Dining room

Well while we're in a holding pattern so I went ahead and ordered our dining room table.  Saw & Hammer are making it for us with a bench.  8' x 3'3" should seat 8 comfortably. 

Table top similar to this

White legs similar to this.  Not quite as distressed.

Then too I want this sign, 2'x3' for the wall in the room.

And I am loving a sign similar to this for the room.

We'll still need to find some chairs and probably a rug.

I'm assuming this all goes well together?!?!  What I lack in design skill I make up in effort :)

Week 6 update

It just dawned on me I didn't update on last week.  Well for the most part it was pretty uneventful to my eye.  They have started some basic mechanics with plumbing and hvac.  Kevin told us there would be a few inspections this week, including framing.  Framing has really been our biggest issue.  I am so thankful that my father has built a few homes himself and has the knowledge to help us stay on top of that.  We walked through again this weekend.  In regard to my post of all of our framing issues, here's an update.

• Looking into the garage, the left beam up against the house is being held up by jacks but the jacks are sitting on two different 2x4s and they are cantilevered over the foundation.  You can actually see where one side has settled probably 3/8" and a gap then at the top.
• The right side beam my husband text you about last week.  One side of the jacks are not sitting on a plate and instead they have put in several shims at the top between the jacks and the beam.  That happens at both the front and the back of the garage with that same beam. 
• Around the exterior of the garage the plywood and trim are not nailed properly.
• Close to the gable the thermo-ply is not completely nailed or stapled.  
• Inside the house, the alignment of the doorframe to the basement is off by over 3 inches. 
• The stairs going upstairs are being held by 6 nails.  
• Walking around many walls and door jams are not nailed to the floor.
• The half walls at the top of the stairs are extremely loose with very little support.
• Also, it appears there is a closet framed in the laundry room, when we should be getting a tub instead.
• And lastly, the trusses and upstairs exterior walls aren't braced properly, per plan.
• One more thing, I thought you had decided the sump pump was going to go at the front corner of the house but it appears it's in the middle of the basement.  

I did text our Project Manager this morning and reminded him of these 3 issues still outstanding.  So hopefully he will get with the framers when they are there this week.  Needless to say we're not happy with this whole framing process.  Hopefully we can say that the framing inspection would've caught everything we have, but inspections can be so hit or miss so there's no guarantee.

I did get one good picture that has me thinking.  This is out of our morning room (aka dining room).  We're going to be building a deck.  It'll probably be 6 - 12 months though since our backyard will be pretty useless this summer until we get some grass grown.

There will be a patio door but it's covered in this picture.  We're planning a deck all the way to the end.  Still not sure what grading will look like.

Hopefully next post will be lots of good news!

HVAC + Type A Personality

This is going to sound silly to most people...but oh well.  Let me introduce you to my Type A personality. 

On one of our walk throughs of a Palermo under construction I noticed the return air vent at the top of the big wall in the great room.  I wasn't a fan and I couldn't figure out why I hadn't noticed it in the models.  So in walking back through the models I realized the return air vent was at the bottom of the wall, hidden behind an end table.  That I could handle.  I talked with our Project Manager about this at preconstruction and he basically said that's up to the HVAC people as to where in the home it's the best.  In the mean time I used the fabulous Ryan Homes Facebook groups to find out what other Palermo owners had.  There was basically a mix of top and bottom of the great room wall, until I found someone whose return air vent was in the hallway! I felt like I found a pot of gold!  That would be perfect! Less noise in the great room and out of sight in the great room.

vent at bottom of Great Room wall

vent at top of Great Room wall (and for the record I have seen it shifted to the right, center, more)

POT OF GOLD!!!
vent in hallway (through the top of the closet) around the corner from Great Room

That brings us to this morning. When we stopped by yesterday I saw the HVAC work had begun.  I messaged our PM this morning showing him the 3 different options I had found and told him my preferences.  He talked right then to the HVAC guy and was told top of the great room wall.  I of course wasn't happy and questioned a bit more and he said they would put it in the hallway!!!  

Hallelujah! (Don't you hear the angels singing?)
It's the small things :D

Also, an update on our list of issues from his past weekend.  These 3 issues were already taken care of.  We will walk through this weekend to check on the rest of the list.

• Inside the house, the alignment of the doorframe to the basement is off by over 3 inches. 
• Also, it appears there is a closet framed in the laundry room, when we should be getting a tub instead.
• One more thing, I thought you had decided the sump pump was going to go at the front corner of the house but it appears it's in the middle of the basement. 

And we have our first hiccup...

Welp, we knew it would come.  We have our first real hiccup.  After walking the house with my dad we had a list of framing issues.  And when I say list... a LONG list :(  Here's the list:

• Looking into the garage, the left beam up against the house is being held up by jacks but the jacks are sitting on two different 2x4s and they are cantilevered over the foundation.  You can actually see where one side has settled probably 3/8" and a gap then at the top.  (I attached a pic.)

What you cant see is that all of the 2x4s are holding up a metal beam at the top.  At the bottom you can kind of see where those 2 2x4s meet are basically "floating" and have already settled.

