Friday, October 7, 2011
Kitchen Countertop
We stopped by our house tonight to take a quick look at the finished stone and were surprised to see all of our lights on. The carpet crew was inside placing the pads down. The carpet was sitting in their truck. I can't wait to see the finished product! We were surprised to find the kitchen countertops in place. The coloring looks even better than we imagined! It looks so nice with our cabinets, black appliances, and hardwood floors. Blue tape is all over the place (where fixes need to be made). Our sidewalk concrete was poured. Here are some late night pictures:
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
20 Days to Go
Stopped by the house over lunch to see if the stone was going up. The PM was driving by and stopped to ask if I had any questions and to give me a current schedule for the next few days. The stone workers had the area prepped and supplies out but they were at lunch too. When they got back they were going to start putting it up. They might finish tonight, if not, it will be finished in the morning. The sidewalks were being poured in the afternoon. I didn't want to walk through the house as the cleaning crew was inside vacuuming. Carpet goes in tomorrow! Our countertop is still sitting in the garage. It will be placed in the next few days.
Monday, October 3, 2011
PM Meeting
Have I ever mentioned how much we like our 2 PMs? We LOVE them! My husband met one at the house this afternoon to go over our concerns. Not only did he already have them on his list, he had a total of about 150 things! Now that is attention to detail!
Our kitchen countertops are sitting in the garage waiting to be put in. The stone crew is scheduled for tomorrow. Our entire road is also scheduled to be asphalted by the city tomorrow. Our driveway and porch concrete was in place and drying. They will do the sidewalks in two days. Our sod and landscaping will be done this week (yeah! don't have to pay 2.5 weeks worth of watering!).
We've really lucked out with everything thus far. Another lucky thing is that the 2nd PM is a PM-in-training and has passed everything except the final stage. This means that he is going to do our pre-settlement with us. In addition, the top guy from Ryan in charge of the PMs is going to fly in to grade him during our pre-settlement meeting. If the PM misses one thing, he fails. Talk about pressure for him! This means our house is going to be in amazing condition! (which is why we agreed to do a pre-pre-settlement meeting a few days beforehand...give him a chance to practice and another chance to go over the house with us before his big "test").
Our kitchen countertops are sitting in the garage waiting to be put in. The stone crew is scheduled for tomorrow. Our entire road is also scheduled to be asphalted by the city tomorrow. Our driveway and porch concrete was in place and drying. They will do the sidewalks in two days. Our sod and landscaping will be done this week (yeah! don't have to pay 2.5 weeks worth of watering!).
We've really lucked out with everything thus far. Another lucky thing is that the 2nd PM is a PM-in-training and has passed everything except the final stage. This means that he is going to do our pre-settlement with us. In addition, the top guy from Ryan in charge of the PMs is going to fly in to grade him during our pre-settlement meeting. If the PM misses one thing, he fails. Talk about pressure for him! This means our house is going to be in amazing condition! (which is why we agreed to do a pre-pre-settlement meeting a few days beforehand...give him a chance to practice and another chance to go over the house with us before his big "test").
Sunday, October 2, 2011
3 Weeks Until Closing
We were able to get the key and walk around inside our house today! It looks amazing! They've added some of our outside lights (garage and back deck). Microwave is in place. Floor in front of fireplace is in. Shelving is up in all of the closets. The towel bars and toilet paper holders have been added in the bathrooms. They've stained the banisters. They've layed the first layer down to prep our driveway and sidewalk. We have a few issues we will be bringing to the PM's attention tommorrow. They include:
1. Almost all of the outlets and some of the light switches are crooked
2. One piece of hardwood flooring has a 1/2 inch gap from it to the wall/trim
3. The master bathroom does not have an exhaust fan while the rest of the bathrooms do
4. One of the deck rails has a huge sliver of wood hanging (the rail needs to be replaced)
5. One of the walls in the basement actually bows out and then bows back in...to include the trim.
6. The stairs going upstairs have huge gouges and chunks removed along the wall/wood frame of the stairs.
7. The texturing of the ceiling...multiple issues with this especially in the basement (we've never noticed before because their was no light until now). To include, large amounts of texturing just gathered especially around the edges of wall and ceiling. It needs to be sanded down and repainted. Also, large texturing dripping (globs just hanging). The various elevation changes in the ceiling throughout the basement need to be sanded down on the edges and repainted as the globs are present and look really bad.
