Yesterday we got to drive up and see the progress on our house. Its been a long two weeks wondering what all had been going on there, we played a little guessing game before we went up trying to guess what they had done. From reading other people's blogs I had an idea of what would come "next" after the drywall but to say we were surprised with all they had done would be an understatement. I took at least a hundred photos (don't worry I will only share a few) and will try to document all we saw that they had done, though I am sure there are things that I wouldn't be able to pick out that they did.
The first surprise was pulling up to the house and seeing the garage door down (this was the first time we saw it down), the sidewalks in, the driveway in, the soil they put down before the sod laid, and the landscaping already in!!! (Oh and even the mailbox was in!)
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| The landscaping looks really good and I like it. I sent pictures to my brother who is a landscape management major at BYU right now, He told me the tall plants by the steps are not going to look aesthetically pleasing long term as they will grow to 15 feet high and they are fast growing. So we will plan on moving those to the backyard before they get too large to move easily. For now, I like them. |
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| Tree in front yard is a Cherry Blossom tree, that will have pretty pink flowers in the spring. |
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| The column was installed. :) |
I had my husband run up and check the door to see if it was unlocked or if we needed to head to the sales office and get the key. Luckily we could get in. The first thing we noticed walking into the house was the hardwood floors were installed.
The next big thing we noticed was the kitchen cabinets were in. We all figured they would be installed by now but we did not expect the granite counter tops to be in! It was really fun to see the cabinets, counter tops and hardwood floors come together a little bit (they were mostly covered up).
This is the first photo I took of the house on this visit, my husband insisted I take a photo of the sink w/ his hand in it to show just how huge this sink is. Definitely love the big sink.
The electricity was on in the house. Thermostats were installed.
The powder room toilet, floors and sink (almost installed). I was worried about my vinyl flooring choice, was it going to look too cheap but it actually isn't bad, we can live with it. I don't think we will regret not having extended the hardwood into the mudroom and powder, or tiling the bathroom. At least not to start with.
The railings were installed but not stained yet.
The bathrooms upstairs were almost done, tile work was done, cabinets, sinks, faucets, toilets.
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| Master Shower, just waiting for the glass enclosure now. |
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| Soaking tub tiled, faucet in. |
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| Master Sinks |
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| Kids bathroom |
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| Kids tub, and toilet |
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| Kids bathroom ceiling: it was a mess in this room, attic insulation everywhere. Not sure whats going on here, though it looks like they were looking for something. |
Other things we noticed in the house were the doors being installed throughout. The attic access panel and light in one of the master closets.
The inside of the garage.
Another drywall scavenger hunt??? This was in the family room.
The fuse box was labeled.
The tankless hot water heater was installed.
A view of the basement with the insulation on the walls.
Other things done in the house that I didn't mention, the baseboards and shoe molding is in. They had light bulbs in all the lights (some had a pink glow to them, hope that can be fixed). The light fixtures were installed where there are light fixtures like the master closets, and the dining room. They had the plastic cap things over all the ceiling fan rough ins. All light switches and electric outlets in (obviously), and smoke detectors.
Happy surprise with the kitchen cabinets was the soft close drawers. We wanted those but didn't want to ask for anything special, lucky for us they turned out to be included. :)
So in other news we heard this week (only because we asked our SR and then NVR when they sent us an updated closing cost estimate sheet and the "prepaid interest" had only been calculated for 6 days now instead of 31) that our pre-settlement walk through and closing will be the week of May 23rd- closing on May 26th ("firm date" but if changes will let us know). I was getting really impatient because at the rate they were building the house I knew it would be finished earlier than our contracted date and I was worried they might have us close earlier rather than later. Finding out that they're letting us close the end of May was a little bit of a weight off my shoulders. Though I am still having a hard time figuring out what we're doing as far as extending our lease a couple weeks or trying to stay with family or friends so the kids can finish school... or just pulling the kids out and being done with school on May 31st. Hopefully we get it figured out for sure this week, its causing more stress than its worth.
I wrote a separate post last week about this but never posted it-- I am still just trying to just "get over it" and move on. Seeing the house again helped me to regain some of my excitement that I had lost over this house. Anyway, and this is totally our fault for not knowing this ahead of time, and we should have been more prepared but I wanted to share this for anyone about to start this process of building with Ryan Homes so that you don't make the same mistake that we did. I recommend getting a real estate agent, we really thought it would just be one more person we'd have to find and deal with and that we would probably have more luck at getting a better deal if we didn't have realtor, who would take a 3% commission from Ryan Homes. I have no idea, how much better or worse of a deal we could have gotten with a real estate agent, however there would have been some extra knowledge and wisdom given to us, especially in the area of the sales contract. This week when we got the new updated closing cost estimate sheet I, for the first time noticed just how much we were paying in transfer taxes (dumb I know, but to be fair to myself I have been living in a funk since my mom passed away in December). It seemed quite high so I did some research. In PA, where we are building there is a 1% transfer tax from the state and another 1% transfer tax from the county (I think). Typically this cost is split 50/50 between the buyer and seller. HOWEVER, and it actually says this in the sales agreement that we are responsible for paying ALL transfer taxes and then in parenthesis it actually says "even if typically paid for by the seller". ARE YOU KIDDING ME????
Had we known that before we wouldn't have agreed to that. No way. It seems very unfair and super shady to throw that into the contract. We just sold a home in SC last year and we the seller were in charge of the transfer taxes/"deed stamps" (wish we could have made our buyers pay for those, we had a realtor back then how come she didn't tell us to make our buyers pay for that?!?!), never would have imagined this would be part of our closing costs. So see a real estate agent would have come in mighty handy in this instance.
It makes me sad because why don't they just pay their half?
I have tried to make it okay because of the incentive closing help, however it is supposed to be an incentive for using their lender instead of one of our choice. If we go with another lender we lose it.
All of this was studied and discovered when they emailed an updated closing cost estimate because their title insurance went up a whooping $600 since we will be closing after May 1st!! ...Lame.
Okay, I have to stop talking about the transfer taxes and title insurance hike, makes me mad every time. Probably should have started the post with the annoying stuff and ended with the fun stuff but whatever.
I don't know when we'll go to see the house again, I imagine they will be finished before we do. I have tried to make a list of what else needs to be done, (I'm sure I won't think of it all):
carpets, interior painting, exterior painting, front door painted, glass shower enclosure, shower curtain rod, mirror in powder room, appliances, closet shelves installed, garbage disposal, kitchen faucet, drywall touch ups in ceiling and walls, railings stained, cleaning (obviously), garage door opener, numbers on front of the house, sod laid....there really isn't too much more to do. Before we know it, it'll be time to close and move in. :)
