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!!

Windows, roof, and some shopping...

We have been so busy this holiday season that we haven't had a chance to go up to the house during the week. We were able to run about there with the kids on Sunday after church and they were surprised. It feels so good to see them run through the house, talk about their rooms, and how much space they are going to have :) we are truly blessed to be able to share these moments with them...memories that we will have forever.

So far, they have have finished framing the house. Our PM went through and marked a couple areas to be fixed. We also have windows and some siding on the back of the house. Our mock front door is in as well.

This week our roof will be completed; shingles and all.  Rough ins for plumbing and HVAC will be completed this week too.

We have also been doing a lot of window shopping (lol) for a fridge and washer/dryer. Such a hard decision...so expensive...but so beautiful too!! Here are some pics!

Stay blessed and Happy Holidays.