Wrong.. Again..

     Last week they messed up  installing the wrong carpet pad on all levels. But thanks to our super PM that issue got resolve in no time.

    Well this time it's our front door! They have painted front door in Wine Tone color, matching it to our shutters when it's suppose to be black. While Wine tone color is also not looking that bad., we decided to go for black. So hubby is going to email our PM and I am sure this will be taken care of.

Our selections. Wine Tone shutters with black door .

It was dark when I clicked this snap. That's why it looks  black. But it's actually Wine tone color like the shutters.

LOVE IT.

Update on carpet pad issue.

So today we had a meeting with our PM. It was nice of him to meet us on such a short notice.  He said it was a honest mistake on their side. And the problem has been fixed. So now we have the correct carpet pad underneath the correct carpet. They did remove the upgraded pad in family room though. I know for sure the tine thought will remain in my mind as to what would have happened if we had not gone there at the right  time. Ah well.. !!

   We also discussed about some small concerns that we had. And PM assured us that it will be all taken care of before our walk through on 27th December. Small concerns like shelves in master closets at wrong height, no siding on small part of exterior, minor imperfections in kitchen cabinets etc.
     While we were there, they were prepping our driveway to pour the asphalt. Today I couldn't take any photos. But I am planning to go there early tomorrow. So I will have lots of snaps to show. A lot has been done in the last week. All light fixtures( incl. boobilier..:), masters bathroom and kids bathroom ceramic tiles with accent tiles, hardwood in dining room and living room, carpet, granite, ceramic tiles in kitchen and morning room.... !!! Everything !!! More on that and lots of snaps coming tomorrow.

Ughrrrr......

Just when I thought and surely was keeping my fingures crossed that there is not going to be any "lashing out" post in my blog.!! Everything was going smoothly. In fact I have "LOVE IT " post saved on the blog ready to be published. But..

   Coming straight to the point. Yesterday evening  we went to our new home. The carpet crew of four was just finishing the carpet installation in the family room and study. Upper level carpet was almost done. And one worker was busy putting the pad on the steps. After may be half an hour or so when we went into the basement one worker was installing the carpet. and just one small area of the pad underneath was still showing. I immediately noticed that something is off and I was right. They had installed the wrong carpet pad in the basement. We have upgraded the carpet pad in the basement to  level C and they were putting the standard level A pad.  I asked  him to stop working until I clear this but he finished the rest of the carpet anyway. So as of today we have wrong carpet pad in the basement. Then obviously we asked the worker to show us which pad they had put under the family room carpet. Turned out that there we have level C carpet instead of level A. We had upgraded famly room carpet to level C. So now we have upgraded level C pad with level C carpet in family and study.  @#$%$#@ !!!?
                 We contacted our PM and got his reply back that he dosen't have our carpet pad selections with him. We are going to meet him in the afternoon. I am sure he will solve this problem. But the scary and frustrating part is if we had not gone there in time before the carpet installation, there is a good possibility that this would have gone unnoticed.  And now in todays meeting if they decide to rip off all the carpet in the family room and study to correct their mistake which shouln't have happened in the first place, .... BOY I am going to so MAD!!!!

I am truly sorry guys for me venting out like this, but it's frustrating. Thanks for understanding. Now I can go and meet the PM with a little bit cool temper.  I will update you all about todays meeting as soon as possible. We also have other small issues to discuss with PM.

Cabinets, paint, siding .....

Last week we made a good amount of progress. Our cabinets are installed.  I noticed that the cabinet installation is done a bit poorly.  Some cabinets are not aligned properly. Small area near the sink is damaged a bit. Few knobs are missing. But these are very obvious things to notice. So I am sure PM will catch them in no time and it will get fixed.  Not worried about it. One thing I was wondering about and didn't get time to check with our PM yet, is do we get electrical outlet(s) on the island. I remember vaguely asking about this to our SR. And I THINK we should have it.

