Days 86-95 : Delays, Final Tile Selections

Well, we found out today that we still have not passed inspections, we are still waiting on windows too. Pretty annoyed. We will most likely be in at the first of the year now. UGH!!! So so so annoyed. So since my last post, nothing has been done, at all. According to what I was told a few weeks ago we should have been at the end of the drywall stage at this point.

We did finalize our master bathroom tile; we wanted to upgrade it because we didn't like the one choice we were given of the same tile with 5 different color choices. This is what we chose.


Happy Floors Golden Light Collection. We chose the color white and 12x24 tiles. These will go in the master bath floor and the walls in the shower. The shower floor will be the 2x2 mosaic mix.

Stock pic of the floor and wall tile

Stock pic of the shower floor tile

 

I tried rotating, this is the selection in store

 

My sweet helper

 

Days 83-85: Just some better pictures and panoramas

This past Sunday marked day 85 of this process and all that is left to do before drywall are the inspections for electrical and plumbing rough in's. The 9 windows still need to be installed and I noticed our double window in our dining room is shattered, so sad.  I really hope they install the windows and get inspections done Monday or Tuesday so they can get on insulating and drywall. I am leaving for Houston this Thursday and won't be back until the next Monday so I will not see the house for a week and a half, I really hope the drywall is well under way when I get back!

Update: 10-23-13
They have not passed inspections because of the missing windows :( Drywall is now moved till next week. Really bummed, we really wanted to be in around the 15th of December and that's not looking to good right now :(

 

Broken Window

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I let our daughters color on the studs today; they loved it. My oldest wrote her name and drew rainbows and my youngest scribbled some masterpieces. I love knowing those will always be there.

Lanie drawing on the studs

 

Front Door Love

I think that this blocking is way too high for a tv mount, it should come down about a foot, right?

 

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I found several places that concern me. There are gaps between the seams of plywood and I want to make sure those are sealed before they drywall. There are several places where there are huge gaps and I don't want any bugs to be able to get in. There was a bug creeping under a window in the basement, freaked me out. I don't want pest problems from these cracks left in the framing.  

 

Update: 10-23-13 They will be filling in all gaps prior to insulation

That's Strange, haha

More Gaps

Bug coming in my window, err!

Major gaps

Hole in plywood

The girls envisioning their new rooms :)

Drawing in the master bedroom

I realized my camera takes decent panoramas!

They put the electrical panel right there underneath the window on the side.

I okay'd this but wasn't told it would be 5-6 feet off the ground, gross! Now I have to figure out some landscaping to hide that box.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Days 79-82: Roxul is in! So is our front door and our windows!

I got to the house at 6:15 and took some pictures before my husband got there. By 7:15 it was completely pitch black.  The roof is completely done (yay!) they put the metal accents on the roof (above the garage in the front in the first picture) and the front door is gorgeous! It will be stained a dark brown. Most of the windows are in too! We are still missing about 9 windows but the majority are in and I love them; they are tan prairie style.

 



 

When we were discussing the type of cement siding we wanted last week (vertical/horizontal/shank) I kept looking at the elevation and something just didn't look right. I was comparing it to the model home picture and finally realized we have an extra "peak" not sure of the technical term but the big peak on the very top that goes from the garage peak up and connects with the 2 smaller ones is an extra. I love it, it really adds a lot to the exterior look of the house!

 

Missing the double and triple windows here...I saw them laying inside, they'll probably finish them today

Forgot to rotate this one, sorry! Right side of house windows are in.

All of the back windows are in except for the small kitchen window.

Our master, I love the double window! (I know I've said it a million times, sorry!)

 

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And now for the Roxul insulation/sound proofing. OMG I couldn't be in construction for sure. This stuff was not what I expected it to be. Maybe I thought it would have a wrap around it but it didn't. It is super dense fuzzy stuff with shards of rock/minerals in it. it was super easy to cut, most of it I just pulled apart with my hands. There were a lot of studs that weren't the 23''-24'' apart and we had to cut a LOT of this stuff.

 

It took us a full hour to do this one room (not even 3 full sides). And we ran out of daylight quickly so we had to use our phones and ipad for light (pretty comical looking).

Finished product, the builders will insulate the exterior wall. 

The girls were really good, they played on the phone/ipad and held the light up for us to see.

I was wearing a sweater and pants and felt pretty bad, the insulation was all over me and so itchy/scratchy. I should have worn a face mask b/c I felt it in my throat too, ew!

 

I didn't get many pictures while it was still light outside, but I did get a picture of our patio door. I forgot that it had a transom up top, looks really good! I wish I had gotten a close up of the front door, there is a cute little ledge on it that will be good to decorate:)

 

I noticed they put up an inspection sheet, it seems that all inspectors sign off on this one sheet up until the C/O is issued. I saw the HVAC was done (last week when I posted) but I didn't see the electrical or plumbing was done yet. I figured they wouldn't let us insulate until the electrical had passed but who knows, maybe I'm missing something. The electrical was completely finished and it seems the plumbing is as well.

