Question about blueprints...

Were you guys given a copy of your final blueprints? We were told we could not have a copy. Just wondering if this is a Ryan rule, or just my community rule....

Day 19 - Lumber and bathtubs

Lumber was delivered yesterday. There isn't a lot of room for them work with the lumber laying on the lot. Hoping it's not killing the neighbor's grass!!

 

 These are our bathtubs and showers. (And our truck that won't it in our garage. :( )

These were delivered on Thursday. They seem so small.....

 

 

This is a view of the garage floor. There is another lot in the distance that was just cleared and dug for another Ryan. We think it is a Vic Falls too. Curious to see which elevation and colors.

 

 

This is a shot of our basement. It rained the night after they poured the floors. I was a little worried about the wet concrete getting rained on, but a friend who works in construction assured me it would actually cure slower which would make it stronger. :)

 

 

Our lot was also graded. I'm guessing this isn't the final grade, but there were huge piles of dirt here before. This is a shot from the back yard.

 

 

Garage Update: We have heard from our PM that there is nothing they can do to make our garage bigger. The SR called today and asked what we thought about making it a front load 2-car but it would be extra deep. Um, no thank you.... that's not what we want. Plus I'm guessing that would mean that they would have to redraw the print, get re-approval from the county, and push our completion date back even more!!! She said she would talk to management about this issue on Monday, but there's no way they can fix this now.  This is still so disappointing to us. One of the reasons we sold our last house was because we had a 3 car garage and one bay was only about half the size of a typical bay because of stairs to the playroom. My husband was really wanting a true 3 car garage. Now we are worse off only being able to park one of our vehicles in the garage. I asked the SR if there was anything they could do financially since they can't fix this from a construction standpoint. I haven't had much luck with them "negotiating" anything so far, so we'll see. Sadly, if we had known we couldn't park both cars in the garage, we never would have built this house. This on top of climbing mortgage rates that are going to make us house poor and we aren't getting what we thought we were getting. I explained to the SR today that we felt things have been so rushed through the process and corners were being cut. :(  Finding it hard to get excited now.

Just realized our truck won't fit in the garage

Trying not to freak out! Ugh!

Day 16 - Basement Floor and Garage Floor are Poured

Garage and basement floors were poured today. Workers were there finishing up when we stopped by. We also got our weekly call from SR and PM. Lumber will be delivered tomorrow, but will not start framing until possibly into next week sometime. Looks like things will sit idle now.

I now have 2 different people sending me GFE's both from NVR. Not sure why...but I'm at least getting pretty quick responses now. Still praying rates will drop when we lock in a few weeks...not holding my breathe, but isn't doing me any good to worry about it I guess!

We had a great time on our short family vacation. We went to Holiday World and my feet and legs are SORE from walking through the water park all day long!!

I will head back to the lot for more pictures later today or tomorrow. They have started to backfill, so I'm guessing they will finish that soon.

Day 14 - nothing, except an NVR gripe

PM said they would be pouring our basement floor and garage floor today or last Friday. It didn't happen either day.... not that it's a big rush since the framers are a week behind... grrrrr....

So.. I emailed our LO over a week ago asking for an updated GFE with our updated down payment... no response... nada... however, I did get an updated GFE today for an additional $100 fee that a new law now requires but not with our updated down payment information. And it was sent from a different LO... So.... they'll send me an updated GFE to add their fee.. . but not when I ask for it! Grrrr....

Heading out for a short vacation with the family in the morning...hoping when we come back Wednesday night that we have poured floors!

Blog list disappeared!!

Ugh! I know someone else posted about this last week, but I can't remember who! :( when I login, my list of blogs that I follow is missing... it now says I don't follow anyone and I followed LOTS of you! Why does it do this???? So frustrating!

Day 13 - Waterproofing

These aren't very exciting pictures... but it's another thing DONE! :) PM said we would have basement floor and garage floor Friday or Monday... so we'll be watching for that tomorrow.  I think there is one house ahead of us for framing and the second story is up and wrapped. So, we should have wood this week sometime. I'm not sure where they are going to put it as there isn't really room on our lot and all surrounding lots are existing homes.

We have hung out at the community pool three times now (Thanks to my BFF). It's SOOO much better than the apartment pool, plus the kids are seeing other kids they know in the neighborhood. Have I mentioned how much I love our new neighborhood? And we aren't even in yet!!

 

I will say one of the things I miss the most about a house is my refrigerator! This teeny tiny apartment fridge is not big enough for ANYTHING!!!! I can't wait to have all of my cooking utensils back, space to cook, and room to store my goodies!!!!



Day 10 - Basement window openings, walls, and basement plumbing in!

So, I was really surprised to see the forms gone the day after they were poured and the window openings were put in also. I was surprised at how big the windows are... I think I had in mind the little tiny windows... we have window wells and everything!  The plumbing is in for the water softener rough in and water heater I believe. 

I finally heard from the PM today (after I emailed him this morning and asked for an update). He said our basement plumbing inspection is today and they will be pouring our garage and basement floors either tomorrow or Monday. He said our wood will be delivered after that, probably sometime next week. He did warn us that the framers are 7-10 days behind though.. so it may sit idle after the floors are poured for awhile. This may not be too bad as we will be out of town part of the week next week so we won't have time to get frustrated with no activity.

 

 This is taken front the driveway looking towards the garage.

