They've been busy

I wasn't able to get out to the house at all this week because I was so busy with an event I was working on. I couldn't wait to see if they had framed anymore (we had bad weather Mon and Tue), so I sent Dan out on Saturday. It finally looks like a house!
They still haven't poured the garage or basement yet, I'm guessing that will happen early this week. We also have our walk-through with Guardian on Tuesday. Here are a few more pics Dan took while he was there.

Kitchen looking into family room.
Kitchen looking into garage.That's pretty much all I have now. I did order our fridge last weekend from Lowes (awesome price + 10% off coupon): http://tinyurl.com/7kspazk
I also ordered a dining room set and I'm going to check out bedroom furniture at some point this week. The set we originally liked was marked down as a floor model and I just couldn't pass it up. There's a leaf for the table, but it's still a little small. My plan is to eventually move the table and buffet into the kitchen area and replace it with a big reclaimed farm table (just haven't found what I'm looking for yet).

We have a 1st Floor

I got to the plan around 4:30 today and was so excited when I saw that they had starting framing!
The guys said they would be done at 5, so I went up to the model to compare furniture swatches with our cabinets (maple butterscotch glaze). I went back at 5 and everyone was gone so I was able to walk around and take pics. They finished framing the 1st floor, wrapped most of the house and cut out the windows.
I'm kind of regretting not getting the morning room, although I don't like the placement of it in the Milan. It's been the incentive here for a few months, so almost everyone else on our street so far has one (we got a finished basement with 1/2 bath instead).

A view of our back yard (with all of the wood in the yard).
View from the townhouses above our street looking at the back of our house.The 3 houses on the bend (the house on the other side of us, not pictured, will probably be framed next week).View from the top of the street.
I didn't walk inside at all, wasn't sure how safe it would be. But I did peek in the front door and saw this right at the entrance...

Quick update

Just a quick update on my visit yesterday. It looks like the foundation, waterproofing and plumbing is finished and they're getting ready to frame.


The Venice next door is completely framed, and they're working on the foundation for the house on the other side of us.
The view from the culdesac shows the 4 houses at the bend (Florence, Venice, Milan-Us, and ?) and one Venice at the top of the street.This view shows the 4 houses in the culdesac (the Venice, 2nd from the right closed this week).
I'm going to try to stop by tonight and check on progress. More pics to come.

First Purchase for the New House

We made our first official purchase for the new house this weekend. After 3 hours sitting on every sofa/sectional in Macy's, we finally made a decision for the family room. We ordered the sofa, loveseat, chair and ottoman.
We decided to order this now because we selected a non-stock fabric option so production time is 8-12 weeks. It's actually a little more tan/brown than it looks in the swatch. We didn't want to go with a micro-suede, so the one we chose is more of a chenille (which gives the color more texture and dimension).
The saleswoman at Macy's was great and gave us the Friends and Family pricing (which doesn't start until the end of November). She's also going to link all of the sales receipts together so when we buy our other furniture we'll only pay shipping one time.

We still haven't decided on the dining room, bedroom or office yet. They're supposed to be getting a new bedroom set in this week that I've only seen online but think that I like. We'll probably buy the rest of the furniture during the F&F sale because by then we should have a closing date. We're really into Black Friday shopping, so we're planning to try to get appliances taken care of then.

Now that the family room furniture is selected I can start looking at paint colors and decide on the finish/color of the tables and entertainment unit.

We've had pretty good weather this week, it didn't start raining until this evening and should be clear tomorrow and Friday. I'm going to try to stop by tomorrow afternoon and over the weekend. I really hope that I can see progress (it seemed like our neighbors house sat as just foundation for 2+ weeks). If everything went as planned this week the PM estimated framing would start tomorrow, so fingers crossed.

Moving right along

On Saturday we went to the model to meet some of our new neighbors. There were probably 5-6 couples there and I'm pretty sure everyone had a toddler/baby except for us. The people we met were really nice and it seems like it's going to be a great neighborhood.

After we left we walked around the lot and I was able to get pics of the foundation. This is from the back corner of the house (driveway on the left). We have 2 unfinished storage areas and a half bath in the basement, so the finished basement will still be an "L" shape, but it will also be a little more square.
Dan was checking out the egress window. We didn't want it in the finished section or along the back of the house and were really glad to see they were able to move it to the unfinished storage area).
Here's the view from the back of the house. I'm pretty sure one of the lots across the street sold and is going to be a Brighton.
We found out the neighbors are building a Venice, which makes 4 on the street so far. I'm not sure what the neighbors on the other side of us are building (they were out of town this weekend so we didn't get a chance to meet them). Here's an updated shot of our neighbors- Florence, Venice then our Milan.
The first completed house closes this week and then there's another in 3 weeks. The SR said they're currently on April deliveries.

I texted the PM today since it's been 3 weeks since I've heard from him. Got a quick reply saying that they're finishing up plumbing, groundworks and backfill by Thursday and that they should start framing Friday. I'm not really sure what groundworks and backfill are, but I'll google those later. I'm just so excited that we're this close to framing!!

Hole, Footers, Foundation

Dan and I stopped by over the weekend and saw that they had finished digging and that they had started prepping for the footers. It was pretty dark, freezing cold and muddy, so not an ideal time to take pics, but I did get one of Dan standing in the future garage.
I stopped by on Sunday to check everything out in the daylight. I've read that sometimes it seems like the hole/footers look small compared to the actual size people expect, but I thought our hole looked huge. We'll see what it looks like once the foundation is completed.

Speaking of foundation...I stopped by this afternoon and they had just started working on it. I talked to one of the workers for a minute and he said they poured the footers yesterday and should have the foundation finished this week (we're supposed to have good weather until next Tuesday). He also confirmed that our wood was delivered (it wasn't there on Sunday).

There it is, the wood for our house! It's sitting behind our neighbor's lot because the other neighbor's wood is behind ours (they were working on their plumbing today so framing should start soon for them). I need to remember to keep a pair of flats in the car so that I can walk onto the lot and take some close-up pictures.

It's crazy to think about the progress that has been made since this summer. The lots on our street were released for sale at the end of June. This picture is from the 3rd week of August, right before our street was paved.
And now, approximately 10 weeks later our street looks like this!
5 houses completely framed, 2 with framing in progress and 2 or 3 with foundations started.
I'm really bad with being able to tell what model the houses are but I think there is a Naples and 2 Venices in the culdesac, then another Venice at the top of the street on the right and a Florence 2 doors down from us (middle of the street, left side).
There's a little party at the model this weekend, I can't wait to finally meet some of our neighbors (we met one couple back in August- from the Florence 2 doors down).