Day 73

According to the original build schedule, we should be having our pre-closing walk-through next Friday. The house itself may be done, but the sewer connections are another story. They have a whole lot of work to do and I don't think that they are going to have it done by next weekend. Consequently, our closing may be put off until late March. That really sucks because we planned to use most of March to paint and get the house ready to move in. Now, it looks like we may have to move everything in pretty short order then work around it to get things painted.

But, on to happier things....

Things don't look a whole lot different outside than they did last week, so I will share pics of what the house looks like on the inside.

Last Saturday (Valentine's Day), the carpenters were in to install the kitchen cabinets:

They didn't put in the counter top because the wrong one was delivered. The correct one was delivered later in the week and should go in this coming week.

The carpenters also installed the bathroom vanities,

doors,

and banisters.

The plumber came in during the week to install the toilets, sinks, and faucets.

This is the sink and mirror in the powder room.

The electrician was also in during the week to install lights and outlets.

These are the lights over the sink in the master bathroom.

The mason was also in to pour our porch.

The forms are still on it, but boy, does it cut down the step into the front door. Then again, the step up from the ground is a bit of a hike. I'm hoping they fix that.

It has been a very productive week. They delivered the correct kitchen counter as well as the stove and dishwasher. I would include pictures of those, but I don't think you want to see pictures of 2 different size cardboard boxes.

This coming week should see the rest of our lights and outlets go in. They should be installing our kitchen counter, range, and dishwasher. There are also several problems that need to be fixed, but they should be fixing those sooner rather than later.

That's about all I have for my (apparently weekly) update. I will let you know more later in the week. It will probably be next weekend.

Today is Day 67

I know I said I was going to do a better job keeping up with this and here we are, almost 2 weeks after my last update. I am truly sorry for the delay.

This is what the house looked like on Friday (Day 65). They appear to be all but done on the outside. They still need to install the lights, front porch, our pillars, and, of course, roll the front lawn. The way the yard looks now, my lawnmower wouldn't make it more than 2 feet. They also need to install our headers over the first floor windows and install gutters.

Inside the house, they finished mudding and taping the drywall and they primed it all so the house is the loveliest shade of flat white. They also installed all of the linoleum. Yesterday (Saturday), the carpenters were in and hung every kitchen cabinet, installed every piece of base molding, and installed every door. They also installed the bathroom vanities, including sinks, and all of the mirrors. There was a minor problem with the kitchen counters. Apparently, they ordered the wrong one. The one that was delivered has about a 5 foot return on it. That would cover our stove which, I have a feeling, would be a bad idea. Talk about a built-in. They also installed a louvered door for the laundry room. It is a required option if you have gas run in for the dryer, which we didn't. Marianne thinks it looks like crap, so we are going to have them put in a standard 6-panel door so that it matches all of the other doors upstairs.

We also got some potentially bad news on Friday. It seems that electric, gas, and phone installations in the development are moving along quite well, but the sewer connections may be a hold-up. They need to connect our section's sewers with the sewers at Phase I of the development. This is almost 1 mile. I guess they have been plugging away at it, but it is still a lot of work. Trent, our project manager, said we may even be pushed out as far as April for closing. That would really suck because 1) we are going on vacation the 2nd week of April and 2) we can't wait to get out of this postage stamp we call a townhouse.

That is about all I have for now. I will try to take some inside pictures this week and post more often, but we'll see how that works out.

Today is Day 54

Here is what the house looks like today:

I'm not sure if you can tell, but they straightened out the windows, door, and porch roof last week. That's a load off.

You may wonder about the significance of the title of this post. To clarify it, let me back up.

When we had our original pre-construction meeting, the project manager, Trent, showed us the build schedule. According to that schedule, which is designed in a vacuum, we were to break ground on December 11 (they did) and have our pre-closing walk through on February 27. That is a total of 79 days. Trent says things are going very well, so we are hoping to close the first week of March. Then, we should be using the whole month of March to paint and move stuff all the way over to the new house.

On Thursday, we had our pre-drywall meeting. Everything is looking good. The house is all framed, electric and plumbing rough-ins are done, as well as phone, cable, and security rough-ins. Later Thursday, they were to start loading in drywall. They did. For those of you who might care, they are using 1/2" drywall inside the house and 5/8" drywall in the garage. That was a pleasant surprise: during our meeting, we found out that they were going to drywall the entire garage. That was a pleasant surprise. We have been told by many different people that builders usually only drywall about 4 feet into the garage. I think that is the minimum that most building codes require. I guess Farmington's building codes are quite a bit stricter than many others, so it is probably Farmington code that the entire garage be drywalled. I know builders don't do such things out of the kindness of their heart. However, we also found out that they weren't going to insulate. This just wouldn't do. Marianne took a couple of Home Depot gift cards and bought 5 bundles of R13 insulation while I worked from home.

