Thursday, October 27, 2011

More Digging

Right now we live about 30 minutes from our plan and I try to get out there twice a week. Luckily I have clients nearby so I can usually stop by before or after meetings.

I stopped by today and wasn't expecting to see much work since it has been raining all day. They were actually digging when I stopped by. I couldn't take any pictures because the guys were on the lot working and we're not supposed to take photos of them. It looked like the hole was significantly deeper.

The weather should be nice the next few days and into next week so hopefully we'll have more than just a hole by next week.

I'm wondering when we should expect to start receiving weekly updates from the PM. I called him about 11 days ago when our digging hadn't started yet, that was Monday of last week. I'm thinking we haven't heard from him because there hasn't been much to report. Any thoughts?

Sunday, October 23, 2011

They started digging

We had the pre-construction meeting a few weeks ago, I just haven't had much time to post an update. Everything went well and our estimated close date is January 4th. Our initial dig date was Oct 5, then when we had our pre-construction meeting it was set for Oct 12. We had some rain the week of the 12th and they had to finish up on a few other foundations that were already started, so we got bumped to this past week. I stopped by on Wednesday and we finally had a hole.

We still haven't closed on our current house, but we've been told once again it "should happen this week." That's been a bit stressful, so it was a nice relief to see that digging had actually started this week.

Our plan is made up of multiple builders, but each has their own entrance and streets. The Ryan section has one completed street and then our street that was just released for sale in June and paved in August. There are already 3 houses framed (closings in Nov), 3 or 4 with foundations (closing in Dec) and 2 or 3 with holes (closing in January). It's crazy to see how much the street has changed in the past 2 months, especially because when I stop by I hardly ever see people there working.

We're kind of in the middle of the street and by the time we close in January the 2 houses to our right will already be completed and occupied, and the house to our immediate left will be finishing up a few weeks later. Seeing everything staked off and houses going up, we're really glad we chose our lot instead of one on the culdesac. Those lots have hardly any yard, and with the area they cleared behind our house, we're actually going to have a decent sized back yard. Dan was a little concerned about the lack of privacy with townhouses right above us, but we walked through their yards and its actually really hard to see into our yard from the top of the hill.

Our Lot

Our lot, our 2 neighbors and the townhouses above us.
Our lot, the neighbors, and the townhouses.
Our street. We'll be 2 doors down from the house on the left.

We spent some time last weekend looking at furniture again. I changed my mind on the dining room set because I want something a little bigger. The china cabinet is 2 pieces, I haven't decided if I want both, or just the credenza. Dan met me at the store to check out a closeout floor model set for the gameroom. After spending about an hour comparing every leather sofa and sectional in the store, we decided on a sectional. As I was talking to the saleswoman, Dan wandered over to a sectional we completely skipped over because it had recliners and consoles with cup holders. Of course it was the most comfortable couch we sat on all day and we changed our mind. It's really for a home theater, and since our game room will be primarily used for movies, sports and xbox we decided to go with it. Each seat is a "power recliner," and they're all separate pieces which should make it easy to get into the basement since we don't have a walk-out. We're going to add a 5th seat to the center section which makes it a little over 14'. I stopped by the model to make sure it would fit; we have to change the layout we were planning and move the tv to a different wall, but it will definitely work.

I'm hoping to update more regularly now that the building process has actually started and I'm halfway through my busy season for work. The weather should be pretty good this week so I hope to have a lot more to report about our progress.