Week 9 is done

I wasn't out at the house much this week. I did stop by today and get a few pics and talk to our Project Manager. He said they should finish the siding and drywall this weekend.  They got the meter on so they've got the furnace running.  The ceilings were finished as well.  Plan is to do the first coat of paint Monday and flooring Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Trim is set to start Friday but he's thinking he may get bumped to the next Monday.

Front

Side

Left side.  Definitely in need of grading.  Probably will call for some sort of retaining wall around the landscaping.

Back (home of future deck.)

Right side of back yard.  It goes back a bit, but I'm excited we have some big trees!

A few things that I'm watching:

Electrical outlet in garage still hasn't been exposed.  (PM said Monday they would expose it.)

Basement bathroom rough-in still hasn't been exposed. (PM was made aware at preconstruction meeting.)

Windows still don't close all the way.  (I told PM at preconstruction meeting and he said they would address it before the final walk through.)

Two windows need fixed.  One is chipped and one has a trim piece missing.

The boys bathtub has some scratches. 

Bathtub scratched

Another bathtub scratch

Picture from last week and probably the cause of said scratches :(

You can sort of see that top half of window is missing some trim.

Cracked "ledge"

Also, scheduled our POD to be redelivered on May 14.  So with an April 28 closing, that means Andrew has 2 weekends to build the island and remove and re-do the half wall :D

There Went Week 8!

It's been a busy week at the house.  We had our pre-drywall walk through on Monday.  We had a small list of items that our Project Manager has taken care of.  There is one thing still left to do, which is the bathroom rough-in in the basement.  The plumber says it's there so it's just a matter of breaking up some concrete and finding it with the measurements.  It's not a big rush, but should be done soon.

Talked to Kevin, our Project Manager, Friday.  Drywallers got all of the drywall hung and the mud is there.  They started finishing the drywall this weekend.

Looks like brick is finished or almost!  I will say one of the houses we looked at initially had siding in that little are on the second floor between the bump outs and I told Andrew over and over how strange it looked.  Sooo glad ours is brick.  Not sure if ours is correct or a mistake.  Either way, I'll take it!

Alex's bedroom.

Adam's bedroom.

2nd floor laundry room.

Austin's bedroom.

My bedroom from door.

My bedroom from front corner, looking into bathroom.

My bathtub.  Not as fancy as a lot of these houses, but this tub has built in shelves which is more than our last home, so I'm excited! :P

My bathroom.  Double vanity on left.  Toilet room on left.  Master closet in back.

Bonus room/play room.  Already getting some action!

Great room looking towards the office.

Great room in to kitchen.  Morning room on right.  Basement stairs and pantry to the left.

Morning room.  We will use this as our dining room.

1/2 of basement.

Other 1/2 of basement

Front room...purpose yet to be decided :)  For sure excited to remove those halfwalls and replace with wrought iron spindles!

Powder room.

Deck to be.

Siding should start next week.  It's really looking like a house!

Oh, and I am already thankful for my pre-drywall pictures.  I noticed that they covered 1 of my outlets in the garage!  I am sending this picture to our project manager in the morning.  Can you see the outlet???

Rate Locked

Quick update.  We just locked our mortgage at 3.75%!  I've done lots of math, including algebra to figure out what was best for us.  Either way, when we started this process in December we were estimating a 4.25% rate, so I'm ecstatic with this.

It's only a 45 day lock so nothing better slow us down! :)

Can't wait to see the house tomorrow with drywall and brick!

We have an official closing date!

Just a quick update.  Met with our Project Manager today for our pre-drywall meeting.  I brought up all of my concerns and he said they would all be taken care of.  I will follow up tomorrow to make sure.  They are planning to start drywall Wednesday and start brick that day also.

He gave us an official closing date of April 28.  Now, that is a Thursday and he's not sure with some newer mortgage laws if they're allowed to close on the last 2 business days of the month.  But either way it'll be the 27th or 28th.  Sooo excited!

Week 7 is over!

