9 more days!

We stopped by the house today to meet with a representative for our security system.  I'm pretty excited about that, but even more excited about what's in the house.....APPLIANCES and CARPET!  The next time we are in the house it should be almost complete.  

I'm guessing we will be waiting for warmer weather before we can get our sod, tree, and other plants....

It also looks like three other houses on our street will begin soon!  It's nice to see our community filling up.

Here are a few pictures from today....

 

 

 

Week 11

13 days to go!  This time in two weeks, we should be moving in to our new home!  I’m so excited!

 

A lot has been going on this week.   Our granite counter tops were put in the kitchen this week and they look great.  I love the way the kitchen is coming together!  We should be getting appliances this week.   Here are some pictures of the kitchen.

 

 

 

 

Our vinyl flooring also was put down this week.  I absolutely love the way it looks.  While most of it is covered, I did pull the covering back to get a few pictures.  It looks very nice and I feel is a nice alternative to hardwoods if they are outside of your budget.  One day we will get hardwoods, but this is great for now.

 

The master bathroom now has tile.  The ceramic tile came with our package and we just stuck with the standard.  I really like how it came out.   I’m also really excited about our shower with the seat.  Even though I'm not excited about keeping that glass clean!

 

 

Here are some more pictures of the inside.

Master Closet

Loft

Bedroom

Laundry

Living room

Dining room

Family room

Powder room

 

 

Here are some exterior pictures.   I’m so excited about the porch and I really love the recessed lights.  Oh, our irrigation system was also put in this week!  While we were visiting the house, they were working on grading the yard.

We have a driveway!

Exterior lights

 

Porch with recessed lights

 

We walked through the house with our PM’s assistant and we did notice that our extra dedicated outlet in the garage is in the wrong location.  It should be beside our steps, but instead it’s behind the water heater.  He said it will be fixed, so that makes us happy.  Not sure why it was put there when it’s clearly marked on our paperwork to be beside the steps.   There are also a couple of spots in the subfloor that we are concerned about….the best way to describe it is that they give when you step on them.   Our PM’s assistant said that when carpet goes in the flooring people will make sure it’s nailed down correctly. 

There are a lot of little details that we are watching closely and a lot of work that still has to be done.  More drywall, more paint, more trim……I'm sure they will do everything to make sure we love the final product.  This is a huge investment and we want it to be as close to perfect as possible.  We ask a lot of questions and I will say that our PM’s and SR do an awesome job of answering everything and trying to put our minds at ease.   

So what’s next?  Appliances, carpet, sod, and detail work.   I can't believe it's almost finished!

 

Week 8

This week was a busy week for our Naples.  There is a lot to talk about so this post will be LONG…..

After our pre-drywall meeting our PM told us the following time line for this week:  Insulation would go in on Saturday and siding and drywall would go in on Monday.  He also said the concrete in our garage would go in at some point this week. 

Since a lot of things will be happening to the inside of our house I told our PM that I wanted to start meeting weekly to see the progress.  Our PM told us at our pre-construction meeting that we were never to enter the house without him.  We honestly have followed his instructions and stayed out of the house.   Since my husband and I both work, I told our PM that we would not be able to meet until 4:00pm or later for our meetings.  Our PM wasn’t too excited about this and FINALLY gave us permission to go into the house after hours and on the weekends.  Note that I have taken full advantage of his offer!

So on Monday, I went to the house to see what was going on!  Insulation had been installed.  There was one minor problem….that leak that I talked about last week was still there.  I brought it up to our PM and he basically said that everything will be perfect before we move in.  No drywall.

 

Tuesday, I drove by the house and they had started working on the siding!  They had completed the back and sides of the house.  They work really fast! Still no drywall. 

 

Here are some cell phone pictures....

 

 

We had a snow day on Wednesday so I didn’t stop by the house.

