Venting Alert!!!

I'm so mad as I'm writing this post.

Worried about the ever climbing interest rates, we pinged our NVR LO today... (who never pings us anymore). Remember when they tell you, they'll keep checking the rates for you, and keep you informed about your situation in the market....Well we were not counting on it, but whenever we call her or email her, she seems so disinterested in the conversation!!

Anyway, shopping around, we found out that the rates are gone up with every lender but the closing cost were not as bad as NVR is quoting. She responded saying, Oh sorry I couldn't reach you earlier but today's rate is 4.25% (what I saw online was 3.81% from most of the lenders). She never answers our question about waving their "origination fee", which our SR told they would do during the agreement fiasco!

On our weekly update call with our SR today, we  mentioned our situation with NVR and a strong possibility to go with another lender. He very politely said that we should do what's best for us (translation... sure! say bye-bye to your builder's credit first). But he volunteered to have a chat with our LO.

On the OTHER hand:

Today we asked our PM when (and if) we can add soundproofing insulation. The answer of course NO! YOU CAN'T TOUCH ANYTHING IN YOUR HOUSE!!! (You just pay for it! Now and later x-|) They love the phrase "liability issues"!!

So we pay a higher rate and price, but we can't do our own wiring or add insulation or move a pin. We can do it all later of course (when dry wall is up and RH pack their bags) and pay extra money to a contractor, and live through a renovation!

We are invited to a block party at the model house tomorrow, to meet our future neighbors. I was very excited about it, but now I don't even feel like going! I'd rather use the time to reach out to some lenders!

Its just one of those days, when you question your most important decisions. Sigh!

More wood....

So stopped by the site again.... Saw a lot more wood!

Some how everything looked tiny, except for the formal dinning, which we are not very crazy abt....

So here it goes, more pictures.....

Entrance..... I hate that its gonna be a small, skinny door!

View from Garage.... mud room, laundry, pantry, kitchen all framed in......

other view from garage... dinning, foyer etc....

the weird triangular mud room

laundry area

Kitchen

 

 

window over the kitchen sink

Cut out for fireplace

The shower made it in.... finally

Hope they are following this....

Space for stairs

Wood with window holes ;-)

Very excited to check out the framing after 3 days, we stopped by our lot yesterday. It wasn't as much progress as I thought it would be. Looks like they did not work the whole weekend after all...But its good to see that it started!

Here are some pictures.... we could almost figure out where everything would go... :-)

 

 So this is the front of the house.... with holes for the door, dinning room window on the left and couple of windows for the study on the right.....

 

Study from inside!

 

Dinning from inside....

 

 Hubby trying to figure out how our jacuzzi tub will fit in the master bath

 

Our potential master bedroom!

The view of our future kitchen and there will be a mud room and laundry by the garage ;-)

 

Pics of our shower for master (up) and the tiny shower tub for guest bath (down), which have been lying around on our lot forever.....waiting to find they way in!

 

This is the tiniest tub ever.....

Can't wait to check out the progress today evening..... :-) More pics to follow...

Framing update....

After 10 days of delay, they did start framing today....Finally!!! :-)

Drove by the home site around lunch time and took some pictures!! Our PM said they will be working this weekend to catch up. I feel bad for them!! :-|

We are headed to Chicago for the long weekend to spend some time with our family, so we'll be missing some action. But I can't wait to get back and check it out on Tuesday. I think this will be the first time I'm excited for a weekday after the long weekend! ;-)

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend. Stay Safe!

Updates....

Loan Update:

Our NVR LO has been in contact with my husband since last Friday. They sent an Good Faith Estimate and Cost Analysis. Somehow I feel that their closing costs are climbing very time they contact us. And of course, they mentioned that the cash required for closing is subjected to change. So I shouldn't be surprised I guess!
Anyway, today they came back and asked for some more documentation that will be reviewed by underwriting. They also mentioned that they may ask for additional information and/or documentation after the review. Well, I decided to leave that part to my husband....Its not very exciting.....I can't take pictures, so I'll stick to the construction zone!! ;-)

Framing update: Nothing! :-(

They did not start it yet.... I drove by the home site around lunch time today and there's no activity! My hubby says I turning into an obsessive homeowner (to-be) and I should leave our home site alone! But I just can't help it :-|

No framing yet....

