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!

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!

Day Eleven: Foundation Walls (and checking out that darn hill of a backyard)

This morning I packed up the kids and we drove to the new house.  We made it in under an hour for the second time in a row.  So nice.  Though we saw some major traffic going that way on our way home, so we must have just lucked out with some good traffic times.  Saturday mornings are better than Saturday afternoons maybe.  Anyway, I drove into the neighborhood from a different entrance than we usually use so that I could see the progress from a distance AND also to check out the craziness that is our backyard hill.  Yikes!  

Back story:  I was texting my dad (he's a contractor) about the backyard worries and the hill and he told me to send him the plot photo so I did and he said that yeah the plans clearly state that the entire backyard is a hill.  Ugh!  Seriously?  How come it wasn't explained to us better before hand or ever at our Pre construction mtg?  :(  Nothing we can do about it now, but it does make me sad we paid so much money for a lot premium on a lot that had nothing premium about it.  :(  What are the chances they'd give us back that money off the contract?  Yeah... didn't think so.  Would be nice though.

Anyway, here is the view of our hill and the back of our house.  We are the one in the middle, with just the foundation walls up.

Close up

The four littles in front of THEIR house!

They were so excited, I was actually pleasantly surprised at how happy and thrilled they were with the progress so far.

Front of the house, where the front door will be.

Hanging out in their basement.

The morning room is missing the tiny little window it was suppose to have.  

The neighbor to our right, that is being framed right now has the little window in their morning room (they are a venice) but the house to our left (which is a Ravenna) doesn't have it.  I will need to check with our PM/SR about it.  At our Pre construction mtg. they said we wouldn't have the big window that was on our sheet but would instead have the small one.

Nope.  Not there.

Our {darn} view from "above"... lol!

Side yard to the left...

Side yard to the right...

Drove to the cul de sac in front of our street and got photos from up there of our street.  I was trying to figure out what all the different models were and are these three in a row all Milans?  Does anyone know?  I know the ones on the left and right are... and I'm pretty sure when we first came to the neighborhood our SR had us walk through the one in the middle so yeah, I'm pretty sure these are all Milans, and all the different elevations offered in our neighborhood.  

Ours will be  this elevation but without the stone on the front.  I love this house, when I look at the three in a row this one is the one that looks most like "us" and "home".  Just hope its not because the stone makes it look so good, since ours will be all siding.  

Anyway, it was a super fun trip with the kids today.   We will not come back up for a visit for two weeks.  Hopefully there will be some good progress to check on at that point.  :)

After our visit I got a text from my dad who took the time to draw us what our house and grade will look like from the side w/the slope and the hill in the backyard.