PROGRESS!!!!

So we broke ground yesterday and they were supposed to pour our footers today. My husband and I drove out to the lot today so that I could get a picture of our hole. I couldn't get close enough yesterday because they were still digging when I stopped by. It turns out that they poured our footers yesterday and poured our basement walls today!!!!!! Does this mean they will start framing next week?!?! I AM SO EXCITED!!!

We also got to meet one of our neighbors. He was out doing yard work and walked over and asked if we were going to be his new neighbors. His name is Ryan and he is super nice! I didn't get to meet his wife. They also have a dog so maybe they can play sometime!

Here are some photos of our progress!

From in front of the garage, looking left. I think? Garage not pictured.

Standing on the ride side of the house.

Our shadows are waving hello! We are facing the morning room. Oh, and my car is in the background!

My Hubby

Yes, I met my neighbor while wearing a shirt that says: "Talk Nerdy to Me"

WE BROKE GROUND!!!

I drove by our lot today to check on the ground breaking! Since it is 35 minutes away from where we are currently living, I texted our PM to make sure we were on schedule. He responded in less than a minute! 10 points to the awesome PM! Building our dream home is super emotional for me. I didn't think that seeing some construction equipment digging a whole would affect me that much but I must admit, I totally got teary eyed driving towards it! Ok, fine. I definitely cried a little! I didn't take too many pictures because I couldn't get close enough. You will just have to look at pictures of my big dirt pile for now! They are pouring the footers today so I might go back tomorrow after-hours to get some close-up shots! Might? Who am I kidding?! I WILL be going back tomorrow.

I also took a picture of our neighbor's house. Those little flags around their property are markers for an invisible fence. I'm totally jealous of their 3-car garage!

Here's our other neighbor. They have a Dyanni Home. There were only a couple of those built before Ryan Homes took over the development. They are also the only ranch-style houses in the neighborhood. The garages you see past that house belong to another house that is at the dead-end of our street. Somehow it's not part of our development. I swear they have more garage space than house!

The Verdict is In.....

I finally heard back from our SR today. She took complete blame for the appliance issue we (I) had. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, read my previous post. She was able to get the change order processed for us to upgrade our appliance package, even though we are three weeks past our 30-day selection lock-in. I hate confrontation so I'm happy that this was taken care of. If she would have come back with a "no" answer, I would not have simply just let it go. We are getting the Premier IV Built-in stainless steel appliance package. This includes GE Profile appliances. Now I get to pick out a new (better) refrigerator to go with my upgraded appliances :)

I am also excited because I found the building permit approval online for our house!! This just makes things feel a little more real! We should be breaking ground in about two weeks!!

Final Selections

Today we chose the locations for our hosebibs and spotlights. We also looked into getting a rough-in for drainage and a waterline for a sink for a future wet-bar in our basement. It ended being too expensive so we decided not to get it. A bar without a sink it will be! We are ok with that though because our kitchen is at the top of the basement stairs. Not too far to travel if we need a sink. We also have a powder room in our basement with a sink. We weren't dead-set on a location for the bar so now we can always decide that later.

We decided to have them "delete" the shelving in the laundry room. I want to be able to put in cabinets instead. I got that idea from another blogger! He said that they use drywall anchors and it is pretty difficult to remove on your own. I don't want to have to patch any walls! More on the laundry room later.....

We chose our brick, siding, shutters, and door colors. We originally picked a different siding color, but we weren't able to get the color shutters and door that we wanted with it so we changed it. I'm glad we did. I like the color we ended up with the best.

Brick = Virginia Vintage Tudor
Siding = Georgian Gray
Shutters = Black
Door = Black
Trim = White

Now that all of our selections are locked-in, we are ready to just sit back and wait for them to finish building our house! Can't wait! Our tentative date for breaking ground is May 9th. I thought she originally said April 25th. Doesn't matter either way I guess. The "delivery" date is still the same.

Advice for people making their exterior decisions: Drive around and look at what your neighbors have. The brick samples look nothing like they look on an actual house. Some of the samples I consider to be ugly actually look really great on a house. It's hard to look at something so small and try to imagine it on a house.