Last week our PM had said that they may start framing our house on Wednesday, so (as I was way too excited to wait) I drove down on Wednesday afternoon to check them out it action....but there was no action!! Found out from our PM that the crew was finishing up framing another house, and we were next in line. We heard back from our SR and PM today, they said that the framing won't start until Monday as the crew is still wrapping up on the other house and its raining. So no progress this week!! :-|

On a different subject, My husband and I had discussed running the wires for our home theater system ourselves when the framing was done. We know many people do that, we had talked about that in our interactive session too. So we asked our SR and PM to let us know when we can do that. Turns out, we cannot!! Our SR said that it was against their "Policy"....for liability reasons. I know other builders allow that, my sister and her husband did it themselves when their house was being built.
We are disappointed, because we really love our surround sound and we wanted to do it ourselves, save some $$$. Anyway, our PM jumped into the conversation and said that if we get the wiring done after closing, he would fix the drywall for us......hmmm we'll have to think about that, I guess!

Don't walk in our Garage! :D

Yup, we have a garage..... well, just the floor, but still! ;-)

We got an update from our PM yesterday, our garage concrete is poured, our crawl space will be inspected today and if everything goes well, they may start framing tomorrow..... Can't wait to see it rise!

So we checked it out yesterday evening.....

Its a two car garage but somehow everything looks small! :-(  I don't know how they are gonna fit our house....

The only thing that doesn't look small is our backyard! My husband and I walked to the back end of our lot, and god knows how we (by we I mean my husband) are gonna maintain that! :-|

We also met with one of our neighbors yesterday.... another advantage of stalking! Very sweet family, they were very friendly to us. They seemed impressed by Ryan Homes and the speed with which the neighborhood was growing.... 46 houses and counting!!! :-)

We have some cement, wood and...... rain...Grrrrrr!!

Today I stopped by our home site and looks like we've made some progress here....

Its amazing what they can do in two days, concrete is poured, we have some black stuff  (moisture sealant??) and what not....

It looks different every time I visit, I should definitely visit more often. May be catch them in action sometime?!?

 

And there is always something new.... We have some wood YAY!! :D

But we also have some rain tonight and tomorrow....

I want the weather guys to be wrong... they usually are, so let's see how that goes!!

Construction Process Roadmap

This is the list our PM handed out to us in the pre construction meeting saying that this will help us know the order in which things will be happening.....

1. Pre Construction Meeting
2. Excavate home site if necessary 
3. Crawl foundation
4. Pour footer
5. Lay block foundation
6. Gravel to garage and inside crawl space
7. Pour garage concrete
8. Lumber delivery
9. Framing (typically takes a week)
10. Install roof
11. HVAC rough-in
12. Plumbing rough-in
13. Electrical rough-in
14. Interactive rough-in 
15. Pre drywall meeting
16. Insulate the home
17. Drywall (typically takes a week)
18. Flooring (Hardwood, ceramic, vinyl)
19. Trim and Cabinets
20. Paint first coat
21. HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical, Interactive Trim outs
22. Carpet
23. Final paint
24. New Home Orientation
25. Closing

For Slab Foundation, replace steps 3-8 with:

• Slab Foundation
• Box slab and fill with gravel
• Run under slab plumbing
• Pour concrete slab

Exterior: 

1. Brick 
2. Siding
3. Dig utility ditches
4. Rough Grade on yard
5. Gas line ran to the home
6. Driveway, lead walk, and sidewalk poured
7. Final Grade on yard
8. Sod/seed and straw
9. Mailbox

We met the PM guy.....