Thursday they had started putting the siding on the front of the house.  The concrete for the garage had also been poured.  It all looks really nice.  Since no one was working, I decided to take a little tour of the house.  Our drywall had been delivered and was sitting on the floor in all of the rooms.  Now, back to that leak….you know the one in the kitchen???  Well someone thought it would be a good idea to put our drywall on that leak and now water was leaking on the drywall.  I also noted another spot in the kitchen where water was leaking from an above pipe.  As I was leaving, I noticed something going on with some of the wood in the roof of our porch.  I took pictures of the leaks and the porch and sent them to our PM…I’m documenting everything.  There is no way you will say I didn’t tell you or that you didn’t know! 

 

 

Here is the first leak and drywall

 

2nd leak:

 

 

 

 

Here is the porch thing I was talking about....what's the deal with that separated wood by the recessed light? 

 

 

Well here we are today….Friday!!  I have played phone tag all day with my PM and have sent him another email, to which I expect no response and I’m sure I won’t get a phone call until Monday at this point (did he forget about that little survey at the end of this experience?).  Our siding is done and it looks really nice.  I am pleased with mostly everything.  I just really wish Ryan Homes would do something better than the tiny samples they give you to pick out colors for an entire house!  Now that we can see the colors on a much larger scale, we actually like the white trim that is currently on the house.  We originally picked beige trim.  We think it will be too much beige in the end if they paint everything beige.  Since we were at the house we visited our SR at the model and he basically told us since our garage door is beige that the trim has to be beige.  He also said that after we close we can paint it any color since we don’t technically have an HOA (another post for another day).   So my question is this….if we can paint it after we close, why can’t you just keep it white like we want??!?!?!?  Well I emailed our PM again….and of course you know how that goes. 

Here is the siding with some white trim:

 So let’s rewind to earlier today….I was thinking about the house and wondering why drywall hadn’t gone up.  I remember my PM stating that there were some inspections that were supposed to happen this week and then a light bulb went off!  We must have failed an inspection L

After some research on my counties inspection website, I found out why we had a delay.  They failed the counties framing inspection.  This is disappointing for a couple of reasons.  1) Our PM never said anything about this failed inspection 2) Our personal inspection happened minutes before the counties inspection and the only thing our inspector noted was some water under the house.  Now I know our personal inspector might not check for the same things as the county inspector, but it is still disappointing.   They finally passed the framing inspection on Wednesday….the drywall was delivered on Thursday….and WE FINALLY HAVE DRYWALL TODAY!

 

Living room looking into dining room

Family Room

 

Kitchen

Morning Room

 

 

I’ve been reading RH blogs since before we signed our contract in September and there is one complaint that is pretty consistent amongst a lot of bloggers…..the quality of the drywall job is pretty bad.  I know nothing about drywall and the process, but I did note some things when I walked through our house this afternoon.  There are several places where the drywall just doesn’t look good.  I know we are in the beginning phases and there are several more steps, but I’m starting to wonder if we will be another blog that has drywall issues.  Should there be gaps in the drywall?  I know they use mud and tape to make it smooth and look seamless, but won’t gaps show as the house is settling?  This is another item added to the list of topics for our PM. 

Here are some pictures of what I'm talking about....

 

Remember that wood on the porch roof?  Well this was put up today, so I guess I’ll never know if it was actually fixed. 

 

Oh, in one of my many emails to our PM I asked if our closing date would be pushed back since drywall was delayed.  In a voicemail he said that we are still set for February 20^th.   Is that date even possible at this point?  He even told us that it was 5 weeks to closing AFTER drywall was complete.  We are exactly 5 weeks to closing today….and drywall started TODAY!

OOOOOH, and one more thing.  We did receive our official letter about our new home orientation and closing….our new home orientation is scheduled for February 19^th and closing for the 20^th.   Isn’t that too close?  What if we see things during our new home orientation?  They will have no time to fix things before we close.  I emailed our closing person and they said they would see if they can move the orientation back, but it’s pretty much set in stone. 

Wow, I told you this would be long!