Weekly update, of sorts

Its been a really busy week - I've had meetings and events and appointments every day after work, so only got to see the house once mid-week, then again on friday.  Since I've last posted, we have windows, and doors, and tyvek and a roof, with shingles and everything!  The third house in the neighborhood was being framed today - it looks like it might be a venice, and another one looks ready to go once they are finished that one.  It is really happening quite fast.

Some pictures for you...

This is the access to the attic over the garage.  Apparently, they have changed the design
to close it off, and allow no access to this space.  I've emailed the PM asking if we can keep it.  If they have
to drywall over it, I'm going to drill it right back out.  Its silly to not have any access to the attic space there.

Pipes!  I think these are the pipes for the dual master bath sink

My big tub, sitting in the middle of the bathroom, like the honeymoon suite
in a really horrid roadside motel.  I hope it looks fancier after its surrounded by tile.
Kinda looks like a hunk of junk now, but I know that what all bath stuff looks like.

I don't even remember where this is - I think upstairs hallway

Piles of stuff, ready to be installed

Our stairs!  Finally, I was able to go upstairs.  We upgraded to the stained oak steps,
so the black stuff is there to protect them, which I sincerely appreciate.

More pipes.  

Ain't she cute?  I think I will call her House.

 We noticed on our first trip in that there were quite a few 2x4s that looked crappy.  Ragged edges, giant knots, weird knot/sap combos.   They were not painted or highlighted on my last trip, but I do remember from some of your experiences that PMs have in the past taken these bad boards out and replaced them.  We've asked about it, and I will push if I see a really nasty one in a support wall (if I knew which ones those were).

What else?  Um, they poured the garage too!  I think that's about it for now.  PM tells us that its HVAC, electric and plumbing for the next week, then our pre-construction meeting is Friday!

I'm headed out of town for a conference, and won't be coming back until late thursday, so a bunch is going to get done this week and I'm going to miss it <pouty face>.  Hopefully the booze cruise, hotel bed (why are the always SO much more comfy than mine?) and good company will console me.

I get a feeling that I will be sticking my iphone in people's faces all week, whether they like it or not.  "Check out my house!  Wanna see the virtual tour?"

I'll bet I make tons of friends that way.

See you all next week and good luck this week to everyone!

Closing Estimate

We found out today that they are shooting for a closing date in early September.  

My heart stopped.

Early September?!?  Holy Crap.  I feel totally unprepared.  

So, the tight timeline spurred me into action and I called to make arrangements with a property management company to come over and check out my townhouse and get the ball rolling on renting it out. That means I have to clean it up a bit this week, because they guy is going to TAKE PICTURES.  Of my home!  Of my couches!  Of my yard!  Of my kitchen!  Of my sponge painting job!  Of my cat litter box!  (hopefully not that last one)

I've been here 12 years, so I've never gone through the process of selling (or renting) a house before.  He wants to be able to start walking people through in a couple weeks.  GULP.  Not sure I can handle that.  I know you have all done it, but with a space this small, its going to be tough to keep it tidy.  In good news though, the fact that he thinks he could have enough interested people in a couple weeks is a pretty good sign that my place won't be staying empty for very long.  

You know, I have been reading all of your stories about the process and getting ready, and it seemed so easy.  There's a post that you have to pack, and then, viola!  You've packed and moved!  There's a post that you've got two houses to sell, and viola!  You've sold them, and are walking away counting your cash.  I think the reality of those things might be just a wee bit more complicated!  

The roofers are on fire!

Ok, well, they aren't really roofers, but I wanted a catchy blog post title because I wanted you to read this:

WE HAVE ROOF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I walked around in my house for the first time.  I got to see what the view through the windows looked like.  We met the neighbor, who has a snow blower, a tiller, and two lawn mowers.  All of which he offered up to us!  He's already the best neighbor ever.  We also took my mom to the model house for the first time so she could finally see what we've been talking about for so many months.