   On Tuesday our siding guy was finishing our siding job. I am loving the Sandy Tan color. So one less thing to guess as to am I going to love it or am I going to strangle myself for making a bad selection? Our Sandy Tan siding is looking  beautiful and just what I was expecting it to look.. Also stone is ready to go up. And I am hoping to see my whole house exterior done in my today's trip to our house.

 Our fireplace, railing, doors are  in. And  the first coat of paint making the house look like the house. I am glad that the color is not stark white but has a beige shade to it. And I think I can live with it until we paint after 10 months inspection.

    
There are some things that I have to check in my today's trip.

1. Drywall installers covered one of the recessed light in the  family room. Gotta check if it's been excavated.yet.
2. Improvements in kitchen cabinet installation.
3. Electric outlet point under kitchen island.
4. Not sure why but small insulated area near bathtub in master bath is not covered with drywall. See the snap below.

   5. Also wanted to check about one electric point on the right side of the fireplace. Not sure if that should be there. or should there be another one on the left side too.  You can see it in the fireplace pic above.
 
will update on these issues. Until then have a good and  warm day !!

We have walls !!!

I hope this thanksgiving weekend was filled with joy and laughter for all in my RH blogger family.

There was almost no activity on our new house after insulation. Our drywall was delivered , ready to be hanged. Finally on Wednesday (23 Nov.) around 3 pm when we went there we saw 3-4 workers hanging the drywall up.  Looked like they had just started the work. It was quite cold and windy that way and so we got them some coffee and doughnuts.
      We were sure that we will not see our dry wall all up and hanged until Monday or even Tuesday because of thanksgiving. We had Thanksgiving lunch at one of our friend's place who lives very close to our soon to be new home. So needless to say, after the lunch we headed to our new house and very much surprised to see a whole bunch of workers were finishing the drywall task on Thanksgiving day!!!! They were almost done and were cleaning the floors and preparing propane tank and heater for drying up the walls. Thank you guys !!!!

         Couldn't take any photos that day. But today was a perfect day to hang out at our new house. The weather was perfect. So we cut short our dog Taz's  play time in dog park and went to the new house. So here are some of the snaps.

Walkout basement.

View of the front door. Living room and dining room on the left. Mud room and stairs to upper level on the right. 

Kitchen. Morning room on the left.

Family room from kitchen. Morning room on lower right corner. Study is on the far left corner of the photo.

Living room and dining room.

Morning room.

Kitchen from morning room. Panrty door on the left.

Loft. Upper level. 

Sitting area in master's bedroom and closet entrance. 

  Our Sandy Tan siding, winetone colored shutters and susquehanna stone are ready. Can't wait to see how everything will look.

Pre-drywall meeting and other updates

We had our pre-drywall meeting on 17th Nov. Before the meeting we did our independent home inspection. The home inspector did not find anything major.Just some minor points like missing caulking and bowed studs in 3-4 places.Our home inspector was impressed with the quality of work done. One point he raised was that there is no incoming plumbing in the basement bathroom 3 piece rough in. Later in the pre-drywall meeting, our PM explained that this is how it is. Ryan does not provide incoming plumbing, just the 3 piece rough in.

Other than that, meeting went great and we got out closing date. DRUMROLL PLEASE !!!! It's 29th Dec !!.Yay !!!!

Today the workers finished insulation job. We passed all the inspections (mechanical, plumbing, wiring and building). Our drywall is delivered, drywall installation will take place tomorrow, our exterior susquehanna coblestone is also here. So I am guessing we will have our exterior done by end of this week. Yay for everything !!!

Pre Drywall meeting on Thursday, 17 November.

 We have finalized our pre drywall meeting on November 17 in the afternoon. And in the morning we are taking our own home inspector to do the inspection. I have my own list of questions/concerns to ask to our home inspector and to the PM. That's why we have kept whopping 5 hrs of time margin between inspection and pre drywall meeting.  It's going to be a busy day!! But I hope everything will go smoothly.  Will post the details of our pre drywall meeting for sure.

