Day 37 | HVAC, Garage Floors and lots more

Today marks day 43 since we broke ground.  I think we're on the downhill slide now and I can finally see the light!

The last round of photos that Joe sent to me were from 6 days ago.  He hasn't been back out to the house since then.  He came to visit us in WV.  Good enough reason, right?

The kids and I are leaving tomorrow morning to head up to Cleveland.  Our Pre-Drywall meeting is scheduled for 8:30am on Wednesday.  I can't even tell you how excited I am to FINALLY see the house in person.  The last time I saw it, they were breaking ground.

I think it's going to be weird to walk through the house.  We have the reverse floor plan.  The model home in our development is a Florence.  It has the regular floor plan.  I've walked through that model many times.  When I picture our new house in my head, I automatically think of the model home, which is the reverse of ours.  It's hard for me to picture the kitchen, master bathroom, basement bump-out for morning room .. etc. on the opposite side.

The following photos were taken on day 37, 6 days ago.....

The garage floor and front porch have been poured.  We'll have a gravel driveway and walkway until spring.

The basement floor has been poured as well.  It look like it's still drying.  Isn't that a heater?

Stay tuned, I'm charging up my Canon Rebel batteries and cleaning up my CF cards.  I plan on taking photos non-stop during our pre-drywall walk through in less than 48 hours!  

I really loved the idea of writing scriptures on the door frames of the bedrooms... who's blog was that on?  I think we may just steal that idea!

Day 30 | Shingles, Siding & Brick Work Preparations

I am so happy with the progress they've made on our house over the past few days.  Joe drove by yesterday after he voted.  It looks like they're getting ready to finish up the roof.  The shingles are sitting on top.  

We selected elevation K.  It has a cottage style feel to it with shake siding.  They put the wood trim up that separates the shake siding from the brick and the vertically run siding. This elevation was our second choice.  We originally selected elevation L that comes with stone and even more cottage style details.  We switched (downgraded) to elevation K so we could add on the morning room.  We're happy with our decision.  It was a good compromise, but I REALLY wanted stone (that came with elevation L). 

I got a little bit nervous when Joe sent this picture to me.  We didn't choose pebblestone clay siding.  I put in a call to our PM a few minutes ago.  The siding is for a service call on another house... WHEW!

Day 27 | Framed, Wrapped and Roofed

I am officially impressed with our new PM!  Look at the photos Joe sent ....

This was taken standing at the top of the stairs looking to the back of the house towards the master bedroom.

The shower/tubs are now inside.  I'm pretty sure this is the full bath in the hall upstairs.  That's the master bedroom closet on the far right.

This is at the top of the stairs looking down to the main floor.

The windows in the morning room looking out over the backyard mud pit.

Standing in the morning room looking back into the house.  I can't wait for our pre-drywall meeting!  Joe said that he went down into the basement while he was there.  All of the water is gone!  That's a huge relief.

We have a new Project Manager

The call Joe received this morning came as a huge surprise! The PM I wrote about in my last post left Ryan Homes. We have a new Project Manager. I'm sure our new PM will be great, but I'm kinda sad.

Call from PM regarding Sandy

I put in a call to our PM yesterday.  He returned my call around 5pm.  He answered all of my questions and addressed all of my concerns.  Our basement is still gravel, so we don't have to worry about water damage to the floor.. whew!  He said the sub flooring and framing should be fine.  I'm confident that he'll double check to make sure it's ok.

Obviously, they lost a few days of work because of Sandy.  They were scheduled to start back to work today.  Our PM said the framing should be finished on Friday.  That's really exciting!  We should be ready for our pre-drywall walk through in about 2 weeks.

As a side note:

Our PM is awesome!  At our pre-construction meeting he outlined the system he has for communicating with the home buyers (Is that what we would be called?).  He does NOT give out his cell phone number.  Instead, he has a number for us to call and leave a voice mail.  He returns all calls on his drive home.  He also gives out his email address, but he will only respond during the work day if it's a quick answer.  If it requires him to type a lot, he will return the email from home in the evening.

I really appreciate his system!  He also does a weekly update call every Friday to let us know what progress has been made along with what they plan on working on the following week.

The Wrath of Sandy

I'm kind of sick to my stomach looking at the pictures Joe sent to me. What really concerns me is the potential problems we could run into later. We currently have about 4" to 6" of standing water in our basement. There is a window floating in the water.  It really is a shame they couldn't get the sump pump in before Sandy hit.

It looks like some of the floor joists were ripped out by the strong winds.  I'm sure this is an easy fix though. I really hope they didn't do any damage to our neighbor's houses.

What about the wood?  It's saturated!  The rain isn't supposed to stop until Friday.  Will this cause damage that won't show up until later?  Is this something that I should be worried about?

