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