Our New House!

During our pre-drywall meeting, our builder unofficially mentioned that there would be a window between the insulation phase and the drywall phase where we would be able to install insulation in our garage.  They install drywall in our garage but they do not insulate it except for the walls that attach to the house.  So, if we wanted the rest to be insulated, this would be the narrow window where we would be able to do this ourselves.  Officially, we cannot make any modifications to the house while until we close at the first of November.  But, in this small case, the builder was willing to look the other way.

So, before we even own the house, we are conducting our first Weekend Warrior home improvement project….

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Since Ann is back home from Central City we decided to take another trip to the design center.  Ann and our friend Mary are planning and shopping for new furnature and decor so I took them both to the design center to show them what options Barbara and I had picked out back in July.  Ann loved everything but the cabinets. 

Ann and Mary both agreed that the natural wood color was better than the toffee color that was orgininally slated to come with the house.  They liked the new carpet, vinyl and countertops picked, but the lighter natural wood really blended best with everything.  Unfortunately, we are too far into the build to make the change.  Not sure if there is anyone we can bribe or kill to make the change.  They have specific cut-off points as to what can be changed at what time.  So, it looks like she’ll have to make due with the toffee cabinets.

We also looked over the faucets, lighting and bathroom layouts.  Our kitchen sink is stainless steel and the faucet is very basic.  We’ll probably add that to the post-move-in upgrade list.  The rest of the faucets in all three bathrooms are a nice upgrade.  Nothing too fancy, but the next step up from the basic, boring stuff.

No new pictures since nothing’s really been done that is noticable in a picture.  I did get a shot of the conduit running from the Media Alcove to the right side of the fireplace but I’m not sure that’s of any value to any of you reading this.  Photos next week should show the insulation installed.

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Ann and I met with the builder yesterday.  This was only the second time she’s been to the build site.  The first time was last week at night.  We brought flashlights and Megan and I gave Ann the full tour.

Our salesman was on vacation, so we met with Simone, the builder, as he’s referred to.  I guess you could call him the foreman, since he’s in charge of all the contractors who work on our home.  We did a full walk-through of the house, inside and outside.  He pointed out all of the options we had chosen and answered all the questions we had (which outlets are on a switch, where are the TV and phone outlets, what steps would we need to take to finish the basement, etc).  An interesting, yet simple, innovation for identifying which outlets will be on a wall switch:  They install the outlet upsidedown (ground prong up).

We also made note of some Continue Reading »

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Roofing is complete, garage door installed and almost all of the electrical work is installed.  They still need to put one more outlet in the basement.  All of the outlets are in great positions.  Phone lines and cable TV are all installed.

Our predrywall meeting should be next week some time.

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As of last Friday night, not much new was completed.  All of the gutters have been installed so roofing should be completed soon.  Once everything is buttoned up water-tight, the electrician should be able to come in and do his part.

I got my weekly update call from the salesman saying that our pre-drywall meeting is 7-10 days away.  I also took an updated picture here.

I also took a picture of my neighbor’s yard to help visualize what I can do with my space.  I met them today, along with their new twins in the stroller.  Nice people who will be very friendly neighbors.  Suburbia, here we come!

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Yesterday’s visit showed that the siding was completed on Saturday and roofing has begun this week.  Ann will be wrapping up her work in Central City by the end of next week right about when the house should be ready for the pre-drywall meeting.

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I met with the builder to day to go over where I want the electrical outlets for the basement.  The siding should be finished by Saturday.  The plumbing was completed already and the electrician should be coming in next week.

In about two weeks from now we will be setting up the Pre-drywall Meeting.  This is where I meet with the salesman and the builder to walk through the home and make sure everything looks good before the interior walls go up.  We are supposed to walk the whole house, make sure all the correct options are installed or framed out and make any corrections to problems we come across.

The house looks great.  I spent a lot of time walking around and examining the plumbing.  I got to see the routing of the vents and pipes and tried to commit as much as possible to memory for future reference.

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Can you believe they finished the framing in just one week!  Now they have moved on to the siding.  Here is a picture of the guys up on the scaffold putting up the first bits of siding on Thursday.  By Friday they had finished this side and moved the scaffolding over to the back of the house.

Since the framing is complete, I was able to walk through the house and get a few more photos.  Here is a set that I took on Thursday evening.

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The lumber arrived last Friday and, despite some heavy rain over the weekend, they started framing this week.  I stopped by twice to check on their progress.

Here are some pictures from Tuesday evening at about 7:00pm.  Yep, they were working late.

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