This morning we had a meeting with Trinity Rep. at out lot to finalize the locations for duel ports, keypads, motion detectors etc etc. It went for about an hour.

So in all lot of action is going on in the house.

• The HVAC system is in  it's place. 
• Plumbing crew was working on rest of the plumbing. So plumbing will be finished by the end of the day. 
• Trinity wiring crew is going to finish their job today itself. 
• Electrical wiring will get done may be tomorrow. (?)
• our garage door got installed on Friday. 
• Bath tubs and shower pan is installed in the bathrooms. 

We have garage door !!

Add caption

 Can't wait to get (tentative) official closing date after the pre drywall meeting. And can't wait to lock the rate. Keeping my fingers crossed and hope high on getting the interest rate below 4 % 
Almost can't believe how time flies. It feels like yesterday that we signed the contract and now we are already talking rate locking...  and closing.... and furniture.... and future projects... !!
I can surely say that I am absolutely enjoying the home building process  although I have my anxiety attacks from time to time as to how our house is going to turn out ? But yes we ARE having the time of our lives !!!!

Just a thought !!

We are getting gourmet kitchen which includes all stainless steel appliances. I am not too crazy about the ones that Ryan is providing. But thought that I can always change it later after may be couple of years. But while going through the black Friday ads, a thought  came through my mind. Is it too late to opt out and not getting the fridge from Ryan? If Ryan can give us the credit for the fridge, we can use it towards something else and I can choose and buy a refrigerator of my choice.  At which stage does Ryan order the appliances? has anybody done this before at this stage the construction process? 

  We are expecting to close in early January. I would like to take advantage of the holiday season sales.  And my ever extending list of things to buy is scaring my hubby. :)  I always knew, I am not good  in VED analysis !!
 

PIECE BY PIECE !!

Our house is coming together piece by piece. Here are some things that got done yesterday and today.
All windows, french door in morning room, basement siding door installed. 
Shingles installed.
Our fireplace is in it's place. 
Today bathtubs, shower pan and water heater arrived. May be it will get installed tomorrow.
Our HVAC and  plumbing material is also there in the living room ready to get installed.  HVAC installation will get completed in this week.

Roof, garage trim and front door decorative trim. 

Beautiful fall foliage. Snap taken from master bedroom window

Picture taken from master's bedroom. Since we have walkout basement, our upper level is more higher from the ground than I have imagined. Can't wait till they clear the lot.

I have one small confusion. While in framing stage, I noticed in the garage near ceiling there was a gap of about a foot or so between two wooden blocks. (as if they ran out of wood.) Only on the left side. The next day I noticed that the worker had stuffed some sponge like material in that gap and then nailed wood piece over it. It will be more clear from the snaps below. Is this normal? Or is there a better way to do this?

Sponge like material.

Spongy material covered with wood.

We are hoping to have the pre drywall meeting next week.  Will clarify this with PM and our home inspector. 

 

We are making great progress!!!

A lot has been done in the last week. I am so excited as the house we were dreaming of is becoming the reality. And day by day we are getting closer to our dream.
    We have almost completed the framing process. This week we will have our electrical wiring done. And hopefully our predrywall meeting will be in the next week.  We have already made an appointment with our home inspector for the inspection before our predrywall meeting.

Here is our progress step by step. 

Framing starts !!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walk out basement and morning room framing. 

Morning room.

Kitchen. Morning room on the left.

All wrapped up!!

From the side.

Back view. Walkout basement, morning room and upper level.

Side view. Morning room windows on the right.

 
 I took some snaps of  things that looked  kinda unfinished. Small things here and there. This might not be anything and PM will notice them before inspection. I will make a separate post for those things. 

WE HAVE CONCRETE SLAB IN GARAGE AND BASEMENT.

Because of some nasty weather over the weekend, nothing was done on the lot since Friday. But today when hubby stopped by the house they were pouring our basement concrete floors. Even after seeing the snaps he has taken, I couldn't stop myself from going there in the evening.


