End of Week 7 = Cabinets!

After we went by the house on Friday, we didn't think we would see much on Sunday... but we were very happy to see CABINETS!!!  And I must say, they are simply gorgeous!  They're going to look so much better once the dark hardwoods are in.  Ohhhhh, I can't wait to cook in this gorgeous kitchen!!!



Coming in down the hallway





From the morning room



They also put in the vanities in all 3 of the bathrooms upstairs.  And the mirrors are installed as well!

The master and 2nd bath vanities look the same.

Tiny vanity in the 3rd bathroom

Banisters are in!

Our once full garage is empty again!  Maybe now they can get it drywalled. 

A little update...

Week 7 rolls on! We had a couple of rainy days and it feels like progress slowed down a little bit. I think it's because it was all little things that they've been working on. 

We also got a great update that the green utility box will not be in the front yard! I figured I was panicking for nothing... Oh well! We will have a small box that's on the edge of the property line, which is a-okay by me!

Pardon the dark pics, these were taken on one of those rainy days!

Paint went up on Wednesday. 

Here's the family room. 

And the master bedroom. 

Today (Friday) we stopped by and they were busy installing casing, trim and they had installed all of the interior doors!

Casing in the entry!

Casing in the dining room and you can see the lines for the chair rail. 

Garage and closet doors. 

Hey there sinks!

We also locked in our mortgage rate this week, more to come on that!

Happy weekend all!!!

Week 7

First of all... really?  We're already at week 7?  Where did the time go?  I feel like this process took FOREVER to get moving, but now it's just flying by!  Well, I think it's more of a "the days are long, but the weeks are short" scenario :)

This was the first weekend we didn't go by the house.  I will admit it was nice to take a little break.  I did stop by yesterday and today to see if anything new was happening. And of course there were a few things...

They dropped off paint in the living room!

 

Everything has been mudded and taped!

Check out our 3rd full bath in the 4th bedroom

I love this porch!  I also love that it's not wood and it shouldn't fall apart like our old porch - woohoo!

 

Now, for the thing I'm worried about... they've dug a huge hole in our front yard and there are a lot of wires (piping?) exposed.  I'm really worried they are going to put one of the giant green electrical boxes in the middle of our front yard.  What an eyesore.  And there's nothing that Ryan Homes can do about it, because it's the local power company that installs everything.  I'm emailing our PM tonight to check. I hope it's just that they haven't buried the lines... fingers crossed!

I went by this afternoon too, but they were busy at work inside so I didn't go in.  It looks like they were painting.  Can't wait to see what builder grade cream/off white will look like. 

 

Anything new going on at your house?  Do you feel like the days are long but the weeks are short?

WE HAVE A CLOSING DATE!

We received an email late on Friday stating that we have an official closing date! Yay! Yay! Yay!

 

 

New Home Orientation - Monday, November 3rd @ 10 am

This is where they'll show us how the house works! 

 

Settlement - Wednesday, November 5th @ 11:30 am

We get to sign all the paper and finally get the keys! Woohoo!!!

Also, this just started to feel real - we're less than a month and half away!  We'll get to move into our forever home and finally get settled!  I feel like we've had stuff packed away for so long now that with having the house on the market for the first part of the year, living in an in between home while we build - I can't wait to unpack and decorate!

So, now I really need to start figuring out paint colors and a couch!!! And a schedule for moving!  And turn on utilities! The list goes on...

Oh, and we need to get all of our paperwork pulled together for NVR (bank statements, updated paychecks, etc) and start watching the interest rates so we can lock our rates.  Fun times ahead!

Did you get your closing date later than the norm? 

Week 6 - Drywall is Up and Next Week's Schedule

I made it back last night from my trip and got to see lots of fun updates at the house today!  We walked around outside and saw that lots of dirt had been moved around to get ready for the water, sewer, gas, power lines - not sure which ones exactly are going where. 

Exterior updates, Clockwise from top left: Big pile of dirt and a pipe in the driveway; big hole in the front yard for water/gas/electric?; lots of flags marking all of the lines going in the yard; sidewalk is poured along with the porch! 

