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!

 

 

Week 7....pre-drywall, interest rates, and closing dates

We had our pre-drywall meeting today!  We walked around and took lots of pictures.  They’ve added some moldings to the outside of the house.  I love our elevation!  Everything looked great.  I did realize today that we have A LOT of lights, which is a good thing.  I didn’t realize there were so many recessed lights already included in the house.   Since the attic access is in the loft and our ceiling fan pre-wire had to be changed to two recessed lights, our PM moved that pre-wire to our living room which was a nice surprise. 

During our walk through, I did notice a couple of things.  The good news, our missing window was finally installed!  We were a little worried they would start drywall without that window.  The bad news,  water on the floor from an above pipe.  Our PM tried to explain that it wasn’t a leak….ummmm, ok.  Our shower is/was full of water and ice.  Our PM said they were making sure the pipes weren’t leaking before drywall goes up next week.  There is water on the floor in the family room and a pipe with water coming from it.  How is it not a leak?!?!  We will definitely be keeping an eye on that.

We have the biggest lot in our community which was a major blessing.  The day that we signed our contract our SR took us out to the lot, but there was a huge mound of dirt on it so it was hard to really see what was considered ours.  Today, our PM took us to walk our lot and it is HUGE!  I’m excited that our kids will have a big yard to play in and that we will have space to entertain and do other projects.  We have a lot of ideas for the back yard, but those will come after I decorate the inside of the house!  Here is a picture from the back yard and an updated picture of the house.

 

Our back yard!

Updated picture of our house!

 

 

In other news, I received a call from our loan officer today saying that we were set to lock our interest rate!  I really didn’t expect to hear from him so soon.  Then he dropped a bomb…..our closing date has been moved to February 20^th.  I was in a state of shock, because we had just left our PM who said NOTHING about this change.  We were still under the impression that we would be closing the first week in March.  Our PM did tell us that after dry-wall goes up it would be 5 weeks until closing.  He told us that dry-wall would take about two weeks/10 days.  After looking at a calendar, this would put us closing the last week in February.    So I got off the phone with our loan officer and called our PM who confirmed this new date.   So we had our pre-drywall, locked our interest rate, and got a new closing date today….WHEW!  It seems like things are really flying by now! 

Our PM said that insulation will be going in tomorrow.  Dry-wall and siding will start next week!