Driveway, Sidewalks, Mailbox, Electrical, & Guardian Installs

I made an unplanned stop at the house today. I just had to see what was going on! I had to park pretty far away because there were so many work vehicles there. Conveniently, I also ran into my PM and he walked around with me! I got to ask tons of questions! Much easier than trying to remember them all and sending him a text. There were so many people working inside and outside our house that I couldn't keep count. Even a guy from Guardian was there installing their stuff. I wish I could have seen the in-ceiling speakers but he was just about to start those when I was leaving. The house was just too hot for me to stick around! It was 87 degrees in there!

Starting with the outside: Our driveway and sidewalks were poured yesterday! I walked right past the mailbox without even noticing it! The PM had to point that out to me! In my last post, I mentioned that our PM placed a pipe under our driveway so that we can run our invisible fence through it. I have a picture of that below. We even bought some tool thingy that we will attach the wire to and then turn a reel to fish it through the pipe. And by "we" I mean my hubby. I asked my PM when our sod would be put in. I told him that we asked our last PM if we could wait a little bit after closing to have it installed. This would make it easier for us to bury our invisible fence and we wouldn't have to worry about watering it while dealing with the stress of moving. Our original PM said no. Our new PM said yes! I hope my old PM isn't reading this :) The two houses across the street close about a week and a half to two weeks after us and I asked him if it would be easier for him if we just got our sod when they got theirs. He said it would be helpful so that's the plan! We will have to walk our dog a little ways away from the house to an open field for a week or two but at least we won't have to worry about the yard. We are closing on a Monday but we aren't moving until the weekend. It would have been a pain to make the hour round-trip drive out every day to just water the lawn. Also, RH told us our lot is half an acre. My husband did the math and it turns out it is a little larger. It's more like 2/3 of an acre.

The guys on the ladders were painting the trim.

Close-up of the drivway

This is the pipe we will run our invisible fence through under the driveway!
(Left side of driveway)

Pipe sticking out on the right side. I should have measured how far out it was....

Sidewalk leading to front door

This is where our lampost will be.

I LOVE the mailbox! 

Light outside the morning room door.

As for the inside: There were so many people working inside and outside our house that I couldn't keep count. Even a guy from Guardian was there installing their stuff. I wish I could have seen the in-ceiling speakers but he was just about to start those when I was leaving. The house was just too hot for me to stick around! They were installing light fixtures, outlets, switches, plumbing fixtures, toilets, and probably other stuff I couldn't keep track of!

I also made a request to my PM about our kitchen cabinets. The cabinet above the fridge is pushed back and doesn't sit flush with the cabinets to the left. I know this is usually pretty common but I will never be able to reach that, especially since our fridge will stick out even farther. I asked him if it could be pulled forward to be flush. Seems like a simple request. He said he would have to get back with me about it. Here is a picture of what I'm talking about:

The fridge goes on the right and the double ovens on the left.

Master vanity

Love shape of this bathtub fixture!

Toilet in the master water closet. I was worried we would get the off-white toilets that I have seen on some other blogs. I really wanted my toilets to match the white of the sinks, shower, and bathtub. So glad they do!

The big hole is for a ceiling speaker. The white circle is our wireless router. Next to that is a smoke detector.  Small hole will me a carbon monoxide detector. We got our smoke and carbon monoxide detectors wired through our security alarm.

Hall bathroom

Hall toilet

I really wanted brushed nickel but RH over charges for that upgrade. I had planned on switching them out myself later but I kind of like these. The shape just makes it look so much better than I expected.

They can just leave the switches like that.... I kinda like it. Ha ha!

We got a wireless router installed in our ceiling from Guardian. 

This is the siren for our security alarm.

So glad we get a thermostat in the master bedroom!

Chandelier in the formal dining room. I was hoping I could see the huge version of this that goes in the foyer but they hadn't installed it yet!

Ceiling speakers!

Thermostat on the first floor.

Motion detector from Guardian.