Just came back from the pre construction meeting.... It went well. Our PM seemed very cool. He pretty much knocked out most of the questions I had, even before we asked. As I said in one of my earlier posts, that our PM is a new ..... turns out he is new to Ryan Homes. But he has worked for Dress Homes for a very long time....He seemed very detail oriented, knowledgeable and trustworthy. Overall we liked him!

He went over the blueprints with us, they had almost everything right.....ALMOST! There were a couple of minor things missing, but amazingly even after 2 months we know exactly what we selected! Our SR was on top of things too, it made me feel good! Our PM gave us a checklist of steps in the process - order in which things will happen, I thought that was pretty cool! We already started referring to it..... I forgot to get a copy from my husband but I will post it as soon as I can....

One other thing I felt today was that this wasn't anything like a "hand-off" meeting, instead our SR was as involved as ever!! Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing to have an additional layer between PM and us but they both seemed pretty open to communication, which I can appreciate.

Timeline wise, they did not give any particular milestone deadlines at this point, but they estimated that final walk through would be done by 6th Aug (give or take a week), so we are looking at somewhere around Aug 3rd week for closing!

We checked out our lot  with both PM and SR, they were draining out the rain water ...YAY!!! So now we have a river flowing out of our lot!! ;-)

 

Pre Construction Meeting Checklist

So its raining continuously here and there are tons of cement blocks sitting on our lot, all drenched in rain! :-(
I know they'll take care of it, its too early in the process and they account for bad weather etc etc etc... but still I feel restless!!! :-|

Anyway, our much awaited pre-con meeting day is here! (hopefully they wont cancel on us)....So I have been preparing a list of things to be verified during our Pre Construction Meeting based on several lists I referred from other RH blogs and then I added some things specific to our selection/plan etc....It's a lengthy list and we might already have some answers but hey! it's always better to check twice.... Right?!

 General Questions for the PM: 

• Estimated timeline/milestones, exact Closing date.
• What inspections will happen at each stage? 
• Can we visit the site? Do we need permission from PM?
• What is the best way to reach the PM if I have questions? 
• Can we bring in our own home inspector? Procedure....

Verification Checklist: (Things we already selected with Ryan Homes SR or other vendors- Rite Rug / Interactive Systems etc) 

• Selected Upgrades and Options (things for which we are charged extra)
• Interactive Selections (Cable/Ethernet)
• Design Center Selections
• Lights package, placement / Fan rough-ins

Home related checklist by area:
Common Areas:

• Smooth or rough ceilings? 
• Power Outlet location for each room (specifically - kitchen, bathroom vanities, garage, deck and TV location)
• Switches for lights and fireplace
• Check window size and location in each room. 
• Door Handles - Which rooms get locks?
• Will all windows have screen?
• Cost for extra insulation
• Future possibilities for 3rd full bath (plumbing rough-ins)

Elevation:  

• Is there a Stone option? We see few other houses that have stone!
• Are there going to be any steps towards the front door? 

Pre Construction Meeting Postponed....

So our pre construction meeting was scheduled for today, but we got a call yesterday from our SR that our PM was very busy and cannot meet with us until Monday, 5/6. We asked our SR if that would effect the timeline, he said it shouldn't. So yesterday evening after work, my husband and I decided to swing by our lot to see progress (if any) as our ground breaking was scheduled for 5/1 (which was moved from 5/8).
We were pleasantly surprised to see that the work had begun! The site was excavated, and some concrete was poured. Not sure if I'm using the right words at this point...maybe if we get to meet with the PM!!!

We also met one of our neighbors, he seemed very friendly!! Can't wait to meet our other neighbors and get acquainted. Looking at the site with some work done, meeting with people who ask "So is this your home?" makes it all real for you. :-) It very exciting and emotional process....to see your dream shaping up in front on your eyes.

Our Home site....

 

My Husband surveying the site (as if he knows what to look for! ;-) )