Day 19 | Hurricane Sandy Preparations

We're getting a little bit nervous watching Hurricane Sandy.  At the very least we'll see heavy rain and strong wind in Cleveland (where we're building our house).  Here in WV (where the kids and I are located until the house is finished) we're going to see a LOT more rain, flooding, winds and possible snow.  Thankfully we aren't in the high Appalachian mountains where the predictions are calling for heavy wet snow.

Joe drove down here to WV to spend the weekend with us.  Before he left Cleveland he drove by the house to take pictures of yesterday's progress.  It looks like they're preparing the house for Hurricane Sandy.

All of the windows on our main floor have been installed.  The roof has also been put on the morning room.  They were in the process of putting in the floor joists for the second floor. 

I wonder if they're trying to get the floor joists for the second floor finished up so they can put the sheeting down and cover it with plastic?  I'm really worried about our basement flooding too.  The drainage is in but we don't have a sump pump installed yet.

Our PM calls us every Friday with updates.  He didn't call yesterday (Friday).  I'm sure he's really busy with storm preparations. 

Our thoughts and prayers are with all of you that are closer to the east coast.  Let's hope Sandy fizzles out before she makes landfall.

Day 18 (evening) | We have a main floor!

I can't believe how fast these guys work. They framed up the main floor in just one day! Joe is going back out there today after work to take pictures of today's progress.  In the meantime, here's what they completed yesterday.

Here is the garage.  You can see the entry that leads into the laundry room.  The kitchen and morning room are behind that.

This was taken standing in the great room looking at where the staircases will go up to the 2nd floor and down to the basement.  The garage is on the other side.

Standing at the front door looking in.  You can see where the stairs going down to the basement will be located.  It looks like a big scary hole right now!

Taken from the back of the house.  This is the great room and the morning room.  Our sliding glass door is laying on the ground along with our windows.

Check out the view that I'll have looking out of the windows in my morning room!  We hesitated on this lot at first because it was on water.  Our 2.5 year old son is very curious and energetic.

This is back at the front of the house.  You can see the hole for the front entrance along with the holes for the windows.

The steel beams are in place.  I love that they use steel beams.  We lived in two older homes with upstairs floors that sloped.  Not fun!

My birthday is on Nov. 6th... Ryan Homes is wrapping a big present for me ;)

One of our staircases that should be going in today.

I'm getting a little bit nervous watching Hurricane Sandy on the Weather Channel.  They're expecting to see effects from it in Cleveland.  I know some of you are closer to the east coast and you'll probably see worse effect from it than we will.  I hope it stays waaaaay out to sea!

Day 18 (morning) | Framing begins

Joe called me about an hour ago to tell me that they started framing! He only had time to send one picture though. From what I can tell, the floor joists are in and a wall is up. Yippee!

I'm posting this from the Blogger app on my iPhone. I hope the formatting is ok.

Days 4 - 11 | Catching Up - Progress on our Florence

I've realized something... living with family when you're in your 30's and have 4 kids in tow is no picnic. We're all learning lessons in patience, kindness, generosity, gratefulness, frugality and chipping in to help when needed. This past week was a little trying, but we made it through. Now I have to get you caught up on where we're at with our house!

Here we go.....  

There has been so much progress! It's hard to believe that it's only been 11 days since we broke ground on October 9, 2012. Things really do move quickly after the ground breaking.

Day 4 | 10-12-12 | Poured Basement Walls

Joe did not have a chance to drive out to take pictures this day. The basement walls were poured though. Our PM called for our weekly update. He said they would be wrapping the basement on 16th, deliveries for supplies should start on the 19th and framing is expected to start on the 26th.

Day 5 | 10-13-2012 | Basement Walls & Steel Beams

Joe drove out after work. The basement walls had been poured and the frames were removed. He also saw a delivery of the steel beams.

Joe was standing at the front of the house when he took this one. The front porch is directly in front with the soon to be finished basement behind it. The garage is off to the left with the unfinished part of the basement behind it.

The orange spray paint marks are for the waterproofing. That's how far up the wrapping comes.

I think these are the pipes for the sump pump?

Day 8 | 10-16-2012 | Basement wrapped

After Joe got off of work, he drove out to see the progress. It's looking great so far!

Day 10 | 10-18-2012 | Deliveries Have Started!

Joe decided to drive by the house to see if they had done anything while waiting for the deliveries to start. Look at what he saw....

Our front door, sliding glass door, and windows have been delivered! Our front door will be black, which reminds me, I need to update our selections page.

I couldn't see it in the first photo that Joe sent to me (the one above), but we have wood too. It doesn't look like very much. Maybe there's more hiding behind it or another delivery is scheduled?

This guy was there delivering our shower/tubs. I can't wait to use city water again!

Day 11 | 10-19-2012 | Weekly PM Call

Our PM called for our weekly update. He said that we're scheduled to start the framing on the 24th or the 25th.  He said that puts us about 2 weeks ahead of schedule right now. Of course that could all change, depending the the weather. 

So, that's where we're at right now. I'm so excited and happy with how fast things are moving! My fingers are crossed that the weather stays nice long enough for them to finish all of the outside work.