Progression

Our house is starting to move right along.  I have not posted anything in a while so there are several pics below to show what has been going on.  On another note as I went by the lot today our PM was there so I got to speak to him for a moment to give and get some updates.  I wanted to confirm that some last minute  change orders were in our package of supplies.  He also told me that our package is set to be delivered on October 14th :).

Footers poured, it was very dark and late when I took the pic.

Gravel base in place.

Over 3 inches of rain and we now have a swimming pool instead of a basement :(

Part of the sides collapsed in several areas.

Water finally dried up via the electric pump in the background. 

Some of the damage :(

Walls poured and forms removed.  

My future garage. 

Additional view

Sump pump in place

My daughter said this stake looked like a ninja, my son said it was TMNT Michelangelo. 

Plumbing started

Garage floor base pile and additional layer of gravel on construction entrance.

Sump with additional plumbing and waterproofing barrier. 

Waterproof barrier wrap in place.

The kid's bathtub has arrived.

Current view from the street.  

Not sure what the pipe next the basement egress window is for?

A little more grading in the back yard. 

Back fill done.

 It is starting to look a lot more like a a basement and garage than a whole in the ground.  Can't wait for the arrival of the package and the frame up!!!

Ground Breaking!!!

They finally have a hole on my lot.  After a few classes today I went by the lot to see that they were in the process of digging on our lot.  I had my daughter with me and she just kept smiling and clapping her hands.  She said she just couldn't wait to tell mommy :).  We are going to go over as a family this evening.  Finally feeling excited again which is why I finally made some updates to this blog!

NVR and Ryan Homes Issues!!

We had nearly 6 weeks worth of delays on ground breaking due to wasting time with NVR mortgage!  I was beginning to get very frustrated with this whole process.  We have switched to another lender as NVR could not get the loan done due to a technicality.  The new lender had a better interest rate and lower fees for the same type of loan so it is for the best anyway.  It is just irritating that NVR caused such an issue and blatantly lied to us which just led to wasting our time.  Overall NVR had our documents over 7 weeks and accomplished nothing.  Having a mortgage finance background myself, I asked if there would be an issues in the day we signed the initial loan documents and was told no.  In the end it was an issues and the loan officer should have known this and not wasted 7 weeks of our time.  Also when they determined that they would not do the loan they did not even tell us for 5 full days.  When they did tell us it was at 6 pm on a Friday so we could not even start the process with another company until Monday, just more delay and irritation.  Once we got the new lender on board they had the loan approved in a mere 18 days.  Really, in 18 days they did better than what NVR did after wasting nearly 7 weeks of our time!  Also NVR was supposed to send our documents over to the new lender and even had me send a notification that they could do this, but never sent anything the new lender needed so we ended up sending all the docs over again and they still were done in 18 days.
In addition to all of the mortgage drama we began to have difficulty getting anyone to answer or respond to us.  NVR was nearly impossible to get in touch with.  Our SR rarely answered the phone, didn't respond to emails for several days and sometimes nearly a week, and frequently didn't return calls.  We had to do an additional change order and it took her over a week to get it to us just to sign and send back.  In the midst of all of this she transferred to another community making it that much more difficult to get things done.  Once our loan was approved our PM says he was not even notified of it, even though we were told several times by our SR that he had been told, until 2 weeks later.  I believe our PM, hopefully now that things are in his hands our experience with them will improve.  I was trying to get an accurate ground breaking date from our SR and felt like I was getting excuses of permits, etc.  Needless to say I am not overly happy with NVR or Ryan Homes at this point.  We will push forward for now though as we want the house but it still has me irritated and not willing to put up with much more from them.

Final Flooring Selections

Well after several issues with flooring selection we have now made our final choices.  We had selected the previously shown Engineered Hardwood that we are absolutely in love with.  However we have been told that in this area the builders will not do an Engineered Hardwood except on a slab foundation.  This still makes very little sense to me as I know that this can be done and many other areas are able to do this.  We Like the floor that we have ended up with but we Loved the floor we originally selected.  It had lots of texture and color variation to it that gave it a very unique character that none of the other selections had.  We are trying to stick to somewhat of a craftsman theme for the house and both feel that the first selection was also much more fitting.  So far this has been my only issue with Ryan Homes but it is one that was very irritating.  Anyway as follows is our final flooring selections.

• Simple Touch Sand Swept Carpet - Whole House - $3,565
• Upgraded Padding to 8 lb. Admiral - Basement and Main Floor - $675
• Rustic Heritage 5" Wide Birch in Tobacco Brown - Foyer, Kitchen, and Dinette - $4,190
• Station Square X2122 - Upstairs Hall Bath - $50
• Station Square X2080 - Basement Powder Room - $50
• Station Square X2083 - Main Floor Powder Room, Laundry, Master Bath - $200

We also added a switched receptacle in the upper cabinets in the kitchen ($110) for future under cabinet lighting.

Rustic Heritage 5" Hand Scrapped Birch in Tobacco Brown

The end result of the hardwood will be something like this.

Station Square X2122 - Upstairs Hall Bath

Station Square X2083 - Main Floor Powder Room, Laundry Room, and Master Bathroom

Station Square X2080 - Basement Powder Room

Simple Touch Sand Swept Carpet - Whole House

Timeline update!!

Ok, third post today.  I told you I was behind, this is actually from today though.  We went to the model to make a few changes and sign off on some things.  Our SR looked at our timeline and noted that an estimated ground breaking day is Aug 7. This is both very exciting as I can't wait to have our new home, and stressful at the same time.  This would have us in the house in Oct instead of the previously projected Nov.  This is good news!!!  The stress comes from having to get a bunch of other loose ends tied up before then.  I can't wait for groundbreaking though.  I am so excited for the build to start and go by and see the progress each day. My kids are also excited and I think the process will be a great learning experience for them also. There is another Florence (elevation D) going up on the lot next to us.  We have been by it a few times and the kid's, especially our daughter, thinks that it is ours.  This has given us several chuckles already during this process and I am sure more are to come.

