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!!!

Power Update and Countdown #10, 9, 8...

First, a quick power update:
I've been driving our PM crazy with requests for updates on the power.  I know it's not on him, but it's really go me stressed.  Note that our pre-settlement walk through is on Monday 11/3and closing/settlement is next Wednesday 11/5. 

Below is an email update from late Monday -

The contractor for VA power showed up today to bore under the street by the entrance to your section. This is what VA power says need to be done so that they can finish all connections and get power on. They have promised to have their crew there tomorrow now that the street has been crossed by their contractor. Just as before  though I don't know it for sure until I see their trucks. I do feel today was a big step in getting us moving in the right direction. 

I believe this is what the contractors did yesterday! 

Assuming that we get power tomorrow the plan is to install carpet when they have the power to be able to use their tools for the install. Stone will be installed tomorrow. Hardwood will be installed Wednesday. I will have the house blue taped for drywall on Friday. Blue taped for Paint on Saturday. Cleaned Monday morning before my quality inspection.

During a typical schedule without power delays the hardwood, carpet, drywall, and paint are each allotted one day to complete there scope of work listed above. With the schedule above they all still have a day each to do their job.

If power does not show up tomorrow and the painter does not agree to work Sunday we will may have to move some things around.

I will not sacrifice quality for speed on your home. If I can not get the home complete in a quality manner because of VA power's delay I will let you know that we need to push the delivery of your home.

 

So, once again, keep your fingers crossed we get power today!

Now, on to fun stuff!  I loved the idea of doing a countdown to closing, and since we are 8 days away I thought I'd get started with #10, #9 and #8!

 

Reason #10 I can't wait to move in: Driving to Daycare!

We decided to move Sweet D to her new daycare that is closer to our new house when the new school year started after Labor Day. It's about 20 minutes from our rental and our work. So, it hasn't been too long, but after 2 months of driving 20 minutes to the new daycare and 20 minutes back to work every morning AND every evening... We are both ready to have a closer commute!!! 

Yay for less miles on the car! And since we won't be driving by the house every day after work to check on things (yep, we're obsessive), we'll have even more time in the evenings!!!

 

Reason #9 I can't wait to move in: No more boxes!!!

We decided to sell our house last fall. We got serious about decluttering and packing in February. We spent March and April packing up boxes and painting and prepping our house. In May we put the house on the market. In July we packed up and moved out. We partially unpacked in our rental, but we have boxes everywhere here. Now it's time to pack again... So if you're keeping track, we've been in boxes for  almost 9 months! I am ready to make our final move to our forever house and unpack for the last time for a long, long time!!!

I hope I can get our garage to look like this! 

Reason #8 I can't wait to move in: Garage and Paved Double Driveway!
I've never had a garage before... so I am stoked to have one!  Especially right before winter gets here!  I know garages have a tendency to get junky/cluttery, but I really hope we are able to keep ours organized. 
I'm also excited that our driveway is paved (we had gravel at the last house and I HATED it!), and it's a double driveway.  We can park side by side and not have to do the car shuffle in the mornings/evenings anymore!!! I am very excited about that!

Older picture, but a good one of our beautiful driveway!

 

Are you excited about a new commute? Are you even more excited to be done with boxes?!?  Are you as OCD as me to organize your garage?!?

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!!!

Electrical and Lighting

I've been meaning to post about this for a while and keep forgetting!

First a little rant - When it comes to overhead lighting, I think it's pretty ridiculous that this is not standard at Ryan Homes. Other builders may do this too, but I can only speak to Ryan. I think it's a racket that you have to pay to have overhead lighting in bedrooms and other main areas.  They get away with it by have the light switch connected to an outlet (for a lamp).  We opted to put in ceiling fan/light rough-ins in all of the bedrooms, the loft, formal living room, family room and morning room. If you're keeping track, that means overhead lighting is only included in the foyer, dining room, kitchen, stairway upstairs hallway, bathrooms, laundry room and master closets.

Now, on to the electrical.  Our SR gave us an electrical layout of the home so we had the ability to see where outlets were generally placed and where the light switches connect. Through Ryan Homes, you also have the ability to add extra outlets or lighting in the home.

Standard Rome Electrical Layout re-created by my hubby

Now, this is one project that my husband had a lot if fun with. He took the layout that our SR gave us, recreated it (everywhere you see blue is standard) and then added in red our requests/additions. 

WE LOVE CEILING FANS!!!

We brought this with us to the pre-construction meeting and our SR and PM had never seen anyone do that before. I was so proud of my hubby - he worked so hard on this project! Our PM posted this in our home with the other plans so it was clear what we wanted. I think it helped a lot to make sure everything was put in correctly. 

Did you re-create your electrical layout with your Project Manager?  Do you love ceiling fans as much as us?

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?