I clearly don't take very good pictures. I make everything look crooked!
I wasn't so sure about the eyeball lights when we were making our selections but I'm glad we got them! I like them!

Close-up of my eyeballs!

So glad RH installs energy savers!

This is the light in the laundry room. That will definitely need replaced. It's hideous!

Laundry room hook-ups

Accidentally free laundry sink rough-in!

Handles on the outside of the morning room door are ORB to match the outdoor light fixtures.

Handles on the inside of the morning room door are brushed nickel to match the indoor light fixtures.
It's weird to me that these are different. 

Door bell chime thing on the inside

Guardian security alarm pad. 

Recessed lights in the kitchen! There is an extra one on the left because it follows the curve of the gourmet island.
The hole left over is where one of our in-ceiling speakers will be.

Our hardwoods should be installed tomorrow, carpet on Saturday, initial cleaning is on Sunday, and granite gets installed on Monday. Our PM is on vacation all next week. I'm going to try to challenge myself not visit again until the final walk-through. That's in 11 days. Can I make it?

Everyone is Jumping Ship

In my post yesterday, I mentioned that our PM got switched to another community and now we have someone else. Now our SR is getting ready to go on maternity leave! Everyone is jumping ship and we only have 27 days left! I'm so excited for my SR and I can't wait to find out if she's having a boy or a girl! I'm sure the person replacing her will be great too. I haven't met an RH employee that I don't like yet. They are all just so bubbly and nice.

We called today to schedule our closing. Apparently we can do our closing and final walk-through on the same day. We just won't be getting our keys until the next day. Don't ask me why we don't get our keys on the same day as closing. I have no idea! Our final walk-through and closing date are on Monday, August 6th. So far we have the same closing day as Charissa, Bonds-Zachary, and Thomas!  Anyone else sharing this special date with us? 

We sent in all of our final documents to NVR today. I can't believe we are this far in the process already! We started everything back in March and broke ground in May and now we are just 4 weeks away from moving into our dream home!! The time is flying by now! We have so much left to do! We still have a lot to pack and we are painting and doing some remodeling of our condo. We hired a property management company a couple of months ago. They will be listing our condo for rent once we get everything finished up around here and moved out. We are painting the entire place, changing out a ton of light fixtures, replacing all of the carpet, and changing the floor in the kitchen. Our condo was built 40 years ago but we have been slowly doing some remodeling over the past few years. Our air conditioner broke recently too so now we get to deal with that! I will be so happy to be done with this place! We will still own it of course but the property management will take over once we move out. We won't have to worry about anything and we won't even meet the tenants! The thought of being responsible for all of that stuff freaks me out! The property management is pretty affordable too. It's totally worth it! So if any of you are planning on renting out your current homes after you move into your beautiful new home, shop around for a property management company. They do EVERYTHING including finding tenants, doing the rental contract, collecting rent and sending it to us, maintenance, evictions, and they even send a monthly statement for tax purposes. The best part? They think they can get more than twice as much in rent as what our current mortgage payment is! Squee!!

Here are just a few pictures from today! My husband was in the area so he stopped by. The drywallers hadn't started yet so he went in to see if Guardian corrected their mistakes and they did!

About a 1/4 of the way done and they were still out there working!

I asked for a close-up and this is what my husband takes? Seriously....

Garage door installed! The hubs could have at least closed it for a better shot!

"It's Not You, It's Me"

We had our pre-drywall meeting today. When I pulled up to the house, my PM and another guy started walking towards me. I instantly got a pit in my stomach as my PM said, "I have some bad news." I've heard of this happening to other people but I hoped it wouldn't happen to me! I knew what he was going to say. We have officially lost our PM and he is being replaced. BOOOO!!! I feel like I've been dumped! He was seriously awesome, as I mentioned in my previous blog titled: My PM is Better Than Your PM. He handled my craziness and was great with communication. We are so far into this process. and I wish we could just hang on to him for the next 28 days, but it's just not possible! Naturally I gave him a hard time about it. I told him that I'm going to cry myself to sleep! Okay, so it's not that serious but I really am bummed.  Apparently there was some restructuring. Our PM was assigned two new communities and our community went to the new guy. The new PM seems super nice but he sure has a lot to live up to! The first thing I said to him was that I'm high maintenance and that I will need his cell phone number, ha ha! He instantly handed me 4 business cards! I think he will be great too and I'm sure my "old" PM told (warned) him all about me, lol. Seriously though, "Old PM," If you are reading this, thanks for everything! I hope your new homeowners appreciate you as much as I do!