More Changes and Some of Our Own Additions

Well I posted this earlier today and I am already back on here to edit it.  We are going to stick with the fiberglass set-in shower in the master bathroom.  The reason for this is, that it is going to cost quite a bit more than we planned (over $3k) and still not really be what I was wanting.  I have relatives that are masons and can probably do this for much less cost in the future.  As a result we are going to drop the tile flooring in the master bath for now also.  We are switching it to the same resilient flooring that will be in the basement 1/2 bath.  We also made some changes to our other flooring selections earlier but our Rite Rug SR still has not submitted the codes and it has been more than a week since I told her.  We are now down to the wire as tomorrow is the last real day that we will have to meet and sign off on changes.  We did meet with our RH SR and made a few other changes today as follows.

• Changed all bathroom fixtures, faucets, towel bars, TP holders, and shower door to oil rubbed bronze ($1,195)
• Added 2 pendant lights over island ($395)
• Added outlet on stone fireplace for mounted TV hookup ($195)
• Delete master bathroom tile (-$995)
• Other flooring changes (???? - still waiting :{  we are wanting to change from the laminate flooring to a hardwood flooring in the Entry, Dinette, and Kitchen, also we selected a carpet that was a little lighter in color)

Master Bathroom and Basement 1/2 Bath

Entry Foyer, Dinette, and Kitchen
Engineered 5" Handscraped Hickory Plank Hardwood

The look in a room

The changed carpet color for the whole house

We have been looking at several different options for fixtures throughout the home.  This is some of the items that we are currently talking about purchasing for our home.

Family Room Ceiling Fan
I think this will be very fitting with the exterior styling and the stone fireplace.

Garage Door Opener
Changed from what I originally thought.  This one is a 3/4 hp, belt driven with 2 remotes, keypad, battery backup, auto close option (1, 5, or 10 min timer), plus a remote that links to lights in the house.
This one is only $10 more than the one I initially looked at but has a better warranty and more features.

Also we are debating getting a touch faucet for the Kitchen sink instead of the one I had posted previously.  It is about $140 more but would be so much more convenient.  I really do not like having to touch the faucet when I am cooking, especially with chicken.

Delta Addison with Pull-Down Sprayer and Touch Technology $355 at HD

Guardian Meeting

I am a little late in getting this post up but here it is.  I must start by saying that I was not really looking forward to this meeting.  I read a lot of negative reviews about Guardian as a whole.  My experience was a good one though.  Our SR was honest and personable and did not use any high pressure sales tactics that I had read was often the case.  He asked what service providers we used and what rooms we would want equipment in, then showed us what we would need to make it work.  Here is what we ended up with.

• Pre-wire for wall mounted TV over the fireplace
• Pre-wire for rear surround sound speakers in the basement (this will be used for the surround sound system that I currently have)
• 5.1 Surround Sound system (ceiling mounted) in the family room
• 3 high speed internet hookups in the loft, family room, and basement (upgraded to Cat6e)
• 5 Pack of extra lines + 1 free line
• Total cost for everything $2,305

The other things that were offered just did not have the value for me.  The central vac to me is just not worth the cost.  The intercom, my voice can carry to the neighbors house so this is definitely not needed.  As for the security system I see the value in it, I just have a hard time justifying the cost for a what-if scenario.  That is just me, always stressing about costs.

Thanks to our SR for making what I felt was going to be a bad experience, into a pleasant one.

Flooring Selections

We went to Rite Rug today and made our flooring selections.  It was a little stressful, but also lots of fun.  I was a little disappointed that they have done away with Level 1 upgrades, but If they were having problems with them I can understand why.  It just created a little bit of a sticker shock moment in the long run.  All said and done though, we are very happy with our selections.

Click on the Picture to Enlarge It.

Selections:

1. Upgraded 8 lb. Padding to Main Level and Basement - $675
2. Upstairs Hall Bath (Station Square X2122) - $50
3. Andover Square Cabinet in Upstairs Hall Bath
4. Scottsdale Espresso Cabinets in Kitchen
5. Jamocha Granite Kitchen Countertop
6. Island Koa Laminate in Kitchen, Dinette, and Entry Foyer - $2,815
7. Intuitive Tavern Textured Carpet throughout the whole house - $3,565
8. Midnight Black (looks kind of smokey) Hand Rails
9. Main floor Powder Room, and Laundry Room (Station Square X2080) - $125
10. Basement Powder Room (Station Square X2121) - $50
11. Bathroom Countertops
12. Accent Tile for Master Shower
13. Master Bathroom floor 12"x12" (Sandalo) tile, and 9"x12" (Stone Radiance) tile - $995
14. Scottsdale Maple Cognac Master Vanity Cabinet

Kitchen, Dinette, and Entry
(Island Koa Laminate)

Living Room, Family Room, Bedrooms, Loft, Hallways, Stairs, and Basement
(Shaw Intuitive Tavern #201)

Main Floor 1/2 Bath, and Laundry Room
(Station Square X2080)

Upstairs Hall Bathroom
(Station Square X2122)

Basement Half Bath
(Station Square X2121)

We still have to talk to our PM about our bathroom.  We selected the option of a full size shower with a linen closet, but we do not want the fiberglass drop-in shower.  We have selected the following tiles to take the place of the drop-in, but have yet to hear what, or if, there is going to be an additional non-standard charge to us for this change.