Well week 7 is finished.  Quite a few "small" things have happened this week.  First, our Project Manager got everything on our list of concerns taken care of with the framers.  The framing inspection happened Wednesday and they failed a few things...surprise, surprise.  So they are coming Monday for a re-inspection.  Electric and plumbing were completed and inspected.  They also did insulation and that is scheduled to be inspected Monday as well.  We have also scheduled our pre-drywall walk through for Monday.  So, as usual we walked the house this weekend with our dad's to see if there were any more concerns.  And now I have another list for our Project Manager!  We noticed 2 plumbing issues (a missing hose bib and no plumbing for our laundry tub) that I went ahead and text him.  He said he would get on it first thing Monday.  I feel bad being so needy, but I try to think about it like I'm helping him out :)  

Here are my other issues to bring up/ask about tomorrow.

• Missing hose bib.
• Missing laundry tub plumbing.
• They still haven't finished the roof on the front corner of the garage.
• The door frame to the basement is just a mess in general.  It's twisted and not very sturdy.
• The basement steps are all correctly, evenly spaced.  So what happens when they lay the 3/4" hardwood on the first floor?  I think that's going to make them uneven.  Just need to ask him about that.
• I didn't see the shower rough-in in the basement.  So I need him to show me that.
• Most of the windows will not close enough to lock.
• In the framing in the morning room there are no boards on the top corner to hang drywall.  
• Normally framers will glue and nail walls to the floor.  Well these framers didn't glue them, so our Project Manager had them screw them down.  When we checked, they used 2" screws to screw down 2x4s.  How does that even make sense?!?!

I also took a lot of pictures to be able to refer to later.  Not sure they mean much to anyone else, but I'm putting them here for our own reference.

Looking from laundry room into Adam's bedroom.

Ceiling in bonus room.  We will eventually need to add another ceiling fan or light because this room is HUGE.  So we took pictures to help Andrew be able to do that.

Bonus room ceiling continued.

Bonus room.

Master bath and closet at the far end.

Master bedroom, picture from doorway.

Looking from 2nd floor to first.

2nd floor hallway.  Boys bedrooms behind me, bonus and master at the opposite end.

Austin's bedroom, right next to Adam's

Austin's bedroom from hallway.

Boys bathroom from doorway.  Double sink vanity towards left.  Toilet on right next to tub.

Laundry room (from Adam's bedroom.)  Note missing laundry tub plumbing.

Alex's bedroom.  Only 1 window, but the only room with a good layout for our twin over double bunk bed that he wants.  (And it's right next to the bathroom since he insists getting up every night to pee!)

Looking at 2nd floor from first.

First floor stairs with halfwalls and the room that I'm not sure what to do with yet behind it.  Removing these half walls is one of the projects we will do before we even move in.  We'll be putting in metal spindles.  It just really opens the entry way but Ryan Homes wanted too much money to do that!

Staircase to the basement on the left.  Pantry next to that.  Half of the kitchen.

Kitchen.  This is for sure going to be my favorite part of the house!

This is supposed to be the "dining room" but we are not really sure how we will use it.  Since the boys are old enough to go upstairs I'm going to limit the number of toys on the first floor, so I'm thinking this will be more of a sitting room, with no tv.

"Morning Room" where our new dining room table will go!  The patio doors are on the right that will eventually open to a deck!  (Once we have enough grass to need a deck.)

The office is behind that wall.  Excited to have an official office and no longer have to store stuff in our closet :)

Great Room.  Tv will be mounted between the windows.  So those windowswill get blinds.

Other side of the Great Room, with no return air vent!! :)

Mudroom closet and hallway with return air vent.

Other side of the mudroom where we plan to do some built ins.  Powder room behind that wall.

Powder room

Garage wall.

Entry from garage.  Plan to paint that door black and do some built ins somewhere in that area.

Other half of back wall of garage.

Side wall in garage.  We may eventually plan to blow some insulation in this wall.

And brick was delivered!  They plan to start brick this coming week.