Day 42: Siding, Shutters and Drywall...

I will never stop being amazed at how much they get accomplished in such a short period of time.  We were just up there Thursday afternoon and four days later we received these photos with the siding and shutters on and I know they've been working on the drywall.  There's no way they're done dry walling yet (right??) but they have at least done the garage as far as I can see.  I"m sure I'd be equally amazed to see how much they've done in the house as well.  It truly takes a lot of effort on my part to not get in the car and drive up there while the kids are in school.  Which is so funny because after our meeting on Thursday my husband was asking when I thought we'd come back up and I said they were building so fast there is probably no need to come back up until they finish, right? ;)

Anyway, these photos help me to stay put and not waste my gas, and two hours of my day just to get a couple minute glance at the house.

Its so pretty and I love seeing it all come together. :)

Here is another photo with our neighbors on each side.  All three of us picked grey-ish colors, which had me slightly concerned but looking at the photo big on the computer makes it so I can see the different shades.  Also, they do seem like they all have their own look to them.  We are loving the amount of space between the houses too.  We are not used to that!

Pre-Drywall Meeting

Today was our pre drywall meeting.  It took  maybe almost an hour-- I didn't really pay attention to the time we started and finished.  We got to meet a 2nd PM, who actually called us last week to discuss light placement in the family room.  Both PMs walked us through the house and went over various things throughout the house.  We went through each room and they pointed out things and answered any questions we had.  One thing that was very evident throughout the meeting was that these guys are on top of everything.  Case in point:  Less than a week ago we found out there was no light included in the morning room.  Our purchase agreement does not have electrical plans for the morning room in it and we never saw blueprints of the house at our pre construction meeting.  So there really was no way for us to know this, but we probably should have thought to double check sooner in the process.  So for anyone out there who is at the beginning of the process don't be like us and just assume that the $17,000 morning room comes with a light, haha-- it may be different in different models or neighborhoods, but just make sure you ask ahead of time so you don't have to scramble at the last second when it may be too late.  Luckily for us our super late, last minute request to put in a ceiling fan rough in was quickly approved!!  I can't tell you how happy we are to not have to eat dinner in the dark until we can get an electrician out to cut a hole in our brand new house and put in a light!  Anyway, as soon as we walked into the house we immediately noticed they had placed the 4 recessed lights in the family room and they looked great and not only that... they even already had the ceiling fan rough in installed in the morning room.  So impressed and so happy.  

We were told that they will be stocking the drywall and will start to hang it tomorrow!  We did learn by going through the plans with the PMs that our basement did not come with the small window in the basement area under the morning room.  So there is that.  Also learned that having that small room wouldn't help it qualify as a "real" bedroom once its finished because it has to be a full sized window that someone can get out of in an emergency.  So other than the extra daylight it would have offered we aren't missing out on too much.  

Having been there on Saturday we saw all kinds of spray painted "notes" left around the house and we noticed that it all was fixed when we were there today.  Missing studs were replaced, the attic access was moved from bedroom 2 to the master closet just on the other side of it.  (I think its ugly and don't want it to be visible in the bedroom, so hiding it in the closet was perfect!), They had moved back the framing around the master tub that was sticking out too far.  They also had all the insulation put in on the exterior walls, and garage ceiling.  

One thing we learned was that our master bathroom will have a door on the water closet/toilet area.  The model we had been it had a door or had door hinges indicating a door (can't remember) so we assumed we'd have one too but then I read  blog that said the newer versions didn't have doors there.  I was kind of bummed because I liked the idea of not having to always see the toilet when walking through the bathroom, it would be nice to have a door on and to close it up.  Anyway, our PM said there would be a door there and then we noticed on the actual blue prints that sure enough it did include a door.  Sweet.  Its so nice to learn good things about the house that you didn't expect but love that its there! :)

One of those "good things" being square columns!  Okay, so my husband could tell you and would tell you that I've been slightly obsessed since we visited the house last Saturday and saw the neighbor's finished house with square columns.  Then noticed the house next to them with a square column... then noticed the house on the corner that is still in progress... that is also a Milan (elevation C) with a square column... see the trend?  So I pulled out my video of the street that I took on our first visit on October 29th and watched it in slow motion and zoomed in on everyone's columns.... all ROUND!  

