Saturday, March 23, 2013

A light at the end of the tunnel

We took a drive by the house yesterday and there were some workers there. They let us take a peek inside, so I took advantage of that and snapped a ton of photos... 116 to be exact :) They're in all sorts of an order below. 

Question for you all first: how is your relationship with your SR now that the house has been sold? Our SR has been great up until about 2 weeks ago. We haven't stopped back in the office since our SR said he wasn't able to take us in the house. However, he hasn't emailed or phoned us to see how it's going, how we're doing with the process or if we have any questions or concerns. Maybe I'm being too dramatic, but I figured for sure the SR would keep in touch throughout this entire process and at least act like he cares about us as homebuyers. We feel a little forgotten about....like "the sale is made, my work is over." Not that this is unusual for a SR anywhere you go, but I guess I had higher hopes with this person. 

We are really happy with the way things have turned out inside and out. I only found a few little things that need to be fixed indoors. Of course I didn't look too hard for mistakes. We will do that when it's a little more cleaned up in there. 

The basement was a concern for us, since we saw a lot of cracks throughout the entire floor. Not sure if that's normal, will be sealed/covered up or what will happen with that. I'm sure our PM will fill us in when we ask him. Anyone have issues with this and what solved it? Pictures are below. 

The appliances are in and look good. Our white fridge is going to look so out of place. We don't need a new one right now, but I do want one. We will check the Sears Outlet, but if we can't get a good deal we will have to deal with black and white mismatch for the time being. I'd rather have a mismatching fridge for now and get a deck or patio out back. 

Hardware has been put on the doors and the countertops were in. It wasn't in the budget to upgrade countertops, so we ended up with the laminate. I wasn't too sure I would like it, but it actually isn't too bad. That is something we can upgrade at a later date and probably for a lot cheaper than RH. It looks nice now with the flooring and cabinets.

Waste Management dropped our trash and recycling containers off last week. I was surprised since I didn't ask for service to start until April 11th. No complaints here though, that's one more thing checked off of our long list of things to do.

The yard has been staked out and it definitely helped me to see the actual size of our yard. I think we got a good size. Of course we all would want something larger, but we're happy with the size for now. We're hoping to get a dog in about a year, so we know it will have a good amount of space for him/her. 

We noticed another house down the street that was pretty far along since the last time we were in the neighborhood. We also noticed the two empty lots next to us both had sold signs. I suppose they'll be starting construction there soon. They have also started down the street and are hopefully working on that road so the county will approve our CO! 

I can't believe it is getting so close. I feel like it's far away, yet the 11th seems like it's going to creep up on us in no time. We haven't started packing or anything! I'm sure it will all be a last minute ordeal since I like to procrastinate and do everything in a rush. 

I was able to contact Verizon and get our service set up for moving to the new location. We actually got a better deal. For some reason they make you terminate your current service and sign up for new service all over again. I asked for them to waive the set up fee since we just paid for that in December. Luckily I got a nice rep who waived that for us, gave us the internet listed price, another discount off the monthly fee, upgraded our internet speed and as a promotion we get a $100 visa gift card. I'll be using that for some house decorations! Even with the internet speed upgrade we're only paying $5 more per month than we are now and we get that gift card :) 

Sidewalks have been poured. We noticed our driveway looked a little crappy. There was a huge dip in it-it looked as if a heavy piece of equipment parked on it and made a big tire mark dip into it. I hope they plan to fix that. It was pretty uneven and didn't look like quality work. Other driveways in the neighborhood looked similar, but I will make sure they fix it. That's one thing I won't compromise on. We have our mailbox and noticed a street light is between our house and the neighbors. Yay for street lights! Where we live now is pitch black... even with the porch lights on. 

And let me just say....I'm so sick of this weather. I can't wait for spring and to do some landscaping at the new house. Nice lush green grass and bright pretty flowers. Oh I wish $$ grew on a tree!

Enjoy the random order photos of the progress :) 

























Why a brown outlet when all others are white? 




























































































13 comments:

  1. It looks GREAT!!! You're getting so close :-) Our scheduled start date has been pushed back a few times already but we're finally scheduled to start on April 3rd!

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    1. Thanks! April 3rd is getting close too- visit often and take a lot of photos- they build the house in no time!

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  2. great pics! your love your kitchen counter space.

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    1. Oh I hope so! Yesterday I was visualizing where my kitchenaid mixer was going to go and all of my other neat kitchen gadgets!

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  3. Looks great! Your lot is beautiful! Our SR doesn't contact us anymore, once you build your PM is the main contact. When we had a question and cc'ed her, she always responds or makes sure our PM answers if it is more a question for him. When we go into the model to get the key for our house she (and the other new SRs) are always nice. They tell us about the neighborhood progress and who's moving in. But, I think you are good, the PM is the one you need the most now! You are almost there!

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    1. I'm glad I have a great PM, I just figured the SR would touch base once in a while considering you did purchase a home from them. I've read on some blogs where the SR buys their clients house warming gifts!!

      Our SR told us we're not allowed to go in without the PM.

      I can't believe how fast it is approaching!

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  4. We went through three different SRs so we never really established a relationship with any of them. Our first SR was there through the choosing options portion and then she quit. The second SR was there through our pre-construction meeting and then she quit. The third SR introduced herself to us once and we never heard from her again. Once we started construction all of our communication was through the PM... so thank God we had an awesome PM!

    We have a few cracks in our basement floor, but the PM said that unless they get wider they are nothing to worry about. So far, they haven't gotten any wider, but we'll continue to monitor them.

    You might be in the same situation as us as far as the driveway... they do the driveways in our area in a two part process. They lay down a layer of blacktop that has some larger pieces in it as a base coat and leave that for a bit to settle... then they do a finer, smoother top coat at a later date that'll smooth out the dips, etc. We were told that it would be sometime in Spring/Summer when we get our top coat.

    The house is looking good! Not much longer until you'll be all moved in!

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    1. Someone said a winter pour can cause a lot of cracks. Hopefully mine and yours doesn't become an issue.

      That is a good point about the driveways. They are doing the grass that way too. He said it was a winter grass and as spring comes along they'll re-do it. So that's probably what they're doing for our driveway too- I hope!

      Thank You- I can't believe it's so close!

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  5. Enjoying the pictures, sorry your SR has dropped off the face of the planet. That seems to be the general consensus among everyone. I feel your pain!

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  6. Yes our SR also stopped checking in on us. Our PM's do it all the time though. I felt the SR and I had a really good relationship and kinda missed her when she stopped contacting. OUr PMs got us a great housewarming gift but not even a card of phone call from our SR so I feel your abandonment.

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    1. Like tourqeyes said, it seems to be the general consensus among everyone! I guess we can't have everything! I'm glad my PM is great :)

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  7. Love the blue door and shutters!!

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