 

I will probably go back Sunday afternoon so I can take a good look at everything before they drywall. I'll be out of town next weekend so I won't see the house for a week and a half, hopefully we'll be dry walled in when I get back!

 



Bummed about rate locking..not happening :(

So we are close to 60 days out...and when I talked to the loan rep a few weeks ago she told me we could lock in our rate and be set. I knew it sounded to good to be true :( I just talked to my assigned person at the bank and she said that we have to factor in the time frame from C/O to appraisal to closing date, which could be another 2 week. Bummed!

The appraiser will go out in a few weeks and get the majority of his appraisal done and then when the C/O is issued he'll go back out and confirm the specs are correct. This is what the first lady failed to tell me. We had terrible luck with our appraisal back in June/July, it took them almost a MONTH to get the report. If that happens again we would lose our rate lock and be subject to current rates.

So now we have to wait until we give ourselves a generous cushion of time in case we get delayed or in case the appraiser takes their sweet time :(

In the meantime, they are going to do the approval and wait on us to decide if we want to risk locking the rate in. I am so terrified of rates jumping again, I really thought this would be the one thing that went right through this whole process, but nope!

On another note,
We are going to install our Roxul tonight. Hubby went and put it in the basement last night and said the front doors and most of the windows were in...and I think he said some interior doors were in as well. I'll take some pictures tonight. wish us luck!

Installing Roxul Thursday and Semi-Closing Date

We were told we need to install our Roxul insulation this Thursday or Friday, which means we must have passed the electrical inspection (or will pass it today or tomorrow). Drywall should start next week sometime. We have been told that when drywall is finished we are 45 days out. From all the other blogs I see that drywall can take 1-2 weeks to finish. Our crews have been working lightning fast so I'm hoping we are done within a week or week and a half; which means we should be moving in around the second week of December!

From a previous post, I talked about finding an awesome credit union for our refinance (from construction to mortgage) they will let us lock in a rate at 60 days out. We are getting really close to that; I'll probably wait until I physically see the drywall in place before locking, just to be 'safe' and give us a week or so of wiggle room. Rates have been hovering around 4.125 *APR of 4.3* for the last several weeks. I'm hoping they hold and I can breathe a big sigh of relief soon.

Our HOA Board approved out exterior colors and our SR told us that the exterior inspection is done at the same time as electrical so they will start the exterior when they begin drywall. This is very exciting, we will start to see what our house exterior will really look like, it's about to become really real :)


Some funny pictures from our previous visit:

Moving the window in the master, let's be clear :)

Squeak! I am super happy they do this though, makes my life easier

Things we need to take care of soon:

 

We still have to choose our exterior garage lights, recessed lights, family room light,

porch fan, living room fan and guest bedroom fan (yikes, that's a lot).

 

We also have to buy our appliances in the next 2 weeks *sigh* that purchase is going

 to be so much money.

 

Waiting on an email to finalize our order with the lighting center from last week

 

We are meeting directly with the flooring center to choose our tile for the master bathroom, we will just pay them the difference. Crossing my fingers the cost isn't too high, I'm almost all spent out!

 

Next up:

 

The roof and windows still need to be finished (if they haven't already)

 

Our master bedroom should have double doors

 

Electrical inspection is before Thursday

Insulation completed and then drywall is the next big phase

 

Days 75-78: We have tubs and a fireplace and a passed inspection.

Well I am going to stop calling it 'the land' , I catch myself saying that all the time.  I guess since we have tubs it can be considered an actual house :) Our windows still aren't in, which is surprising to me but hey, what do I know about this timeline thing. The roof is still not 100% completed, this is also kinda weird.

 

I LOVE our new window placement in our master.

 You can read the issue from a previous post HERE

Now a double window instead of a single, it's gorgeous

Now a corner window and the 2 are covered

The view out of this double window is really gorgeous, except for today because it was storming!

There was an amazing double rainbow though.

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The electrical on the upper floor is completed, and it looks like he started on the first floor but hasn't finished yet. We passed our HVAC inspection, Yay! It looks like a monster invaded our attic space

 

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Now for the other goodies

 

We have been going in our basement and walking up because the death trap, errr front porch, is still not filled in. What do we see when we walk in? A tub/shower combo in what is supposed to be only a rough in...

 

I did not think we should get this, but who knows?

The same tub is in the guest bath. This is the girls in their new tub :)

 

Party wasn't over until they all loaded up in the tub in the master :)

 

 

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Fireplace is in, love it!

Random Others...

 

I posted before the hvac had to take about 2 feet from my daughters closet, you can

see here how much smaller it's going to be. The door will now swing out and I'm

going to have to plan the shelving to maximize the space. Bummer.

 

Media room. This is where we will be putting the roxul. You can see the

rough in's for the can lighs and our electrical outlet in the top of the ceiling. Because of

all the wiring I wonder how difficult it's going to be to install the Roxul?

I'll end this post with a picture of the double rainbow taken from our master window.

 

 

Next up is to finish electrical, have inspections and onto drywall and exterior.

