Week 9 - Brick complete and kitchen delivered

So excited to see some pics of stuff that will go into the house!  The brick is exciting, too, I guess!

Love how the counter comes with the sink already installed

Kitchen cabinets!

Week 8 - Drywall

We went to check the house out late last week and were super excited to see the drywall was all up.  They still need to sand and paint, but it's awesome to see the house with some walls.  They also started our brick this past weekend, so we went over again to see it.  I think we're happy with it, but I'll have a better idea once I see it with some siding.

Garage

Morning Room

Kitchen

Family Room

This is one of the transfer grille's I was talking about in a previous post.

Brick on the back of the house

Pre-Drywall Meeting

Pre-drywall meeting is complete! I'd like to say that it was super exciting, but we've been to look at the house so many times now, that there really wasn't anything new to look at.  The meeting was fine and our PM explained a lot of things in the house.  We were okay with everything while we were there, but after talking about a few things later between the two of us, there were a few things we weren't thrilled with. They're just minor issues and nothing that was done incorrectly, just not what we were expecting. 

One of that things is the return air for the two bedrooms.  The master bedroom has it's own return air vent, but the two other bedrooms will have transfer grilles above the doors. At first I wasn't thinking anything of it, just that, yeah, I guess that makes sense to vent the rooms, but my husband brought up the point later that you'll also get noise coming in and going out of the vent. This must be something that has changed since we signed our contract because I'm pretty sure the model home doesn't have these. After talking with a few people, we don't think too much noise will come through.  I guess it's better than undercutting the doors, which I think was what they did in our RH townhouse.

The other thing we're not entirely thrilled about is the way some of the piping was installed in the basement. Since we're not having RH finish the basement, they didn't take the time/effort to place some of the pipes/wires so that it would be easy to finish the basement.  When we go to do it, now, we'll definitely have to re-run some wires and either move some piping or make a larger bulkhead.  Also, the main water line coming into the house was put in a position that we'll have to build a wall out around it instead of it being tucked in under the stairs. Again, these are just minor issues, but it's a little bit disappointing that they're doing things differently just because they're not the ones finishing the basement.

I realize it's not a custom home and we can't have everything our way, but we're still paying a lot of money and it would be nice to know that they have our best interest in mind during construction. Oh well. On a happier note... drywall starts this week and the brick will also be delivered!  I'm excited to see what the brick will look like on the house, especially once the siding goes on.

Locked!

I haven't been worrying too much about interest rates, because my husband is worrying about them enough for both of us!  The good news, is, though that we finally locked our rate!  It's nowhere near where it was when we first started looking, but it's not bad.  Hopefully they don't go down soon or we'll be sad that we locked so soon.  The good news is that we're under 60 days until close!  We have our pre-drywall meeting early next week then hopefully time will fly by after then!

Week 6 & 7

The house is coming along great!  Now that all the framing is done, it's time for all of the utilities are going in.

Garage Door!

Fireplace insert

Duct work in kitchen

Main Bath

Furnace

House plans taped to sliding door. 

Week 5 - Framing

I was shocked to go see the house this week, because it finally looks like a house!  They worked super hard this week and got all of the framing done!  Apparently, we were pretty lucky in the timing of everything that the framing showed up on site and the framers were available to start on it the next day.  Sometimes people have to wait weeks for the framers to be available.  If everything goes according to plan from here on, we should be having our pre-drywall meeting in 2 weeks and the house should be done by late November, maybe first week of December.  We were originally told December 10, so if we can get in earlier, that would be great!  I can't wait to start decorating for Christmas!

First floor framing complete, view of morning room.

Front of house, first floor framing.  I'm so glad we did a 2' extension on the garage, because I like the different levels of roof on garage and entryway.

Kitchen with view of the pantry.

Standing in kitchen looking into morning room.

Family room looking at fireplace

Dining Room (which will be our play room).  Front door opening to right.

Upstairs bedroom on front of house.

Bedroom 2

Master Bath

Standing in Loft looking at stairs and 2 bedrooms.

Basement. Utilities will go on left

Basement looking back at bathroom rough-in

Basement doors to back yard.

Framing complete on both levels!  It finally looks like a house!

Week 4 - Foundation Poured

Not too much exciting this week, but the foundation was poured and all of the framing showed up on the site. I'm still amazed at how small everything looks, even though I know what it will look like when finished.

Garage on Left, Basement below.

Our front door and windows arrived!

Basement with supports for stairs.

Week 3 - We have basement walls!

Time to play catch-up!  It's been a little hectic running back and forth between both parent's houses and living out of suitcases, but in my absence online, the house has really been coming together and it's amazing how fast things are moving along.  They got the basement walls poured during week 3!

View from the back of the house. The hole will be our doors to backyard

Garage

Plumbing in basement