The plan and the other plan

We always had two plans.

Plan A was to buy some property, design our dream house, and when retirement approached, have the house built on our lot. We did everything right, I think. We bought one of the building lots in Eldorado with the best views. That land is all paid for, and the value has increased six- or sevenfold in the past 15 years.

With the direction of a wonderful architect in Albuquerque, we designed the house of our dreams, down to the very smallest detail. It was designed with our lot and the views in mind….and everything we agreed we wanted in a home. We did an awesome job, I believe!

Then came the ugly part: finding someone to build the house. We met several good builders in the fall/winter of 2006, and inspected many of the homes they were building. A third builder was recommended to us by a realtor in Santa Fe. We were impressed with him, too. The bids submitted by all three were WAY over the top of our budget that we are willing to pay. Discussions with all of them about finding ways to cut our costs proved to be unsuccessful.

So…we are left with a perfect lot, a perfect house plan, and no one to build the house within our budget. We are unwilling and unable to go over the price we can afford.

Plan B has been there all along: sell the lot we own, make a really nice profit on it, and give up the idea of the dream house. Then look for an existing house on the market within our price range, with the square feet and the features we want. We check the Santa Fe real estate websites regularly, and are finding a nice variety of homes in our range that we like and might be acceptable to us.

It is beginning to look more and more like Plan B is going to be it. It comes with a lot of disappointment about giving up our perfect lot and our perfect house plan, but we are finding it necessary to be realists about this.

Stay tuned…