I wanted to post daily pictures, but had a really busy week.  I missed a couple days, and now, I've got a whole house!!  We went up this morning to check it out and met my mom there, then took her to the model house.  I hadn't seen it all week, and was pretty excited to see this.

Gradall delivering plywood

From the back, with another nice shot of the neighbors
awesome garden.

We ran some errands, and were close by around the end of the day, so I drove by again.  There had been workmen in the house before, and I wanted to stay out of their way, but really, really, really wanted to go in.  When we drove by again, this is what we saw:

Its a roof!  Its a whole house (except for that weird hole in the roof.
What is that?)

So, of course, I went in.

Living room, viewed from the family room

Kitchen

Living Room. 

Morning Room

 I was really excited to be able to see the place with windows, and see what our view will be.  I love that I will be able to sit on my sofa and look out the window and see trees from the living room.  The view from the morning room won't be quite as good, but we'll fix that pretty quickly.

Our rep said that once we are under roof, we can start looking at locking in.  So, I guess that's as of today!

Waterproofing

Today was the first day back at work after a week off.  It was not a very productive day.  :)

Not a long a production has been happening at Lot 1 either.  Waterproofing junk went up last week and there were some inspections.  So, we didn't miss much while we were in the mountains.  Everything seems to be on track for framing to begin Thursday or Friday.  Wood is supposed to be delivered tomorrow.

Side of house looking toward backyard

Family room and morning room wall with waterproofing junk
In the way background on the right of the morning room, you can see
a Ravenna that just got its siding.   We will be the 2nd Ryan home in the community

We asked our PM for an update this morning, and he got back to us pretty quickly, but didn't have a lot of detail.  I get the feeling that this guy is a just the facts kind of person, which is fine, but sometimes I like details.  

In other news, I had requested a couple additions at our pre-construction meeting: A second window in the back bedroom (its the only room in the whole house with only one window and its a little dark), a railing on the front porch, and a carriage style garage door (like Noey's!).  

Our sales rep said the garage door couldn't be done at this late date (although, i did ask about it early on in the process and it just got kinda dropped).  Apparently, the style of garage door was approved by the County and to change it would require going back with a new design to re-do the permit, which is costly and time consuming - and all items have to be ordered like yesterday.  Its amazing really - I want something that is nicer and more attractive and can't have it.  Ditto on the front porch - I didn't specifically hear the county argument, but was quoted a price of $2400.  For a RAILING.  No thanks.  We'll do it ourselves later with the deck contractor.  

And finally, she never got back to me on the price of adding a window, but again with the county argument, and some engineering thing.  I dropped it - it sounds like it would be more hassle than its worth, and really expensive to boot.  I'll just let BF have that room for his office, and I'll take one with more windows.

(Did I mention we will each have our own personal room?  I know, I'm very spoiled.  I can't wait to design my little retreat.)

I've been a little disappointed with the sales rep's performance on custom requests - it just seemed as if she tried to steer us away from them on our original request, then to get prices and info, we'd have to remind her.  Sometimes more than once - its gotten worse since we actually signed the contract.  Its like once she had us locked in, she had less incentive to keep us happy.  She also got more busy, since 10 more people signed contracts right after we did.  I understand why this might be the case, but its still a bit annoying.

Hopefully, pictures of wood tomorrow!

Foundation!

We took a quick last-minute trip up to the house today, and I was surprised to see the foundation with the molds off, ready for the next step!

Foundation!

Foundation from the surprise basement window
At least, that's what I think it is

View of egress window

What not to wear while you are walking around a construction site
after it rained all morning

While we were there, a young door to door salesman walked by and called out to us.  "You thinking about putting a deck on that house?"

Um, yeah, a deck and like, walls!  I took his card, and told him we'd call for an estimate when we had an actual house.  But I lied.  I can get recycled plastic decking at or near cost from a family member - and I have a handyman who built my last deck and did a really nice job.