• The right side beam my husband text you about last week.  One side of the jacks are not sitting on a plate and instead they have put in several shims at the top between the jacks and the beam.  That happens at both the front and the back of the garage with that same beam.  (I attached a pic.)

The other beam in the garage.  We mentioned this to our Project Manager before, but I sent it in this list again just letting him know we're still concerned about it.

Same garage beam, at the other end.

• Around the exterior of the garage the plywood and trim are not nailed properly.
• Close to the gable the thermo-ply is not completely nailed or stapled.  
• Inside the house, the alignment of the doorframe to the basement is off by over 3 inches. 
• The stairs going upstairs are being held by 6 nails.  
• Walking around many walls and door jams are not nailed to the floor.
• The half walls at the top of the stairs are extremely loose with very little support.
• Also, it appears there is a closet framed in the laundry room, when we should be getting a tub instead.
• And lastly, the trusses and upstairs exterior walls aren't braced properly, per plan.
• One more thing, I thought you had decided the sump pump was going to go at the front corner of the house but it appears it's in the middle of the basement. 

I emailed the list to our Project Manager on Sunday and he got back to me on Monday morning.  He agreed there were lots of issues and assured me he had been in contact with the framers and let them know the issues.  They assured him they were not finished but everything would be taking care of.  I know it's hard to see someone's work as it is in process, but this list was a little too long for them to finish in 2 days.  So we'll be walking the house again this weekend with this same list...

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.

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 :)

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.

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 :(

We have a hole!

As promised we've been by daily this week.  Just as promised they did clear the land on Tuesday, Wednesday staked out the house, Thursday dug the hole and Friday poured the footers.
Talked to Kevin today, he said they wanted to bring the Bobcat in and clear out a bit more debris in the back.  He also said they plan to pour the foundation walls Monday, depending on rain.

This is the front, right corner of the house looking at the garage.

This is the back right corner of the house. Looking in at the office, great room and across to the kitchen.

Pre-Construction Meeting complete!

Well, we finally met Kevin, our Project Manager, yesterday.  We really liked him.  He has lots of Ryan Homes experience.  He went through the plan and our selections and answered all of our questions.  Andrew is still a bit concerned about the size of the garage and whether or not our boat will fit.  It's within inches, so it'll be close either way...

Also, Kevin is willing to let me bring my own paint for the front door.  I wanted red, but they really just had more of a muted, fall red.  I want a brighter red.  So now I'll be searching to find the right red :)  (And check that off my to-do list for once we move in!)  Even as I type this I am thinking I will wait until the brick and siding is up to decide, assuming that's a possibility.  I am guessing they don't paint the front door until one of the last things?!?!

Just realized I never posted this.  This is the brick, black shutters, white garage door, and the only red front door option they had.  They actually have 2 different samples of this brick.  One looks more brown and lighter and we actually prefer that one.  I took this picture as a worst case scenario.  Missing is the shake & siding.  (See below)

This is the siding.  There is no siding on the front of the house.  So this is basically the side and back of the house.

This is the shake.  It is on the front with the brick.

This isn't our home, but its the exact elevation we chose as well as VERY similar colors.  So, this is basically what ours will look like from the outside...just add a red door :)

This is one my Interior Designer friend suggested - Benjamin Moore’s Heritage Red

This is the other - Benjamin Moore’s Caliente  I think I like this one better but to be honest my non-decorating eye can't tell much of a difference! :P

When going through, I also let Kevin know if he accidentally put balusters instead of a capped wall on the staircase we'd be good with that :) Otherwise that's our plan before we move in, right after the island.

Kevin plans to call each Friday to check in with us.  He understands completely that we will probably be out there or driving by daily.  (He said he would too if he were building a new home!)  We live close enough that is literally just a few minutes of out of the way.  We know too from past experience that it will happen fast.  If someone makes a mistake (which we expect, we all make mistakes) we're hoping we might be able to catch it.

They will begin clearing our lot today, stake the home on Wednesday, dig the hole on Thursday and maybe even had a footer poured on Friday! :o  With the warmer temps we've experienced this week, I am hoping they continue for another week or so and let the foundation really dry.  (Can you read my non-construction expertise coming out?)

Dumpsters are there for removing the trees and brush.  He's planning to save as many big trees as possible, but the majority of this will have to be cleared.  Our house has a 60' set back and they like to clear 30' around the house.

And of course before I even managed to get this post up, we've driven by and they're clearing trees!

He said they estimate it takes about 58 business days assuming everything goes perfect.  They're still telling us May 1, even though those 58 business days means more like mid-April.  The last houses on our street all sold last month so it'll be a busy time of building these next few months.  We are glad to be one of the last homes; construction traffic will be gone! :)

Our current house is still moving through the sale process.  Planning to close at the end of next month.  That will be a relief!  Planning to get a POD for storage.  DREADING packing!  It'd be so much easier to sell everything and just buy new.  Thankfully Andrew keeps talking me down from that bridge!