Week 10: Tile, Granite, Lighting Fixtures, Driveway, Grading

Week 10 - July 18 - July 24, 2016

 

Days 64 - 70

• Received closing date of 8/29! 
• Tile
• Granite
• Vinyl flooring
• lighting fixtures
• driveway
• grading
• Visited on 7/24 to see progress

So, now that we're 45 minutes away, it's getting harder to swing by the house to check things out. I have no idea what happened which day, but a fair amount was finished this week.


#1 The bathrooms are tiled (floor & shower in master, showers only in guest & hall baths). I'm loving how the master bath looks. We picked a pretty high level upgrade (mostly because I didn't love anything else), and I'm feeling like it was worth it. The only disappointment was that because they tile after the baseboards are installed, the baseboards now appear really short. I get why Ryan organizes their sub schedule like they do, but I really think flooring BEFORE trim, (which would do away with the need for quarter-round), and is the CORRECT order of construction would be smart, and look so much better.


#2 The hall and guest bathrooms + laundry room had their vinyl floors installed. I don't hate them, and actually bent down to make sure they were vinyl because they looked like tile at first!


#3 Power was turned on and light fixtures were installed! I definitely don't love the dining room chandelier or the infamous "boob" lights in the front entry hallway, but they're not horrible. Not 100% sold on the master bath lighting fixture over the vanity in oil-rubbed bronze. I hadn't realized the glass itself would be a beigey/brown streak look rather than white or clear. Not the biggest fan, but it's not horrible, and hopefully we can change those out. I like the black garage door and porch lamps, but they all seem undersized somehow?  Hubs hates having the porch lamp at all, and thinks the 2 lights in the overhang will be more than enough light. Still to be seen, I guess.


#4 Grading is coming along, although I don't think it's quite finished yet. Blacktop driveway was poured.


All-in-all, not as much progress as I expected? Everything seemed to slow down a little bit after last week's massive progress.


Open issues our PM is working on -
1. ordering new, 36" cabinet with fridge side panels + filler to replace the 1-paneled 39" cabinet currently installed.
2. Replacing the incorrect vanities in the hall and guest bath with Fairfield Wheat. We're told they're already on order.
3. Correcting the (special request) door swings of the master bath into the bedroom and the laundry room into the loft.
4. Not sure if he knows this yet, but we saw that the quarter-round had been delivered in a really dark espresso. Two problems with that: they don't match our floor color (too dark). We paid extra to have white quarter round to match the baseboards rather than the floor. So definitely not correct either way. LOL


Last thought: Closing is scheduled! Our final walk through has been booked with our PM for August 22 for quite a while.  Last week we got the confirmed closing date of August 29! (We asked for 8/26, but were rejected). 8/29 is a Monday, which leaves us 8/30 and 8/31 for us to move in before we go away Labor Day weekend. Shouldn't be too crazy at all, right? (sarcasm).






Pics!

Day 67:  Exterior Lights installed. Why does the garage lamp look so undersized?

Day 70: Basement - Finished portion

Day 70: Bedroom 2

Day 70: Dining Room

Day 70: Family Room with study door to the back right

Day 70: Vinyl floor in hall bath (notice WRONG cabinet and now that I look closely, the vinyl doesn't look so good/even running to the baseboard on the right. Anyone else see the gap?)

Day 70: Granite! Bonus pic of Munchie & Me.

Day 70: Kitchen with wrong cabinets over and around fridge cutout



Day 70: First - Tilt your head completely to the right.
This crappy pic is a sideways view of master shower and wrong door swing. Isn't the tile gorgeous? It looks like a hotel, and I'm in love. Still annoyed about the plastic shower pan.

Week 9: Siding, Sidewalks, Trim, Cabinets, Paint

Week 9 - July 11 - July 17, 2016



7/11 - day 57 - ?

7/12 - day 58 - Siding & Sidewalks (surprise!)

7/13 - day 59 - Cabinets, doors & Big Move #1

7/14 - day 60 - Trimwork

7/15 - day 61 - Closing #1 & scheduled walkthrough

7/16 - day 62 - ?

7/17 - day 63 - ?




Aside from framing week, this was BY FAR the most exciting week to date. Ryan made so much progress on the house, it's really starting to feel (and look) like our house!