So enough of that. Where do I start? Oh yeah, I didn't mention this before because I was afraid that it just went unnoticed and I didn't want my PM to have it removed, but we totally got a free tray ceiling!! I visited the house last week and noticed a note in our study that said, "Finish Tray." Um, we didn't opt to have a tray in that room. It wasn't even a standard option! It turns out that the framers accidentally put the tray ceiling in the study instead of the formal dining room at first. And of course, since my PM is (was) so awesome, he just had them add one to the formal dining room and leave the one in the study! So now we have THREE tray ceilings!! One in the master, formal dining room, and in the study! Wooohoo for fancy ceilings!!!

FREE tray ceiling!!

I also mentioned in my last post that there was a framing issue in the basement. Apparently the wall was  in the correct place. My PM said that's how it is on the blueprints and that it was a recent change to the model. I didn't question it too much and I didn't even check the blue prints. It just wasn't worth it. We will end up with less storage space but we will have extra finished space. Here's a picture of what I thought the basement would look like:

See the bumped out wall with the door to the morning room part of the basement?

No bump out like the above picture. The exposed support beam will be framed out and drywalled. It will look like a pillar.

The only reason I thought this change was weird is because we did not get the media room finished. The media room is the big open space in the first picture to the right of the 15-light door. The extra square feet of finished area we will be getting will literally just be a space between the door to our storage area and the door to the the closet that has the heater, hot water tank, and sump pump in it. We will have a ton of storage space until my husband decides to have the media room finished in a few years. We are really good about getting rid of stuff we don't use or need though so I'm sure we will be just fine. Yay for extra finished space in the basement!

THEY STARTED OUR BRICK TODAY!! WOOHOO!! Of course I had to run up to them to take a picture. I'm pretty sure the workers were laughing at me. IT LOOKS BEAUTIFUL! We were worried about our brick because we haven't seen it on another house. Not that we know of, that is.

Squee!!

As we were leaving, the garage door installer pulled up and was getting to work! He had the doors all laid out and of course I had to take a picture! He totally laughed at me for taking pictures. I told him that I blog about the progress of my house!

Garage door parts!

The brick should be finished by the end of this week. I am TOTALLY going to visit either Friday or Saturday to get a look at it! All the front will need next is some shutters and trim and then the front of my house will look done! I have no intentions of going back inside the house until the drywall is finished. That stuff is a mess! The drywallers start tomorrow and should be done in about a week. I think we get our siding next week?

Ok, back to the pre-drywall meeting stuff. Everything looks really great. The insulation was installed this weekend. We had no idea. We were planning on video taping every room before the insulation just so we will know what's behind the walls, but it's not a huge deal. We were going to do it after the meeting and then just decided that we don't think it's really that necessary. We only had a few things that will need to be corrected before the drywall is completed. Guardian put our phone and cable hook-ups in the wrong place in the master bedroom. They put the cable hook-up behind where the head of the bed will be. Who would ever mount a tv above the head of the bed?!? This is literally the only space that makes sense in the master for the bed to be too. They also put our internet connection in the wrong spot in the basement. Oh well, our new PM is on top of it and said he will call first thing in the morning to get someone out to fix it.

I mentioned in my previous post that I was super disappointed in the depth of the garden tub. My PM said he would order me a new one. When I visited the house last week, there was a tub sitting in the front yard. It was literally the same as the one we already had. Turns out that tub was delivered by mistake and the new one my "old" PM ordered me just hasn't arrived yet. I can't wait to see it! I really hope it's better than the one that's in there now!

