It's Electric..Boogie, Woogie, Woogie!

WE HAVE LIGHTS!  Real working lights!  And they look beautiful in the evening (especially since it's getting darker and darker, earlier and earlier)! 

My friends - those are lights that you see! 

 

I cruised through the house while the electricians were there checking on everything. So much fun seeing LIGHTS ON!!!  Loved getting to see the under-cabinet lighting. 

 

They also had the floors down in the morning room!!! I'm in LOOOOOOVE!!! 

 

Also, as promised, here is a better picture of the fireplace.

And a close up of the porch stone.  It's a little darker than I wanted... grr! 

We have our inspection scheduled for Friday even though they won't be quite done with everything.  I wanted to be sure the inspection report could be sent to our PM with time to make any corrections that are needed.  The only other time the inspector had open was Tuesday, and since we close on Wednesday, I felt like that was cutting it close. 

I can't believe that we'll be homeowners again this time next week!!!

We Have Power... Sort of...

Well, you can all uncross your fingers and toes now! The power company pulled through and they were able to get the power turned on yesterday! We went by yesterday afternoon and they had not actually turned the power on to our house yet though. They should be doing that today! Hooray! Now I can stop stressing about power :) And stop annoying our PM for updates. 

They also did A LOT yesterday - our stone has been put in on the front of the house, the fireplace has stone now, they installed our carpet upstairs and started to do so downstairs, we have real garage steps and railings for the porch, and the whole house was full of blue tape to note areas that need to be fixed. 

I had to snap a picture of our meter at 0! It will never say that again :)

It was hard to get a good picture of the stone because they were still working, so I'll have one for you later. It looks fantastic in person! We are very happy with that selection. 

The upstairs carpet was a little darker than I remembered, but I do think it will look good once we get everything in.  It also wasn't as "plush" as I thought it would be since we upgraded the padding. I am checking on the padding they used to make sure it's what we selected. 

We also got a little more sod in the back, but that is definitely all we are getting. We will have to add more once we close to fill the back yard. 

You can see the darker green sod towards the back. This is looking from the edge of the house. 

This is from the back corner of the lot. So a decent amount of area to fill in. 

Well, that's it for now! They are putting in our hardwoods today and I can't wait to see them! We should also get to see the electricity in action!!! Woohoo!!!

ALSO - WE ONLY HAVE 1 WEEK UNTIL WE CLOSE!!!

Kicking Off Week 12

Hey there! Just a quick update today - We still don't have power :(

They have continued to do as much as they can -

• Our back door is boarded up now
• They put in our street lamp
• They've painted our exterior doors

We also got confirmation that more sod has been ordered for the back yard, so that's coming. 

I've emailed our PM to see what the plan is for this week.  He's assured us a few times that we shouldn't be worried about our closing date... but I'm starting to worry.  It's not his fault that the power monopoly company hasn't come out yet.  I'm also worried if we do get power this week, that our floors are going to be rushed and I don't want sloppy work. 

That's it for now - I've got a fairly busy week at work, so I'll try to drop in an update here or there as I can!

2 More Weeks!!!

We went by the house this afternoon and they have put in our sod, the microwave/hood, porch columns, and they've stained our  stairs! 

We also got our garage door!

One thing we noticed is that our PM and SR told us that we would have 25-30 feet of sod in the back yard. It looks like we might have 20 feet from the short side of the house. I thought it would be 25-30 feet from the morning room. I'm checking, but my guess is that this is all we are getting. Lots of red mud still left behind. 

As for power - still none :/

Our PM said he's being told tomorrow. But he's been told that every day... so we will see. 

While we were at the house for a little while last week (for the fence and patio quotes) and we noticed a few things that we had questions about - below are our questions and our PM's response. 

 

Q1. The granite in the kitchen - We noticed that there are 2 pretty big scratches/dents on the edge of the granite on the slab by the sink.  There's also another scratch on the granite on the other side of the sink. Can you check this out? 

