Bathroom tile

 

I just wanted to post these 2 pics of the accent tile in the master bath.....there are a few tiles that are crooked and I think I should mention them to our PM so they can be replaced- otherwise I will have to deal with it for a very long time.

 

 

 

really? Is it just me? My husband says this is ok and that there is no way to get them all straight, but I beg to differ.

Show me your plumbing

so today when we went to the house we noticed that they had installed the plumbing fixtures. We opted for the standard chrome with no upgrade, but I definitely don't remember them looking like this. I'm really unhappy with these and I can't fathom having to change all these out after we move in. I will be stopping by the model home tomorrow...Can anyone tell me if these are right? Please, I'm freaking out a little.

This is in the kitchen- we have granite, is this right?

This is what is in the bathrooms- if it's not exact then it's really similar.

This is the one that is mounted on the master bathroom tub- and I really hate it.

 

Less talk and lots of action

There has been lots of progress since my last post. I honestly can't even account for everything that has happened. I do however have some pictures. We also got our confirmed closing date which is still 11/1 as originally anticipated, the pre-settlement walk thru is on 10/23. Things are going fast and I'm really excited!

still needs stone and shutters. beautiful.

Love the tile

Is this the right light? this is going up the stairs 

 vinyl in the kitchen- plan on replacing, but not right away

 granite today!

 lovely

Yesterday and today

Since my last post there has been a ton of activity at not only our house, but also at our neighbors house. Yesterday when we got to the house we were surprised to see a whole herd of people including our future neighbors. The framing crew basically had their entire house framed in a day. It was wild to see how fast they were moving. Since the weather was awesome we stood on the sidewalk and watched them put everything up. Meanwhile the crew at our house was putting up the interior doors, trim, stair rails, and cabinets. Our street was buzzing with people.

Today they poured our driveway, sanded the drywall, and sprayed a coat of paint. The concrete crew also poured the neighbors garage and another driveway on our street. Things are moving along and the ticker is counting down. We are getting closer and closer, yay!

I had to battle husband to get these cabinets.

these are pretty- would love to have the metal ones someday.

 I really love the front door

Let me tell you...

Let me tell you how excited I was to see a bunch of boxes sitting inside the house today! I wanted to rip the boxes open! I took a little peek and got a glimpse of the kitchen cabinets. Also there was some exterior plumbing done and there is a huge trench in the back yard. The drywall had a second coat of mud yesterday so I am hoping that they will be back to sand and maybe get a coat paint on before the end of the week. The garage door was installed at the start of the week (any readers please tell me what you think of the almond trim). The PM also confirmed that the exterior siding wasn't right because the crew was going by the plans for the elevation K and ours is going to be an elevation K lite- which means the stone is only around the base of the house. We also got word today that the change in stone was approved. We couldn't get the brick because to have brick there would've had to been a ledge added when the foundation was poured. So now we will have the English stone instead of Kentucky. The English is darker, but still is nice. It wasn't a huge deal that our stone was going to be the same as our neighbors, but I figured I would make an attempt to have it changed and to my surprise it was approved. Our SR said, "It was against all odds".

My countdown ticker is at 35 days (right?) and I am soooo ready. We haven't received the letter from NVR settlement giving us a confirmed closing date, but I hope it is still 11/1 as originally anticipated. This townhouse is getting smaller by the minute and it is the worst! I feel like clawing at the walls to escape. I cannot wait to have my own space. Right now our 5 year old twins are sharing our room with us and it has gotten really, really old. I am so thankful that God has made this all possible and I pray that everything continues to work out well. I don't think I am worthy of having this home, but I promised God that I would do better if he could just see that this happens :)

Boxes!



Here are the maple hazelnut glazed cabinets in all their glory :)

Pictures.

The front door- minus the paint of course

garage still needs drywall, but it's full of stuff right now



Finished deck

Family room

 Pebble clay

 they smashed some trees at the back of the lot :(

Front of the house...I had to send this pic to our SR because it's the wrong elevation...They have it prepped to do the stone up the front, but we are only supposed to have stone at the bottom.

