"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!

Met with our PM Today

I was having lunch with my husband today and I told him that we should make the drive out to the house. He has extra hours put in for this week and his work is closer to the house than where we live now. It would also save us the trip tonight. He told me I should text the PM to make sure there was actual progress first. Our PM said there was progress and that he was heading out that way. I asked him if we could meet up and possibly walk through the house with him. He said we could meet him but he didn't feel comfortable walking through the house without the roof finished. Once we got there we saw why. They were putting in our roof trusses and the ones that were just propped up were swaying in the wind a lot. I didn't want to go in after seeing that!

We talked a lot with our PM. I told him how disappointed I have been. First with how long the framing process is taking. I also told him I was upset that the houses across the street are getting framed faster than ours and we bought our house first. He did point out that our house is larger and that our roof is much more complicated in shape. I never really looked at the roof that closely but he is right. He said our house is scheduled to be finished before their's and that everything for our house is scheduled to happen before theirs - such as plumbing and electrical stuff. Our pre-drywall inspection will probably be in about two weeks. Or did he say three? Either way! The best news he gave me was that WE ARE STILL ON SCHEDULE!!! I don't even know how that's possible with all of the delays with framing but it is! He said as of right now our final walkthrough will be August 3rd and then closing on August 6th. These were the dates we were given in our Pre-construction meeting so I'm super excited!!

Our PM said they should start putting on the roof today when they are finished with the trusses and finish it up tomorrow. He also said our windows should start going in tomorrow. The framers are supposed to work through the weekend if they don't get finished tomorrow. He said they may come out on Monday to do some final touches. Our plumber is scheduled for Monday and the concrete for the basement and garage is currently scheduled to be poured on Wednesday! On Thursday the framers should be coming back to frame the basement walls and to complete the "punch-out" list my PM creates. The electrician is scheduled for next Friday. Our PM said we should schedule a time to walk through the house with him. I told him I want to see the basement so I think we may be meeting him out there next Friday, as long as my husband can take the time away from work.

I just wanted to mention one more thing before I post a picture of today's progress. I know I have been frustrated with the waiting game and the delays with framing. I just want everyone to know that my frustrations are with the framing crew and not with my PM or with Ryan Homes. Our PM really is a nice guy and is great with communication. I've never had to wait longer than five minutes to receive a response from him. He even responds to me in the evening when I send a frantic text - I'm going to try to stop doing that by the way! I did tell him that I have a blog but I warned him that there are pictures of the inside of the house - even though we are not supposed to be going into the house without someone with us. He said he didn't want to hear that so I told him he better not look at my blog then! I'm sure curiosity will get the better of him and he will read it! I also made sure I told him that my frustrations aren't with him so I hope nothing in my blog offends him. I really need to get a job so I can stop obsessing about this house so much! I'm just going to try to relax and keep reminding myself that it will be finished eventually! Once they are done with the framing, we only plan on visiting once a week. Maybe then I will be a little less crazy - maybe :)