What a difference a few days make! (day 22)

Steve stopped by, and was able to catch the guys in action today. So much has happened over the past couple of days, the second floor and roofing! A lot of pictures:

Love the bay window!

Study

The county required an additional window in the family room

Dining room

Glad to see they moved the morning room door like they said they would!

Bedroom #4

Bedroom #3

Loft

Owner's bath, closet area

Owner's bedroom/sitting area

Garage entrance to the mudroom

They had the basement blocked off so he wasn't able to get down to that area. Tommorow the begin rough heating and air conditioning, and rough plumbing over the next few days. It's becoming so real!

Framing, framing, framing!

The SR emailed us on Wednesday with a pic:

Framing has begun! Steve stopped by later in the evening for additional photos, and even saw something that was out of the ordinary.

Entryway

View of mudroom and pending stairwell down to the basement

Dining Room

Our friend Jay standing in the pantry area

Hole for the stairs down to the basement

In the hallway facing the morning room (Jay is trying to point out where the family room will be...DUH!)

Family Room

Third window area in family room

Steve says this is where the bay window in the living room will be, but shouldn't there be a cutout for it?

Above the porch

Morning room

Steve looked outside where the sliding door would go, and found this:

Yep, the pending sliding door is ABOVE the welled exit!

Seriously?

We both knew immediately that this was a no-go, so I called the PM to let him know. He stated that the guys put the sliding door wood up on the wrong side of the morning room (no $**t) and it would be replaced and moved to the correct side. Steve is making a trip down there today to ensure that it has been fixed. 

This has been a great week building wise, I never knew framing could be so exciting!

We have wood!

Our sales rep took a drive through the neighborhood Sunday and found this:

Hello wood! It wasn't supposed to be delivered until today, and I definitely wasn't expecting anyone to work on Father's Day (hope all of you great fathers out in the bloggersphere enjoyed your day). Hopefully this means they will start framing a day earlier than planned...if not I won't be mad.

A few more pictures of the basement:

So far everything is running smoothly. If this keeps up we may be well on our way for a final walk-though slated right now for the 20th of August!

Draintile/plumbing ground work phase

Steve stopped by the lot today to see what has been going on the past few days, since this is the time frame where they would input the drain system around the foundation and connected to the sump pump. They also installed the pipes that will be under the basement floor as well as for the three piece plumbing we got for a future bathroom.

More random pictures...there are a lot more but I didn't want to bore anyone:

He realized (finally! I've been telling him this for days) that the morning room door will be on the side of the house and not how it shows on the virtual tour where it lies behind the family room and in the backyard. We don't remember seeing this during the pre-con meeting and all of the plans were laid out in front of us. I guess since the welled exit is on the side of the house, the morning room exit door would have to be the same on the opposite side. We will have to figure out how we will have the deck now since we had another idea in mind.

The side where the door will be

In the meantime I am on countless websites trying to figure out how I want to decorate the family room, dining and living rooms. Fun and stressful at the same time!

A little foundation goes a long way...

So Steve was able to sneak off of work early today and drive to Waldorf to see what was happening

 on the lot, and look what he found:

We have foundation folks! Our PM stated that they are will work on the electrical and plumbing rough-ins, and plan to pour the concrete on the 18th. The pre-drywall meeting will be held soon as well.

The single welled exit. I like the fact that its on the side and not directly in the backyard. I saw a few homes in the community with the exit leading out to the backyard, but I felt that it would interfere with what we planned to do as far as the patio.

Since we do not have the Rome model in our neighborhood, we never got the chance to actually experience the space for ourselves. The PM was nice enough to allow Steve to look inside a Rome that is being built two lots down from ours. Steve was impressed with the amount of space we would have; we knew it was over 3060 square feet without the finished basement but we couldn't actually see how big it was. I'm sure I'll find a way to fill it up with furniture!

In other news that had me excited yet sad at the same time, he stated that he wants to have the house completed and have the final walk-through done on August 20th--my birthday. I'm excited to know that it will be completed in a timely manner, but I hate that I won't have the opportunity to experience the walk-through myself since I will still be here in Korea. I'll just re-create the walk-through three days later :)

Loan decision

I received in my email this morning that our loan was approved! HUGE relief! There was a few weeks where it sat in underwriting so I was a little nervous. I do have a concern that I noticed that I will ask the loan officer; the sales price on the document states the amount BEFORE the change orders were made, which increases the amount by 8K. I wonder would that affect the loan overall? I'm hoping it doesn't, I do recall the loan officer stating that they would do another estimate 60 days before settlement and would adjust based on the changes. We shall see. Overall I am excited I am over this hump!

And so it begins!

Today is the start of construction of our new home, and I am EXCITED! There have been highs and lows during this process but I am glad to know we have come this far and things are finally becoming real. I barely slept last night due to all of the excitement and anticipation, and I wish I was able to stalk the neighborhood to track the progress. Instead I will depend on Steve and our sales rep Nikki to document it all--I better have pictures in my email every other day! :)

**Update** Steve was able to go out and take a few pictures of the excavator in action. Nothing too exciting but it made my day.

I will try not to bombard the blog with countless unnecessary pictures so I won't put up any more until they start the basement.

Still Waiting...

