Trees, diagrams, and Dads approval

Today we went by the house to pick out the tile, take videos/diagrams of HVAC, plumbing, and electrical, and show my parents the house.  This morning we walked around a bit measured, took videos and made diagrams.  We really got a chance to enjoy the house a bit for a non rushed longer period of time.  We're usually rushing to get home after work for the dog.  When we got there I noticed there we a dozen trees on an empty lot and they were huge trees.  So excited these are the trees that are going on the berm behind out house!  Can't wait to see how they are going to look!  (*UPDATE: those trees aren't for behind our house, boo!)  We also tried to pick out the tile, but our SR wasn't there and the fill in had no idea.  So we are going back tomorrow to talk to our SR.  Hopefully he was informed about the tile we need to pick out.

This afternoon we met my parents there and my Dad was able to check out the house.  He didn't seem to notice much of anything that was wrong, which is awesome.  A few things here and there he said I can't believe they do this, but it was nothing that would make our house fall down or anything.  So glad that they drove all the way here to give me a better piece of mind about our house.  They are awesome!

That's terrible placement for an exhaust vent!!

Today we found out what the 2 x 2 hole was above our front door.  It's for the half bath exhaust fan!   For one it's an eye sore and for two I don't want my front door smelling like poop!!  This is crazy and awful!  It's definitely going to stick out more like a sore thumb once the dark siding is put on!  I emailed my PM and said this better get moved or something.  The crazy part is some other Ryan Homes have this on the front of their house too, which I have never seen another house with a vent on the front of the house.  The other Ryan Homes vents are off to one side or the other, not on top of the front door.  But still I don't want it anywhere in the front of the house, it's just plain awful!!

***UPDATE:  They are moving it to go out the back of the house!

Changes - Our PM is Awesome!

This is a list of changes we requested and their result during the building process.  Just a good way to keep tract and document all the items we find to make sure they get changed.

- Vent location moved further away from front door entrance side

*UPDATE: moving it over to other side of door

- Vent location moved further away from back door

*UPDATE: can't do because cabinets would be too close

- Remove half bath exhaust vent in middle of front of the house (looks terrible!)

*UPDATE: moving it to the back of the house

- Center lights in master bedroom with shorter wall
*UPDATE:  moving lights and fan rough in centered to where we want them

- Put tile in a brick layout fashion for master bath

*UPDATE: will cost us $275 - decided that was expensive and said never mind

- Change the light over the sink to a flush mount from a recessed can to be able to put centered
*UPDATE: all changed

- Center fridge cabinet
*UPDATE: all set

- Move thermostat over a little from corner of dinning room
*UPDATE: all set

- Have hot water tank under stairs and not in the place we want to finish
*UPDATE: Not under stairs, but in line with the furance.  I guess that's better than nothing.

- Fix holes in rafters that were okay to be there, but most people ask them to be filled
*UPDATE: no problem

- Move address numbers on garage below garage light
*UPDATE:  all set

- Have outlet under small cabinet next to fridge
*UPDATE:  all set

- Make sure island has outlet in it
*UPDATE:  put in without us having to ask

- Make sure bowed walls get fixed
*UPDATE:  most were fixed without us asking and the one that was not got fixed a couple days after we told our PM about it

On a side note:  I have to say our PM is awesome!  It's been so great working with him.  He actually listens to our concerns and not only finds out if they can be done for us, but he explains to us why it can't be done.  He even realizes some of our ideas are a good idea and do make the house better and tells us this.  It's very nice to have someone listen to our concerns and not brush them off, but instead takes action for us to see to it that we will love our new house at the end of all this!:-)

Locked in our interest rate!

Today we decided to see what the NVR interest rates were since it's been at a yearly low for some time now.  To our surprise the rates were the same for 60 days and 90 days!  We decided we wanted to guarantee the low rates and to lock it now.  Here was our options we could pick from:

·         4.125% rate would cost you .5% point

·         4.25% rate would give you a .375% credit

·         4.375% rate would give you a .875% credit 

We decided to go with the 4.125% rate in order to save on our monthly mortgage amount.  We hope we made the right decision, but are very glad to have our rate locked for move than a month over the expected completion date.  I really hate gambling, but glad we got a lower rate than what we started at.  Hopefully the rate doesn't decrease more, but not much we can do anymore which is very unsettling.

In other news

My parents are coming up tomorrow to see the house all framed and check it out to see if there is any issues.  My dad was a contractor and has an eye for things that we would never see.  We are so happy that they are coming to see the house before it's closed up.  They were going to go to the pre-dry wall meeting with us, but after I told my dad it would be insulated he said there really isn't a use for him to look at anything since it will be covered up.  I really wanted him to see it framed and inspect the house to make me feel safe, so they said they'd come up tomorrow to do that and I couldn't be more thankful!

Tomorrow we're also going to measure all the HVAC, electrical, plumbing, cable, and internet out and record it to keep for our records to know where things are behind our walls and ceilings.

Also, my husbands parents are coming up on Sunday to see the house and lot and everything.  This is the first time they will be seeing what we picked out and it will be very exciting to show them everything!  It should be a good weekend!

On a side note, the electrician called us this morning to clarify the light pre-wire over the island.  He wanted to know if we wanted it on a separate switch.  We were hoping it would be, so were glad he called and clarified it with us. 

Problem encountered favors us!!

We got a call today from our PM, he said there's a problem with the shower surround and the window in the roman shower.  Because our floor plan is so new they haven't had a person buy a Sewickley with the roman shower, which for whatever reason does not include tile in it's upgrade fee.  Basically the window and surround wouldn't both fit and he gave us two options or any options we could think of.  The options were to remove the window in the shower or they would give us free tile for the shower to keep the window!  That was a no-brainer, since we were going to do the tile ourselves later and we wanted to keep the window for light.  So pretty much they are giving us free tile and we get to go pick that out tomorrow!!  It was awesome news to brighten up our day today!

*UPDATE:  Free tile was either white or cream 6 by 6 tiles, not really pretty.  Kind of annoying they didn't allow us to pick out better tile since we were going to tile it ourselves after we moved in with a nicer tile, but not much we can do.  At least it will be tiled and maybe we can redo it or add a border or make the floor tile we do really nice to off set this tile.  We did ask if they can be arranged like subway tile to make it look some what better, but that would have cost $275 extra.  We can redo the tile for a little over that, so we said no and are just going to live with the tile.

PM Updated 5/29/14

PM Update:

- Thursday 5/29/14: HVAC is being worked on

- Friday 5/30/14: Framers back to fix issues that PM found (PM found quite a bit, which is good)

- Friday 5/30/14:  Roof should be done, they didn't order enough shingles that's why they didn't finish (probably because of the non-standard 4ft extension with the garage created some confusion)

- Monday 6/2/14: Electrical will be done, but it has been started

- Tuesday 6/3/14: Insulation will be completed

- Thursday 6/5/14: Pre-dry wall meeting at 8 AM

- Thursday 6/5/14: Dry wall will be loaded into the house

- Friday 6/6/14: Dry wall will be started

Side notes:

- He said we should be done by July 17th or within 3-4 days of this date
- Closing will be within a few days of July 17th (YAY!)