Drum roll please.....We CLOSED!!!

Okay, so we closed on Thursday, March 27th!!! We had our final walk-through about two hours prior. We almost didn't go to closing because there were some things that our PM just didn't get done. He really kind of worked my nerves that day!!! But it all worked out in the end. Closing took about an hour...we signed, laughed, took some pictures, and received our keys.

So far, we have put up all the blinds in the house except for in our bedroom because we had to special order them due to the size, sealed the grout in the floor tiles and moved just a few items (really just some nic-nacs I bought for the house).

I will try and post some pictures tonight or tomorrow. We are not "officially" moving in until the 12th of April. Hopefully, we can get it together by then and start some packing...hahaha

Until next time, blessings and happy home building.

Blinds??

Quick question...we didn't purchase blinds from the builder and have been searching for the last couple of weeks for some. We have 16 windows to cover not including the two bathroom windows. A friend of mine mentioned she purchased hers from selectblinds.com and they are pretty sturdy. Sooo...has anyone else purchased blinds from this company or any other online company? The price is really good!! These are the ones we are thinking of purchasing - http://www.selectblinds.com/fauxwoodblinds/two-and-one-half-inch-privacy-faux-wood.html#

Thanks!

Race to the finish!!!

Time sure does fly by when you are busy. I really can't say enough how BLESSED our family is. The Lord has blessed us with this opportunity to purchase a big beautiful brand new home. We are so THANKFUL!! He has blessed us with what we have asked for and more. When you think about what you have and how much less you can have...it is only right to humble yourself.

We are a young couple (very early 30's) with 3 children. This will be our second home we are purchasing (our other home is located in GA and rented). We have been blessed to have good tenants (3 families) in our other home since 2008. We are 2 days away from closing on our home. I went back and forth between our builder and our credit union over the last 3 weeks trying to decide who we were going to use for our home mortgage. On Thursday, after talking with bank and then our SR, we decided to go with the builder for financing because they were offering so much more in closing costs. We were able to get the same rate 3.75% fixed, 0 points, and 1% origination on a 30 year mortgage. Yesterday, we got the clear to close on Thursday, March 27th, 2014 at 1 pm. I have never seen a turn around that quick on a mortgage especially with all of these new rules. It was sent to the underwriter on Friday afternoon and then approved Monday afternoon (they did have some prior info when we were in negotiations). Blessed.

Today came the news we were waiting on from the title company...our closing costs! Wait for it ---four hundred and ninety four dollars and six cents $496.06)!!!! Blessed. So now, we just wait for Thursday to hand over our check and experience some carpel tunnel. Our final walk is also on Thursday at 11, right before closing. We were already told some of our cabinets that are damaged are on back order and a light for the 1/2 bath. I hope we make it across town on time...nobody in TX works during the day (lol).

We also went and did a little SHOPPING today!!! YAY!!! We bought our garage door opener (home doesn't come with one), our fridge, and a new dryer (we have the washer already). Lowes is having a real good sale right now...take a looksy!!

Chamberlain 3/4-HP MyQ Battery Backup Belt Garage Door Opener -Model-LW5000EV

LG 30.5-cu ft French Door Refrigerator with Single Ice Maker (Stainless Steel) ENERGY STAR - Model-LFX31945ST

 

LG 7.3-cu ft Electric Dryer (Graphite Steel) - Model-DLEX3470V

I love the appliances we chose. I feel we have so much to do between now and Thursday. I probably won't post again until after we close on Thursday plus Friday is my birthday! Until then...BLESSINGS :)

Busy, busy, busy!!!

When they say there is not enough hours in a day...that is definitely a true statement! We have been so busy the last couple of weeks. Last Friday, was our private inspection. It went pretty good, there were just a few things that weren't done correctly but I am confident it will be done by next week. On Wednesday, we will have our pre-settlement walk-through. That is when you and the builder go through the house, they show you how everything works, blue tape any deficiencies, and ask all questions you need to before closing. Our Realtor suggested that we walk through the house and blue tape prior to that day. Some of our neighbors recommend the same thing. So on Sunday, hubby and I, along with two of our new neighbors, walked through the house, blue taped, and took a whole bunch of pictures. My PM is really going to hate us (lol), but it is mostly cosmetic stuff.

