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.