Plumbing, Ductwork and Pictures!

Things have been moving along very nicely! We had a meeting with our PM last Monday and we walked our property line. There were three stakes, on said 46/47 and there were two that said 46 that were near each other. Our PM said it was because our neighbor's have a bump out in there property line and the multiple ones saying 46 was marking their bump out, but ours was the stake that said 46/47. Makes sense. Found out where the outlets were going to be on the outside of the house and the hose hooks ups are on the outside. Only one on either side of the house. I was hoping for one in the front and back. Slight disappointment but I could make it work with two on the side I think.

They were supposed to start the roofing last Wednesday but the framers didn't finish the roof till Thursday so they put all the roofing materials up there Thursday. They didn't do anything thing Thursday because it was crazy hot. It was the first 100 degree day we've had thus far. I don't blame them for not wanting to be up on the roof. I know I wouldn't! They finished the roofing on Friday just in time before a big storm hit. Thank goodness.

We went out Saturday and walked through and we have most of the plumbing done and they have started on the duct work. Yay! So here are lots of pictures!

Shingles on the roof!

Side of it.

Another view

Supplies for the ductwork in the garage

Almost done

An air vent!

First floor powder room with plumbing

Family room

Morning room and hubby looking at the plans.

More plumbing!

Master bath tub!!

Guest bathroom

Master bath shower

Where the double sinks will go in the master bath

More stuff in the loft

Plumbing in the laundry room

Look what I can do with my windows!

Looking from the family room into the formal living and dining room

A view of the back corner of the house

Looking like a home!!

Went out yesterday to take a look at the house and guess what? It is looking like a house!! They started the roof framing yesterday and are expected to finish up today. We met our PM, Dave, out at the site to go over some questions (mainly cosmetic stuff) and to walk the lot lines. He gave us a little update and we're looking at having roofing started Wednesday (tomorrow!!!) and then early next week the plumbing and electric with inspections middle of the week.

I have a 2 week training for the Marines so I won't be around for the "official" pre-drywall walk-through potentially so we're going to walk through next Friday so he can show me how things are going than. However, there's a chance that we might be at that point regardless by next Friday so we shall see. Oh and we should be able to lock in our rates at the end of this week!! So we're almost halfway there, it's crazy exciting.

We've been really lucky with only having a small rain while the wood was out and nothing really since framing has started and none projected for the next week or so which is going to be awesome! We should have a roof by than. Ok, now for the stuff you really care about. Pictures!!

We have a front door!

Roof framing in progress!

In progress

End of day results

Looks like a monster from the side!

Windows! And garage service door (you can kinda see it)

We have framing!

We stopped by the house today and we have most of the framing done for the second floor!! Woohoo! When we stopped by Friday the framing was done for the first floor. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they worked on Saturday, but I'm not complaining! It's starting to look great! Here are some pics:

Quick Update

We have pictures but haven't been able to get around to uploading them yet (camera had died). Monday when we went to the site we had all of our framing materials laid out! Also PM said that inspections were going on Tuesday and Wednesday and that framing would start later this week. Went out again last night and they had our garage poured (woohoo!) and we had a dumpster on our site, looks like we're about to start the fun stuff! Will post pictures in the next update!

Furniture Fun!

We found out through another fellow blogger CMM on her blog Building our Yorkshire with Ryan Homes a great tid bit of information. Thank you for sharing by the way! La-Z-Boy offer's a FREE in-home design service! Hubby and I stopped by the store over the weekend to check it out. They have lots of great choices of furniture as well as LOTS of color choices for each item! and by lots I mean 1100 fabrics! We tested out some of their sofas and chairs and they are stylish as well as comfy! They had a display showing some of the designs they have done over time with before and after pics and they look really great. They can incorporate your existing furniture and accent pieces which is nice too. Since we are going from a 900 square foot apartment to a four bedroom house we will  have lots of empty space! They said that they keep your designs on file so that you can get furniture over time or you can do financing.

While we were there we spoke with a few of their employees as well as one of the design consultants. Everyone was very nice and we will definitely be using them when the house gets further along. Once we have everything built we will set an appointment to have them come out and take measurements and pictures to get a feel of the place and have them do the whole downstairs so that it all flows nicely.

They also have a really cool 3-D room planner online that I  have been playing around with. You can change the color of the wall, carpet and furniture to the colors you want in your home. It's been a lot of fun messing with the furniture placement and colors.

Foundation and Brick!

Things are beginning to move quickly now! Our footers were in place on Monday and last night we went out and we have foundation with the brick wrapped already. They started and finished the foundation yesterday. They may have some little things to do here and there with it still, but this is a big step. Hopefully we will hear from the PM on what they plan to do next week sometime soon, if not we'll email and ask.

Our neighbors house (also a Ryans Home) is moving quickly, they have a front door now! We also met them for the first time earlier this week (they don't seem to go out to their lot that often). They seem to be a nice couple so far, the husband had a inspector buddy of his out and he said that the construction was very good quality. That's great to hear!

I've been mulling over the idea of whether I should have a third-party inspector come out before the final walk through, I've heard some people in blogs do it and than it turns out everything is great. Any thoughts?

We did have one disappointment recently, when we originally chose this neighborhood we were told that all of the houses were going to be dimensional shingles and we love the look of them. However, we were told (Ryan Homes word) that the developer decided to change the image of the neighborhood a little and are not going with them anymore. It's weird because all of the houses in stage one (a different builder) all have them and now the back, stage 2, will have panel shingles. It's not devastating as we weren't paying for it (it was going to be a standard), but just a small disappointment. Overall though, Ryan Homes has been great with everything we've dealt with them and our PM has also been very open to communication and the couple of times I've emailed him he has replied extremely quickly.

Side/Front Foundation/Brick

Our Stairs!

Garage

Foundation for the porch (super excited!!)

Equipment! Oh and there's a house behind it :)

Absence and big update

Hey all,

Ok I know it's been a while since we have last posted. We are still building a house but just have been fairly busy and there was a period where there was a lot of waiting. To catch you up quickly and than some pictures!!

We contracted the house before the neighborhood was even officially listed, so we had to wait on the county to certify a lot of things and even Plat the lots. Once that was done and the roads were initially paved, our info was sent up to the VA Appraiser and that's where things got ugly. The VA Appraiser in this area has 10 BUSINESS days to do his appraisal, well 18 business days later he finally came through. This put us back about 3 weeks total. Good thing about it, he appraised the house higher than what we're paying :D

First some selection pictures (I know, we're very late getting this to you guys).

 

Kitchen Colors w/ Carpet selection

Kitchen Selection

Guest Bathroom

Outside color selections (Cape Cod style)

Master Bath!!!

Now that the selections are out of the way, here are pictures of the lot, and the ground breaking/footers.

Lot when first cleared

Breaking Ground - 1 (Our neighbors house is moving along quick!!)

Breaking Ground - 2

Footer!!

More of the Footer!

 Ok, so now that physical progress is being made we will make sure to get daily pics going! Things are going to start going really quickly from here. They said the foundation will probably be in progress by Thursday. Again, sorry for us going AWOL there for a bit but we will make sure to keep everyone in the loop. This is the exciting part here :)