 

 This is opposite the driveway. You can see the basement plumbing.

 

 This pipe went up over the basement wall and just hangs out the back. I'm guessing this will be buried and attached to something????

 

These are the openings for the basement windows... much bigger than I thought they'd be!!

 

We also spent the day at the community pool today. Met more neighbors and hung out with my best friend who already lives in the neighborhood. This is going to be an awesome place for our family! We've been invited to the 4th of July block party and the Haunted Hay Ride in October! I love this place and can't wait to get in there!!!!



Day 8 - 2nd update Walls are poured!

We did go back tonight and they had poured the walls for the basement. I can really see the shape of the house now! Wow! I'm guessing things will be quiet there the rest of the week while it sets up!

Day 8 - update! I spoke too soon!!

We drove by the house again this afternoon and they were putting up the forms to pour the basement walls. We ran into a neighbor and he said he thought they'd pour the walls this evening! Woohoo! Progress! Guess we'll do another drive by later tonight to see if they did! I emailed our SR about the stove change... it's just a different model, doesn't change the structure of the kitchen, so I'm hoping we can change it!

too late for changes?

So... I have a question.. I've seen some posts about people making changes after construction has started... how does that work? I'm under the impression that we can't change anything now... I want to look into changing my stove.... not anything structural.. how does that work? Is it even an option?

Day 8 - Working on patience

We've had no activity since Friday at the lot... :( Although I know sometimes it sits for 4 days (today would be 4 days) before they actually pour the walls, I keep hoping SOMETHING will be happening! There are 2 Victoria Falls models about 45 minutes from us and we visited them both yesterday. I took TONS of pictures but can't get them off of my camera! Grrr..... It was great to go in them now that we have selected everything and actually think about where things will go and what we need.

I am a little concerned that there is another house in the process of being built on our street. It has been sitting with lumber and no activity for weeks. I'm hoping that house is either a spec or there's a reason why it's just sitting.... Trying to stay positive!!

Day 4 - Gravel in the basement & community facebook page

No pictures today... but they were working!! The spread gravel in the basement...hoping to see some walls soon!! So, that's 3 out of 4 days of work at the lot.. I'm good with that... But the best part of the day was "meeting" lots of neighbors on the community facebook page. Lots and lots of kids and neighbors who seem like a lot of fun! Makes me even more impatient to get this DONE!! :)

Day 3 - Footers are poured!

We had rain last night and this  morning so we were shocked when we heard they were working this morning! Excited to see progress moving along!! 

 

 

We are also staring to shop around for rates. I've emailed our LO at NVR yesterday and asked her redo the Good Faith Estimate to change our down payment. I haven't heard back from her yet... interested to see how quickly she responds. I emailed the lending agent who did our last 2 loans tonight to see what they could do for us.... I'm betting he responds quicker than NVR does. For those of you who didn't go with NVR, did you lose your incentives?? Any tips I should know about this?

Day 2 - Nada and potential concerns with PM.

Nothing was done today on the lot. I'm wondering if they are done digging... I thought there was more to dig out, but I think now it's actually just a trench for the garage. So... curious to see how long before we see more changes.  My husband is concerned that the basement doesn't seem very deep and we don't have a walkout... but I'm sure it's fine. He met a neighbor today that said the guys that were excavating told him they were leaving a lot of the dirt because of a project we wanted in the backyard... we are emailing our PM because we don't know anything about that!

So.. I have a couple of concerns about our PM. When we had our preconstruction meeting he did not go to the lot with us.  Seems like that is done with everyone else according to the blogs. He didn't offer it and when I got home and read the paper we signed (yes, apparently I should read more carefully BEFORE I sign), he'd checked off that he had walked the lot with us. Just kinda makes me wonder if he'll short change other things. He also didn't give us an estimated walkthrough date or estimated closing date. I see everyone else with countdown tickers... but we were given no date.  So.. should I be concerned???

Day 1 - Digging has begun!

So, we were told last week they would start digging today. My husband drove by twice while I was at work hoping to see something happening. Finally, around 4:00 I got a text from my best friend (who already lives in the neighborhood) that they were digging!! Since they started so late in the day, they aren't done of course. Storms coming tomorrow afternoon.....hoping they get a lot done before then!!

 

Things look pretty good. We went back tonight and walked the lot after they left. It sets back further than we thought and is really close to the neighbor's property line on the left of the house, but it's hard to really tell at this point.  I know many people have talked about walking the lot with their PM at the preconstruction meeting. We were not even offered that..... hoping things are staked out where we want them...

 

 

 My son is soooo excited about the pond behind the house... we could really hear all of the sounds of nature tonight while we were out there! 

 

 

Kitchen Selections

We picked Rushmore Square Maple Glaze Butterscotch Timberlake Cabinets

 

 Santa Cecilia Granite Countertops

Armstrong Maple Burnt Cinnamon 5" Hardwood Floors for Kitchen, Morning Room, Entry, Powder Room, Mud Room, and Laundry Room

Stakes and Tubing

We have our preconstruction meeting tomorrow afternoon! Long list of questions to take with us to the meeting! We went to the lot today and it is staked and outlined with the black tubing! Lots of neighbors and kids outside tonight! Busy place!!

We have owned several homes, but this is our first building experience! Can't wait to get started. Hoping to be in by Labor Day!