8. The stair handrails have been stained but are very rough. To the point you can't slide your hand down because it hurts.
9. One of the upper kitchen cabinet doors is incorrectly hung...it makes a woody squeaky sound when you try to open it. Reminds me of scraping nails on a chalkboard and produces a nice chill up the spine.
10. One corner wall in the laundry room bows in and is uneven in the edge, to include the trim.
11. Cracking along some of the corners between wall and ceiling (between 1/2 inch to 1 inch).
12. The master bathroom shelving was agreed to be hung 1 foot higher than normal (we agreed on this at the pre-drywall). This is so we can add an additional lower level of shelves.
13. No caulk behind one of the sinks in a section
Question for those who have finished their Ryan home: The shower rod just sits on the wall. I touched it and it fell down. Do they not securely attach it to the walls on both sides? If not, it'll be one of the first things on my list when we move in. I'm just imagining it falling right on my son's head when he takes a shower and tries to move the curtain.
We understand the house still has quite a bit to go to make it complete. However, we just want to make sure the PM is aware of our concerns and to insure they have plenty of time to fix the problems.
1. Almost all of the outlets and some of the light switches are crooked
2. One piece of hardwood flooring has a 1/2 inch gap from it to the wall/trim
3. The master bathroom does not have an exhaust fan while the rest of the bathrooms do
4. One of the deck rails has a huge sliver of wood hanging (the rail needs to be replaced)
5. One of the walls in the basement actually bows out and then bows back in...to include the trim.
6. The stairs going upstairs have huge gouges and chunks removed along the wall/wood frame of the stairs.
7. The texturing of the ceiling...multiple issues with this especially in the basement (we've never noticed before because their was no light until now). To include, large amounts of texturing just gathered especially around the edges of wall and ceiling. It needs to be sanded down and repainted. Also, large texturing dripping (globs just hanging). The various elevation changes in the ceiling throughout the basement need to be sanded down on the edges and repainted as the globs are present and look really bad.
8. The stair handrails have been stained but are very rough. To the point you can't slide your hand down because it hurts.
9. One of the upper kitchen cabinet doors is incorrectly hung...it makes a woody squeaky sound when you try to open it. Reminds me of scraping nails on a chalkboard and produces a nice chill up the spine.
10. One corner wall in the laundry room bows in and is uneven in the edge, to include the trim.
11. Cracking along some of the corners between wall and ceiling (between 1/2 inch to 1 inch).
12. The master bathroom shelving was agreed to be hung 1 foot higher than normal (we agreed on this at the pre-drywall). This is so we can add an additional lower level of shelves.
13. No caulk behind one of the sinks in a section
Question for those who have finished their Ryan home: The shower rod just sits on the wall. I touched it and it fell down. Do they not securely attach it to the walls on both sides? If not, it'll be one of the first things on my list when we move in. I'm just imagining it falling right on my son's head when he takes a shower and tries to move the curtain.
We understand the house still has quite a bit to go to make it complete. However, we just want to make sure the PM is aware of our concerns and to insure they have plenty of time to fix the problems.
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| Part of the basement |
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| Basement powder room |
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| Coat closet |
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| Front door |
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| Fireplace with floor put in |
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| Laundry room with shelving |
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| The piece of wood on the deck that needs to be fixed |
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| Kitchen in progress |
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| Recessed lights in kitchen |
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| Stained railing and another recessed light |
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| Deck from morning room |
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| Morning room from kitchen |
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| Linen closet |
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| Master bedroom with our view |
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| Stained railing |
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| Realized I never put in picture of our kitchen countertop. It's Jamocha |
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Refrigerator
Today we drove the 30 minutes to a Florence model that is the updated version and is flipped like ours. Surprisingly we've never gone and looked before. It was really nice to see "the finished product". Afterwards we drove to our Florence only to find is was all locked up and we could not get a key. The sales rep had a family death and the office was being covered by another person without keys. And the PMs were not there. She should be back tommorrow so hopefully we can walk around inside and take pictures. We looked into the windows on the first floor and were impressed with what we saw!