We also noticed that the granite lip/backsplash behind the sink is not level - but they may be adjusting that when they come back out for finishing touches?

A1. I have send the repairs listed to the granite company and they will be by next week to fix them.

 

Q2.  Foundation vents by the morning room outside - There are 2 vents in the brick foundation under the sliding glass door (outside).  We had planned on putting in stone steps to lead outside.  The steps would cover the vents (at least 1, possibly both).  Is it a problem if we cover up the vents?  Is there any way to move the vents at this point? 

We know putting in the patio will be done after we close, but we wanted to check in to see what this would affect (if anything).  I would think most people have steps coming out of the morning room so this probably comes up?

 

A2.The foundation vents are in per plan. I do not see an issue if one gets covered up as you have plenty around the rest of your foundation to allow air flow during the summer months. I will double check with my foundation contractor and confirm at your walk through that this will not be an issue. 

This is what we marked out for the patio. 

 

Q3. Irrigation System - Can you tell us what day they are coming out?  This is something we really want to have a say in where things go as much as we can.  We also want to see where the lines go. 

We would like the irrigation to come in at least 3 feet from the property lines (so it's not an issue with our fence), and a few feet away from the area we are going to set up as our patio.  We know you can't be everywhere at once, and we really don't want to be in the middle of the guys working... but we want to be around for this. 

A3. I have spoken to the irrigation contractor and let him know to stay 3ft off of the property line and avoid your patio area. The guys will be out Monday to install the irrigation. 

*So, they installed the irrigation. It seems like they out in stuff really weird, but I've never had irrigation before so I don't know?

Q4. We are starting to get worried about not having power and this causing a delay. 

A4. Don't worry. I've had guys working to get everything finished that does not require power. Once power comes we will only need to install floors. Do drywall and paint and clean the home. My boss and I have both been calling VA power every day trying to get an update from them.  

That's it for now... I can't believe we only have 2 weeks to go!!!

Week 11 is here!

Hey there!  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  We enjoyed some great weather, trip to the pumpkin patch and had some family pictures taken.  Overall a really nice weekend!

Couldn't resist putting in an adorable picture of our sweet girl!

On Friday, we were at the house during lunch to get more quotes on a fence and patio.  Once we were done with that we drove to the end of the street to check out the other houses that are being built.  We ran into our Project Manager and got a couple of updates -

• Weekly update:
• Irrigation folks will be out on Monday
• Sod folks will be out on Tuesday
• The rest of the week kind of depends on power...
• Power - He's been calling multiple times a day to get an update from the power company.  It should be any day now.  He said once they get out there, it only takes a few hours to get it all turned on.  Fingers crossed we get power this week!
• Stone - It's on backorder.  All of the other houses in our neighborhood that are in the same stage of being built already have their stone if it's stacked.  Apparently the round stone is on backorder from the supplier.  Our PM has escalated the issues to the bigwigs corporately because it's also holding up another house on another street as well. 
• Flooring - Can't go in until we have power.  He said it could be done, but that there is usually a lot of issues later on if they do that.
• Granite - We noticed a few dings when we were there on Thursday in one of the slabs.  Our PM was aware of it and said that the granite folks would be back out to fix it.
• Plumbing - One of the little extras our PM does is run a camera down the drains/plumbing to make sure there are no issues prior to closing.  He likes to do this so they catch it before it becomes a problem after we move in.  
• Finishing Touches - Because were are getting a little delayed due to no power, he said that he'll have 2 crews of folks that do all of the finishing touches prior to walk through.
• Delay in delivery date?
• I point blank asked the PM if we were going to be delayed in our closing date.  He assured me that we still had plenty of time and he had built in some extra days for the power delay.  I told him that I'd much rather him go ahead and tell me now that we may be delayed because I hate getting my hopes up and having them dashed.  He swears that we don't need to worry.

It's hard to believe this is what our lot looked like at the beginning of August!

And this is what our lot looks like now!

