Pre-drywall Meeting

We had our pre-drywall meeting last night.  We got lucky and my Mom was able to come babysit (so I could go) and my Dad came along to the meeting as well as Dan's parents.  So we had lots of eyes to check things out and ask questions (while the kids enjoyed light-saber time with Grandma).

The meeting went well, nothing too crazy.  Some small gaps that will be filled with caulk or insultation, a chip in the front door, the morning room roof looked like it had a small dip in the shingles so that will be checked out, a too tight window in the morning room, and the stairs in the basement seemed like the one side wasn't perfectly straight.  The plumbing and electric was pretty much all done (I think the PM said some is still needed in the basement).  All the light boxes (not sure if that's the right term!) were in so we were able to see the rough-ins and the recessed light locations. We also saw all the outlet and lightswitch locations and the doorbell box location.

 A couple other things of concern for us were:

The outlet on the island will be on the opposite side than it was at the model.  We had liked it how it was at the model (closer to the family room) because I thought Dan could be way across the kitchen with the griddle and I could be at the stove for breakfast time.  No big deal though-we realized the stools would be closer to that side and it might actually work out better to have the griddle closer to the stove and further away from the kids if they are on the stools.

Still no budging on helping us out with pendant lights.  I keep hoping they'll just agree to rough them in even though we were late on the request.  No go.  Cutting drywall and routing wires doesn't sound like a fun project for us after closing.

The exhaust fan in the master bath is in the water closet instead of near the shower.  We heard this at pre-construction and I thought it was weird (didn't realize I could request it to be moved).  We are hoping it will still get the moisture out of the room and it won't just get all sucked up on the ceiling above the shower.  We'll have to try and keep the water-closet door open when showering hoping that'll do the trick.  Otherwise my Dad will have to help us install another fan.

The cable box still has not been moved.  It should have been moved a month ago.  PM is going to check with Armstrong cable again.

The fuse box is located in the area of the basement that we will be finishing later.  I guess there is nothing we can do about this and it just depends on where your stuff comes in from the street.  The PM said it has to be so many feet from the front of the house on that side of the street.  I'm hoping it doesn't stick out and the boys won't try and get in it.

Good things:

Our garage door was in!  Dan was so excited to see that and had the PM put it down so he could take pictures!  There are also little wired boxes (I forget what he called them) where our exterior lights will go on the side of the garage and the recessed light is now in the front stoop area.

The front door handle mystery was solved!  It actually is the door-knob typically used from the garage to the mudroom.  They didn't have our round-knob at the time so used this one.  We actually like it better than the round though so the PM said we could keep it!

We realized not only do we have pond or golf course view in girly's room but also in all of the other bedrooms (except master bc it has the wooded tree view of the back of the house)! We didn't see it before because of all the paper up on the windows. We had originally wanted a golf-course view until we saw the only lots open were close to the pond.  We didn't want to have to worry about the kids near the pond so we decided on the bigger wooded lot instead.  But because of the height of our house we got the best of both worlds!  Still a nice pond/golf course view but now also the wooded view, bigger yard, and no worry of the kids near the pond!  Score!  We are super excited about that!

Overall both of our Dad's were really impressed with the construction of the house and there were no major issues that needed corrected.

Next up: More inspections and insulation, drywall should start next Wed, and we are 3rd in line for siding.  Probably within 2 weeks we'll be seeing all of that completed!

Here's a couple pictures.  We didn't take many this time.  We probably won't go out to the house until next weekend so we should have drywall by then!

 All of the guys with the PM (I think they were talking about the air-return thing there)

The recessed lights in the kitchen

Light rough-in for the family room

I think Dan took this picture of the wiring so he knew where things are to tie in the pendant lights

 (I could be totally wrong though!)

 Garage door installed

House front now with garage door!  Can't wait until the trim, shutters, and siding are up!

Bedroom Dilemma and More pictures from Saturday

We were over at our friends house this week for a playdate (the ones that also built with Ryan).  They have a Ravenna and the Bonus Room is such a great size for a playroom.  Originally we had planned on using our smallest room for the playroom until we finish the basement (which is pretty tiny because it's a loft converted into a bedroom 9'4 x 10'6).  It got me thinking that maybe it would be smarter to use the largest kids room for the playroom (which was planned for the boys to share).  That room is 15'5 x 12 so close in size to the Ravenna bonus room.  If we did that we'd have to move the boys to bedroom 4 which is 13'10 x 10.  I think it would still work because the model had a bunk bed in that room and that's what the boys had planned on getting.  But then it would make the smallest room be the guest room and future nursery instead of bedroom 4.  We have a queen bed so that would be tight in the small room and it would be a smaller nursery (if we ever have another baby).  But, it might be the smartest decision since we'll spend more time in the playroom and don't have guests stay the night often.  We're still thinking on this...

I also wanted to post a few more pictures that we took yesterday.  And for my dear husband, I will now caption the bottom;)

 Garage door and handle-this is the same they used on the front door.  I'm not sure if it on the front door is an upgrade or a mistake and it's usually just for something else.  It doesn't look like a traditional exterior door knob:/  Anyone know?

I'm not going to pretend I know technical terms...HVAC vent hole?

More HVAC stuff

I think this might be a fan/vent because it's in the bathroom.

More HVAC and on the right in orange you can see some of the PM markings for the framers to fix.  Some of the things we saw he marked were bowed wood, spots that needed additional support, or a squeeky floor.