Buying a refrigerator was another item on our list today. We shopped around at a few stores and decided on a Whirlpool Gold GI6FDRXXB model. We are sticking with black since the oven, dishwasher, and microwave are black. Luckily enough, we found it at Lowes for $1598. The next lowest we could find of that model was $1798 at Sears! Oddly enough, it was not on sale but rather the black was $400 less at Lowes. Computer glitch, possibly? The sales guy seemed to be confused about it. They have to order it in as the store only carried the stainless steel. No issue as we can't get it until we close on our house. Also, that model might be one that will be 15% off starting Thursday. If it is, they agreed to apply the discount. Here are a few pictures:
Buying a refrigerator was another item on our list today. We shopped around at a few stores and decided on a Whirlpool Gold GI6FDRXXB model. We are sticking with black since the oven, dishwasher, and microwave are black. Luckily enough, we found it at Lowes for $1598. The next lowest we could find of that model was $1798 at Sears! Oddly enough, it was not on sale but rather the black was $400 less at Lowes. Computer glitch, possibly? The sales guy seemed to be confused about it. They have to order it in as the store only carried the stainless steel. No issue as we can't get it until we close on our house. Also, that model might be one that will be 15% off starting Thursday. If it is, they agreed to apply the discount. Here are a few pictures:
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Primer, Appliances, Light Fixtures, Deck
Our house is looking really good! The trim was all in place and painted. The painters were there putting another coat of primer on the walls. Our fireplace mantel was put in. All light fixtures were in place. The deck was built. Toilets put in place. Fixtures put in bathrooms along with mirrors. Dishwasher was in place and the oven was there but not hooked up yet (we didn't get a fridge through them). No sign of our microwave yet. We have stairs from the garage to the mudroom/laundry room. Our stone was delivered, however, due to the rain we've been getting they haven't been able to put it up. Guardian had come through and placed our security and intercom systems. All outlet covers were in place.
One of the PM's was in the house and I was able to talk to him a bit. He wants to schedule a pre-pre-settlement meeting a few days before the pre-settlement meeting to do a thorough walk-through of the house together so they have time to fix anything. That'll give us time to review all the fixes at our pre-settlement meeting. If a problem arises at that meeting then they still have the weekend to fix it before closing.
I, of course, forgot my camera. My husband and I plan on stopping again this weekend so I'll definitely take pictures then.
We have finalized everything with NVR. They only required updated bank account statements and pay stubs. The last thing we are waiting on is our insurance company to call them with our homeowner's insurance information.
One of the PM's was in the house and I was able to talk to him a bit. He wants to schedule a pre-pre-settlement meeting a few days before the pre-settlement meeting to do a thorough walk-through of the house together so they have time to fix anything. That'll give us time to review all the fixes at our pre-settlement meeting. If a problem arises at that meeting then they still have the weekend to fix it before closing.
I, of course, forgot my camera. My husband and I plan on stopping again this weekend so I'll definitely take pictures then.
We have finalized everything with NVR. They only required updated bank account statements and pay stubs. The last thing we are waiting on is our insurance company to call them with our homeowner's insurance information.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Flooring & Cabinets
Stopped by our house today to check the progress. It's looking really good! Workers were inside cutting trim and also putting up the cabinets. Our hardwood floor looks amazing! I can't wait to see the entire floor without the cardboard protectors. The flooring we chose for the bathrooms and laundry room look even better than we had imagined. The coloring matches our cabinet choices really well. All the cabinets were in the bathrooms and most of them were in place in the kitchen. They've put in the banisters (they will be stained later). They had most of the trim glued in place. The walls have been primed. Inside doors have been placed (without hardware). The outside decoration around our front door is in place. Gutters were put on.
No big issues were noted. We have cracking in our basement concrete floor which we have been told is to be expected and not a cause for concern. The outside decoration around our front door is cracked on one side and our window-paned door down to the basement has a huge chunk removed (which will all be replaced).
No big issues were noted. We have cracking in our basement concrete floor which we have been told is to be expected and not a cause for concern. The outside decoration around our front door is cracked on one side and our window-paned door down to the basement has a huge chunk removed (which will all be replaced).
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| Love the grey siding and the dark blue shutters |
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| Our gourmet island |
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| Worker putting up our cabinets |
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| A peak at our hardwood floor |
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| Basement powder room |
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| Basement with sump pump, water heater, and AC/Heat |
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| Part of our basement |
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| View of the fountain from my son's room |
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| Our unstained railing |
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| View of bathroom cabinet and tile. The picture doesn't do it justice |
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| Front door (horizontal crack on right side) |
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| Our Sold sign |
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