Lights on, Rate Locked, and a closing date

Sorry to lump all this into one post. 

I'll start with the exciting news that we officially have power. As of Wednesday, the electricity in the house is on and I can finally take decent pictures. 

Another exciting update is they started tile in the master bedroom on Thursday and by 4pm today they had finished putting it up in all the bathrooms. I only have pictures from Thursday but will get more.

Contrary to how the pictures turned out, the tile is not really dark. Here's how it looks in better light. 

One thing that I wasn't ecstatic to see was that we had door handles and locks on all the exterior doors. I don't know if they lock the doors in our community but now they have the capacity. 

In other news, we have locked our interest rate. It seemed appropriate to go ahead and do that now. Our monthly payment should be about $130 better than our original quote, which is awesome. 

And finally, we have a closing date. Our SR called and said our demonstration meeting would be October 28th and closing November 4th.  Yeah, that couldn't work, that would mean we'd have to pay another full months rent for this apartment for 4 days because our lease ends October 31st. And of course closing costs are higher if you close at the beginning of the month and lower if you close at the end of the month. I let them know we could either close at the end of October or the end of November but I really didn't want to delay a month when we're living with creatures like this   

Yep, I hate this place. A miserable two months it's been so far. Long story short, the PM was able to change our demonstration meeting to October 27th and we close 1pm October 29th. We will also have a “pre demonstration meeting" October 22nd. 

Stay tuned.

Really quick update

We've officially reached the stage of the process where progress is very slow. About the last two weeks have been dedicated to drywall with the exception of the one day when the trim, cabinets, and doors were installed. This past Thursday, I think, they put on an initial coat of paint to highlight any drywall imperfections. The past couple of days, they've been mudding, taping, and sanding the drywall to get it prepared to paint again tomorrow. Guess perfection takes time. By the end of the week, the ceramic tile should be done in the bathrooms. Can't wait too see how it turns out and I will upload pictures then.

Trim, interior doors and cabinets are installed

A lot happened yesterday. As the subject says, the trim, interior doors and cabinets have been installed. So that full garage we had the past week is now essentially empty. All that's left is window screens and door handles. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves but just a couple comments. 

1. In the upstairs hall bathroom, the plumbing for the sink is not correctly located. It needs to slide to the right about 2 feet so it can actually go behind the cabinets. How did that happen?

2. The light rough-in above the cabinet in the master bedroom is too low. The workers couldn't place the mirror because it would partially cover the rough-in. 

3. We have a broken window and multiple holes in floors. 

4. The house is coming along great

Standing in the living room looking at the dining room

Ha - don't know how this picture got so slanted.
Standing in the kitchen looking at the morning room

Top of the stair view.

Family room looking at the back of the house.  One day there will be a deck outside these windows.

Stairs of cours

2nd floor hallway

Standing in the hallway looking at the kitchen.  The lighting was not good making the espresso cabinets look black.

Master bedroom cabinet. Again the espresso cabinets look black
because of bad lighting.  

Entrance to the Master Bedroom.

Really quick update

We stopped by the house yesterday evening to check progress. I think in the last post I left off at they were starting the mud and tape process. Well as of Wednesday they had finished and the paint had been delivered.  Yesterday they painted the entire house. Having the walls painted really highlights some of the areas where they need to smooth out the drywall. I could see areas where they had taped but I'm sure this is to be expected for the first round. My only concern is after going by the house this morning, they were pulling the interior doors out of the garage. It looks like they're starting to put doors and trim up already. Seems like the walls should be fixed first but they know better than me.

Sorry about the quality of the pics, I'll try to get better pictures this afternoon if the workers have left.

Standing in the kitchen looking at the family room 

Standing in the kitchen looking at the foyer and front door

Standing in the family room looking at the kitchen and dining room doorway.

Standing in the kitchen looking at the morning room

Standing in the living room looking at the dining room

Drywall is up & garage is full

Yesterday around 8:30AM we went to the house just to see if the workers were there to hang the drywall. We got there and saw a van so we went to peek inside and boy were we surprised. First we were so surprised by how loud the music was so early in the morning, then we were surprised by how many workers were there (about eight), and finally we were surprised by how much was already done. They had every ceiling in the house done. Surely they would be finished in the next few hours. We came back around 3:00PM and by that time the van was gone and house was empty - they had finished. Check out the picture of the garage yesterday and the picture of the garage as of 8:30 this morning. 

Pre-drywall meeting

Today we had our pre-drywall meeting.  It lasted about 30 minutes. The first thing we noticed after walking in the house is there was drywall laying on the floor in every room. During the meeting our PM toured the house with us and had us verify the location of our cable outlets and optional lighting. Everything was where it needed to be. Our PM also covered the features of the house and the energy efficiency. Everything seemed air tight. Apparently they did an energy efficiency test on the house a few hours before where they force a lot of pressure through the house to see if there are leaks and where they are. One thing I was surprised about was a whole house ventilation system that's located in the upstairs hall bath. Because the house is so tightly sealed, there could be a ventilation problem (not enough fresh air from outside). The ventilation system works to bring in fresh air automatically when needed.

In other news our PM said the drywall would be completely hung tomorrow. The 6 days after will be for “finishing" the drywall (tape, mud, paint). Then the following week they will put up hand rails, cabinets and trim. 

We still don't have a closing date but it's tracking for the end of October. 

The next two weeks should be fun. I will post pictures of the hung drywall tomorrow or Friday. 

Siding complete and insulation started

I went to the house on Thursday around 6:30 pm after it had rained for a few hours. To my surprise, workers were there installing the vinyl siding. They were maybe 7 or 8 rows high. When I saw it, I was disappointed with how dark the siding was (thought it was lighter).  I figured I would wait until it was completely up with the shutters and trim before I finalized my opinion of it. 

I went inside to see what progress had been made. A week earlier, our PM spray painted items that they needed to fix. All these items were fixed. It was things like the header between the dining room and kitchen needed to be raised, crooked 2X4's, and adding air barriers behind all the tubs. 

One thing I did recognize is in the master bedroom, they have a power outlet centered between two windows almost certainly where we planned to put our bed. I know the placement of outlets is guided by code, but this location didn't make sense to me.  I asked if they could add a second outlet and space the two outlets evenly between the windows. I also asked if they could add an outlet on the landing between the first and second floors.  My PM said he could probably get the electrician to “do him a favor and add one" but he wasn't sure about the second one but he would try.

I went back to the house on Saturday, but didn't see either of the requested outlets, so I'm not sure if they will add them. I will find out today as they have started putting up the insulation.

Also on Saturday, they finished the siding.   Having the black shutters makes the siding seem a little lighter so I'm happy with that. I think somewhere down the line we may do a brick veneer in the front but who knows. 

Tomorrow we have the pre drywall meeting, so I will provide more updates soon. 

Electrical and HVAC

So of course, drove by the house today.  When I got there the workers were still inside so I decided to drive around the neighborhood and come back and hope they wouldn't be there so I could go inside. When I got back they were pulling off.  So they've made more progress on the HVAC and the electrical is started.  It's really coming along.  I haven't scheduled my pre-drywall appointment, but I would imagine it will be next week. There's insulation in the garage.  Can't wait to go back tomorrow - hopefully I can get more pictures to share.

Pictures

Standing in the guest room looking into the guest
bathroom. One of the master bedroom closets
is behind the guest bathroom 

Standing in the 2nd floor hallway looking
at the master bedroom.

Master bath tub with windows looking to trees
in the back.

2nd floor hallway bathroom.