I blinked and...

Ok, since yesterday they have finished the deck off of the morning room- gonna spend a ton of time out there. They also started putting up the siding, poured concrete in the garage and at the front door. There were guys inside hanging drywall so we couldn't go in, but I think all the floors are either done or almost done. I didn't take any pictures because it was getting kinda dark, but I will get some tomorrow.

I stopped by the model home after work and told our SR that I was worried about 4 houses in a row on our street using the same colors (pebble clay/sandy tan & sandy tan/pebble clay). I know that the shutters and door will be different, but still felt a little worried. I was also worried about the Kentucky stone that we selected because our neighbors right beside us picked the same stone. Our stone will only be around the bottom of the house, but theirs is up the front (elevation K). After telling our SR that I was worried she said she would talk to the PM and see if we could get the stone changed to either the Charlestown brick or maybe even the English stone. I hope that she can pull it off because I think I prefer the brick. If it doesn't work out it will be okay though.

I'm just really happy that things are moving along and really happy that our SR has been such a big help with all these changes the past few weeks.

A picture of the beginning of the deck yesterday



Charlestown brick

English stone



I think I'm paranoid

So there are quite a few houses going up near ours. I would say that there are about 7 (including ours). Out of  those 7 are 4 that seem to have the same color variation of pebble clay and sandy tan (including ours). To me that seems like a lot of brown. So now I'm worried that everything on our street is going to look the same! My husband keeps rolling his eyes every time I bring it up because he doesn't think it's a big deal (btw, he is color blind...seriously). Also found out today that the almond colored trim and garage door that we selected isn't the color that I thought it was. I was thinking it was the same as another home in the neighborhood, but apparently theirs isn't even almond, it's actually a darker color. So now I have no idea how everything is going to look when it's all said and done. I'm also worried that the shutters are going to look purple....At this point I really regret straying from my original exterior selections. Oh well, too late now!!

Locked and relieved.

A few things happened today, but the most important was getting our rate locked in. I wish that the rates would've still been as low as they were when we originally started this process, but all in all I feel good about the rate we have. This is one less thing I have to worry about.

So check this out...my inlaws recently had granite installed in their kitchen and they selected Venetian Ice. This granite is almost identical to Santa Cecilia which is what we selected to be in the kitchen, (actually it's 1 of 2 things my husband picked for the house). Well.....after seeing it in their kitchen I found out that I really didn't like it much at all. Don't get me wrong- I think it's pretty and from pictures I've seen it looks nice, but to me when I saw it in person all over their kitchen it looked too busy to me and I wasn't loving all the gold tones. After thinking about it all day Saturday and kinda freaking out thinking about having to look at it in the new kitchen for a veeeerrrrry long time I decided about 1030pm to send an email to our SR and beg her to please see if there was anyway that it could be changed. She emailed me back this afternoon and said that she received "special approval" to make this change :) She is my hero!! I was worried and upset over this and now I feel so relieved. I follow a blogger that selected the New Caledonia granite to be paired with her Maple Butterscotch glazed cabinets and it looks amazing- so I'm admittedly a copycat. It give her and her good taste complete credit.


This is New Caledonia, the new selection.

 

We also received an email today from our PM about the size of our deck. Apparently when you choose to have the morning room you can't have a 12x14 deck unless you want a porch rail in the middle of a bedroom window. So we had 2 options- either add an additional 30 sqft (which would cost approx. $500) or change the square footage of the 12x14 deck that we selected and make it 10'2 x16'6. We decided to go with the second option and I think it will be nice.

I feel like I've been on a bit of an emotional roller coaster- a few weeks ago I was so mad because nothing was going on and now I'm just thrilled that things are working out and because there's progress and communication. I hope all goes well and pray that everything will work out.

