Homeownership 101

It's been one month and two days since we moved into our house and aside from a few minor things here and there everything's been great. It still kind of feels like we're living in someone else's house and going to have to give it back at some point. Well at least that's what it feels like until we have to fix or do something ourselves that we would normally have just called our landlord for.

Things were so busy between the settlement, moving and other things going on in life that I never got the blog updated in between the end of construction and our settlement but I'm going to try to go back and update how the last few weeks went before we moved into the house; just in case someone is reading this who is also going through the same process but mostly so in the future I can look back on this blog and remember the whole thing - which was my original goal in starting this blog.

Things I've learned since we've moved into our new home:
- Blinds are REALLY expensive
- Rugs are REALLY expensive
- Do not put oatmeal down the kitchen sink
- I am not good at hanging pictures on my own (thank goodness I don't have to)
-  Stuff is going to get dented and scratched

I'm hoping now I can use this blog of interior decorating ideas or just to show off what I've decided to do in the house. And how it changes, because I'm sure that will happen. But for right now, I'm having fun being a first time home buyer, learning how to do things (some things) on my own and enjoying  the home that we worked so hard for. 

End of Week 10

We're at the end of week 10 of construction (or we were when I took these pictures...I'm trying to catch up on everything.) The end of week 10 wasn't too busy but we did get the tile installed in both of the full bathrooms. We upgraded the master bathroom a little bit with a different floor and some accent tiles in the shower. Our second bathroom has a really pretty almond color tile on the floor and in the shower. The downstairs bathroom will have hardwood so no tile in there.

They hadn't finished the grout yet when I took these pictures so it looks even better now. The greatest part about the master bathroom is that we have two shower heads. No more one side of you being cold while you're taking a shower. We can't wait!

Let There Be Light!

We have electricity!!!! Wooohoooo!! If you read my earlier post about the pre-drywall meeting, you know the only thing holding us up and the reason our completion date was pushed back was because of the power company. When we were stopping by the house one Sunday evening about a week or two ago, a truck from the power company pulled up and the guy told us he was there to inspect and make sure we were ready for the meter. Well everything was ready and a few days later our meter was put in and we have electricity!

Along with the electricity came all of our light fixtures. Not all of them turn on just yet because they're still working on the breakers and such but it's really cool to see the house with the lights on and not have to use our cell phone flashlights when we go by to see the house at night.

In addition to the light, we also have granite! The granite was installed one day before and it's so cool to see everything coming together. And to be relieved that the finishes we picked don't look horrible together.

When we stopped by the first time, none of the lights were on. Kenny started flipping all the breakers to try to get the lights to come on and we managed to get the kitchen lights and all the bathroom lights on. Since I took these pictures, they also put the chandelier over our stairway in and the porch lights. We were so relieved that this didn't take as long as our PM thought and now we're just hoping to get an earlier closing date.

Front Porch, Cabinets, and Trim

It's been busy over at Woodworthy Manor! I will admit that we go by the house at least once a day, sometimes more than once a day. The people in the neighborhood and the workers probably think we're nuts but we absolutely love checking on the progress and talking about how we're going to arrange and decorate everything once we move in.

Our estimated closing date is 7/17/17 but we're hoping the power is going to get turned on sooner and that date will be earlier. In the meantime, we now have kitchen cabinets, trim, columns, and a front and back porch.

 I am absolutely loving the columns in the front entryway and on either side of the dining room and office. We decided not to put doors on the office so the area wouldn't seem so closed off and I'm really glad we didn't.

Siding

From the beginning, I really wanted to keep our selection of our siding color a secret. I don't know why - I guess I just wanted to see everybody's reaction the first time they say the color. It is no longer a secret because the siding is in! The front door is painted yet though and that I'm definitely keeping that a secret.

I mentioned in my earlier posts when we were making all of our selections how we had picked one siding color and then walked around the neighborhood and decided to change our minds. And we are so glad that we did. It's starting to look more like home each day.

Drywall

I have been a total slacker with my blog. Just like the last time I had a huge gap between posts, so much has happened but I'm going to try to go in chronological order and get up to date. Even if nobody else is reading this, I really want to be able to go back and relive this whole process when all is said and done.