The other exciting news is we CLOSE on FRIDAY, MARCH 27th, 2014!!!!! However, we have done absolutely NO packing, we haven't turned in our notice to vacated our rental, and we are still switching back and forth between our credit union and the builder to finance our loan...can you say PROCRASTINATORS!!

For those of you who have already closed and are closing soon, did you wait till the last minute like we are?? I keep thinking it is not real, this can't be our future home....but it is :)

Blessings

Almost at the finish line

Wow!!! I can't believe it has already been a little over 3 weeks since I last updated! Work has been so busy. It is so hard making it up to the house. On Saturday, we tried to make a visit but was surprised to see the model home closed. When I called our SR-he said someone was suppose to be there and he wouldn't be back until Sunday. We ended up hanging out at one of our "new" friends in the neighborhood's house (we met them in October at the community's new home owner party). They closed at the end of January and have a gorgeous home. Our other new neighbor/friend, have been texting us updates on the house - we have the best neighbors :)

Anyways, so much has been done in the last 3 weeks I can't even remember. Just take a look at the progress...I will update on Friday when we have another chance to get up to the house with our inspector.

Blessings!

Picture Update - Tiles, cabinets, & paint

It has been about 2 weeks since I went up to the house. I ended up feeling under the weather last week, so my family went up without me. There was a lot done over the last 2 weeks including the tile work, garage doors, painting, and the cabinets. Everthing is starting to come together. There are just a couple of things with the tile work in the bathroom that I need to contact our PM about. Right now it just has a very unfinished look to it and we are not happy with that. Enjoy the pics...let us know what you think :)

Blessings!

Save the Date....

Drum roll please...okay...I can't contain my excitement!!!! We have received our closing date...the day before my birthday...the best birthday present ever...but after Spring break...okay..no..more...stalling. Are you ready...MARCH 27th!!!

I have some pictures to update but have been so busy at work, I haven't had the time. The house is coming along beautifully. They moved my house number, YAY!! This week they are going to be painting, tiling, HVAC, and measuring for our granite counter tops. I am really excited to see the progress pick up.

I also had to file for an extension with our lender because our rate lock period expired. We were originally suppose to close at the end of this month, but we are about a month behind. When we filed for our extension, we were also able to re-lock with a new interest rate because of Freedom lock program we signed up for. So we went from 3.85% to 3.75%. Back in September, we locked in a rate of 4.5% with our builder when rates were increasing. We are still going to see if our builder will match or do better on our interest rate but our lender won't sell our mortgage and provides a $2000 incentive that we can use towards closing costs.

What do the rates look like now with those of you who are building? Or if you already closed, what rate did you get and when did you close?

Well, we have a busy weekend ahead. Hopefully, I will get a chance to post some new pics on Sunday!

Blessings!

 

She is BEAUTIFUL!!!

Wow!! I am still amazed. I ready to move in. The masons did an amazing job with our brick and stone work. I am very pleased to say the least. Hubby was unable to make the trip up there with us today, but he is just as excited. However, I do have one complaint that I am going to email our PM on - why is our house number all the way in the corner? When I drove up today, I didn't see it and thought they forgot to put it up. One of my girls pointed it out to me. I am going to request they put either in between the two garage bays under the light or between the entrance and two-car garage under the light (my first choice). Hopefully, it won't ruin the great break job when they move it. What do you all think?

They also dry walled and insulated the whole house. I am a little disappointed that I wasn't able to get a picture of the insulation. This week should be the taping and sealing/plastering of the dry wall (not sure if that is what its called). They did go in and do some of the changes we asked for 1) moving the light towards the center of the eat in kitchen, 2) adding a light in my son's bathroom, and 3) moving the cable outlet in the playroom.

I have read in other blogs that this is the point where everything speeds up. We have many of our neighbors and most say that once drywall is in, it should go quickly. I really hope it does because Lord knows we are ready to get out of our current home. We are truly blessed to have a wonderful place to live, but we really would like to get into our new home.