The papers we signed in December with our sales agreement say that the column is revised for elevations B, C, and E and that the round columns are switched for square columns.  This made me SO excited but when my husband asked about it at our pre construction meeting the SR and PM told us "No, the're round".  So bummed.  Well, my crazy obsessive "research" (just all the stuff I listed above... plus showing the plans to all my construction brothers and father at a family party this weekend) had me 99% convinced that the revision on our plans was right and we will be getting a square column and not a round one.  So we asked again today at the meeting and they didn't have an answer for us, said it depends on elevation.  Hmmmm... well then we thought to check the plans when we went back in after the meeting was over to take some photos.  They have to go off the plans, which is what they told us, so we needed to see what the plans said.  YES!!!  8" SQUARE column!!  Okay, yes I know I just went on for the longest paragraph ever over a dumb column but I seriously HATE the round columns, they seem very 1990s to me and that is probably because that is when my parent's built their home and they have round columns.  Anyway, I was kind of sad that we didn't have it in our budget to add stone to the front of our house or to do the elevation E which I really wanted.  So if we can just have a square column I can love the look of the front of my house so much better.  Make sense?  Yes, I know I'm crazy.  Anyway, after looking at the plans I am really only 99.9% sure because who knows what column will show up and they'll install?  Fingers crossed!

Now some pictures of my favorite sightings during our meeting today.

This pile of siding was delivered on our front yard when we pulled up!  Such a great sight to see.  I can't wait to see the house w/ siding and shutters on!!  They were almost done with our next door neighbors siding while we were there today, hopefully ours is next!  :)

Love this back walls of windows!

And this "dining room" is such a nice size.  We will put the piano in here and hopefully turn the rest of the space into a library and computer area for our children to do their homework.  We don't want them to have computers/internet access in their bedrooms, so this is a perfect centralized location for that.

Our "flint" siding.  Its gray, but kind of a blue-ish gray.

Loved the cute little stairs they put in the garage.  

Easily our favorite room in the house, wouldn't have wanted this house without this room.

Do you see what I see?  ;)

Loving our future home and the pile of siding in front of it.  You can see some of the neighbor's siding going up back there too.

Love the wide staircase!  

Day 32: Our first time through the house!

 This morning we finally got in the car and drove up to see our house for the first time since its become an actual house.  We probably could have stayed there all day walking around if it hadn't been SO cold!  It'll be nice to walk through on Thursday with the nice 70 degree weather we're suppose to have then... and also not have children who want to go all over when you just want to go slowly through the house and look at everything.  (They are definitely going to a cousin's house to play during our pre-drywall meeting!)  Here are a few of the photos we took of the progress  as it stood today.  There were a couple guys working there when we showed up but they left (hopefully for lunch and not just because we showed up) and they came back just as we were heading out.

Front of House.  It was good to see all the windows in, the doors and shingles on, the garage floor and basement floor poured.

Standing in family room looking into kitchen and morning room.

Standing in family room looking into dining room and the office.

Front Hallway/View of Front Door.

This little one was SO cold, walking through the house was NO fun for her so she ended up back in the car with an ipad. 

Standing in bedroom 3 looking into bonus bedroom and bedroom 2.

Master Bedroom looking towards front of house, one of the master closets and the hallway and linen closet area.

View from Morning Room.

That {darn} hill again!

View from the back (zoomed in).   The hill doesn't seem so bad from here but from inside the house and standing in the backyard itself it is definitely a major hill. 

Our next door neighbor's house looked totally done and its beautiful.  Makes me even more excited to have ours finished and see what it looks like!

Pre-Drywall Mtg. Scheduled

Yesterday our PM called to schedule our pre-drywall meeting for next week!  It feels so fast.  I swore that I was not going to be one of those home buyers who felt like once they started building that it was going fast... but of course I was wrong.  Framing went so fast and I haven't actually had an update on the house itself for almost a week now but I'm sure they're working away at whatever is at this next step. We were given a choice of three days to have our pre-drywall mtg.  we choose the day furthest away because we have plans to go see the house for the first time this weekend, so scheduling to go back up there two days later doesn't sound super fun.  We could always just wait and not go this weekend at all, however the kids really wanted to go walk through the house and see it and we don't want to take them to the pre-drywall mtg.  (I don't even know if we're "allowed" to anyway...)  Of course they'll want to go again once the drywall is up too... sooo...  yeah who knows what we're doing this weekend.  I still really want to go but I think my husband is more patient and could wait until Thursday next week to see it... and the kids might be fine to wait until the drywall is up.  My thinking is that we are only doing this process once and once it passes each step there is no going back, so we might as well make the trips up to see what's going on throughout the process.  I guess we will see how everyone feels this weekend.