Choices are made! Lighting, Exterior, Flooring, etc...Tons of pics!

We had an exciting day today! We had an appointment at a lighting center to pick our stuff out. We basically have a credit to spend there and can choose whatever we want. We knew up front that the credit would not come close to covering the lighting we needed/wanted so I've been looking for lighting from other places and choosing lighting at the center that would be most profitable.

 

 

This is a SUPER long post, but there are tons of pics! 

From the lighting center we purchased all the bathroom, hallway and closet lighting.

 

Girls Vanity will be double so there will be two of the "3 light" fixtures above and the bowl will go above their toilet

 

 

Master bath, there will double vanities as well

Our toilet light it just a plain bronze/white bowl.

These will be in the hallway upstairs and downstairs. I wanted something plain with 2 lights in each fixture and these fit the bill! EDIT: Adding link : http://galleryoflighting.com/Brand-capital/two-light-bronze-bowl-flush-mount/2032or/SKU-PTVN?callingPage=CatalogBrowse&ut=W These are made by Capital Lighting

 

 

Guest bathroom downstairs vanity and above toilet. I chose this toilet light because the ceiling will be 9 ft. all and I thought something with some height to it would be nice

 

 

What I've bought separately:

 

 

 

For the dining room I've been dreaming of two pendants and found the perfect pair at Pottery Barn. I ordered these on Monday after confirming I could do 2 pendants in the room and thankfully, they had emailed me a 15% off code. I normally wouldn't spend this much but these are classic with a rustic twist that will last a looong time. Our will be hung about 2 feet apart EDITING: Adding link:

http://www.potterybarn.com/products/rustic-glass-large-pendant/?pkey=e%7Crustic%2Bglass%2Bpendant%2B-%2Blarge%7C1%7Cbest%7C0%7C1%7C24%7C%7C1&cm_src=PRODUCTSEARCH||NoFacet-_-NoFacet-_-NoMerchRules-_-

 

 

This, this I feel like I STOLE from lowes. Seriously, it's on closeout for $58.75! They had it listed as the portfolio brand, but when I went to pick it up it's actually the Allen Roth line! Super excited. This will go in our 2 story foyer.

 

 

 

Master Bed Fan, I've posted this before but wanted to add it to this one too. From Lowes, it's really neat, the glass bowl has linen look to it and the blades have large bolts. We like rustic/contemporary can you tell?!

 

 

 

I think this is the fan we got for both girls rooms, we bought the light kit separately. It's actually an indoor/outdoor fan! We wanted one with one glass bowl instead of several shades.

 

 

For our breakfast area. I love this because it takes 5 light bulbs and it will be nice and bright! This is from World Market.

 

Still needing:

Recessed lighting trim

Light for Family Room/ Office (still undecided)

Fan for living room

Fan for guest room

Fan for Deck

2 Coach Lights

2 Overhead lights for front porch

Light for mud room area (thinking an Ikea pendant)

 

 

Now For Flooring!!

 

 

Girls bathroom, we chose espresso cabinets with Armstrong Indian Spring Vinyl

Their counters will be white cultured marble with bronze hardware

The wall color with the flooring, very neat that their website offers this!

 

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Guest Bath- No great way to get a picture of this, since the tile was about a 4x4 cut piece. It's Shaw Cactus and this will be in the full bathroom downstairs that will also have Espresso cabinetry and white cultured marble counters.

 

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Entire downstairs will be hardwood except for bathroom and guest room. Our kitchen cabinets will also be espresso and the counters are typhoon Bordeaux. That's not our slab, we will pick one in a few weeks.

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The hardwood up against the carpet. This carpet will be in the downstairs guest bedroom and in all the upstairs rooms and hallways.

 

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I went out on a limb and chose this hardwood vinyl for the laundry. Our laundry room will be a decent size and I want to do white upper cabinets above the washing machine and dryer with a counter. I wanted something darker and loved the look of this! It's Armstrong Windsor Walnut Peppercorn

 

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Master Bath is still up for debate. We didn't love the tile choices for our floor, we are probably going to use the cactus tile for our shower because we prefer darker tile in showers. We didn't want something so dark for the floors so we are getting quotes on some 12''x24' tile. I think we would be better off going with something we love than settling for something mediocre. I'll make another post when we know, we are using espresso cabinetry in the master bath with the same granite from the kitchen

 

Exterior Colors

 

Our exterior will be cement board and they will paint it after installation. The sides and back will be 100% horizontal board and the front will have vertical board, shakes and horizontal board with stone accents. I have NO pictures of the elevation with this combo because we switched up where the vertical board and shakes are going. I used the James Hardie tool and chose a house style similar to ours.

 

Surprisingly this is very close except our garage is side loading.

 

All Horizontal Boards are Monterrey Taupe

Shakes will be Evening Blue

Vertical Board will be Evening Blue with Monterrey Taupe seams

Trim will be Timber Bark

Shutters are Dark Dark Brown (don't know the actual color)

Stone-Chosen later, they don't keep the samples in the office

 

 

There will be one section of shake siding that is not included on this elevation.