We are headed to the mountains for a few days, so are going to miss the rest of the week.  I think they just slap up the waterproofing stuff, and then I believe there is another inspection before next week.  Then the fun really starts!

The Ryan Granite Secret

Last week, during our period of agonizing over what kind of countertops to get in our awesome new kitchen, BF and I swung by the showroom of the local granite place.  Its the same granite place that Ryan contracts with around here for granite and Corian installation.

We weren't there for more than 5 minutes before the sales rep told us the secret: You are getting totally hosed if you upgrade to granite countertops with Ryan.

The sales rep estimated a total cost of about $2800 if we ordered granite directly from them after our home was built.  Ryan charges around $4,000 for all of the counters in the Ravenna, including gourmet island.
He shared with us that granite prices have dropped dramatically, and that most granites are now cheaper than Corian, which is not reflected on the upgrade sheet.  And prices may continue to come down.

So, by putting in granite counters after we close on the house, we will be saving ourselves around $1200.  And could use the laminate countertops for something else, like garage or basement workspaces.  Too bad we don't want granite - we want the more costly (and less pain in the ass) quartz countertops!  Those would cost us around $5,000 and while its nice to think about, I can't ever imagine myself spending that kind of cash on a counter.  Trip to Greece?  Yes.  Place to throw my junk when I walk into the house?  Uh, no.

There are, of course, good reasons to buy granite from Ryan, particularly if you want to have it and don't have the cash in hand.  Rolling up that cost into your mortgage and dividing it over 360 payments makes the cost per month almost invisible.  But, if you have the flexibility to do it later, definitely talk to your local granite place and see what kind of deal you can get so you can make an informed choice.

So, our informed choice is that we are going with laminate countertops (in Brazilian Brown - anyone have that color?) but upgraded the sink and faucet.  We got an extra deep, one bowl sink ($150) and a nicer Moen Faucet ($275).  If we upgrade, we will have to ditch the sink, but could keep the faucet.  But, since we won't upgrade for a while (if ever) we wanted to have a deep sink and workable faucet from day one.

I hope this is helpful for anyone else out there agonizing over countertops.

Progress & Pouring

Things are starting to move pretty quickly, and its been tough to post pictures on a daily basis, so today, I'm catching up.

They started digging the foundation on June 23, and today (only 4 days later) they have the molds in place and are pouring the foundation walls.

At the end of last week, they delivered the excavator, and then started digging on Thursday.  They were done in one day.

Excavation begins, June 22

Our big hole!

Another view of big hole

And another

Footings!
 Why does it look so small?!

We arrived today to see new big equipment!
I don't know what this one is called.  I call it "concrete pourer thing"

So, I think these are the cookie molds that the concrete
gets poured into.  Plus a lot of lunch coolers.
No trash though, LaLady!

Another view.  Look at my neighbors awesome grass and flower bed.
Boy, are they going to hate us....

View from the big dirt mound.  I thought I would be able to see more.
But mostly what ended up happening was that I fed some ticks
in need of human blood.

You might notice that the footings only have rebar in the font of the house - no rebar in the back of the house.  I immediately noticed this and questioned it in my mind, but didn't bother saying anything because I know there is a footer inspection, and of course, they all know what they are doing.  Then I posed that picture on Facebook, and an architect friend asked the same question.  Then I panicked.

We actually sent an email to our PM, which he answered.  On a Sunday.  He explained that the back wall gets a different type of support.  The difference is because the front wall has a more uninterrupted length of load bearing wall than the back.  I feel a little silly sending an email, but you can't be too careful.  This is the house that I will be living inside of - if something looks weird to me about how its being built, I'm going to ask the question!  I really appreciate his answer, and I hope he remains patient with us.  We are going to send a lot more stupid emails.

So, anyway, if everything is still on schedule, we will get our wood (haha) early next week!