So we have our pre-drywall meeting scheduled and that is exciting.  Also heard from our SR yesterday and they approved the request for the whole property to be sodded... all the way down that hill that is our backyard.  So that makes me happy and makes it easier to deal with the negative aspects of the backyard.  Of course I may change my tune when we have to pay to water it all summer long.  ;)

Framing Day 3

This morning we received this photo of our house.  Roof is on and some windows were in. I can't believe it already looked like this before 8:30am!

We were planning on driving up this weekend to check out the house but we are hoping to get to go inside whenever we do go and our SR said we'd have a better chance at being able to do that if we waited until next weekend and to give them a heads up before we do so they can have it cleared out.  So that is our new plan.  We can wait one more week, right?  Seriously so excited.

And no sooner did I post that photo....

...did I receive this one!!!!  How are they working so fast?

This one came in at 1:50pm.

I am so unbelievably excited to show the kids when they get home from school.  They love seeing these photo updates as much as my husband and I do--which surprises me, I think every time but its so fun to watch their excitement.  We are so happy to be building a home they can call their own again!  (It kind of even looks like their old home that they loved in SC just bigger. :)

"Woah! That was fast!"

My first thought when we received this photo at 9:30 this morning!!!  Couldn't even believe it.

They do work fast when it comes to framing, can't wait to go see it in person this weekend. :) 

Day 21: Framing Started!!

Yesterday we heard from our SR that the lumber was delivered and they'd start framing this week. 

Today we received these two photos from our SR.

Side note:  I don't know if its normal to get updates from your SR.  I kind of feel like their part is over for the most part, and the PM is the one with the updates but my husband texted our SR for an update yesterday because "he responds faster than the PM", and our SR has been great about giving us updates when we ask. So big thanks to him!

NVR Update & Backyard Update

So far we have had a pretty good experience with NVR Mortgage.  They have answered any questions we've had and have been helpful along the way.  Today I got a phone call from our loan processor who just needed a copy of the last deposit check clearing from Ryan Homes and they'd be all set on our end with the loan.  He said the only other thing we need is the appraisal which he said should be done in the next few weeks.  Hopefully that part will all work out nicely too.
Then this afternoon we received an email from someone else at NVR who sent us an updated cost estimate sheet, with new numbers b/c the last one we got didn't have any of the flooring or guardian change orders added to it.  It was nice to see that the interest rate we were quoted in December had dropped.  We are hoping it stays that way or even goes down further by the time we can lock in.  Normally I've heard that people can lock in at 90 or 60 days but with our loan we have to be 30 days from closing to lock in the rate-- so that is super stressful for me to think about what can happen in the next couple months... so fingers crossed!!


Now the backyard... Sunday morning our SR texted us a photo of our foundation.  I let him know that we had visited the property the day before because I was going crazy over the backyard and had to see it for myself in person.  He responded that he had gotten approval and they would be clearing all the brush and weeds off of the hill.  Which is great, because that would be crazy if they didn't, given the fact that now I can see that it is actually the entire backyard.  I threw it out there that was there any chance they would sod the whole thing because I am worried its going to look pretty ugly compared to the other land nearby that belongs to the neighborhood (you can see in the photo below how it backs right up to some land that belongs to the community).  He said he would ask and said they would "dress it up" for us, not sure what that would entail if not sodded (???).  Fast forward to Tuesday afternoon I got another text saying that he put in for approval to have the whole backyard/hill sodded and he would keep me posted   (note the fact that the first time I read the text I skimmed it and thought he had already gotten approval for it, I was super excited for like two seconds!  haha).  I am crossing my fingers for them to approve the sodded hill!  That would definitely soften the blow of the backyard not being what we had imagined it was going to be.  :)

So far impressed w/ NVR and our SR being on the ball.

My husband did text our PM earlier this week because we haven't heard from him since two Mondays ago but still no response.  He asked about the missing window in the foundation area under the morning room.  There was talk at the pre-con mtg. that there would be one of those small windows there but seeing it in person, there is not.  Anyone with a Milan (Version 7) know if that is suppose to be standard or not?

Anyway, hoping they did some work on our house this week and that there will be a chance for even more progress next week.  I was really hoping it would be all framed by the time my husband gets home from Ireland so we can drive up and see it (a little over a week from now).   Its so hard not living close enough to drive by and check the progress whenever we want to!