As for the closing date, we got pushed back by one day. Our final walk-through was supposed to be on Friday, August 3rd but our new PM will be on vacation that whole week. That means our final walk-through will now be Monday, August 6th and our closing day will be Tuesday, August 7th. It's not a huge deal. We probably won't be moving the bulk of our stuff until the weekend anyway. I just want to get into the house to do some preliminary stuff. We need to get our internet set up and have our fridge, washer, and dryer all delivered before we can officially move in. There were two or three other bloggers who had the same closing date as us. I guess you guys will beat us by one day now!

My PM is Better Than Your PM

I haven't posted a blog in about a week and a half! Things have been pretty crazy. We have only visited the house twice in the past week and a half, which has been strange. During framing we were going out there every single day. We decided to keep our distance for a while so that we can see even more progress on the inside with each visit. So much has happend in the past week and a half. My sister and my one-year-old nephew are visiting us from Texas, which is keeping us busy and keeping our minds off the house. I also started a new job after not working for over 6 months. This came at a good time because paying two mortgages until we find renters for our current home will be no fun! Last week someone hacked our checking account and almost stole $2000. Thankfully the fraud department at Chase was all over it and stopped the transaction before it went through. We had to get a whole new account. ALL of our bills are automatically taken out of our account and getting them all switched over to our new account has been a huge pain in the rear. We had a HUGE storm last Friday. Brick pillars and part of the fence surrounding our pool at our current house were blown over. Thankfully we live in a condo and aren't responsible for the repair! This made us nervous for the state of the house we are building. We drove out there Saturday to check it out and to show my sister the house for the first time. I got super freaked out when we drove up and saw that all of the windows and doors were left open. The wrap around the house had come off in certain places too. Thankfully there was no damage! It didn't look like the inside of the house got wet at all, except for the basement and that's only because they haven't installed the window down there yet.

So back to the title of my blog. My PM is THE BEST. I feel so lucky. I read other blogs where other people have a hard time getting in touch with their PMs and sometimes it takes days. That would drive me insane! Mine responds to my texts within minutes and is overall a really nice guy. I have stopped texting him in the evenings and on weekends because he actually responds during those times. I don't want to encroach upon his family time so I have been doing my best to save my text messages for business hours! He is trying (and succeeding) to make this process as enjoyable as possible for us. Monday I expressed to him that I have been disappointed with the garden tub in the master bathroom. That tub has been bothering me ever since I first saw it installed. I didn't say anything at first and I just let it eat away at me. My husband couldn't care less because he doesn't take baths. The straw that broke the camels back is when both my father and my sister mentioned that they didn't think the tub looked very deep. They totally validated my feelings without me even soliciting an opinion. I called my PM with a general list of questions and I mentioned my disappointment in the tub. I told him that it did not look like the one my SR told us came standard with the house. It just looks like a regular bathtub without a shower. He told me that they recently switched vendors so the tub wasn't going to be like the one I expected and he offered to check it out for me. I really feel like the SR should have told us this. It may be a small issue to some but it isn't for me. Within a few hours of speaking with my PM, he texted me to let me know that he ordered me a new tub! He ordered the one that I was originally expecting!! That's just one small example of why my PM is better than your PM. He really goes above and beyond to make sure we are happy. After all, we are the ones who are paying for and will be living in this house :)

So much has happened at our house since my last blog post. The concrete was poured in our garage and in the basement. The HVAC, plumbing, hot water tank, and electric have all been installed. It even looks like Guardian did their installation and our brick was delivered! They also installed the service door on the back of the garage and the door leading from the garage into the house. The framing is finished for the most part but my husband did notice an error in the basement. One of the walls separating the storage area from the finished area seems to be pushed a few feet back farther than it should be. It's really too hard to explain on here so I will just leave it at that. I mentioned to my PM on Monday during our phone call. I thought it would help to tell him before they finished framing the basement. I visited today and they framed the rest of the basement but had not fixed this error. I also didn't see any notes spray painted telling them to fix it. I guess it will either be fixed or we will just have to point it out again during our pre-drywall meeting.