                                                       work in progress.

By the evening they completed garage and basement concrete slab.

Garage view from front.

Basement floor.

Basement and morning room slab from backyard.

 I noticed that a small area of the garage slab (on the lower right corner ) is not as smooth as the rest of it. Should I be concerned about this?

 Now we have concrete floors in the garage and basement,  Each step no matter how small it is, is getting  me closer to my dream home. And yes making me even  more impatient. :)  

Two PVC pipes from the basement plumbing are still missing those " pink caps ".  I will have to tell my PM again to care of this thing before they start our framing. 

OUR LUMBER IS HERE.

Hubby was eager to see the plumbing and everything as he was not able to visit the lot in this week. While we were on the lot our lumber truck arrived...

I noticed that out of the three piece rough in, one was missing the pink cap. I don't know the 'construction word' for that. Another pipe in the basement was also missing it.  PM is going to take care of it before framing starts.  The 'pink cap' has to be there on the pipes so that the workers accidently doesn't drop anything (like bolts etc.) into them and clog it.

 

Again missing a pink cap

Our basement is ready for concrete pouring.  But the garage is not. The driveway and basement garage will be poured tomorrow, if we are lucky and rain gives us a` break. Otherwise we will have to wait for framing to begin after next Monday. We are losing at least one day per week because of rainy weather. 

 

                                             Basement floor all prepped for concrete pouring.

                                                        

                                                             The lot has been regraded.

Again we discussed our 'microwave height issue' with PM. He is still not sure what he can do about this. But he will let us know soon. I am keeping my fingers crossed and really hoping they would be able to lower the microwave a little bit. Even shelves in the laundry room are a little too high for me. And thinking of requesting to install them four inches lower. By doing this I might be eliminating my option of buying top loading washer dryer. 

    While I know one can think that these too small things to worry about but  I really want to tackle these small irritants that I am aware NOW  instead of taking care of them LATER.

For those who are wondering , RH DOES provide the screens on windows. They don't have screens on any of their model homes (at least not in our NOVA area.)



p.s    RAIN STINKS !!!

 

PLUMBING.

Nothing much to report in last two days. Monday morning I stopped by our lot and saw two workers were putting our PVC pipes underground in the basement floor. I was thinking that they will continue to work on our lot and may be complete the underground plumbing. But by the time I walked around the lot and took some snaps, they had already left. It looked like all the crew workers were working on the town homes in front of us.

   May be my lack of patience is making me think that the work is going rather slow on my lot. :(  I can't wait to get settled in my own home very very soon. (And hopefully before January.) At our pre con meeting our PM tentatively set our closing date around first week of January. And I am so much tempted to add my closing countdown gadget....

       Construction for the town homes in front of our house is going in full speed. There is going to be a row of seven town homes in front of us. The lot next to ours is still not sold. I wish it gets sold soon so that there will be no more construction going on on our street.  :) And we all will be ready to enjoy our new neighborhood.

Here are some snaps of plumbing in the basement ground.  Hopefully our garage and basement floor will get poured in this week.

   

I didn't see our three piece rough inn in the basement. Will have to go back on the lot today and see if now they have put it in.  I doubt I will see anything had been done on the lot today as it's raining pretty hard here. :(

Slow but steady progress !!

We are on  the schedule so far. Yesterday we saw that our waterproofing is done.

  

There is no rain in the forecast till Wednesday. So hopefully they will be able to lay our drainage system under the foundation before that. Our PVC pipes and stuff is already delivered. If everything goes per schedule, we might complete the framing by the end of next week. here are some pics I took yesterday.

View from the front. garage and living room waterproofing.

Why are these waterproofing line slanted?

PVC pipes and concrete blocks ready for drainage system

I took this photo when the workers were doing the formwork and pouring the basement walls. They were working in the  light of the cement mixing truck head lights. Wow guys, thanks !!