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 !!

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 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.