 

So, looks like I'm asking again to keep your fingers crossed we get power this week!!!

Friday Update

While I was out of town, hubby went by the house on Wednesday.  We were excited to see that we have landscaping!!! They put in the shrubbery and trees (we get 2!).  They also put down straw everywhere.  That seems a bit odd to me if they are putting in sod, right?  Also, it seems a little weird that they would do the shrubbery in front of the porch before they put in the stone...

 

Here is one of our trees.  It's some kind of maple.

Thursday we went out to meet with some folks to get a fencing quote as well as a patio quote.  While we were at the house we got to see them work on some of the stonework.  They put in the steps and put in the mortar (?) on the wall.  Hopefully this afternoon/evening we will get to (finally) see our stone getting put in!

Here's a closer picture of our granite - for anyone that is interested from my earlier post about backsplashes.  It's Santa Celia.

Did your landscaping installation go in the right order? 

Week 9 - Quick Update!

Hubby stopped by last night and saw that we have a paved driveway, electrical outlets, and our stairs have been ripped out?!?!

Today I stopped by and they've put in our master shower glass walls, all of the towel and toilet paper holders, and all of the shelving in the closets!!!

Here's a picture of the house on Monday or Tuesday...

And here it is on Wednesday with a paved driveway!!!

That's it for now! Happy Thursday night :)

Week 9 Schedule and Questions...

Just a quick drop in for what's on tap for this week!

From our PM: "This week we should be seeing the electricians finishing up installing all the plugs, switches, and correcting the missing items. The plumbers will be in the home putting in the fixtures, and once the power to section 5 is turned on they will start up your HVAC system."

Also, here are a few questions I sent (in bold) with our PM's response (italics)-

If we want to have a fence installed pretty quickly after we take possession of the house, is there any way that we can have the people we want to install the fence come out and review the area to give us an estimate?

It is perfectly fine to have someone come give you an estimate on the fence. I would give them a copy of the preliminary plot plan I gave you during our preconstruction meeting to assist them in being sure they place the fence properly and on your property.
Paint - Is it true that if we paint after we move in that it voids the warranty on all of the walls that are painted? We would like to paint before we move in, but if it means that it will void anything then we won't be doing that. I just wanted to be sure since we are so close now to moving in and making plans for the house!
Painting the walls does not void the warranty. There is only one small change. Our Drywall settlement warranty includes repairing any nail pops or settlement cracks by mudding, sanding and painting these areas back to our color. In the case that you have painted a wall a different color they will still repair any nail pops or settlement cracks by doing the same process, but they will not paint your custom color. They will put our color on the wall as a primer for your paint and you will be responsible for the custom color.

I have many homeowners that choose to paint before the Drywall settlement warranty and have not heard of anyone regretting it. Typically there just may be a few touch up spots of paint on the custom color wall.

I meant to ask you about the posts on the front porch and when they are going up? We have noticed a big difference in the roofline in the past few weeks where one side is getting lower and lower. We measured it on Sunday and it's a 4 inch difference from the roof at the front door to the edge of the porch. That seems like a lot and we can see it as well. We're a little concerned over it potentially pulling away from the house?
The columns will go up once the stone goes on. I know about the difference and so does the column installer. This happens more often than you would think during construction and it will be corrected and leveled by the column installer when he installs the columns.

*We are still slightly concerned over how much the porch roof is leaning, but I am hoping that the PM is correct and it's just something that happens and they will have it taken care of.  Fingers crossed!

Also, we had one more Q & A with our Loan Officer -

I had a quick question for you regarding purchases... we want to buy a new couch for the house.  We can save a couple hundred dollars if we open up a company card.  However, we don't want to do that if it is going to mess up something with the mortgage.  I don't believe you're going to pull our credit again, so I don't think it would cause a problem in that regard... but we aren't sure. We may be overthinking it, but can you let us know as quickly as possible if we can do that? In order to get the couch delivered before Thanksgiving we need to purchase it in the next day or two. 

