Under construction: $652,000 home by Freedom Park

CHARLOTTE — One family’s five-year, $652,000 odyssey to build a dream home near Freedom Park is nearing its final stage: the actual construction of the five-bedroom, 4 1/2-bathroom house.

After investing in the property in 2008, designing the home themselves and having their former home at 3009 Idlewood Circle demolished last month, Brandon and Kathy Ruby are about to see construction finally begin on the now vacant lot, according to Mecklenburg County property records.

The new home will cost $302,922 to build and will comprise a roomy 4,130 square feet, or nearly three times the size of the former house, the records say.

The Rubys originally invested $350,000 in the one-third-acre lot and the one-story brick home, which was built in 1945, the records show. It had 1,400 square feet, three bedrooms and one bathroom.

That is typical for the neighborhood, property records show, except for the home next door to the Rubys. It, too, was built in 1945, is one of the few wood-frame homes on the street and has 2,800 square feet, four bedrooms and five bathrooms. It last sold for $580,000 in 2007, to Jaime and Peter Greene.

But like most of the other houses on Idlewood Circle, the Rubys’ former brick bungalow has a tax value far below what the land is worth, records show. In the 2011 revaluation, Mecklenburg County said the original house was worth only about $100,000 and the lot $270,000, according to tax records.

Construction costs on the new home, which will be a wood-frame house, include $6,000 for demolition; $13,500 to build a 529-square-foot garage; and $283,422 to construct the house itself, according to records.

W.C. Black and Sons, of Charlotte, handled the demolition, according to records. Charlotte-based Vicus Builders, a custom homebuilder founded in 2002 by Jack Joyce and Craig Jones, is building the home. Vicus specializes in infill housing in Charlotte neighborhoods such as Chantilly, Cotswold and Plaza Midwood.

The Rubys, the Greenes, W.C. Black, Joyce and Jones could not be immediately reached for comment.

Tony Brown can be reached at [email protected], (704) 247-2912 or on Twitter at @tonymecktimes.