Pre-Dry Wall Meeting

We had our pre-dry wall meeting today. All in all it went pretty good.
The framers were a little behind schedule, so the completion date of the home is now October 11th. Not too far off of our estimated close date at signing of October 4th.
I emailed our LO this morning and he said they typically close within 2 days of completion. Since we are now safe and within 60 days, we need to think about which bank we are locking with and lock the rate. And of course they are up to 4.625% with .625% points. That is $152 more a month than when we signed and priced everything at 3.625%.

We did want to change a few things we found during our walk thru:

• The hose bib on the back of the house was really high. So it wasn't so noticeable, we asked him to move it down a foot or so.
• He still needs to have the electrician move our thermostat wiring so it is not right in the middle of the wall above where we would put our buffet.
• The spacing of the two outlets in the master were not spaced the same below the windows/from the side wall. We asked him to move the one. But when he measured it out, it was more then 12 feet away from the other outlet. We compromised and he is going to move the one outlet and then ask the electrician come in and add another outlet to where we wanted to move the other one to. This way we have an outlet under each window on both sides of the bed for nightstands.
• They did fix the framing for the master bath. They just need to come back in and center the lights over the tub and shower.
• Our biggest item we saw where the air return vents. I guess they are doing something new now. All the air return vents are above the bedroom doors. So as you are walking up the stairs, all you can see are these vents. We both think it looks ugly. Not too happy about it. He was explaining why they are doing it this way and I wasn't paying attention too much. I was just looking at them thinking how much I hated them being there.  

E stayed back and took a bunch of pictures of all the walls so we knew where we could get a stud to hang items on the walls.
They had the garage doors on both garages, but when we left they were up so we couldn't get pictures of the doors yet. Guess I will just need to drive past again :-)
We saw that our flower box was still on the lot. Since they stopped putting them on the floor plans, we asked if he could just keep it at the house. He said he would put it up if we wanted him to.

They are going to fix some framing issues today, start the HVAC tomorrow, and insulation and dry wall next week. He said he thinks he will be locking the doors this weekend since all the HVAC equipment will be in the basement.

So excited that it is starting to look like a home!!!!

Third Car Garage Framing

We moved in with E's sister this weekend. The move went well except a few of my items that weren't suppose to go to the storage vault ended up there. The only box I am worried about is the box where I had perfume bottles and nail polish; these items were not packed for storage. Just hoping that they don't break!!!

We stopped by Friday for a quick look and a worker showed up while we were touring the house. We went back on Sunday to get pics and saw that they started to rough in the plumbing.

We also met our neighbors on the one side. They seem really nice and are close to our age. He is actually friends with one of the guys I went to high school with.

I was excited to see that they have the third car garage framed.

They did frame our master bath backwards. The floor plan is to have the shower and then the bath tub and the door would swing into the bedroom. We did a non-standard to flip it so the tub was behind the door and the door would swing into the bathroom instead. We want to put a sitting chair in the corner. We saw on Friday that they had already set the tub and of course it was backwards. We reached out to the PM on Monday and he said he was aware it was wrong and he was waiting for the frame guy to come back and fix it. Everyone knew this would be wrong and that is why they charged us $500 (I think that was the amount) for this non-standard.

We also asked our PM to move our thermostat location. It is currently smack dab in the middle of the small wall. We plan to put a buffet there and of course we won't be able to put a large picture/mirror above it with a thermostat right there. He is going to look at it, so hopefully they will move it for us. Thanks to the other bloggers for reminding me to look into this.
E went yesterday to see if they set any other switches that we would want moved before they wire them completely. There was a large crew there so he wasn't able to get in.

We have our pre-dry wall meeting bright and early tomorrow at 7am. Hopefully the bathroom will be fixed.
And a close date?????

Here are a few pictures. Our house looks huge from the side because of the walk-out basement. We also saw our neighborhood pets on Sunday. There is a large family of turkeys that live in the woods around the house.

 

 

We also went on Sunday to pick our granite for the countertops. Well "pick" turned out to be-"Here is the slab your countertops will be cut from; they are all very similiar".

 



Second Floor

They must have worked over the weekend!!

They started the second floor. E drove past last tonight and was rather surprised.
He couldn't get in to get pics because they were still inside working.

We need to get in touch with our PM this week to see where we are at.
Maybe the pre-dry wall meeting next week???

We are going on Sunday to pick out our granite slab. They are suppose to measure on 8/19 and install 8/26; all per the granite company.

We are also moving this weekend and I have been doing nothing but packing since Saturday. It's a pain, but then again I am super excited to be unpacked and into our new home!!!

Just a few pictures from yesterday:

I am sure E will go back tonight and see what was done. Hopefully he can get in. I know he was upset yesterday when he wasn't able to see the inside.
I can't wait until they start to frame the third car garage!

Framing & Rate Update

Looks good so far and seems like we are on schedule. We were told they would start to frame to late last week. E drove past Friday night and they have most of the lower level done. No garage or stairs yet. I think he is going to be OCD the next couple of weeks and stop each day.

 

 

He also noticed that there are gaps in the framing. One in the kitchen and one in the Family Room directly across the lower level from one another. Does anyone else remember seeing these gaps and what their PM said about them?

 



 

I have been sending our information to a few local banks. Even though NVR is paying 1% of our transfer taxes, their closing costs are very comparable to other banks when we have to pay the full 2%. I emailed our LO and he was able to waive the origination fee, but he wasn't able to match the rate (4.375%) without charging .625% points. So with the waived origination fee and the charge for the rate we would get with no points at a local bank, we are back to where we started. I am waiting for him to send me the updated GFE, I am calculating that they should be close to $1K less. So I am curious to see what they added back in. I am going to now go back to the current bank and see if they will give us the 30 day lock rate of 4.25% with no points at the 60 day lock. Never hurts to ask.