Pre-Drywall meeting

We had our pre drywall meeting today and everything went good :) The only thing that was missing is the outlet that I added in the master closet. I know the plumbing inspection was completed and it passed, but I think that the electrical inspection still needs to happen. Before the end of next week the insulation will be installed and the drywall will be up. I think they also said that the exterior siding should be started on Monday. Things are moving along and we really couldn't be happier. I am so ready to be out of this townhouse! 6 people aren't meant to be confined by the walls of a town home and I need some personal space for the love of Pete! We were told that from this point we are between 4-6 weeks from completion which is the end of October/beginning of November- when we started our anticipated closing date was said to be November 1st, so that means we are looking good. I'm surprised because I thought it would be closer to the end of the second week of November. Sometime within the next week we should be getting a letter from the settlement person giving us the dates of the pre-settlement walk thru and the confirmed closing date. My countdown ticker is at 49 days I think and that's exciting. I'm glad to be excited about this stuff because it's been a really hard week at work and I've been stressed to the max all week. I just pray that everything continues to go well. I think I might start packing up a few things this weekend because I have 4 kids and I don't get home from work until 630 during the week, so there isn't going to be any packing happening during the weekdays. That leaves me 6 weekends which is equal to 12 days and I've learned from previous experience that I act like a lunatic if I wait until the last minute to accomplish things...Anyways, I need to go to bed, I believe I have reached my limit of mental exhaustion...Oh, and I forgot to mention that we can finally lock in our rate- God is good, Amen!!

Up, up, and away! The house and the rates.

So as of Friday the framing is done, the roof is on, most of the windows and exterior doors are in, and plumbing has started. These things make me happy! I am meeting with Guardian in the morning to go over placement of things and I really hope that we can have our pre drywall meeting before the end of the week because not only is the house going up quick, but so are the interest rates!! It makes my stomach turn just thinking about how much it has went up since we originally signed our contract. The rise in interest rates has already made our mortgage payment go up by about 2 hundred per month, and frankly we can't handle anymore- I emailed our PM last week to ask about the estimated closing date which was November 1st and he said that closing would be pushed out but should happen sometime within the first half of the month. I'm not really worried about the delay too much because it isn't that long (even though it stinks a little) but if things would've been on schedule for Nov. 1st then we could've locked in our rate last week. I'm going to shoot another email to our PM and stress how important it is that we have our pre drywall meeting ASAP so that we can lock in an interest rate. I really want things to go smoothly because my family is really looking forward to this home and I would hate to have stupid interest rates be the down fall of all of this.....Anyways, here are a few pics...


Soon to be kitchen

The twins on the mowers outside of Lowes...Love them so flippin much!!

Morning room- so great

 Family room

 looking down the stairs

 Big tub!!

Master bath- the shower pan is under the cardboard

My closet- going to have my girly make up vanity in front on the window

Looking out my bedroom window at our neighbors house- Gotta make sure I keep the curtains closed ;)

Framing is fast!

So the framing of the house started on Tuesday and as of today all 3 floors are done. We couldn't be happier...Here are a few pictures :)

the front of the house
 

the back of the house



Back of the house where the deck will come off from the morning room

The view from the morning room

 

 

NVR Approval- finally!

I got a call from our LP just a few minutes ago letting me know that we are approved and that she was sending an email with all the details. What a relief! Having a definite answer makes me a little more relaxed :)

Hi, my name is Debbie

92- Is the number of days since our initial meeting with NVR Mortgage.
8- Is the number of days it's been since I last spoke to our LP at NVR- and she didn't have answers.
7- Is the number of weeks it's been since our Pre-Construction meeting and still no framing.
2- Is the number of questions that we asked at our Pre-Construction meeting.
0- Is the number of answers that we received about the 2 questions asked at the Pre-Con meet.
70- Is the number of days that are left until the original closing date that we were given.
1025- Is the amount that we will have to pay for an extra months rent if we don't close on time.


Ok, so I know that I have been a Debbie Downer lately, but it's hard to be happy, happy, happy when RH and NVR is either giving us bad news or no news. We still haven't heard anything from NVR. Last week our PM told me that framing would start this week, then when I emailed him last night he said that the framing crew was behind but our home was going to be started today, and then this afternoon he emailed me and said that now it will be Tuesday before they start. I am stressing out because we are clearly behind and if the closing date gets pushed out it means that we will have to pay an additional month of rent- And I don't want to do that!!!

