Well, well, well, well, well!
Just got back from a meeting with the real estate broker and the home builder to discuss the possibility of getting into a newly built home in that (ritzy) subdivision, and things are looking mucho brighter now!
The builder assures me he can build a 1,300-sq.ft. ranch-style home with a 2-car garage that would be well withing our budget, and he said he might even be able to get a couple of upgrades added gratis.
He's going to have one his designers get on the computer and do a CAD rendering of what it will look like and how it will sit on the land so that the broker can take it to the property owners (who are also the developers and financiers) to see if they will approve such a "small" and less expensive home to be built there.
There are currently only 5 other houses in the 30 lot subdivision, and they are all valued at $300,000 or more (5,000-sq.ft. McMansions), but he's fairly confident he can get the sellers to approve it if he has a nice rendering to show them how it will fit into the subdivision.
The home builder says once that is approved, he'll discuss with us what our interior needs are and then bring in an affordable architect he works with to draw up floor plans to submit for final approval to the State of Oregon building commmission.
And he says he can duct in central AC for less than $1,000 (less the cost of the cooler unit), and will let us decide how we want everything to be inside the house (rooms, bathrooms, kitchen, etc) to suit us (an actual custom home).
And, the sellers are financing the property sales and the home construction, so it would be treated as a Conventional Home Loan, rather than two separate loans (one for the land, and one to finance the construction) for a new home construction which will save a couple thousand on extra closing costs, and there will be no worry of defaulting if the home isn't done in 90 days.
I let him know about the wife being a vegetarian and how we need the house positioned on the lot so that the main yard area is big enough to have a decent garden with lots of sunlight (eventually going to build a greenhouse for cannabis, too
).
Things are looking VERY promising for it to actually happen (I hope to FSM I don't jinx it all again by writing this update to you all: every time I flap my fingers to let others know what's going on, something always puts the kibosh on it).
Fingers are are now crossed like a twistex around the opening of a sandwich bag full of PBJ goodness.