Sunday, February 28, 2016

And 5 weeks of building is complete

Again this week I haven't had much time to get by the house.  We closed on our current home so that's done and the focus now is completely this new home (& looking for stuff I packed!)
Kevin left message Friday.  They are planning to get the shingles on and the roof finished this weekend.  They should be back to finish framing Tuesday and Wednesday.   They will also get the garage & basement floor poured next week.  He's thinking they may start rough mechanics by the end of the week, weather cooperating.
I did get to actually walk through the house though...that was cool :)
Garage
Friday

Planning to walk through the house this weekend with my dad as well as make a trip to Beavercreek to look at a Palermo model to do some measuring.

Friday, February 19, 2016

Week 4 shows progress

Week 4 is finished and we have a lot to show for it!  We actually have something that resembles a house :)  I think the boys are starting to believe we are actually going to move here some day.  (Though they still don't understand the concept of time.  And almost every time we drive to see it my 3 year old says "I bet it's done.")

We started the week with a lot of snow.  So when I drove by on Monday it didn't appear anything had been done.  (It may have, just nothing visible from the car.)

Tuesday when I drove by I saw this:

The best pic I could get.  It was a muddy mess and since they were working I didn't want to bother them.
Now, forgive me for showing my ignorance here but I was shocked to see "Amish" people framing our home.  I even hesitated to take this picture because I wasn't sure if that was "allowed."  Upon some further investigation I found out they there are Mennonites.  (The fact that they were loading up a truck and not a horse and buggy should've told me something.)  They do use power tools, which was my initial concern.  Another interesting fact, they don't have to wear hard hats and instead wear their black hats.
To be honest, I really didn't even notice how much they had framed, just that the framing package had been opened and there were people there.

This has been a bit of a busy week for me so I wasn't able to get a lot of pics.  I did get this picture today when it was 64 degrees and windy as can be! Obviously there has been some framing going on this week!

First floor done.  They've also got some "stuff" cut and ready it looks like laying there.
Windows were delivered
Also talked to Kevin and he said they didn't get much 2nd floor framing done today because of the high winds (can you blame them?).  So the plan is to finish framing and get the roof on by mid-week next week.  Also hopefully get the basement and garage slabs poured.  Maybe even get to some starting mechanics at the end of the week.

My father in law found this in the garage.  It appears that someone cut some of the boards (that support that beam) too short.  They've fixed it with a few shims.  My husband is convinced this isn't good enough so he talked with Kevin and requested they use some steel shims instead.  Kevin was fabulous and totally agreed.
In terms of "design" it's been a week of refrigerators and rugs :)  I've/we've decided we're going to do french doors with a drawer on the bottom.  We're going to hold off really looking until April.  We're hoping to find a scratch and dent model that might work for us :)

Rugs are killing me!  I am so clueless in this area.  I just want to purchase a rug for under our dining room table (7' x 10') and one for our great room (10'x14').  Trying to find something that coordinates that will also work with our black floors and white cabinets is important.  So I am looking in the grey scheme currently, with a blue/teal/aqua accent...maybe.  I am thinking going with something more patterned for under the table and something more solid for the great room.
These are some of my ideas from Overstock: 

Morning Room option
http://goo.gl/JxLbhQ
Morning Room option
http://goo.gl/SBf70W
Great Room option
http://goo.gl/TGjv4t
Great Room option (in grey)
http://goo.gl/84S3B4
Great Room option
http://goo.gl/efGyxJ

Great Room option
http://goo.gl/9jWVjv

Any thoughts???  Please feel free to offer any decorating advice at ANY point :)

Just a reminder this is our floor plan.  So the rugs  would go in the "Morning Room" and the "Great Room."  I will probably need one in the "Dining Room" eventually, but I'm not sure what we're putting in that room yet since the Morning Room is going to actually be our Dining Room.



Oh, almost forgot!  We "met" our neighbors building across the street via Facebook.  They have 2 small children, so that's exciting!  And today when we drove by a house across the street had 3 boys jumping on a trampoline.  My boys were excited!

Coming up this week we should be closing on our current home and I'd like to get in another trip up to a different Palermo model that is actually our elevation.  I want to verify some rug measurements as well as table measurements.  We need to decide on exactly what we want our table to look like so the guy we found at Saw & Hammer can start building it :)

Sunday, February 14, 2016

A pretty uneventful week

Week 3 proved to be pretty uneventful, at least from this untrained eye's perspective. We've had quite a bit of snow and cold temps too though.
They did get the dirt filled in around the foundation and some other plumbing/sump pump type stuff done.  The beams were set and 2 huge framing packages delivered.  They have yet to poor the basement floor because of the cold temperatures.  Plan is to start framing Monday, but we're supposed to receive a few inches of snow, so not sure if that will happen or not.  If it does, then we should be under cover by the end of the week!

Filled in dirt around foundation as well as some plumbing stuff :)

View from the street.  Note the framing packages on the left and right.

We also spent the day getting our current house packed up and our POD loaded. Found a 3 month promotion so planning to have everything stored until May 15.  We should close before then but we'd like to have the island complete and a few other odds and ends done before moving in. Closing for our current home is set for Feb. 25.

Trying to fit this house into this POD.


POD is FULL!
Almost forgot, got the call from NVR this week just to update us on rates and said they're at 3.75% right now which is exciting. We were anticipating 4.25+ last month.  We can't lock until we are within the 90 day window per our project manager.  We are probably within that window, but until the framing and roof are on, he's most likely not going to tell us that.  So we're waiting to get the go ahead from him to lock.  I'm planning to contact our current mortgage lender to see what their fees and rates look like as well.

Friday, February 5, 2016

Week 2 finished

Week 2 of our build is now complete.  Basically after a week we have a basement!
I talked to our Project Manager Kevin today and the plan for next week is: Monday work on plumbing and waterproofing, Tuesday backfill around the basement and lumber is set to be delivered  (but they've been running a day behind) and Wednesday start some framing.  Framing???  Ahhh...

Monday - standing in back corner of house.
Tuesday - Frames are up & walls poured
Thursday - frames removed, we have basement walls! (& 2 appropriately placed windows)  Austin's getting excited :)
Friday - Not too much different, appear to be working on some plumbing.

We also found a Facebook page for our community, so that's fun and starting to make it more real.  Andrew is starting to worry about building a shed (because we need that right away with a 3 car garage?!?!)

Too Menards was having a 11% rebate so we bought the boys' bedroom ceiling fans and made contact with a furniture maker to build our new kitchen table.  I've started looking for stools around our kitchen island as well.  Just not sure what will be best with a 2, 4 and & 6 year old.  Currently I'm leaning to these from Ikea.  But it's probably silly to buy them now only to have to move them.
Ikea counter stool I am considering for kitchen island

Right now we're spending most of our time getting our current house packed up so we can be out by the end of the month.  Planning to get most everything packed and into the garage this weekend with a POD being delivered the following weekend.  It will be super nice to have that house gone so we can't stop worrying about it.  Though we will miss it and our fabulous neighbors :(