Friday, December 30, 2011

Pre-Drywall Meeting

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     We had our walk through with Ben today. He is thorough. I'm not sure I'll remember half of it, but we covered a lot of information about the house today. Everything seems to be coming along really well.

     There were a few exceptions, of course.

  •  Our hot water heater is only 50 gallons. I know we were told we were getting a much larger capacity. Luis remembers the same. I'm not sure who made the switch, but our project manager had a list which didn't specify the exact capacity. Ben is going to check up on this for us.
  • Our central vac canister was put in a space all by itself, although I had spoken with the sales rep and the supervisor of the installer to be certain it would be in the same corner as the furnace, hot water heater, electric, and low voltage panels. Instead? They put is smack in the center of the one open area.  They also did not move the cable/cat5 panels in the two large bedrooms upstairs. I had a call from our sales guy saying it was done, but they were both still in the same place. Ben is going to talk to them about these issues
  •   We went to Lowes after meeting with Ben and bought some soundproofing insulation. We raced back, trying to beat the darkness, and put it between the studs along the one wall in our bedroom which needed it to keep us isolated from the noise of the house. (Two walls are exterior, and one is next to our bathroom.) We installed it in the dark. I was glad to get it done so the drywall crew can do their stuff tomorrow morning. Ben says the drywall process should take a total of about ten days. I hope it goes faster, like everything else has so far. 

  
     While we were in the dark house putting the last of the insulation in the wall a Guardian guy came upstairs to move a cable box. He was smoking a cigarette! He just walked up and started talking to us. I thought he reeked, but once I got done with my work I looked at him and the thing was glowing. That's annoying, since they aren't even supposed to have food in the house. I guess if it's too dark to see the signs he thought he could go ahead and smoke in the house. I put a call in to Ben to let him know about it. If I had to choose one element of the process to give the lowest score right now, it would certainly be Guardian. We've been hung out to dry by them more than once. They are the ones causing me stress right now.
   
     Ben took care of a few other things for us. If I could only give 10s to one person in the process, it would be Ben. I am also glad that if there is going to be one person who is the most careful, it is our project manager.

     The basement bedroom is as bright and cheery as any of the other rooms since it has a big egress window.

     Because of the extra wall space in our kitchen (we did not want the morning room) we got extra cabinets. Nice surprise, since I was hoping to buy upper cabinets to put there later.

     We also discovered an extra recessed light at the foot of the stair. Another happy surprise, since I was wondering if I should have added a bit more lighting to the family room. I put recessed lights in every room without lights except that room. I even put them in closets and in the catwalk. How did I miss the family room? How? I have no idea!

     I took a lot of pictures, but they aren't even exciting to me. I just needed them so later I would know where stuff was behind the walls.

      By the end of the tour I was about a hundred times more excited than before. I didn't know if I was going to break my face smiling or start to cry. We will be in our new home, soon!



Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Anyone Know What Happened to MZ?

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     Her blog was "Our Future With a Ravenna." I went to see it tonight and *POOF* - gone. :(

Oodles of Progress

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     We went to see our house today. It's such a good thing we did! We walked in to find electrical work being done. (a day early) and Guardian wiring being done. Guardian was also a day early. Unfortunately for us, our Guardian rep never got back to us about the changes we were making, so all the wiring was done except in one room in the basement. I was not a happy camper. I didn't know if I wanted to kick dirt or cry. The installer agreed to help me by changing some of the things which were 'no problem'. The main things were now the two cable outlets in the two large bedrooms. The Master and the Bonus room had the cable placements wrong. I didn't have the heart to ask the guy to change those, since he was pretty much done.


     Fast forward a couple of hours and I was getting calls from the Guardian rep and my PM about the issue. I was going to just be bothered by it and leave it at that. I was going to run tacky cable around my baseboards and door frames. Nope! They're going to make it right. I believe what my Project Manager said about making these homes as if they were for his family. Because he does care about what we want and how we want it.

     Tomorrow they are installing our central vacuum stuff. I am invited to meet them in the morning.
     We have our pre-drywall walkthrough next Thursday.

  

    

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Click!

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     We just locked in our rate and we are pretty happy about it. Of course yesterday had the all-time best offer, but because the offer did not arrive until after 2:00 and had to be acted upon by 4:15 we missed the window. Today was still a fantastic lock! I'm glad this last variable has been taken off the table.

