We Got Rocks in the House

Went back to the house yesterday to check the progress and it seems that we now have dirt and rocks placed into the garage and the foundation.  I noticed that there are foam blocks placed in the foundation as well.  I'm assuming it's so that they can start leveling off the ground.  Am I correct?  I forgot to take a picture of it. 
On another note.  I'm still looking for a renter.  This heat and power outage that happened to us here in Maryland has really messed things up w/ me looking to find a renter.  Jeez...Please give me a renter..please give me a renter. stress..stress...stress...

So, we've been back and now they're putting up the foundation wall.  Well, it's actually already up but I wasn't able to capture any pictures of it since it was already 9pm when we got there and it was just too dark to snap any pictures.  But here are some pictures of the foundation wall after the cement has been poured in.  This is pretty fast considering they started last Tuesday and as of yesterday the foundation wall was up.  I just hope my condo gets rented out soon. I just put it up on the market on Monday.  Just a big stress ball that it won't get rented before settlement.  I know it's too early to stress since i'm like 2.5 months away. 

Picture of the Hole

View from the drive way. Not much to see but rocks.

Looking into the hole.  Not too sure what or why they patterned this out.  I'm assuming it's for the foundation.

 Another picture looking into the hole.  Standing in the driveway.

 Big old rock they took out of the hole.  It was pretty big. Thank God for machinery.

Not sure why I took this pic, but it's the pile of dirt made from digging the hole.

It Begins, There's a Hole!!!

Had our pre-construction meeting this week and was told they were going to break ground either that day or the next.  They were waiting for the permit and was expecting it that day.  I found it funny that at the end of the meeting the PM basically said, in much nicer words, don't be dumb when you come visit the house during construction.  Kind of chuckled inside. But that could just be my own humor making me laugh.  Well, we went back to the house the next day and there it was. A big hole in the ground.  It felt so good to see a dirt patch turn into a big hole.  Put a huge smile on our faces that the house has now begun.  Took some pictures but I figure I'll save you guys the trouble of looking at a big hole in the ground.  I think only we'd be excited to see a hole in the ground. :-)

So, I asked a couple of things during the meeting:

• Question: Can I widen the driveway?
• Answeer: No. But only b/c of distance I had between my yard to the next.  But he would widen it as much as he could

• Question: Can I run a conduit from the attic to the basement?
• Answer: Yes, but will need to be done by me.

• Question: Can I run speaker wires?
• Answer: Yes, just not high voltage wires.

• Question: Can I move one air vent a little bit over to make room for a bench to be install later in the morning room?
• Answer: Yes

• Question: Can I install insulation on the exterior driveway wall?
• Answer: Yes, but may have to be done in the evening the night before the dry wall comes up. 

He basically said we can talk more about this stuff after the framing goes up. Our PM was a good guy and really seemed like he wanted to give us what we wanted as much as he could.  It definitely felt good.  Still need to ask if they can put a drain on the floor in the washer room.  We were told we'd get a firmer delivery date probably in a couple of weeks to a month.  I hope rates are still low.  It looks like it'll be 3 months to build and deliver.  Is that normal?  That is pretty fast.  I hope they're not just rushing and then missing stuff.  Oh, they said they'd be installing a low voltage ventilation fan that runs all the time in the upstairs bathroom.  Has anyone had any experience with these?  We drove around and also noticed that our house is going up before some of the other lots that's had sold signs on before ours.  Thought that was kind of weird.

Got the Call for the PreConstruction Meeting

Pretty excited!!! We got the call yesterday to schedule our pre-construction meeting.  I've been reading through the forums and trying to get together a list of things to ask or consider asking during the meeting.  I was hoping maybe people here can help me.  So far, here is my list:

• Can the wall in the laundry and MS closet be unblocked to give each room more space?
• Adding a drain hole to the upstairs laundry room in case of water leaks
• Adding PVC pipes from attic to basement for potential rewiring 
• Widen the drive way to allow for an extra car in the driveway

  Can anyone provide some suggestions? Kind of lost right now.  Thanks

Go Time!!

When I finally got a chance to look at the sheet with the flooring options we selected and compared it to the master option list generated by Ryan, I noticed that the carpet runner was selected on that sheet as well.  Not sure if this was a double charge or not since Ryan sends you off to a 3rd party flooring place for your floors.  We figured it gave us an excuse to go walk around the model again. We get excited each time we walk through.  Talked to the SR and it turned out it was a double charge.  She made the correction and off we went. :-)  We asked about the progress of the house and she informed us that they should be breaking ground the 2nd week of June and that we should be receiving a call from her to schedule a pre-construction meeting with the PM. Not sounding very adult like, I looked at her with a huge smile and said, "SHUT UP".  oops. Couldn't help it.  Our dirt ground may turn into a hole soon.  yippie!!!!

Need to finish painting our condo so we can put it up for rent.  Man, I hate painting.  1 bedroom and 2 full baths to go.  Then it's time to paint the trim.  Did I say I hate painting yet? I really hate painting.  I must say, the Wagner Turbo Roller is pretty sweet.  Does help cut down on time.

Options Options Options

Here is the updated blog with the options we got:

• Elevation C with a roof over the door
• Hardwood in the living room and dinning room
• Hardwood stairs with runner
• Morning Room
• Upgraded carpet & padding in the living room
• Upgraded padding for the entire upstairs
• Upgraded MB tiles
• Roughing for ceiling fans in all bedrooms, living and morning room
• Pre-wiring for two pendents over the kitchen island
• Gourmet island
• Gourmet kitchen set up (Ended up getting a microwave and oven set up instead of a double oven)
• Changed the sink to a single 9" deep sink instead of two
• Extra bathroom in bedroom #2
• An extra cable outlet
• An extra power outlet on the floor of the living room so we didn't have to run wires to the wall 
• Stainless steel appliances (Incentive)
• Recessed lighting through the main floor (Incentive)
• Hardwood in foyer, kitchen, and powder room (Incentive)
• Trim in the dinning room and foyer (Incentive)
• Finished rec. room basement (Incentive)

I believe that's all we got.  Options definitely add up quick.  I tried to see if they would throw anything in, thinking we were spending so much money that they'd give us something on top of the incentives to make us feel all bubbly inside, but no cigar.  Did anyone have any luck with getting them to throw in any options other than incentives?  I was pretty surprised that every little thing was pretty much an option. Oh well, I guess that's why they say you're building your dream home.  But we're happy with what we got. :-) 

Our Guardian experience wasn't too bad.  The guy wasn't a high pressure guy, so that felt good.  But he did kind of talk to us like we were little kids.  Just ignored it figuring he figured we didn't know anything.  We ended up just getting security for the house.  Wasn't too sure if we really needed it, but figured we'd just cancel after our contract ended if we didn't need.  It is a multi year contract though.  I believe 3 years.  Didn't get any wiring done for speakers, though I wanted to.  I just couldn't justify the cost for them.  It's pretty pricey.  Most of the Guardian stuff was pretty pricey.  I'm going to see if the PM will either let me wire before the dry wall goes up or like Sgt Rich, install PVC pipes.  Crossing my fingers but not much hope.