 

Inside, all of the drywall has been placed and they were busy working on taping and mudding throughout the upstairs. 

Interior updates, Clockwise from top left: looking at the stairs from the formal living room; view of the family room from the kitchen; view of the kitchen/morning room (with a loner mudder/taper); view from the front door  



Cool diamondback drywall for the bathrooms

The most exciting thing to see was the big machines digging for all of the lines.  Our PM confirmed that the power company has been out this week (hooray) and will be running the lines through next week.  They are going to also run the power directly to our house and we will have power by the end of next week (WHAT!?!?!?)!!!

These guys were burying the lines - power lines I think? 

Our schedule for next week is as follows:

• Drywall mudding and taping now - Tuesday
• Trim work, cabinets, doors and baseboards will all start going in on Wednesday
• Power will be on by the end of the week!

Love turning the corner and seeing our beautiful home!

Not much exterior changes this week!

 

Week 6 - Time for Drywall!

Went by the house on Sunday and picked up all the garbarge the workers have thrown all over the yard and the house. It's been driving me nuts and something had to be done :) I was a little

I only had a quick second yesterday to drive by and didn't have time for pictures but the concrete truck was there pouring our (little) sidewalk!

I went by today because I am headed to Atlanta for work and knew I would be bummed not to see anything for a few days. I was happy to see a few things going on!!!

I believe the cable and the green boxes are from Dominion Power! Hooray for electrical being run (finally)!!! It looks like they were starting to dig for the cable but I'm not 100% sure. 

I jumped out of the car and snagged a few pics in the garage while the folks were working (I think I was undetected). 

We have a sidewalk! And they may have poured the porch, but I couldn't see. 

Goodies in the garage! I saw doors and cabinets but didn't have time to snoop too much. 

Cabinets!!!

Pickets for the stairs!

The workers had music blasting crazy loud - I think it was some kind of Italian/Spanish opera, very funny!

They were working on the drywall I believe (lots of it hanging out of windows). The other houses being built on our street looked like they had their drywall up already - at least in the garages. 

We are going to meet with our Loan Officer again on Friday to review the loan stuff again and decide what kind of loan we are doing. And to determine when we want to lock in our rate. 

Now I've got a flight to catch! Cherrio!!!

Week 5 Update!

Ya'll!!! The siding went up on the house in a day! A day! It really looks like a house now!!!

This was taken late Thursday (9/11) and this is what it looked like Friday evening (9/12):

The porch will be covered in stone, so that comes a bit later. 

They also had put up a lot of insulation and all of the drywall was dropped off too!

Clockwise from top left: Garage insulation (we paid extra to have the whole garage insulated), carriage light on the garage, upstairs drywall stations, insulation in the morning room. 

Drywall supplies - mud and tape!

View out of the loft. 

View from our drive way of our neighbors. They have 4 houses going up in our section in addition to ours right now! And out of the 5 of us - 4 are Romes, 3 are Elevation E with Graphite Gray siding. Really?!?!?

And one last picture of progress!

Happy weekend!!!

Lighting and De-Ryanizing

As many before me, and many to come after, there are some things I've been considering when it comes to de-Ryanizing (yep, that's a term!) our home.  I'm not really a big fan of builder grade lighting fixtures, so over time I'd like to replace a lot of the lights that come in the home.  I think this will happen little by little, no big rush to get this done.  But, while I'm thinking about other décor I've been pinning ideas for lighting.  Without further ado, here are a couple of replacement ideas!

In the kitchen, we are adding pendant lighting so I will actually need to get something for there sooner than later:

Hubby likes the idea of having something clear so the view is not obstructed.

YHL Bubble Glass; MSRP =$49

 

Pottery Barn - Harlowe Wire & Glass Pendant; MSRP = $99

I really love the hexagon and the texture of this!

Pottery Barn - Paxton Glass 8 Light Pendant; MSRP = $499 - $549

This could go  in the kitchen or the dining room.  I really like the clustered look.

