Just when I thought I would Explode

Well its been 2 weeks and they are already on to second floor framing. We were also contacted for our pre-wire walk through. That is where we re-confirm the locations for tv and surround sound.

The designer also finally got around to putting up window treatments and I was offered to come on as decorator if they couldnt get on the same page. Mind you this offer is purely based on conversations and sharing pictures of ideas I like. 

Things are looking great so far and my fears of the house being too small have completely vanished. I mean I know those fears were absolutely ridiculous because it was still just a hole in the ground and when looking down everything looks smaller. 

So here is what you've been waiting on, a little late and bad angles due to the sun.

And ofcourse no blog would be complete without a pic of the mess left on site. Not as bad as some I've seen but enough to question how hard is it to put stuff in the garbage.

Slow progress

Well it's been a few weeks since I've updated and well thats because of the slow progress. The weather here has been extremely cold and we are only 2 weeks out of a monster snow storm that shut down the whole city. The only thing to be done since the last post was yhe pouring of the foundation.

Today is when we did our drive past and it was so cold I only got these pictures. Which is fine considering nothing much has changed

While here I wasn't terribly that everything was looking good. As I have said before that this looks so much smaller than the actual completed house. In fact I was so unconvinced we had to walk through the model again. The SR, Jim, tried his best to convince me it will never look the same size until we move in and begin to decorate. He even went as far as to tell me it may begin to look even smaller once they begin framing and drywalling. 

At this point I am comfortable enough to say I believe we are on schedule, especially since another builder began after us and the owners have already moved in. You could take this a thousand ways, I am choosing to believe they are taking their time to provide us a great quality home. It also couldn't hurt if they are a little late on delivery if it gives us extra time to save more money. 

With that said, someone mentioned to me that we should have written into our contract a rent back clause if they failed to deliver within the time frame. I had never thought of that since we are building in the winter and weather can cause delays. Has anyone heard of or done this before ?

 

 

Foundation Update

Not much to report in the last 2 weeks other than what I assume to be plumbing in our hole. I can't say this enough but finally being able to walk around the hole it still doesn't look big enough. All I keep thing is where is the rest of the house. I also have some concern about the window placement because we have intentions of putting in a deck and judging from where they are marked and the basement door is, looks like the deck will block the 2 small windows.

Here's a look at the pics we took yesterday.

what I assume to be plumbing

 As you can see in the picture below, that door opening in the middle is our single welled exit under the sun room area. And those 2 blue things on the right side are the windows. This means that the door from the actual sun room will opposite the basement door and therefore the deck would block the windows.

looking from family room fireplace

Back of the house to property line

standing right at edge of sunroom

Edge of sun room looking at basement window

Middle of driveway facing house

It's hard to believe that this little hole is supposed to be almost 4,000 sq.ft. Hopefully my next post will be the beginning of framework.

In the mean time take a look at the furniture we put on price hold with Ashley Furniture. Let me apologize for the poor quality picture here. Just a little description of the master furniture. It is black croc embossed with mirror and rhinestone accents.

 

If you remember from the previous post I chose a similar set from Wayfair.com as you can see below. I am still on the fence about the bed itself. I don't know what or why I am drawn to the white upholstery when the rational part of me only sees the pain in cleaning it of the oils that no doubt will get on it from our hair. Yet all I see when looking at the bed above is how dark everything will be, even with the Latte walls and grey carpet. We will also add a bench to separate the sitting area from the sleeping area.As for the sitting Area, we are going for light beige and neutral colors. 

 Look at how huge this sectional is for the basement. There are 4 recliners and a wedge, it's perfect for entertaining.

Basement rec room

Now here is where there is to be some tough decision making. My daughter really likes the white furniture as you will recall from a previous post. However we came across another set that is a little more mature and will carry her well into the teen years without seeming too "princessey" but could it be too mature for her current 6 years.

The mature option and can add a trundle for sleepovers

just like the master with silver embossed croc and rhinestones

We Have Footers

Not the best pictures but we now have something in our hole, lol.And just like everyone else at this stage, I can't believe that it is big enough. We plan to go back when there is more light out but just happened past this weekend while out to eat. We really didn't expect to have anything because it had rained of and on all week and there was the holiday.

