The cost of non-conformity - part 1
This blog post has been rattling around a couple of weeks. If I were writing a book, this one topic would be an entire chapter. As such, I’ll try to break it into a few parts.
“Conformity” has to do with the huge chasm between cookie-cutter homes and architecture and “everything else”. I use to watch those TV shows that depicted unique and - to me - very interesting custom homes. The various episodes showed custom architecture, the re-purposing of a building from a commercial or public space to become someone’s personal residence. With the advent of cable television, channels like HGTV appeared and entire TV series like “Extreme Living”, “World’s Most Extreme Homes”, “What’s With that House”, and “Generation Renovation” presented success story after success story.
What these video diaries didn’t show was the difficulty that comes with non-traditional building projects. I expected a few raised eye brows and the need to provide additional answers along the way but I never expected what has happened - and now I expect will continue to happen throughout the entire project and beyond.
It all started with my first visits to the banks for a mortgage and construction loan. I was quickly told; “I can help you with a mortgage because this is not a residence, it’s a commercial building”. I knew commercial loans had less desirable terms than home mortgages so this was a bit of a blow to the budget. (The different in rates between comparable residential and commercial loans turned out to be between 1.5-4% !) Still, I figured, “OK, I’ll deal with it.” So, I went to the commercial loan department and was told, “this is not a business so it does not qualify for a commercial loan.” Now wait a minute, I’m standing in the same bank and literally one side of the room - where the mortgage representative sits - said its a commercial project; and on the other side of the room - where the commercial loan office sits - said it not a commercial project. Each side said, “it belongs to the other department”. It took nearly a year before I found a banker willing to stand up for my request with the corporate headquarters and help me secure my loan request. I am very grateful to my loan office; otherwise, this project would still be just a pile of paper. But financing was just one challenge and indicative of what I was trying to accomplish.
(to be continued)
