The neighborhood in Atlanta is RIPE with investor activity and is transitioning rapidly. I'll go into more details on the real estate side of things in a few, but for now it's FRIDAY FAMILY FUN NIGHT!!

Thanks for the compliments everyone! Here's a "behind the scenes"  look at our cabinets... 

Virtual Tour Take 2...

Virtual Tour

Here's a glimpse of the virtual tour that is part of our marketing. Makes it easy for folks to share on social media...also nice to show the parents so they are reminded I do actually work for a living....sometimes :)

VIRTUAL TOUR

There's supposed to be an imbedded video above...it's there when I write the post, but seems to disappear when published.. Hmmmmm  How do I get the new fangled techno gadgets to work? #ASKBP 

@Holly Hollister I live in Canton and have a few rentals up here. They are OK and will always be just that "OK".

On the buy and hold side my focus now is building up my rental portfolio in the In-Town hoods that have good cash flow today, but also a potential appreciation play 10-15 years out.  Beltline and MLK corridors specifically.

 You see bamboo every now and then in Atlanta, mostly on modern builds.  The 5" dark prefinished is REALLY popular here now, and we'll use it on some flips that have a tight reno timeline, but anytime we can use the real stuff "oak" we do since it holds up so well. That dark pre-finished stuff looks GREAT when installed, but TERRIBLE a few months after the homeowners move in and scuff it up!