Day 6-Foundation

We have a foundation! They poured it yesterday and has to sit until tomorrow.
Our PM called yesterday before they poured it-apparently we are getting an additional window in the basement, though I thought it already came with the floor plan. Regardless, we will have 2 windows, one on the unfinished side and another on the finished.

This side of the house will be the front formal living/dining and, at the back, the kitchen. The little rectangle in the very front will be our porch.

Day 3-Footers

Did a drive by after work last night. They've already finished the footers and laid the gravel for foundation. The weather over the weekend is supposed to be nice, so there's a chance we could have a foundation by Monday. As always, I took pictures!

We Got a Hole!

They broke ground today! Richard and I drove by after work to see how much of a hole we had. Surprisingly, it looked like they were pretty far along! Never knew a pile of dirt and a giant hole in the ground could be so exciting!

The most beautiful pile of dirt! They were still digging when we drove by. Some random guy was sitting on the side where the driveway is. Looked like they had a few more inches to go.

The Refrigerator that Sings to You

Our new fridge was delivered! I thought that it wouldn't be here until March, but this shipping company is no joke kinda fast.  We're having to store it in our current garage since the house wont' be finished until end of April-beginning of May, but for the price...it's completely worth it! Can't wait to get it in to the new house now!!! Or I should say, I can't wait until it's hooked up and in use because moving this beast is going to be interesting!

PS- If anyone is in the market for appliances, check out appliancesconnection.com I've been extremely happy with their customer service, and now shipping! They send you email updates letting you know every time the status of your order changes (received, processing, processed/approved, shipped, tracking). Overall, they get an A+!

Model Home Pictures

For those family and friends who are visual people, we took some pictures of the model home to give you an idea of the layout of the house.

Model Home-Elevation C with full brick front

Front entry door-we will have laminate hardwood here with carpet similar to the picture

Formal living/dining room off to the right of the front entry way

Hallway from front of house to family room and kitchen. Richard is going through the door to the basement. There is a half bath to the left. We'll have the oak spindles going all the way up the stairs instead of a half wall on the other side.

Family room-we'll have a fireplace in the same location with pre-wiring and an electrical outlet above to hang a tv.

Adjacent kitchen and mudroom to garage. We will have the same gourmet island, similar color laminate hardwood but darker cabinets and blackish granite.

Range and microwave-ours will have the same cook top surface, but a double oven.

Morning room-ours will be the exact same, with a sliding door and a walkout 14x18 deck.

If you're following so far, back up and go through the door Richard was and head downstairs. This is looking into what will be our media room. 

This is the rest of the media room. We're still debating on whether to hang the tv on the smaller wall off to the right or on the big back wall where all the front facade materials are. If it's hung on the smaller wall, you'll walk in to a more open feeling room. If it's hung on the back wall, there's a better utilization of space and you can still push the couch back to have a nice area to play kinect. Any suggestions?

This is the smaller room flanking the other side of the stairs. The wall that's jutting out on the right of the pic is the wall to the other half bath. Richard was looking at the panels they'll be hiding electrical and stuff behind.

This is the upstairs hallway. I'm standing in the doorway to the master and looking down. The laundry is off to the left and the two bigger spare bedrooms on the right with a linen closet. On the left side of the stairs at the end of the hall is a guest bath and a fourth bedroom.

Guest bathroom

The fourth bedroom that's right near the stairs.

Largest spare bedroom. Ours will only have two windows instead of three.

2nd Floor laundry. There's also a nice space at the back where the kitty box will be going. Eventually we're gonna have to add a kitty door so Riley can go in and out.

Third bedroom

And walking in to the master.

The closet is behind me, the door on the right is the master bath.

Ok, so while the tub is nice, I hated the shower. It reminded me of the ones we had in the dorm. So, we're doing a tub the same size as this one, but in place of the shower stall, we'll have a linen closet.

Garden tub

Double sinks and vanity

Closet-his and hers sides :)

Pre-Construction Meeting

We had our Pre-Construction meeting! Ours took about an hour and half-they had a lot of information for us, plus some paperwork to sign for the last few changes we made. Our PM seems like a great guy and very knowledgeable. He offered a couple of suggestions regarding outlet placements, where to put our deck stairs, and even made note to raise the shower head a few inches since Richard barely fits under where the standard placement is.

We learned a lot about the process, timeline, and got a new tentative close date- 7 May. Our PM did say that this schedule has some "fat" built in, so depending on the weather, it could push it up or back by a few days. They're still waiting on our permit, but are projecting to break ground as early as Wednesday, as late as Friday next week.

We did go over all our selections, and even found out that our deck size has been increased from a 14x16 to a 14x18 to push back a handrail that would have been in the middle of a living room window.

Richard had to get back to work, so I walked the lot and saw everything staked out. It's HUGE! We really lucked out with this lot. A Florence went up behind us and there lot is half the size of ours. So, we'll have a nice little cushion in between each other, not to mention on the sides too :)

 

Standing in what will be the driveway. The stakes farthest to the right, will be one side of the house. The back of the property ends about where you see the different colored dirt from the other construction site behind us. At least our backyard neighbors will be done before we are, so we don't have to look at the construction every day!