We were pleasantly surprised to see that the plumber mistakenly roughed-in a utility sink in the laundry room. We did not choose this option during our selection process. I was afraid it would take up too much room in the already small laundry room. We did ask our SR if we could get one installed in the basement or garage and she told us no without even submitting a non-standard request. I've been a little bitter about it since I have seen so many other bloggers who have them in their basements and in their garages! I was afraid to point out the plumber's mistake to our PM because I thought he might have it removed. Then I figured it would be best to tell him just in case he notices the error and has it removed thinking we didn't want it. He said we can keep it! Woohoo! I think it was meant to be! This is another example of why my PM is better than your PM ;)

We also noticed that we will have a thermostat on all three levels of the house. We were wondering if this meant we could control all three levels separately. I asked my PM and he said yes! He said it is all still the same HVAC system but that we can have different temperatures, within 10 degrees, on each level. SCORE! This will definitely help us save on our electric bill! 

Ok, so enough of this super long entry. Here come the pictures! They are in random order from when I took them.  I'm considering hiring Thomas to come up with witty captions for me. Mine are just so boring compared to his!

Brick!! Can't wait to see it on the house!

Mortar

I love the style of door they use for the garage service door!

Glad there is a light on the outside of the garage service door. I'm sure this is code but I still wasn't aware it was included. That alone makes getting the service door worth it. More light for the backyard! This is perfect since we plan on putting our hot tub in this general area.

Hose bib on the left, dryer vent is there somewhere, and I don't know what else that is.

Even though we got 9' ceilings on the first floor, the laundry room has an 8' ceiling. This is probably due to the HVAC system that runs over top of it.

Notes written on the protective covering of the door leading to the garage. I really wanted to see what this door looks like!

Lots of the lights in the kitchen!

Ceiling fan rough-in in the morning room

Fireplace and "eyeball" lights above it

Ice-maker rough-in for fridge

Pretty sure this is from Guardian. 

Temporary railing installed. Now I don't have to feel like I might fall to my death when I walk upstairs.

I think that little black thing is where our wireless router will be, in our second floor ceiling.

Lame-o tub. This will be getting replaced. Can't wait to see the new one!

Ceiling in the master water closet.

Gray one is from electrician. I think the blue one is Guardian.

One of the three locations for a thermostat. SO GLAD it's in the master bedroom!

My beautiful window from the inside :)

Electrical panel

Pretty sure this wall is in the wrong place. It should enclose that support beam but it's several feet back.

Another shot of the wall that's in the wrong place

This is in the finished part of the basement but the PM said he will build a small closet around it.

on the HVAC unit

Heater

Hot water tank and sump pump.

Hot water tank sticker. Does that say 85 gallons? The number is smudged.

Will someone please install this window so water will stop getting in my basement?

Other hose bib and water meter (left side of house)

Thanks to Charlie, I now know that this black thing is for my air conditioner unit!

Electrical outlet on the back of the house. Near the right corner

What is that? It's on the back of the house below the morning room windows.

The pipe on the left is just laying there but what is the one on the right? It's sticking out of the morning room wall.

Spot light that will be installed next to the second floor windows.

Light fixture next to the morning room door.

Outlet near the front door

Coach lights next to the front door. Is that my doorbell on the left side of the door frame?

Concrete in the garage.

Front stoop. I think this looks weird. The concrete doesn't match the foundation. Do they do anything about that?

Tray ceiling in the dining room.

I like how there are vents in the ceiling and in the floors.

Double vanity in the master bath!

Shower and lame-o tub.

Hall bathroom

Water in the basement from Friday's storm.

Kitchen sink placement.

Free utility sink rough-in! Woohoo! 

Laundry room hook-ups

Master bedroom tray ceiling!