End of Winter, beginning of Spring brings around a lot of milestones for this project. It was in February 2018 that I first started this diary of my journey to build my last home. April is when I met the good people of Stillwater Dwellings at the Dwell On Design show in LA. And May is when I closed on my property in the Hollywood Hills.
Now about three years in, during a pandemic, my project really has come a long way and 2021 promises to be the year where everything starts to come together. With all the required information for the various approvals being finalized, each day brings things more in focus and closer to build.
An interesting and positive side effect of all this is the mortgage on my property. My land mortgage was a three year fixed rate, 30 year mortgage. The theory is that before the three year period was up, a construction loan would be opened up and the land mortgage would eventually be part of the conversion of the construction loan into a traditional mortgage – essentially consolidating everything. But due to the delays, the three year fixed period is up this May and the interest rate moves to a variable for the remainder of the loan period, or until it rolls into something else. However, interest rates are much lower right now from when I opened the loan, so at the end of this fixed period, my monthly will actually go down – considerably. Now this savings could be temporary as rates will eventually go up – but hopefully not before construction and the consolidation loan happens.
So a little financial good news to go along with the dropping infection rate and hospitalizations here in LA County as we move into whatever the next normal is.