I just really want things to work out- I don't like being negative and I know it's not personal because the others building around us are in the same boat.

OVER IT - for real this time

I am beyond frustrated with Ryan Homes and NVR mortgage right now. When we originally signed our Sales Agreement and applied with NVR in May the interest rate was 3.25% - which was great, we were getting the house we wanted at the price that we wanted to pay per month…Well that has completely went to heck in a hand basket! Now we are 6 weeks into construction and 72 days away from our estimated closing date, things are behind schedule, framing hasn’t started so who knows when we will have our pre-drywall meeting so we can lock in a rate – and who knows how high the average rate will be by then! The average rate right now is 4.55% and that increases our mortgage payment by about $200 a month. I don’t want to be house broke! And even if we could lock in a rate any time soon I’m not sure that we could since we haven’t even received and approval from NVR and it’s been 90 days!! That’s right – 3 months!! They are so inefficient that they can’t review and confirm our information in 3 months? My husband and I were talking over this last night and had decided to email our SR to see if we could make changes to reduce the price of the home (from finished basement to unfinished/hardwoods to vinyl) this is about an $18K difference. I emailed her this morning and I’m waiting on a response. I’m just over it and to be honest if NVR decides to deny us I would be happy because I am just so sick of having to worry about it…again it’s been 3 months! We’ve talked to another builder in the area and I’m 100% positive that things would go a lot smoother with them. I hate the thought of having to start over completely and wait another 6 months, but we may not have a choice if things keep going this way. Oh and to top things off we asked 2 questions at our preconstruction meeting 6 weeks ago and no one has even bothered to provide an answer- and they want us to complete a survey rating our experience? Ok, bring it on.

A slab and neighbors

Today our slab was poured and it's wonderful! I am really glad to see things moving along because progress seemed really slow at the beginning. I'm looking forward to seeing the framing next week :)

 

We met our future neighbors yesterday- they're a couple building next to us and they've just had their footers poured this week. Their home is going to be a Venice elevation K also, but the floor plan is reversed and they will have the stone up the front where we only have it along the bottom of our house. They also have a very similar color scheme-we picked pebble clay siding with sandy tan shakes and theirs is the opposite. Both will have Kentucky stone I believe, but the trim, shutters, and door will be different - The house on the other side of us also has these colors (sandy tan, pebble clay). I know that the houses will look different, but I'm still a little concerned that our house might disappear with all the sandy tan, pebble clay going on. Our new neighbor "S"also admitted that she was worried too, but I really think that their choice of the white trim is going to make all the difference because this will mean that the garage door is white also.  I have been regretting not going with my initial choice of the white trim, but now I'm glad that I finally settled on the almond. To be honest I think that their home is going to look better because of the white trim and the stone- I love the stone! Our home will be awesome too though.....Anyways, the neighbors are set to close about 2 weeks after our estimated date. They both seem awesome and I'm looking forward to getting to know them. I just hope they don't scare easily because I suffer from weirdness and my family is loud :)

Happy, not so Happy

Since my last post they have poured the walls, removed the forms, waterproofing was completed, and the plumbing rough in was done. I spoke to our PM yesterday and he informed me that the plumbing was inspected and approved and that this week would consist of prepping for the slab to be poured and next week framing would start :)


It's been 82 days since our initial meeting with NVR Mortgage and we have yet to receive an approval - our LP has kept communication going and I don't blame her, but I sent an email today letting her know that we need an answer. My husband doesn't ususally get involved with these things, but he even made a phone call to NVR yesterday which completely shocked me. It didn't help that no one returned his call. I really want to be excited, but it's hard to overcome the worries about NVR :(

TGIF- Thank goodness it's forms

Yesterday we check on the lot to see that the forms are set and waiting for concrete to be poured. I really hope they get that done early in the week so we can move along to the next step.

Future garage



I was curious to see what the inside looked like. So these metal things stay in to reinforce the wall?

 

 

 

 

This is the view from the back