The week started out with me getting my hand smacked by our PM. It's my own fault because I texted him a pic from inside the house. Whoops. I apologized and told him it's not likely that we'll be (sneaking) in again, as our move happens this week, and we'll now be living about 45 minutes away. I did ask what the protocol is for weekend visits, since that's likely all we'll be able to swing!


PM confirmed that he expected the week to include trim installation, painting, and hopefully tile. The fun stuff is starting!

Tuesday was super exciting. We unexpectedly have siding and shutters! Thrilled with how it's looking so far, but I can't wait to see it with the stone and painted door to pull it all together. We had sidewalks and a driveway lip poured too, but with siding to gaze upon, it was barely noticed.




Our movers arrived at 7am sharp on Wednesday morning, and moved us into two storage units. We had a separate pile of suitcases, totes, bags, grocery bags, and coolers to move into our good friends' home for the long wait to completion. Of course, the weather decided to turn from "months-long-drought" to "torrential flooding", which meant our mattress was going to sit in the empty house until Thursday, and everything became more challenging. As painful as moving is, I will say that the movers did an outstanding job. Super fast, and super professional. If you're looking for movers in Montgomery County, PA - Crouse Moving & Delivery is highly recommended. After the movers left, Hubs made several of his own trips to our friends' house, and storage, and made a stop at the house at night where he saw that the kitchen cabinets had been installed! Yay yay yay! It was a very long day.

Thursday I took a half-day from work and spent the morning cleaning the old house, packing up random leftover stuff for storage, etc. The painful end work. Hubs snuck in again Thursday night and saw that the upgraded trim package had been installed, and looked lovely! He also spotted railings and the master bath vanity and countertop.



Friday morning at 10 was the closing on our current house. So bittersweet to be leaving our first home! We met the new owners at closing and loved them, which helped. After closing, we enjoyed a rare kid-free, weekday lunch date where we ran into neighbors from the new development. At one we headed to the house for a sanctioned walk-through with the PM in training. That poor kid has no clue about anything - and no power, so that was a little frustrating. He wasn't writing any notes on the issues we found, so we'll need to follow-up with our PM ASAP.


Overall- it's looking great. But there are definitely some issues.
1. Pass-through hallway between the dining room and kitchen is framed/drywalled crooked. Not sure which, but visible leaning is noticeable along the ceiling line.
2. Kitchen cabinets are looking a little beat up in a few spots.
3. Only one side of the wall section around the fridge cutout came from the factory and was installed. We did hear that this was a known issue, and that spacing did not allow for the second side wall...we indicated that we want it, so....hopefully they get that figured out.
4. Cabinets in the hall bath and guest room bath are wrong. They were both the basic oak, when we had selected the Fairfield Wheat. I strongly dislike basic oak, and would never in a million years would have chosen them.
5. Open hole in the cement wall at the bottom corner of garage, near door. I have no explanation as to how or why that happened...
6. Maybe more that I can't recall at the moment, and the "problem" pics are still on hubs' phone. I'll post them ASAP.


It was a crazy, insane week. One I don't wish to repeat in the near future, but (un)fortunately will again in 6 weeks or so!
Our little one summed it up one night last week. "Mommy and Daddy, I feel both happy and sad". Us too kiddo, us too.


Without further ado....(out of order) pics:

Day 58: siding, shutters, and a sidewalk!

Day 58: siding side view

Day 59: Kitchen Cabinets! Notice only 1 side of fridge surround. Sigh.
I am really happy with our custom double-oven move though!

Day 60: front door view

Day 60: Master bath vanity. The "Crema Marfil" granite appears more tan than what I pictured.
I may need to pick up the sample from the model to double-check the color...

Day 59: fireplace and study door

Day 60: dining room with raised trim to accommodate our installation of taller baseboards.
You can also see the crooked hallway ceiling/doorway. Sigh.

Week 8: Garage Door, Drywall, and a Garage Full of Goodies

Week 8 - July 4 - July 10, 2016



7/4 - day 50 - Holiday, no work.

7/5 - day 51 - Drywall + garage door installed

7/6 - day 52 - Drywall (visit)

7/7 - day 53 - driveby - saw garage full of goodies!

7/8 - day 54 - Mud - front porch poured

7/9 - day 55 - Mud - broken windows replaced

7/10 - day 56 - Mud

We are drowning in packing/moving chaos, so the house is honestly on the back burner.

