Stoned!

With weather not cooperating during a visit to the house this weekend, I was only able to take a couple of quick shots of the front of the house where they were working on putting up our stone (Autumn Buckeye). The guys on the job were very friendly and said that they hadn't put up our particular stone yet and thy had done all the other houses in the neighborhood. I didn't mention anything but was starting to get an uneasy feeling that maybe they were putting up the wrong stone as it was a lot darker than what I remembered. One of them said it was going to look a lot better once the mortar was in place (guess he read my mind!) Hubby also pointed out that it was still wet and would look different. So I took a step back and pictured that and think that it's going to be beautiful!

 

 

UPDATE!!! My stone has been finished and I am SOOOO pleased with the result!!! I even love the stone that they put on the stairs to cap them off...wasn't expecting that!!!

Pre-drywall, foundation repair, siding and insulation

Though it's been less than 24 hrs since the last post A LOT has been going on at the house with some significant progress being made in key areas. The first is with the repair to foundation. It's has been completed and looks great! Once the mortar dries you won't even be able to see a difference! We are still waiting to have the engineer inspect it and give u the paperwork to confirm the integrity of the repair.

We also had our pre-drywall meeting with PM and APM which went rather quickly since we'd already been to the house every day. While we were there our insulation was delivered and two guys started working on putting it up. Thy were working at a pretty good pace too because they had several rooms completed before we left. The work on the siding was also in progress and looks like it will be completed today. We also discussed our closing date and can now put February 8 down as THE DAY! Final walk through will be February 6. Which also means we can now make the nerve wracking decision to lock in our rate with NVR- with the rates being what they are we definitely want to do it as soon as possible just in case they go up after the new year. Overall, we are very pleased with the progress and our PM has been great about answering our questions and addressing any issues that have come up.

Talk about a MAJOR Blooper!

I was hoping that I wouldn't have to make a contribution to Nadase's list of construction bloopers but unfortunately one happened in front of my eyes! I was leaving the neighborhood from my almost daily visit to the house an I made my typical stop on the road above and behind our house. I watched as a county gas employee attempted to maneuver a backhoe in a very small area between the house and the protected area. I remember thinking that he didn't have much room and that he better be careful when all of a sudden- BAM! I watched in HORROR as he got out of the massive machine and went over to the crawl space entrance. Another gas employee came over and then within seconds our assistant PM came over from the lot across the street. Unfortunately I wasn't able to stay any longer (I was on a lunch break and was already running late) than to see the assistant PM get on his phone and also to get a quick glimpse of the damage- a big hole at the doorway to the crawl space. I called our PM who had already heard about from the APM. Anyway, to shorten a long story PM contacted the county inspector and presented the plans to fix the damage (which were approved). He is also getting an independent engineer to take a look at all the repairs and give us a certified letter confirming our the structural integrity of the repaired foundation. Here a pics that I took today prior to the start of the repairs.

You can't see it, but the stone is cracked about 6 ft to the right of the entryway

The BIG HOLE in our foundation!

Even the opposite side of the crawl space entry was cracked (APM assured me it was going to be part of the repairs)

The perpetrator (minus its human operator)

Pic from the inside of the crawl space

The stone has pulled away from the cinder blocks

Just like on the outside, this crack goes about 6 ft in from the entrance of the crawl space

UPDATE: Hubby sent me pics he too this afternoon. The start of repairs and siding in the back and side of the house!

Wiring and electrical- plug it up!

Contrary to some of our blogger buds the pre wiring visit with Structured Cable was pretty uneventful. So really nothing to write home about. The most exciting part of the meeting was actually seeing that the plumbing was further along than my earlier post. Today, however, we do have something to write about! On his way out of town Hubby decided to make an impromptu visit to the house. Good thing too! The electrician was just starting to put in the outlets and light switches. After giving me a call I hightailed it to the house (typically a 40 min drive which I clocked at approximately 30 min!). Our electrician (i shall refer to him as Sparky) was so accommodating and we spent about an hour going through each room to decide in the best placement for the outlets. Sparky had great suggestions and I was really happy that he let me be so involved in the process and that he allowed me a couple of special requests (outlet in the pantry and the master closet off the bathroom). Thank goodness Hubby just happened to stop by!

Shingles and Plumbing!!!!

This is just a quick post to give an even quicker update on the house. We have a wiring meeting on Wednesday so I'm sure I'll have a lot more to say! Today though I stopped by and was able to watch a very brave man putting in the shingles and another very nice man putting in the plumbing. The master tub and shower components had also been delivered Yay for progress!

Meeting the neighbors and more pics of the inside

It's the weekend so of course that means that we made a trip to the house. This time we arrived and the workers had already left for the day. Though we expected to have shingles on the roof we found nothing changed on the outside. But on the inside we found that the work has started in the ducts for the heating and air conditioning. I think that some of the pipes for the furnace had also been installed but I will have to confirm that with PM next week.

We also ran into our new neighbors!!!!! They will be across the street and are about one month behind us in the home building process. We are so excited to have another family moving in so soon after us so that we won't be the only ones on the street.  And LOL...they were familiar with our blog! It really is a small world in blogland!

The Family room with fireplace (an option of course!)

Duct work in the attic



A shot of that awkward space in the laundry room

Framework for the master bathtub and shower

More duct work in the attic

Large metal pipe between one of the bedrooms and the loft

Octopus legs!!!!



No shingles yet..but still a pretty shot.

A Visit Inside!

I scheduled a visit to the house with my PM so that I could see the inside of the house now that the roof was up. I was able to take some pics but was so excited by the progress that I don't think I took quite enough. Of course it is a little hard to tell where you are unless you know the layout.  The windows were being installed and they were getting ready to lay the black roof liner down. All of our options were correct except for the stairs but before I could point it out my PM mentioned it and also reassured me that it would be corrected. The framers had started putting up the frame for a wall instead of the rails with spindles. It was awesome to see that he was already on top of correcting that mistake and that I didn't have to point it out.

The only  mistake I could find (so far) but PM was ALL over it!!!  Framing for the half walls instead of the rails.  Though in some respects it could be considered purposeful as this gives them added safety feature while they are finishing the framing.

The Porch

Looking in from the front door.

Let in the light!!! This will be on of my favorite places to be in the morning...I can just picture me with a nice cup of hot coffee and the newspaper!

Roof liners

The living room windows.  Though quite low to the ground, I think that I am going to like this.  Now that I've seen them, I am glad that we didn't go with the extra window option as it would make it even more challenging for furniture placement.  Next year's Christmas tree will look GREAT in front of these windows.

A shot from the back of the house

One of my favorite shots (even if there is the backside of one of the workers in the doorway!). Like Isz Wisz- I feel that it is so huge especially since we too had to have a higher foundation due to the grading of our lot.

More framing and raise the roof!!!

Work in the house really goes by so quickly during framing. It went from floor joists to walls to a roof in the blink of an eye! Now that there is a roof I'm hoping to be able to go inside with PM soon! Hubby took a pic of the inside from outside the morning room though so I was able to see my kitchen, the pantry, and into the dining room and living room. Amanda- the window is quite close to the
ground as you mentioned in your recent post. Not sure how I will configure the furniture in there but it will be fun to play with design!