Preconstruction Meeting and Breaking Ground

So we just returned from our cruise vacation and were happy to see that while we were away Haverford broke ground. Now a huge shout out to Owen over at Building Our NVHomes Andrew Carnegie. While we were out Owen was nice enough to send us pictures while out walking his dog. I can't wait for us to be neighbors and walk our dogs together, well when we get a dogs. :)

So let's just jump into the preconstruction meeting. We finally met our project manager Clayton who was just amazingly understanding and nice. Clayton himself is very straightforward and upfront. I informed him that I can be a bit OCD on certain things and that I mean no harm and he said to feel free to let him know any of my concerns but also to be sure and give him time to address them. We covered lighting, ceiling fans, flooring and the possible grading of our property. We also received our lot plan. I wasn't sure of any of the questions I may need to ask so if you have any suggestions please feel free to comment below.

Now for the pictures


from across street

standing at edge of drive way

view of future sunroom and deck

We've been told that the footers should be in this week if the rain stops and we don't get the storms that are being predicted. I'm so excited, it finally seems a little real and the closer we get the realer it will become.

Thanks for stopping by, the next update will be when we have footers.

Finally!!!!

Welcome back, I'm excited to say that after just over 2 weeks from throwing the towel in on anything house related, we finally got an approval. And I'm super excited that we got approved with room to spare so we went back and added the tray ceiling and princess bath.

Initially, we thought we would only be able to add one or the other. It really came down to the princess bath, master spa bath or tray ceiling. We had decided to only add the princess bath for resale purposes because the master bath is already beautiful without the upgrades. I'm just so excited because my daughter is 6 now and we plan to be there for at least 10 years so her having her own bath was a big deal for me because coming from a large family that had to share, I just knew she would owe me one down the line, lol.

This weekend we were asked to come in and sign some more paperwork. Apparently the original design center selections sheet had duplicate choices so they just cleaned it up to remove them. We wouldn't have been charged extra but our SR loves everything to me neat and clean.

We have also been discussing whether we wanted to add 2 pre-wires in the ceiling on either side of where we want to put the bed but I'm convinced that I can do it myself after and tap into the ceiling fan wiring for power. I also looked at not doing that and putting up plug in swing lights with wireless remotes.

Other than that nothing major has happened, haven't even met our PM yet but I asked the SR to give him a warning. I am not Meryl Streep in Devil Wears Prada but I certainly do know what I want and hold people to their word. Heck the SR himself was trying to talk the VP into bringing me on as his assistant because I'm polite but stern and have a discerning eye for detail.

Next up......breaking ground.
Thanks for stopping by.

Low voltage update

And this is why I won't allow myself to get excited about this process. So a little update on the loan app, it's still in underwriting. It's been weeks and now the issue is that we paid for a vacation club program, that is not a timeshare. It was a one time purchase that is paid off in installments and we get points to use for vacation days. All of the paperwork they requested says it is not a timeshare but they are requesting more information. I know this is pretty much the hard part but it really is sucking the fun out of this and has me worried that things wont happen fast enough to break ground before Christmas and winter hits. If that doesn't happen we wont be in by May which will cause us to have to enter into a month-to-month lease at almost $1400.

Now onto our low voltage appointment. We met at the model home on Wednesday with Chesapeake System Services. CSS provides all cable, phone/internet, home audio and security things for the home. I have posted the documents below, sorry if they are too small. the best I could do.

We chose the 2 Room home Audio, Surround Sound pre-wire and added a few extra cable locations. We are also thinking about upgrading to a 4 room audio. The entire process was super easy because I am a super planer, if you can't tell already. I created 2 separate floor plans to decide my furniture layout and the layout for the electrical because I can't wait until I meet the electrician to figure it out. Yes I researched the code requirements for power outlets which helped in my furniture placement. This also allowed me to do locals for the ceiling fans/lights we are adding.

Now the fun part is to also wait for the VP to get back to us about the basement bar. We made adjustments for the entrance to be near a wall as opposed to it being near the stairs. At this point I just want to get an approval. I know understand how other bloggers have felt seeing those who have started the process after them moving further and faster.

The waiting game is really just giving me time to second guess my furniture choices and I don't think the guy could deal with another decor change. Currently floating in my head is just a very simple monochromatic neutral with no colors on the walls just in the tablescape and pillows. I have really fallen in love with the thought of medium wood tones and linen/burlap fabrics.

Ok, Ok, I am making a promise to myself and I expect you guys to hold me to it. I will not "shop", talk or look at anything house related until the loan comes out of underwriting.

Until next time.....thanks for stopping by.