So I finally made it to the US and this break was definitely needed. I have been anxious to finally see the lot and see the progress that had been made (hopefully) so I could share additional pictures. Well we get to the community and drive to the lot, and there's nothing but dirt and grass...huge disappointment. We head to the model home to see our sales rep, and she states that they now have us down to begin building on June 4th! Again I am bummed because we started all of this the beginning of March. The pre-con meeting was coming up, and I was expecting a date right after to when they would begin to build. Monday was the pre-con meeting, and our project officer Duane was great. He was very thorough and patient with all of the questions Steve had regarding the insulation, wiring and everything else he could think of. He stated that the county has been flooded with permit requests so he is still waiting for ours to begin building. Another conflict was the fact that the sales rep stated that it typically takes 75 days to complete the home, but the projo stated he uses a 90 day window. It's only 15 days, but that's a big difference for me as I am due to return to the states the end of August. If the home isn't ready until the second week of September, I'm living in a hotel until completed. We were able to walk through a Rome model that was currently being built on our street, and the home is very spacious. I found myself visualizing where the furniture would go and what pieces we would buy to fill in the empty spaces. I had to live vicariously through the potential owner until I can do a walk through of my own. Although I did not get the start date I was hoping for, the visit was not a waste. Now we're crossing our fingers for the permits getting approved so they can start on time or a little earlier.

Loan process/pre-construction meeting

Our loan officer has been more proactive lately. We did have a hiccup though, when he initially emailed me on the 12th, he stated all of the items he would need to process the loan--including a $550 check for the appraisal and credit report. When we spoke on the phone that day I told him that the check would come directly from the bank and that I would do so that immediately, and he even sent me the address to where the check would be mailed to. Well, since he decided to wait to send me the link to access my loan documents, he received the check before I could sign them. He emails me on the 21st stating that I would have to cancel the check and issue another one--and issue for me since the check was an official one and if its cancelled I would incur the fee. If he would have just sent me the link to the documents the day he created them (April 2nd), it wouldn't have been a problem when he got the check on the 17th! He decided that he could cash the check and give me back the money, and I produce another check--fine by me. We will clear all of this up when I come up to meet the SR in May.

I submitted my loan application; so many documents needed--tax statements, W-2s, bank statements, copy of my ID card--I killed a few trees for sure! I'm hoping that all goes well and we are able to proceed; he currently has the settlement date as 24 August so maybe that's a good sign :). Our credit is really good, so we really shouldn't have any issues.
Steve was notified that the project manager would like to speak with the both of us during the pre-con meeting, so they pushed it back to May 14th when I am back in the States. At first I was upset that I wouldn't see any progress when I came home on leave from Korea, but now I have come to terms with it. At least now I will feel more involved in the process and the PM will go line by line on what will happen. I'm hoping they will at least break ground before I fly back to Korea on the 25th.

Guardian/CTI Meeting

Steve met with Guardian and CTI on Monday for the wiring and flooring options. We had a list beforehand of what we would like to get, but depending on the prices it would dictate what we actually ended up with.

In the end with Guardian, we got the following:

Surround sound in the family room
High speed flat panel pre-wiring and cable in the family room above the fireplace
Data jacks in the study and loft
Cable in all four bedrooms, loft and basement (two came with the home)
Phone jacks in study and kitchen
Base package security system

In the beginning I was debating on whether I would pay for everything at closing and not have in included in the loan, but since we didn't go with everything on our wish list the payment wouldn't go up significantly with including it in the loan.

The meeting with CTI went well also. Since we picked out the hardwood floors and bathroom tile for both full baths with our sales rep, Steve only had to pick out the carpet. We logged on to Ryan Homes' website that lists the colors of flooring, but the color swatches did not provide a true picture of the actual carpet color. We initially decided on White Fox, but discovered that the color had been discontinued. We went with Dove Shell; I was afraid I wouldn't like it but once I saw a true picture of the color I was excited that Steve picked it out on his own :). Surprisingly, the color was level 1 in their package so no upgades. The carpet padding we went with is 6 lb. The initial flooring for the laundry room was vinyl, but we went back and decided on tile. We are waiting on the color swatches to decide on which one we will get.

Red Oak Cherry beside the Cherry Bordeaux cabinet

Bathroom tile, Dove Shell carpet

Making some progress!

Although they haven't broke ground in regards to the home, at least we are getting somewhere with the appointments. Guardian called early in the week to schedule a meeting with me to discuss the wiring options, but I guess the SR failed to tell them that I am still overseas. I had to direct them to talk with Steve since he will have to make the decisions, and since he's only off on Sundays and Mondays we have to wait until the 16th. Thursday CTI called wanting the schedule an appointment for flooring, and when I told the consultant she would have to discuss with someone else she was hesitant. I asked if it was possible for her to send color swatches of the carpet via email, and was told that they didn't have any. I found that odd considering I know a couple over here going through the same process, and they decided on their flooring and wiring through email photos and telephone conversations. Since she didn't have any other way to give me the colors, she had no choice but to deal with Steve. We were able to have that appointment set for the 16th as well, that way he only has to make one trip from Richmond.

On another note, Steve was offered an internal position with his company that has an office in DC--and they want him to start at the end of the month! I am excited that things are falling in to place, but the next obstacle is for him to find a place to live until the home is complete in August.