 HVAC in the master bedroom

Attic area of master bedroom

A squeeky floor that needs fixed in Bedroom 4

Cement, HVAC, Door knobs

We went out the house today (surprise surprise) to check out the progress.  It's funny all the little things we get excited about.  For example, we saw that they put on the entry door handle!  Actually, the door handle seems different than the basic one that we thought we were getting.  We thought it was going to be a round handle and another Naples being built just a few houses down has the round one.  So we scored big time!  Also we were excited to see the water hose bib in the front seems like a good placement.  We have cement now in the garage (Alicia did a little happy dance when she stepped on the cement for the first time), basement and the front stoop and it looks great.   The HVAC was supposed to be started on Monday of this last week but did not finish.  The electrician was supposed to start possibly Friday but our PM said he was a little backed up so they haven't started any of that yet.   We have our pre-drywall meeting this wednesday coming up so hopefully we'll see both the HVAC and wiring all done.

There are 2 other Naples being built across and down the street from us.  The one has all siding and elevation C like ours so we have been axious to see what their siding and shutter choices were......well we saw today that they have tan siding and black shutters.  It looks nice with all siding (not as nice as ours will be though :)) but we are really excited  now to see our Spanish Olive siding color with white shutters. 

Now, labeling the pictures......for some reason i have a hard time when the caption is on top of the picture (as my wife does it and i'm sure many others too, no offense).  So, here are the pictures with the caption on the BOTTOM.  

Hose bib on the front of the house between the garage and the front porch/stoop 

Front door with the new handle

View of the basement with the concrete poured 

Start of putting in the furnace in the basement

Here is the 2 piece rough-in for the basement, toilet and sink

Another view of the cement porch/stoop 

View of the garage after cement poured....no cracks so far

Just a quick update...

We heard from the PM today and he said everything's still moving smoothly.  They poured the cement in the basement and garage today and the electricians should be out there either tomorrow or Friday.  He also said the framers will be coming back to fix some things that he has marked (guessing it's the spots where we saw light coming in between boards).  And he wants to schedule our pre-drywall meeting for early/mid next week!  Wow things are really moving so fast I can't get over it! 

We are hoping both of our Dad's will be able to come to the pre-drywall with us since they both have experience building houses.  We don't know much of what to look for so I think we'll both feel better knowing our Dad's came through the house and checked everything.  Fingers crossed we'll be able to schedule it at a time that works for everyone! 

We haven't been out to the house this week (I've been good!) so we won't have pictures until this weekend but I'm looking forward to checking out the progress!

Shingles, Plumbing, and way too many pics!

We went out to the site today and were happy with the continued progress.  The shingles are now on the roof (not sure if they are finished because while we were there someone brought over more shingles) and it looks like the majority of the plumbing is in (we didn't check the basement).  There is a broken window now in the guest bedroom/nursery.  We're sure that will be fixed soon so we didn't worry about it.  Here are the pics of the day!  Next on the list is HVAC and pouring the basement floor.

Notice someone wanted to say "Hi" to us by the roof...so Hi back:)

Front Entrance

Kitchen is now mapped out

Plumbing in the powder room

Plumbing on ceiling downstairs

2nd floor laundry plumbing

Kids/Guest Bath

Smaller Master Closet-front left

Master Bath looking good!  Love all the views of the backyard!

The boys had to try out the shower seat.

From walk-in closet looking through bathroom into master bedroom

Walk-in Closet

Girly's room has a  surprisingly decent view of the golf-course and pond.  We had thought her view would mostly be of the house beside us so we were excited to see this!

The shingles they use on roof

We love it!

Front View

Back Yard

Back by morning room door

Back view of house

Lock it in!!!!

First an update from our PM:  The framing was finished yesterday!  And roof will be shingled and finished today!  They also are planning on starting the plumbing today and finishing that and the HVAC system early next week.  He said if all goes well we will be pouring the basement floor middle of next week:)

Now for our rate lock news!  We had been waiting for today: Our PM estimates us to close on Aug7 so giving an additional week for weather delays or problems we could do a 60day rate lock now.  I had waited all morning to hear the rate (since Dan is out of town on business) and was supposed to text him when I heard.  Normally we hear between 10:45-11:45 but of course the day we are waiting we don't get the rate until 1:00.  It was 3.5 and .75% off of closing.  Not the best rate we've heard but probably 3rd best and still a lot better than the 3.75 we were quoted originally.  We figured that even if we'd get a tad lower it wouldn't make a huge difference. We'd rather have this rate and be excited it's lower than originally thought than wait and end up having rates increase.

So Dan called NVR and said we were interested in locking it in but asked them to run his credit again first (Glad he thought of that!) since rates are decided a lot off of credit score.  Well just in the past month his score has increased quite a bit and they offered us an even better rate!!!  We locked in at 3.375% and .75% off closing!!!!!!!  We are so excited and thanking God that he has blessed us once again!

Day 21-More Framing Pics!

Day 21-Wednesday morning, I took my Mom out to see the house.  Dan and I had been there last Saturday night so there was only two days (Mon/Tues) of work since we had been there.  They are sure moving fast and we now had a second floor, windows, door, bathtubs, and more!  Here are some new pics...

Naples Elevation C-Reverse Plan

Front door installed (will be painted dark green)

Family Room-now with windows!

Morning Room Windows

They installed the sliding glass door in the morning room.

 We now have a second floor!

The boys in their new bedroom (Bedroom 2 on floor plan)

 Girly's new room (Bedroom 3)

The Playroom (Bedroom 5-converted loft)

Guest Room/Possible Nursery Someday (Bedroom 4)

Master Bedroom

Master Bath (you can see the seat for the shower and the garden tub). 

Kids/Guest Bath

Tomorrow (Friday) we will try and lock-in our interest rate.  Today's rate was 3.5% and .75% toward closing.  We are hoping tomorrow will be the two best rates we've seen so far (3.375 and 0points or 3.5% and 1% toward closing).