YHL - Geometric Diamond; MSRP = $79

This would look great to replace any of the builder grade "boob" lights.  Love the lines of this one!

 

Shades of Light - Clear Glass Prism Pentagon; MSRP = $169

Another "boob" light replacement option.  I really like the hexagon/honeycomb look!

 

 

West Elm - Capiz Orb Light; MSRP = $149 - $299

Another one with the honeycomb look. 

YHL - Large Wire Globe Lantern; MSRP = $89

I've seen this in an office and really loved the shadows.  This might be an option for the dining room or the stairway?

 

What about you - are you looking to de-Ryanize your home?  What kind of lighting options are you considering?



Pre-Drywall Inspection

We had our pre-drywall inspection yesterday (9/10) and it went great and we couldn't be more pleased!

We met our PM at 9 am at the house.  This was my first time meeting him since he came on board.  He is TERRIFIC!  He was very personable, easy to talk to, and you can tell he takes pride in his work.  Just the person I want to have building my home! 

Our inspector showed up while we were chatting with the PM.  He took the blueprints for review and then got to work taking lots of pictures and checking out the house.  While he did that, the PM took us for a walk through of the house to point out electrical, plumbing, duct work and other items.  We noticed that a few outlets were not in place yet, but the electrician was finishing up downstairs while we were there so it was no issue to quickly get fixed (we added an extra outlet in the laundry room and one on the landing of the stairs).  Everything seemed great to us, I'm not exactly a builder so I don't know if I would notice that things were incorrect either - hence hiring an inspector. 

After we had walked through the house and the inspector was done, we all met together in the garage to review the report and discuss any requests that the inspector recommended. Below are the (few) minimal items that our inspector pointed out:

The PM will fix everything listed above EXCEPT the tree.  Ryan Homes only clears trees within 25 feet of the house and this one is further out than that.  We thought this tree might be an issue initially so we were aware of it.  It's right on the edge of the property, so we'll probably have it taken out before we put our fence it. 

Our realtor also came by during the meeting and we talked to her for a while afterwards.  She was sure to mention that even though they didn't find much in the inspection, we should still be glad we did it.  She's had other builders come up with a lot of issues, so it's always a good idea to have one.  We were pleased with our investment (he only charged $150 since there were minimal things to do).

Clockwise from top left: View of the house when pulling onto our street, Nail plates and foaming, our fireplace insert, and the electrical panel.
I thought the foam stuff was pretty cool - the put it basically anywhere there is a hole to avoid air loss and maintain energy efficiency.

Side view of the mast bath tub and shower - the paper wrapping is installed so high to help avoid moisture and contain insulation.

We also have a few updates on timing (!!!):

• Thursday, 9/11: Framing and Electrical inspection
• Friday, 9/12: Begin insulation (this will probably also take place over the weekend), siding will also start going up!
• Monday, 9/15: Insulation inspection
• Tuesday, 9/16: Begin drywall installation.  This will continue over the next 7 days. 
• Tuesday, 9/23: Trim work will start

He also said that he has given our SR the ok to lock in our mortgage rates, but that it may be next week before we hear anything.  The power company has not come out yet, but they have been told they should start this Friday afternoon.  HOORAY!  This is the one part of the process we have been told repetitively from our SR and PM - the power company can and will delay the house and Ryan Homes cannot do anything about it because the power company is more or less a monopoly. 

Our PM said that he anticipates we should close the last week of October / first week of November.  He feels pretty confident we will have our final walk-through on Thursday, October 30th or Friday, October 31st (Happy Halloween!).  This was clearly the best news of the day!!! I still know that things could delay it, but from what I've seen things seem to stay on track once the drywall is up!  If you remember, we were initially given a timeframe of 11/1 - 11/20, so still on schedule but closer to the earlier deliver date!

Yippee - I can't be more pleased with how quickly things are coming together and what a great team we have working on our home! (And nope, not being paid by Ryan Homes for this blog or comment - just really glad things are working out well!)