I planned to visit the house to see drywall progress on Tuesday night, but packing took priority. Our movers come next Wednesday, 7/13, and we've been putting as much as we can into storage now, to hopefully save a little on moving costs. For future reference: two-part moves SUCK!

It's a challenge to figure out what we'll need in our temporary living arrangement (friend's basement) vs. still need to keep in our house,  vs. what can safely go to storage. Plus, I'm still feeling under the weather and would rather curl up in bed and ignore all of this madness.

We've been keeping up with NVR (Homeside) to make sure all is well, and to watch the lock deals...

I found this handy-dandy website on another blog, and it's proven really useful so far in the constant rate watch, and lock timing decision:

http://www.moving.com/mortgage/mortgage-market-commentary.asp

But Homeside isn't saying much. Sure hope that's a good sign and not just the calm before the storm.... updated - We emailed our Homeside guy with a request to lock on Friday around 3pm. But he did not respond. Sigh.


Saturday was spent intensely packing with the help of a wonderful friend (thank you Amy!!) But I was able to sneak over to show her the house before she left Saturday evening. So fun!
Interesting note - found that the egress window isn't actually installed in the basement yet...but the wall and window frame is dry walled. So strange that it's all sort-of exposed to the elements...


Sunday was a desperately needed day of rest. We visited friends for swimming and the grill, which is helpful, because we now have no pots, pans, bowls, silverware, etc. etc. in the kitchen.  I also snuck back into the house Sunday evening to show progress to the friend who originally signed in our development....and then ultimately backed out. :( 
She and I investigated the madness in the garage and found sinks, trim, doorframes, doors, windows, door knobs, railings, etc. etc. SO exciting! Also found a daylight leak in the master bath closet and an off-center light over the sink in the kitchen. I've reported those to our PM, and we'll see what happens.


Pics...

 

Day 52 - Entryway drywall

Day 52 - "Mudroom" Closet & Garage Door

Day 52 - Living Room/Family Room

Day 52 - Kitchen

Day 52 - Morning Room. Loving all the windows!

Day 52 - Family Room with study door to the side

Day 52 - Master Bedroom



Day 52 - Master bath awaiting the waterproof drywall



Day 52 - Loft

Day 52 - Basement with morning room bump out and special request egress placement.

Week 7: Insulation, Inspections & Drywall

Week 7 - June 27- July 3, 2016



6/27 - day 43 - Framing fix-up

6/28 - day 44 - ?

6/29 - day 45 - Insulation (Ryan)

6/30 - day 46 - County Inspection & Insulation ("elves")

7/1 - day 47 - No work

7/2 - day 48 - Drywall on first floor started

7/3 - day 49 - No work


Well, this was a pretty boring week. Other than my husband and his awesome friend sneaking in Thursday night to install extra insulation in the garage, there was not much major progress.
Insulation, inspections, and the very start of drywall.


I had planned to stop by the house to write some verses and poems on the framework before insulation went in, but have been feeling crummy, and didn't make it. Chance missed. :(


In more exciting news, we took advantage of the July 4th sales this weekend and purchased our washer and dryer at Best Buy! Checked prices at Home Depot and HH Gregg, and all had the same deal running- $400 off each piece. We also put some furniture on hold with another great sale at Mealey's; including a morning-room set I didn't think was on our "must" list, but somehow ended up there. Also on hold - 2 sofas for the family room, and furniture for Munchie's "big girl room".
The unexpected purchase of a new morning room set means that I'll have to use our old dining room set for now. But it's a fair trade for the new beauty that will get daily use!
Pics below.

Sexy Samsung washer with integrated sink

Samsung - Activewash 5.0 Cu. Ft. 12-Cycle High-Efficiency Top-Loading Washer - Black Stainless Steel

• Model: WA50K8600AV

Sink with ridges for scrubbing - a lot cheaper than having Ryan install a laundry tub!

Samsung - 7.4 cu. ft. 12-Cycle Electric Dryer with Steam - Black Stainless Steel

• Model: DV50K8600EV

Isn't she sexy?

Mealey's Martini Sofa - ordering x2 for family room

Mealey's Classic white nightstand (built to withstand kids!)



Mealey's Valencia dining set for morning room. Got 6 chairs instead of the bench option + the sideboard.
LOVE this set so much.