Thursday night, I gathered some help and headed over to the house to do my first project: insulating the garage. Thanks to the kids, Ranney and Buddy, my friend from work, Tom, and Marianne's Uncle Jason and cousin Catherine (sorry if I mis-spelled your name). Thank you so much for your help. We got the insulation done in a little over 2 hours and it looked like professionals did it. We did this on such short notice because Trent told us that they would probably start hanging drywall Friday or Saturday. You know that if we didn't do the insulation Thursday night, they would have shown up to hang drywall Friday. As it turns out, they hung all of the drywall today! Every last panel, including the garage and all roofs.

This is what the master bedroom looks like as of about 4:45pm today.

It is really starting to look like a house on the inside now, too.

In fact, when I showed up after work today, there was a truck in the driveway from Monroe Insulation and Gutter. I looked and didn't see any gutters. I thought they would put on the siding first. Then I noticed the guy turning on some big machine in the front of his box truck. About that time, I noticed the hose running from his truck, through Ranney's window, and into the house. Apparently, all of the insulation is in now. The guy was there blowing the insulation into the attic.

They should be starting the siding in the next week or two. That is when this will really start to look livable. I guess they should be spending the rest of the week mudding and taping the drywall.

I will keep you posted. I am taking pictures almost every day.

Over half way through

I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up with these posts. It seems like everything I do these days has something to do with the house: whether we are wrapping up projects, consolidating boxes, or pitching old crap that we don't want to move.

Here is the most recent picture I have:

I haven't taken a picture from this perspective since Thursday, but Friday they fixed the dining room windows (1st floor, left side) so that they line up with the windows on Ranney's room (2nd floor, left side).

Now we are down to battling over the front door. It is supposed to be centered on the front of the house. You can't tell from the picture, but the front door needs to move 2 inches to the left. Yes, Marianne and I noticed. I measured just to make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me. The foundation for the porch is perfect and the door (and the porch roof...and the center 2nd floor window) are NOT centered. So, like I said, we are battling to get that fixed right.

I will try to be better about posting for those of you who are miles, or even an ocean away.

Some Assembly Required

It's official! We really have a house, right now, as I type this.

As the title of the post says, some assembly is yet required. What you see are all of the components of our house. The bundle on the left (with the yellow-edged boards) is our walls. The bundle on the right and further back (with the green-edged boards) are our roof trusses. We even have windows.

That's the good news. Aside from delivering our house, that appears to be everything they did today. They haven't braced the basement walls for back-fill so, of course, they haven't back-filled. They also haven't put in our 2nd egress window yet. I'm hoping tomorrow they put in our egress window, brace the basement walls for back-fill, get it inspected, and back fill. I know I don't ask for much, do I?

On the brighter side, it looks like they broke ground on another house. I'm pretty sure it is the house of another couple that we have met during this adventure. If I can believe the time lines, it looks like we will have new neighbors about 3 weeks after we move in.

Ranney's Final Post

Don't worry, I am not dying, or falling of the Blogging planet, it's just that the majority of the posts I will do from now on will be else where! Please, I encourage you to go visit my blog: Ranney Days at http://ranneydays.blogspot.com/. I will try to keep up with it as much as I have this one(A LOT), but I will most likely not be encouraged to post here anymore. My blog will contain a lot of what is going on with the family that I know of, but mostly the drama that goes on at school, and a lot less of the house building process(Come here for that!).
~Rayanna~

Chinese Food

I think this may be my second post by this name, and having to do with AP:World and Chinese food, anyway, here it goes.
I don't know what it is, well yes I do. Because the Americas hadn't been found as of 600 C.E (Common Era; A.D.), that we learn all about Asian beliefs etc. so, as a result, when we learn about the river civilizations, and classical periods, and Hinduism(last week) or Buddhism(some of last week, this week(two days) and some of next week), I want Chinese food!
Next year, once we finally get into the 1700s, I'll want American food, but as of my studies, it hasn't been founded yet! I am gona be wanting a LOT of Chinese food this year- well, more than usual anyway.
Thankfully, my parents are understanding, and love me, so that's what we are having for dinner tonight! YAY!
I'll post what my fortune says, maybe, unless I forget.
Merry Christmas!! I should be on a lot during the next 2 weeks, of which we have off!
~Rayanna~

Lemonade Award Tag?

The Lemonade Award
This award comes with a few rules and here they are:
Put the logo on your blog or post. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great attitude and/or gratitude! Be sure to link to your nominees within your post. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

One problem: I don't know any more blogs than the one Alicia has, and she sent it to me!

~Rayanna~

Yay! The week is half over!

Well, not really, it isn't Wednesday. But, Dad, Buddy and I all have Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off. Then we have all the next week off, but Daddy is going back to work on Monday and Tuesday. I am so excited! Christmas is 2 days away!
~Rayanna~

YAY! Thank you YAYA!

Yaya, Alicia, posted on her blog to ask her readers if they had ideas for the title of my new blog! I found one! Once it's made and everything, I'll let you know where it is, what it is, and who came up with it! I am SOO excited!
~Rayanna~