You may watch Chip and Joanna Gaines on Fixer Upper and wonder what the process is for obtaining financing for a construction project when the completed product is not yet there to assess. The same complication applies to construction loans. We are currently working on a project to add a garage and addition to an existing home in the Boonsboro area. Our clients are working with Steve Fennington, who is the Relationship Manager at Frederick County Bank. We are eager to recommend Steve, because he is consistently able to work with our clients in order to customize financing options best tailored to their needs and their project. Our experience has shown that community banks with ties to the small businesses in the area tend to be the best customer advocates. See more on our website; the page “Estimating Your Project” is found here.
Harmon Builders works with whomever is providing the plans and renderings–in this case Andy Locke at Manifest 3D–to be sure that we are accurately reflecting the future appraisal potential that the construction will bring to the real property. This involves teamwork as we determine the scope of a project, and information passes between clients, ourselves, the bank, and a draftsman, as we revise the plans and product specifications. In the end it all comes together to give the best and most flexible choices for our clients.
This shows a first draft with two options in the rendering of the exterior, one with a change to add siding where the existing structure is brick, and the other with the original brick remaining. The floor plan is for the addition above the garage. Further changes to the closets and bathroom are anticipated.
This remodel will be done on a home that has stayed in the homeowner’s family, previously occupied by grandparents. The concept is to transform this small rancher of roughly 1,000 square feet constructed in the 1960s with a modern Cape Cod style renovation, adding a two car garage where their current car port stands and including a master suite on the second story above the garage. Of practical concern, they will need to upgrade their electrical system from a 100 to 200 amp panel, and lines overhead will need to be re-situated or buried.
Photograph of the existing ranch style home. You can see what a significant transformation an addition of this size will create, and Harmon Builders is suggesting an edit to the existing roofline to harmonize the structures that you can note in the Manifest 3D rendering.
As mentioned, once the initial drafts are made we often need to provide edits to those. These can be due to buyer’s preferences, as well as practical concerns about achieving the necessary projections for the post construction equity in the home. The floor plan below is also a first draft, and from this the decision was made to combine the mudroom and laundry space and reduce the square footage devoted to that area, leaving space for a workroom area instead inside the garage.
A draft of the two car garage and laundry mudroom prior to the above mentioned changes. You can see the stages a planning process may go through. The most thorough planning makes the project go more smoothly for the homeowners and the craftsmen on the job.
The updated plans look more like this at the next stage of revision for the main level with the garage and mudroom:
Second draft of main level plans.
Some walls were also rearranged upstairs to make more practical use of the space for the family’s needs. In the plans above the landing at the top of the stairs was considered for home office space. The square footage occupied by that area has been reduced to accommodate the bathroom at the top of the stairs, allowing more storage space for the owner’s bedroom suite.
Second draft of second story addition. As you can tell from the descriptive labels in the active working phase (such as ” not a bedroom”) these are still preliminary plans that reflect potential remaining decisions, but they work well enough for the bank to have a reasonable idea what the outcome will be.
And finally, the exterior rendering has settled for now on the contrasting brick and white painting siding. A handsome look for what looks to be a lovely project. We cannot wait to see this come to fruition.
Exterior rendering with original brick siding exposed to contrast with white siding.
By Melanie Smith-Bell