 

Shopping Adventures Part II

A while back, Richard and I did a walk through of local home improvement stores, as well as those that sell appliances to price out refrigerators. We were in Best Buy, about to leave, when we walked past a fridge playing music. Not only does it play music, it has an 8" LCD screen with wifi connection and apps including weather bug, ap news, twitter, pandora, a family calendar, app of recipes, AND a lot of room! Richard immediately fell in love since he's a bit of a tech geek, but it met all my criteria as far as space went too.

The sad part was the price tag.  Best Buy was running a sale at 25% off but it was still slightly out our budget and we weren't in a position to buy it at the time. Another bummer....home depot doesn't carry it and Lowes only seemed to list it at 10% off. Richard realized he was going to have to give up and settle for a less techy fridge (me-I just wanted something over 26 cu/ft and good utilization of space).

Ok, so fast forward to last week. I started researching reputable sites to purchase appliances from online to see how the prices compared to those in the stores. Lo and behold I stumbled across a site that was not only very highly rated (over 2200 5 star ratings through google and no filed complaints within the last 3 years with the BBB) AND they had Richard's favorite fridge at an amazing price!!! They even offered free in-home delivery* and a 3 year full service plan at an excellent price.

Look of the fridge-stainless steel, lift up bars to open the freezer and flex zone drawer

Enough space in the top, but the added flex zone drawer is awesome. You can customize a temp setting for up to four divided spaces for drinks, deli meat, wine, and fruits/veggies

Ok, so I'm not going to lie. I'm a little nervous about buying something this large and expensive online, but the full in home service plan and fact we get to examine it before we take receipt of the delivery AND all the positive things people had to say regarding the customer service department of this site make me feel a little better. Though we're ordering it fairly early, Richard assures me we can store it in our garage and he'll be able to hook it up later. Glad he's handy.

I'll post later about how the experience went if anyone is in the market for appliances! If you're looking for more information on the fridge we got, check out:
Samsung 28 cu. ft Refrigerator w/ 8"LCD screen and apps

Things We Look Forward To

I have to say, the blog experience has really added to the house process. It's been very helpful in understanding what questions to ask, re-looking at upgrades we first skipped over, and giving me a visual of how cabinet, flooring and upgrade choices look. Some have solidified I made the right choice for our personal style, and others have given me some creative ideas.

But with all the information I've gotten in regards to the process, I think one of the best blogs wasn't about any of these things. It was a list of all the things the writer looked forward to about the house. Well, I'm borrowing their idea.

Heather's List:
1) Not having to tango in the bathroom to get ready in the morning
2) Having hot water within the first minute of turning the shower or sink on--right now it takes a good 5 minutes for the water to run hot
3) Being able to empty the dishwasher and open the oven at the same time!
4) Hanging all my clothes in one closet
5) Being able to walk around on the second floor without feeling like the floor is going to cave because it squeaks so bad. Not to mention when someone comes in late or is up early, the rest of you are up.
6) Being able to easily get to and pull out all the chairs on the kitchen table--its pretty tight in our dining room right now
7) Parking both of our cars in the garage
8) Consistent temperatures throughout the house--in the summer we have to run three fans in our current bedroom just to keep from sweating while we sleep when is already set at 68 and half the vents on the first floor are closed. It's the same during the winter--difficult to keep it somewhat warm upstairs so you don't freeze to death after getting out of the shower.
9) Having a strong sense of pride knowing we own it :)

Richard's List ( I would like to preface this list by saying I just merely typed what he dictated)
1) Not having to listen to our neighbor sing...at any time of day or night.
2) The home theater system!
3) Owning it
4) Having more room to entertain
5) Backyard, not for more yard work but because we have our OWN backyard
6) Having 4 toilets to poop in
 

Shopping Adventures Part I

With a new house, comes new things. For the last couple of months, we discussed and came up with a short list prioritizing items we would need for the house. 1) Refrigerator 2) Blinds 3) Ceiling fans and light for morning room 4) Couch for the basement to enjoy the home theater system. Everything else can wait.

Of course knowing this puts us at an advantage because we have 3 months to shop the sales. Out of everything we've seen, I think I like Samsung the best. SO...I'm keeping my fingers crossed that one of our local stores will run a special between now and May. (Best Buy had one a month or so ago for 25% off all Samsung appliances).

We did decide to stop by Sears and check out their Kenmore line though. Along the way, Richard found a new bed. Apparently it massages, provides lumbar support, moves to different positions, and is all controlled by a remote.

Richard trying out the iComfort bed...if only we had an extra $2k-and that was the sale price at 50% off!

While at Sears, Richard realized he left his debit card at the restaurant, so when we went back, I saw Lazy Boy was having a sale. We decided to walk through, get an idea of their stock, pick up a catalog and inquire about order processing/delivery times. We found two couches we liked, but walked out and went to another local value furniture store to see what they had and if items had to be special ordered. There was no comparison. The quality, warranty, and look of Lazy Boy is far superior.

The couch we found is completely modular, super comfy, and has elements we both love (he wants a recliner and I wanted a chaise). The best part...we got it at over 50% off!!!! Our sales rep assured as that if we need to change the configuration of pieces, depending on which direction the room will be built, we can and still keep our rate locked in. Regardless, if the pieces come in early, they'll store them until we can take delivery in May. Much love to Lazy Boy!

Our couch for the basement. One day we might add on and get the divider component with cup holders and an additional armless recliner to add in. Not a fan of the pillows, but they'll work until I can either get covers or find some new ones on sale after we fulfill the rest of our list.

More shopping adventures to come...stay tuned!