SOLD!!! Week 2 - 10/24/13-10/31/13

Hey!!!

So, it has been a week since we have "officially" broke ground and started the home building process. A few things have happened this week, both good and not so good. To begin, they are still completing the plumbing rough-ins on the lot, our gravel to cover and level the lot has been delivered to prep for foundation, and we got a $25 gift card from our builder!! SAY WHAT....you ask?!?! Yes, this is where a little bit of the bad news kicks in, apparently the builder of our kitchen and bathroom cabinets is going out of business and will no longer supply our region of the country. So, we received a cold letter from the purchasing manager of the telling us we need to choose one of two days to come in to look at the new cabinets. They are suppose to be the same color and style, just a different manufacturer. All there providing is a little gift card when we have to take the time out of our work schedule, use gas, and drive all the way over to the design center.

Oh...BTW, our loan came back from underwriting and we are APPROVED!!! It is officially a go to the finish line!! It only took them about 10 days to approve us and I have heard of people waiting 2 months, just to be asked for more documents. GOD is good!!!

We still haven't received our weekly call as yet from our PM, but hopefully he will gives us a shout tomorrow to let us know what will be happening next week.

Here are a couple more pictures of our lot and our SOLD sign finally put up.

Until next time...Stay Blessed!!

WOOHOOO...SOLD!!!!

I have no idea what this is for..LOL

I think this is insulation

Plumbing rough-in from the house to the city

Our piles of dirt, rocks, gravel have arrived!!

Drains, drains, and more drains....

It has been one week since our pre-construction meeting and the fun stuff has begun. We had our meeting last Thursday and they were supposed to begin clearing the lot on Friday and getting things ready to start the build process...but when we went out to the lot on Saturday afternoon- it looked the same as it did earlier in the week!! We were very disappointed.

Fast forward to Wednesday 10/23 our PM gave us a call and guess what...there has been some activity. So, I drove out to the lot while R was picking up the girls to get some pictures after work. I was so happy!!! The rough in for the plumbing was completed! They worked really fast!!!

Our PM told us that we should be ready to have our pre-pour inspection completed next week by our 3rd party inspector. Yes, we have decided to bite the bullet and hire our own inspector for various phases of our home build (I will write a post on phased inspections later). Items to be completed this week- footers, baggin' the slab (?), and the pre-pour...So Excited!!!

I finally have some pics to share of the build so far. We are going back out on Sunday, so hopefully there will be some more things done by then.

Until next time...Stay Blessed!!

View from front to back of lot

View from Rt side of lot

View from Rt side looking towards the front

View from back rt corner towards front

Our backyard!!

Standing in MB looking into backyard. The little orange flag in the back is our property line.

In the backyard, looking towards the front

Back left corner looking towards the front 

AC placement (not happy about this!!)

Rough-in of MB shower, garden tub, and sink

More backyard

Rough-in MB toilet and R's sink

Rough-in drain system and Kitchen

Rough in upstairs plumbing

Standing in driveway (we are pretty close to our neighbors..eeek!!)

We have DATES people!!!

So this morning was our pre-construction meeting.  Our Realtor Karl joined us and we met our construction manager (we will call him John). The meeting started out a little bumpy. Not because anything went wrong, but because John wasn't provided all the documents for the construction of our home... good thing I'm organized!!!

We went over the times we would meet again in person over the course of the build.

1. Pre-construction meeting
2. Pre-drywall meeting
3. Pre-settlement meeting
4. Pre-closing meeting

Next, we reviewed our plot plan. Basically, that is going over our elevation, garage side, yard dimensions, easements, fence location, sod location, driveway grade, etc.

Then, we discussed our selections and options and checked for accuracy. This is where we had a few problems. John wasn't provided with some of our initial upgrades and options. For example, we made a special request to have all of our interior doors 8 ft. instead of the standard 6' 8" doors. Also, we paid for a tile upgrade in the master bathroom with a design. Well, they only had the design in the shower and not around the garden tub. It is a good thing John said he would take of this for us...hopefully, it will get done.

Finally, we went over the best way to communicate with the builder throughout the process. Good thing John likes email because I do too! Everything pretty much went smooth besides the beginning, he let us know that we can visit the home-site as much as we like and that is EXACTLY what I wanted to hear. 

Now on to the most important thing --- DATES!!!

ESTIMATED COMPLETION

• Estimated Start Date - 10/18/13
• Estimated Completion - January, 2014
• Estimated Pre-Settlement Date - February, 2014
• Estimated Closing Date - February, 2014

And BTW, we got just about all of our questions answered without even having to ask them.

Stay Blessed!!

Pre-Construction meeting Tomorrow!!!

We have been resisting the urge to drive up to our future home site for over a month now, but.........TOMORROW is the day!!! We are meeting with our project manager (PM) in the morning, bright and early at 9 am. The excitement if officially kicking in!!!

So far, we have come up with a list of about 20 questions to ask, relevant to our new home (I will post them below). Our Realtor is going to join us for the meeting to make sure everything goes okay and we understand the whole process that will be taking place over the next few months. Hopefully we will be able to sleep tonight :)

Stay blessed!!!

1. Can we add a pot-filler over the stove?
2. Can we upgrade to a seamless shower? If not, can we opt to not install the shower frame?
3. Is there an outlet for a deep freezer in the garage? Placement?
4. Are the soap dishes in the showers made with tile? 2 shelves?
5. Placement of the 2 trees?
6. Policy on site visit during the building process?
7. Can we add 2 outlets to the eaves? Separate switch?
8. Hose bibs? How many? Location?
9. Is it possible to make the single sink vanity a double in bathroom 2?
10. Can you show us an example of the brown window frame?
11. Driveway space/width? Yard space? Property lines?
12. Average work day in winter months?
13. Mode of communication? With us? Inspector?
14. Placement of hot water heaters?
15. Grading of driveway?
16. Irrigation system placement?
17. Exterior outlets? Location? How many?
18. Location of the AC unit?
19. Is garage going to be fully dry-walled? Insulated? Painted?
20. Front door color (Spanish Oak)?
21. Bath 2 upgrade tile on shower wall?

Granite, Colors, Floors...oh my!!!

Granite, Colors, Floors...oh my!!! So, we have finally had a chance to update our design selections page. Go check it out!! We only had three hours to make our selections (not happy with that at all)! Not to mention, about 40 minutes of that time was taken away by Guardian. Guardian is the home security company that also does wiring for surround sound, speakers, telephone, and cable. All I can say is expensive!! We would have loved to add some HDMI ports in the wall and other upgrades like that, but with a cost of approximately $225 for each -we will pass!

Comment below and let us know what you think of our selections.

And........... were off!!!

I am definitely not use to this blogging thing. I haven't found the time to post in over a month!!! Nothing much has occurred over the past month anyway. We have been busy providing paperwork to the loan company and patiently waiting for the city to approve the permit to build. Well... we finally received the good news. Our permit was approved on 10/04/2013!!! Our home is now on the construction list. Our sales rep told us that the clock officially starts ticking now and they have four to five months to complete depending on weather.

The next week will be pretty busy. We have our pre-construction meeting set for October 17th. We also need to find an independent home inspector. I don't think many people consider this with new construction, but for us, it is very important. This is a home that we will be in for awhile and we want to ensure it is constructed well.

Over the next few months, we will be updating a lot more and with pictures. It feels like we have been waiting forever. I can now feel the excitement!!!