Frame Up Day 2!

They put up the 2nd floor base and started the framing of the 2nd floor exterior.  These pics were by my wife during the day.  She didn't go in since they were still working.  By the time I arrived it was again dark but I went in and walked around.  Now I have been able to visit all the floors of our home to be :).  I am excited to see it tomorrow!

Frame Up Day 1 :)

It is finally beginning to look like a house.  Sorry some of the pics are dark and grainy, it was late on my way home from work again.  My wife was able to take a few from the outside during the day also.  We can't wait for the next couple of days of progress.  Onward and upward!

The front of the house

The back of the house

The notch for our fireplace

I have basement stairs.  I was able to enter my mancave for the first time!!!

I also have the start of a garage

Prepping for Frame Up!

Structural support beams.

Pretty Little Package Delivery

It doesn't look like much from these pictures but that is a lot of wood.  I also took a look at an invoice on the packaging, it stated a cost of $24k in lumber.  Also the blueprints were in a bag up by the garage so I had a look at those also :).

The background pile is all the framing itself.

This is part of the wrap in the foreground.

This is the rafters, floor supports, plywood, and fasteners.

The stairs, windows, garage to house door, and temporary front door were dropped off the following day.

Concrete Floor Poured

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.