Please enjoy some of the pictures and tell us what you think! Until next time...Blessings

Updates from pre-drywall meeting...Updated with pictures.

So last Friday we had our pre-drywall meeting. I would say it went really well. There were still a few issues that had to be addressed at that time (i.e. Guardian), a light in bathroom 3, smoke detector...just very little stuff. They went back and added support to some of the joints were our inspector recommended, which makes me feel a lot better! Other than those minor things, we are good!! So we scored two awesome bonuses that were not in the original plan that the builder usually charges for -1) a water heater closet in the garage was framed out (we will just have to add doors) and 2) our MB closet was framed with 9ft ceilings!!! I can already see it now, floor to ceiling SHOES :))

Once again, our awesome Realtor showed up to make sure the PM addressed everything in our inspection report and to give us any advice or answer additional questions. As we were leaving, the mason's showed up to start laying the brick and stone...so excited to see how this looks.

UPDATE:

I took some pictures on Monday of some of the brick. One side was finished and they already started the other. We are going to try and swing by this weekend to get updated pictures. I will post the pictures as I get home.

Caught a couple of the workers sleeping..LOL

I don't know if it is the sun or what, but does the brick look like two different colors?

Pre-drywall meeting date and 3rd party Inspection

Hey!!! The beginning of the new year already seems like it is flying by so fast. We had our 3rd party inspection last Friday on the 3rd. We decided it would be in our best interest to suck it up and pay for our own phased inspection because we will be living in this house for a long time and are spending a lot of money on it. Our builder says they have their own inspector that comes out and does one, the city does one, and the PM does one as well, never to much checking....right?

Well, our inspector said everything looked pretty good. There were some minor things with the framing like adding some more brackets to add support to beams and some plates to cover electrical wires. Nothing he said that can't be done in 1-3 hours. That is really good!!! It feels good to know that they have been doing a good job. I have read some horror stories on the blogs and have seen some news reports for our area of  terrible builders, which I won't mention on here. The inspection cost us $300 for 2 hours and a complete report. Not too bad for a preventative measure.

Our PM also called to schedule our pre-drywall inspection...wait for it....wait for it...FRIDAY, JANUARY 17th, 2014 at 8:00am!!!!!! We are so excited, that means we are so much closer to seeing our walls put up and it looking like a real house. We were not able to go on Sunday for our usual walk through because just like the rest of the country the Arctic Vortex has really it us hard down here and it is freezing.

That is all the news we have for. Soon things will really get moving and we will be able to post more pictures. I have heard that building goes in spurts and right now it is slow, slow, slow.

Until next time, Blessings :)

Happy New Year!!

Long time no blog :)) I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! We sure did. My mom and sister flew in on Christmas day, so I haven't had a chance to update in about 3 weeks :(. Things pretty much came to a screeching halt the the Friday prior to Christmas. A lot of the sub-contractors here go on vacation over the holidays.
                                                                                                                                                                 

It is so good having my mom here, she made a pair of blackout lined curtains for the girls playroom. We are currently working on our curtains for the formal dining room. She even maid matching pillows!! We are really trying hard not to purchase anything for the house before closing. Our Realtor keeps on telling us to wait, it won't be much longer....but hubby has been shopping around at Lowes and Home Depot for the past few weeks (he is dangerous).

















We went by the house twice over the last few weeks, once to write scriptures on the framing (got the idea from another blog) which I truly love the idea of our home's structure always being blessed. It was even more a memorable occasion because we had the opportunity to share it with my mom and sister.

So, they completed the pre-plumbing inside the house. All of our tubs and shower pans are in place. They have also completed the electrical and HVAC. It is really cool seeing everything coming together. The next week we went by, they had installed pest control lines in the walls (so cool...never seen this before), Guardian (yes, we have them down here too) did all of the the lines for cable and security.

Next up, is our private 3rd party inspection and our pre-drywall inspection. We can't wait to see the walls finally go up. I have heard after that it goes pretty fast. Our PM has been out sick, but our SR is doing his best to keep us in the loop.

Enjoy some pictures (not the best, will take better pictures next time)

Blessings!!