From Flooding to a Forever Home
Tidwell Builders (Jennifer Hyman and Mike Tidwell) turned a nightmare into a dream and a dream into a reality for my family. Less than one year after purchasing our home, we flooded in the Memorial Day flood. Although only a few inches of water, it required a renovation and for us to move out for a few months. We later learned this was the second time the home had flooded. After completing a modest renovation over the summer months, we were back in the home in late August 2015, just in time for school to start. Life was good.
THE NIGHTMARE
Two years later, August 2017, Hurricane Harvey hammered Houston…we had about 30 inches of water in our home, lost nearly everything and because it was now the 3rd time this property had experienced a flooding event, the city of Houston would not permit a renovation until the finished floor was above the flood plain, which after Harvey, was about 5 feet higher than our existing floor.
Only living in the home for 2 years and already going through one flood, we were debt constrained and knew we didn’t have many options. We learned the SBA had a disaster recovery loan program and getting a 30-year loan at 1.75% to compliment a traditional mortgage was the only way we could afford to rebuild. We began the loan application process in September 2017 and met with Jennifer and Holly (the architect) in April of 2018 to begin designing the home we could afford and Jennifer and Holly took our ideas and after several iterations we had a general design and floor plan. We were suddenly against the clock again because the city of Houston announced that plans not submitted for permitting by August 31st 2018 would require an additional 2 feet of elevation, which would add 10s of thousands to our cost and force us back to the drawing board because the entire house would need to be pushed back and up to accommodate the additional steps and still meet the deed restriction setbacks. Somehow, Jennifer was able to fast track our plan, pull some strings and got us submitted to the permitting office before the deadline and we were able to keep our plan.
We closed on our SBA loan the second week of September 2018 and we just needed to get another bank to sign on as the primary lender so we could pay-off our existing mortgage and get a second mortgage to fund the construction. Unfortunately, two weeks later, on my birthday, I received a call from the SBA, our case had been moved to a new case manager and we were back to square one. With daily calls and hundreds of emails, we eventually, 14 months later in November 2019, closed on our new construction loan with dual source funding with the SBA and Regions Mortgage. Tim Ferguson, our mortgage banker, later informed me this was the first dual source construction loan Regions had successfully closed with the SBA. Jennifer was with us the entire time with Tim, providing forms, plans, permits, certifications, budgets, timelines, whatever the banks needed Jennifer provided without delay. Jennifer constantly assured us that we were in this together and she was here to support us in whatever way she could.
THE DREAM
Having finally closed on our dual source construction loan, it was time to get things rolling. It was November of 2019, 27 months since Hurricane Harvey, just before Thanksgiving and things were happening, the lot had been cleared, scraped and leveled. the foundation perimeter had been dug out and forms installed, piers were drilled and concrete poured. CMU blocking was taking shape; we could start to see the footprint of the house. Every Monday we received an email from Jennifer with the summary of the prior week’s progress, what we could expect during the coming week and a list of decisions we would need to make. Tile, bath and light fixtures, appliances, doorknobs, windows, doors, floors, counters, door styles, brick, paint colors, siding widths and designs. Jennifer would provide a list of stores, websites, and existing homes to drive by and see how things looked. Sometimes things look good on paper, but maybe it was cheap, or impractical in reality or on the flip side, it’s cheap, but actually looks good. We always got a good balance and reaction from the interaction between Shell, Jennifer, Mike and me. Mike is the ultra-practical guy with function taking priority over form, and Jennifer was the good balance between form, function and value. This counter balance of perspective was critical to us getting the best looking, most practical and affordable house possible.
Things were rolling, we were scheduling progress inspections with the bank, the draw schedule was working well, not perfectly but well enough considering the dual source funding and the unlikely outcome of us building our dream house was happening. Framing went up, windows installed, shingles, rough-ins for plumbing and electricity were happening. We walked the house with Jennifer and Mike to decide where we wanted lights, outlets, wall switches, toilets, sinks…this is really happening. Soooo cool.
Come March, things were really progressing, then COVID-19 hit and the shutdown began. Someone doesn’t want us to build this house, what the heck!! Everyone was working from home, supply chains were strained, costs were going up, and budgets were at risk and Jennifer pushed to get everything ordered to ensure we had it when we needed it rather than waiting to order. We ended up getting a storage unit to store the fixtures, mirrors and other things that were ordered and delivered. Many of the items were stored in Jennifer’s personal garage, she and Mike were acutely aware that this project might be at risk if we couldn’t get supplies or if some of the tradesmen were deemed non-essential and forced to shut down. Fortunately for us, construction was not on the table and although some tradesmen were averse to working around large groups, we had some days in May and June where 10-15 people were working on our project at the same time.
THE REALITY
Things really seemed to be taking shape, brick, paint, gutters, flooring was being installed, cabinets, tile, base boards and molding, trim, drainage, paint, paint…more paint. If felt like we were getting close, but we never asked when our move in date would be because we didn’t want to be disappointed. Then one day in late April, Jennifer said she thought we could be in by the end of June. This was an amazing moment and through the COVID shutdown, 27 months of bank and SBA battles and the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, Jennifer flooding too and having to rebuild her own house, we were merely several short weeks away from moving into our brand new, custom Tidwell Builders home.
Nearly three years in the making, we couldn’t have done any of this without Tidwell Builders, Jennifer and her constant drive, attention to detail and her partnership with her father Mike, an amazing tradesman, furniture maker, finish carpenter and self-proclaimed construction expert with 43 years of experience who was onsite every day of this project to ensure sub-contractors and suppliers followed through with what they said they would do. That combined with the reliability, flexibility with banking inspections and draw requirements, meaningful progress updates and budget touch points, they made our house a priority and it showed, every day it showed.
The driveway forms were installed and concrete poured. We used the extra bricks from the steps to add accents to our walkway and used the extra brick from the veneer to build a paver patio on our side yard, we only had 11 bricks left over. Mike built an access door under our raised back veranda for the storage of my grilling tools and yard equipment. Noticing that we had a 16ft ceiling in our garage, Mike built a storage loft with stair access; neighbors are frequently stopping by to take pictures wishing they had done the same with their wasted space in their garage. In fact, one of my friends actually got a quote from Tidwell Builders to add a storage loft in their garage after seeing ours.
A couple of weeks out from our move-in date, the new 8ft fence was installed, Jennifer coordinated with Rebecca to have the landscaping, drainage, irrigation and sod installed. The landscaping and fence, like the home, are impeccable.
My family moved back home June 12th, one month ago today as I write this. Since moving in, as we notice things, a ticking fan, a mystery light switch, a chinch bug infestation in the sod, a leaking dishwasher because I used the wrong detergent, we call Jennifer and Mike and miraculously everything is fixed. Tidwell Builders is loyal to their subcontractors and to their customers. We’ve really gotten to know and like Jennifer and Mike as people and we would recommend them to anyone for any job that needs to be done. They are open, honest and reliable people.
Thank you Tidwell Builders, thank you Jennifer and Mike, my family is forever grateful to you for making this amazing home a reality and for getting us back into the neighborhood we love!