Casa de Eble moves to Center Grove.

With Pulte coming into RFW we started to look for land again. We had previously been looking in Franklin and Perry townships (SE and S central Indianapolis) so this time Holly set her search up for northern Johnson County. This would include Greenwood, some of Whiteland and the unincorporated area known as Center Grove.

It was there that a couple pieces of land looked promising. There were two for sale in Highland Park off of Olive Branch Road and several scattered throughout the area. Also, another within Highland Park was undeveloped but had been sitting for 10+ years. On the Friday September 9^th on our way down to Santa Claus (the USA's only Santa Claus and Holly's hometown!) we stopped by and looked at the lots. Lots 178 and 179 were adjacent and 143 was the undeveloped one.

178 was less than ideal. A side section of the lot had been incorporated into the neighbor’s back yard (we later found out that the section of the land had been surrendered to that owner) and the only two trees on it were right smack in the middle of the only obvious place to put a house. Lot 179 looked much better. It was somewhat “L” shaped, had high ground from about the middle to rear. The entire front is on Olive Branch and drops off to a creek. The downside was that it exited out onto Olive Branch and not actually into the neighborhood. OB is a rather busy street and this had us concerned with young children. Lot 143 was Holly's preferred. The home would have to be rather close to the cul-de-sac but the back yard would be long and sloping down to a nice creek at the rear.

Yet another plot plan that was not to be: HighLand Park lot 143:

Mike Gorman walked the lots with me one day after work and followed up with a surveyor to get plot plans drawn up with our home. In the mean time we tried to contact the owners of 143 via mail and phone to no avail. The realtor on lots 178 and 179 (Sandi Finlinson: http://www.landhawkrealestate.com) kept contacting us on our interest in those lots and we told her they were our plan B and expressed our interest in 143. She attempted to contact the owners at their work and through the developer of the neighborhood. The developer laughed; apparently there had been 10+ folks over the years attempting to get the lot and none had been successful. Sandi had no luck with getting a call back so we began to center in on 179.

We positioned the house up on the crest of the hill facing North over the front yard and Olive Branch Road. It was behind the existing trees and left a nice backyard for the children to play in. Mike reviewed any sewer, utility, easement issues and with the all clear we put an offer in on 179.

Here it is! Casa de Eble on Highland Park lot 179:

On October 9th Holly and I signed an updated contract with Mike to change the address and sign off on the new plot plan. An hour later we bought the land. NBofI had to modify the loan appraisal from RFW-30 to Lot 179 in Highland Park. On November 1st (our 8th wedding anniversary!) we closed the construction loan at NBofI. Oh yeah!!!!