After we have a finalized plan for the new house,  sell the Texas house,  and have a plan for storing our belongings.  

Due to COVID,  Trish and her team are classified as full time “Edge” workers, meaning we don’t have to go to an office daily, but have to be close enough to travel (fly) to an office at our own expense when needed (at most 4x a year).

Dave has worked from home full time since 2013,  so he has freedom and mobility!

The Texas real estate market is hot with no signs of slowing down the next two years. The Pro Golfer’s Association (PGA) is moving from West Palm Beach to Frisco, opening in late 2022, 5 miles from our home. Property values are expected to continue rising.  Since moving into the TX house in 2018,  our home has appreciated over 25%.  We can’t get this kind of return on any investment, so it’s all about timing.

Our optimistic goal is to have all plans and permits in place by May 2022.  Trish wants to dig up all of the foundation plantings in Spring, and then the demo can begin.   Depending on the cost of raw materials (as of 1/15/22 lumber prices tripled again due to the floods/landslides/fires as well as higher tariffs on Canada lumber imports).  We don’t want the house to cost 3x what is should, so we are moving forward on planning but will ‘wait and see’ on the demo and build timeline. 

We have been working with Michigan Marine the past two years on the seawall design.  Now that the site survey is complete, the permit with the Michigan DEQ has been filed.  The permit can take up to 90 days, and the DEQ has been limiting approvals as there is so much building in Brighton they want to keep 50% of the shorelines of every lake natural.  So we submitted the permit with the assumption the current house and deck remains,  and that in order to protect the property from even more damage, a seawall has to be installed.