Week 8 of construction brought us drywall! It's been absolutely crazy to watch this process and how fast these guys work. I will be eternally grateful to the guys who have stood outside in the rain, sun, heat, and cold to finish our house on time. We were super surprised to find out on Monday evening that the guys had spent all day Sunday putting up our drywall. 

 Living Room from the Kitchen, Living Room from the Morning Room

  Kitchen, Dining Room

Master Bathroom, Master Bedroom

Laundry Room, Second Floor Hallway

It was so weird once the insulation and drywall was put up because we were so used to being able to see across the house from one room to another and now everything is closed off. It's really starting to look like a real house now!

Pre-Drywall Meeting

This week is the 7th week of construction on our house and we started it out by having our pre-drywall meeting. It's hard to believe that 7 weeks ago we were anxiously waiting for them to break ground and now we're even more anxiously waiting completion.

We met with our project manager, Kyle, at the house on Monday morning to walk through everything and get an update on what to expect next. The whole meeting was only about 15 or 20 minutes, which was a lot shorter than I expected. Because we stop by the house so much, most of the things that he pointed out to us were things that we had already noticed. The PM made sure to point out the location of everything that we had added on - pre-wire for pendant lights over the kitchen island, pre-wires for ceiling fans in the morning room and all the bedrooms, and two recessed lights in the office.

The only concern that we had was a broken window in the dining room. When I pointed it out, our PM said he already knew about it and not to worry, it will be replaced before everything is said and done. Our only other question was making sure the three-piece plumbing rough-in was in the basement because when we had visited the house we only saw two pieces but everything is all set and we'll have plumbing ready for whenever we decide to finish the basement.

Now comes the bad news. We are delayed. We were originally supposed to go to settlement the last week in June and we're pushed back now to the second week in July. Everything with the construction is on schedule but the power company is delayed in coming out and turning the power on, even though all the electrical is done.

Next up:
- HVAC inspection to make sure there are no leaks
- Insulation
- Drywall

We're disappointed that things are delayed but we're crossing our fingers that it's not delayed any more than those couple of weeks (or not delayed at all if we're really lucky).

Framing and Plumbing

Our pre-drywall meeting is officially scheduled for Monday but that hasn't stopped us from going inside and taking a look around (more than once). I probably mentioned this before but our project manager told us at our pre-construction meeting that the windows were in we were free to go inside and look around. In fact, he encouraged it and told us to contact him if we noticed anything that didn't seem right. So far everything looks good.

Here are a few pictures from the first time we got to go inside.

As of yesterday, the plumbing was being completed. We now have a bathtub in the upstairs guest bathroom, a shower in the master bathroom, and water lines for the fridge, dishwasher, washer and dryer and whatever these things are called for where the toilets will go.

 

According to our PM, the plumbing should be finished up today, next will be electrical and then onto the insulation and the dry wall. We're about 60 days away from settlement and starting to countdown the days!

Framing

It is kind of crazy how fast a house gets put together. I think from now on it's probably going to seem a lot slower because we can't see the progress from the outside. The last time I posted our hole for our foundation was completed and they had started to pour the footer. It's crazy how much has happened since then.Because I haven't been keeping up on my blog posts like I had originally planned and I'm trying to get caught up, I'm going to post a series of photos with dates because the amount of progress compared with the amount of time it's taken is kind of unbelievable.

April 7th - Foundation in progress

April 11th - Finishing up the foundation

April 14th - Preparing for the concrete to be poured and lumber was delivered

April 15th - Concrete was poured for the basement and garage

April 18th - Floor deck and starting the first floor walls

April 19th - First floor complete and starting the second floor

 

 April 20th - Finishing up the roof and starting the house wrap and insulation

 April 21st - Happy Birthday to me! - Garage and morning room roof are up

April 24th - Windows are going in and front porch roof is done

Since this point, the exterior has continued to look pretty much the same, except they put the shingles on the roof of the house and the garage. From now on as I'm sure you can imagine, most of the things that are changing are on the inside. It won't be as easy as just driving past to see the progress. But we did get to go inside for the first time this past weekend. That in itself deserves a whole separate blog post.

Last week, I got an email from our project manager saying that things were moving along right on schedule and he would be in touch with us soon to schedule our pre-drywall inspection.

I'll try my best to do a blog post on each step of the way from now on instead of lumping it all together. But I do think its kind of cool to see the progress in a series of pictures and see how quickly it's happened.