Monday, December 19, 2011

I Wish You A Merry Christmas

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     I'm working myself into the right frame of mind to go get my Christmas shopping finished today. I can't help but think about next Christmas in our new house. As a matter of fact I keep thinking about it so much that I am not letting myself get excited about this Christmas. I'm usually as excited as anyone about Christmas. This year has me looking to the future more than any other time in my life. Next Christmas will be so different. But not just next Christmas. Future Christmases. With a house full of family. Five kids from sixteen to twenty-six. Boyfriends, girlfriends, spouses. Grandchildren. I can't wait to watch life unfold!

  Here's a picture of some babies from a long time ago, in their Christmas duds:


     Merry Christmas to you, whoever you may be. I hope this Christmas is lovely, and your future Christmases are filled with the promise of great love.

Friday, December 16, 2011

Uppity-Up-Up-Update!

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Catwalk

Daughters' room

Fireplace

House Rules

Kids bath up

Master Bedroom

Master 2

Master Shower

Master Jetted Tub

Mikes' room





Crazy picture of view and the back of my phone. (hooray!)
Today we went in and walked all throughout the first and second floors of our house! It's just amazing how fast they do things. They had poured the footers in the basement and garage today. They'll pour those on Monday. We're just rolling right along and it's so wonderful. I'm glad the whole decisions and changes part is over. Now we just get to watch the fun stuff happen.

*Obligatory apology here for the quality of photos taken with my phone.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Shingles, Windows, And Door

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 Welcome to our dark day. The house brightens it right up, don't you think?

Not sure why these boxes are strapped to the house. Did my house win a sweepstakes already?

This really gets more exciting every day!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Quick Call

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     We just got a quick call from our project manager who told me our roof now has shingles. They work fast!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Today: Roof

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It looks like they put the roof on today. It looks like they put the windows in, too. I can't believe how fast things are coming along!

Monday, December 12, 2011

2nd Floor And A Spacesuit!

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Ryan Homes Ravenna 2nd floor and spagegirdle!
    
The day I have dreamed about has arrived! My house is wearing a spacesuit! Just yesterday we had a first floor. Today we have a second floor and the spacegirdle is nearly complete. They sure are fast!

Friday, December 9, 2011

Framing, Day One.

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     We heard from our PM today. He said everything is going perfectly so far. We have had our lumber delivered and they started framing this morning. We had beautiful weather yesterday, and woke up to snow-covered everything this morning. They started framing anyway. Hooray! We plan to go see the progress some time tomorrow. We will be taking pictures, of course!

*While writing this post I got a text message from Bobby - with a picture. He says they are done for the day.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Overheard This Week

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Me: I have fried chicken and mashed potatoes ready.

Punky Young Son: Is it for now or for dinner? (It was 4:30 pm)

Me: Yes, it's for dinner - now.

Punky Young Son: I was trying to nap.

Me: Sorry, Majesty.

Punky Young Son: I prefer Sir or Lord.

I politely declined his request. He still opted to partake of the chicken and potatoes. 

What A Difference Two Days Make

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     Today I went back over by the house to keep the baby so I stopped and took pictures before I went in. This is what I saw:


 After Babywatch was over I stopped and took more pictures. While I was there I had seen them working on this:


     Our lumber will be there next week. I could have a framed house next weekend! I'm excited! We're all excited!

Thursday, December 1, 2011

We Have A Big Hole In The Ground!

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     Giant mounds of dirt have never been so elating! Yesterday we stopped by our house which isn't a house yet and took pictures of this:






     Isn't that some pretty dirt?  The footers are poured. The components of the egress window were there as well. Gary said the lumber will arrive next week. Let's hope it's Monday. There sure aren't many trees remaining. They must have cleared a lot of trees.

     After seeing our hole and having our meeting we stopped by my cousin's house to see her and the baby. Baby girl was all smiles. She's getting her personality already! No pictures of her, because I was busy holding and kissing.


5 Big Macs Vouchers, 5 Large Fry Vouchers: $13

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Here's a great deal for the starving college students in your life, or anyone who drives by a McDonalds. I wish I could have bought more than one of this deal. One is the limit.

Go buy it today at Living Social Big Mac Deal.