Please do not open any new credit prior to closing. It impacts your credit score and DTI (debt to income ratio). 

*This is interesting to me and why I think mortgage stuff is so confusing.  We locked in our rate and they pulled our credit since it hadn't been updated since May, but I didn't think about them pulling our credit AGAIN.  That's 3 times they will have pulled it.  That seems a bit much, not to mention that every time they pull your credit it's a hard inquiry that lasts for 7 years on your score.  Geez!  Also, I don't think I'm as big a fan of our LO as I once thought I was. Her answers have been short and not very explanatory lately. 

That's all I got for today - sorry no pictures!     

ONE MONTH AWAY!!!

TODAY, WE ARE OFFICIALLY ONE MONTH AWAY FROM CLOSING!!!

I cannot believe we are so close! This next month is going to fly by! We need to start working on our moving plans, so much to do!

So, remember how I said I wasn't going by the house until this weekend? I lied... I totally went by on Thursday after work :) 

I was excited to see that they had done a lot! Our tile was dropped off, they put the floors down in the half bath downstairs, installed the HVAC and gas line, and our appliances were delivered! 

Yesterday we celebrated Sweet D's 2nd birthday and since all of the grandparents  were around we drove over to the house in the evening and got to see that they continued to work hard on Friday and Saturday! 

It looks like most of the light fixtures were installed and they finished tiling and grouting all of the bathrooms upstairs!!! 

Can I just say, I love our master bathroom tile! We had a hard time picking it out, but I am so happy with how it turned out! 

They also got our garage drywalled!

That's it for now! Time to go assemble a bunch of new toys for our sweet baby girl! Happy Sunday!

PM Update for Week 8

I meant to update sooner, but this is our schedule for the week at the house from our PM:

"Things are going well in your home. This week the natural gas line is going in. They will be painting and doing a 2nd of 4 runs of drywall and paint. The tile will be installed in the bathrooms. They will be measuring all the cabinets installed in your home to be preparing to cut your granite tops. The final trades (plumbers, HVAC, and electricians) will also be starting work on your home late this week or early next week."

So, not a lot of big ticket items this week.  I stopped by and saw that they had painted the walls again and so had the trim work.  There were also some items that we had noticed that would need to be addressed, and our PM has already taken care of everything (his responses below). 

•  Outlet in the master bathroom closet was drywalled over
• When the electricians come to install outlets, switches and lights they will uncover this. It is pretty typical they have to find one or two things covered up by the drywall contractor.
• I have also marked a rough location to help them find it
• Outlet in the landing is not there (a wire is coming out into the study though)
• I have marked the location for the electrician the drywall contractor just pulled it through the wrong side. The drywall company will be back 3 more times before finishing your home and they will refinish where the wire went through on the wrong side.
• There's a hole in the 4th bedroom ceiling that also goes over the loft area
• This has been fixed.
• 
  
• Drywall around outlet in upstairs hallway is ripped/hole above
• I believe this has already been repaired as I could not find it. The drywall and paint company still have many trips back until we get to a finished product. I will be sure it is addressed if it has not already been
• Laundry door is swing inside, not outside
• Figures I marked everything to tell them to make it swing out but they still put it the wrong way. I have contacted them and they will be fixing this.
• 
• No outlet on the side of the island
• They install the outlet on the island when the electricians put all the outlets in. This is required by building code and must be in for your home to pass its final county inspection. It will be in.
• Light in the garage (we paid for an extra one)
• They know about this and will be adding it when they install all the outlets, switches and lights.
• The pendant light over the island is at the edge, barely over the island (closest to where the stove will be). When the electrician drew the island out, it was further over and would have been over it (you can still see the drawing on the floor).
• I have reviewed the island location and have contacted the installer. He will be moving it closer to the Stove. Also keep in mind the granite will overhang some to also give us more clearance for the light.
• 

I think that's it.  We probably won't go by the house again until the weekend since there isn't much going on.   Hope you all are having a good week!

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?