Update on Builder and Home

A few disappointments with our builder since the closing, but overall we love our home. We've had to repair quite a few things on our house through contractors, etc. and the builder pretty much dropped us after closing and won't return our calls or emails. Pretty disappointing! We know they are busy, but very frustrating for new home builders needing help on repairs that were a result of the building process that you don't realize are broken or need repair until AFTER you move into the home.

Other major concern for us is our lawn... the builder did not grade our yard properly one final time before sod was laid, so we have grooves throughout our entire lawn, uneven ground and holes where water had washed the dirt away during a hard rain storm before they sodded, and big areas have sunk around the house. We plan to landscape to cover up the horrible grading/sodding job.

To add to that, our free included sprinkler system was not installed correctly. Several heads were installed crooked, too low, or at an angle, so that don't spray properly soaking the ground around each head causing them to sink lower into the ground. The sprinkler co. has come to our house twice to repair and we're still having problems with sinking. One hole around the sprinkler took a 5-gallon bucket of dirt to fill in the sink hole.

We also just set up our workout room in the basement this week and found out the $140 outlets we installed in the basement are connected to a breaker on the main floor, so we can't use our treadmill because it draws too much power. Pretty crappy considering it is the only thing plugged in down there. What a waste of $140!

And... the painters didn't give us any left over interior paint for our house, so we don't know what color it is. So hard to repaint over scratches or drywall patches (they had to repair) if we don't have the color/paint to do it.

We're contacting our builder again and we'll see if we get a response this time. Very frustrating!!!

What's green and fluffy and likes to get wet?

SOD!!!!!! We Got SOD!!! It's looking soooo much like a house we can't believe we are only 2 more days away from calling it ours. Our house is all painted, trim is painted and we should have our columns and porch railing painted today. As you can see from the pictures, things are really coming together.

The sod is all in place and is being watered. The sprinkler system has awesome coverage of our yard so we shouldn't have any dry spots anywhere. The interior is completely finished as well except for a few minor items we found during our walkthrough on Monday.

Almost Complete: Walk-Through Was Today!!!

Today the painters were hard at work taping, sanding, and painting the exterior of the house. By 3pm about 1/2 of the house was painted with at least one coat. While we were there, they were working on the front of the house painting garage doors, our pillars and railing, and window trim. Also, the fence was completed by the afternoon and looks fantastic. Tomorrow will be final grading and sod. By Thursday the entire house will be completed, clean, and ready for us to move in on Friday. Whoo hooo! 3 days left and it's ours!!!

More Photos... and a little more progress

Stopping out at the house yesterday over lunch and no one was there. It's been rainy, so assuming they can't grate or sod or paint until it dries up. I did notice, however, that the sprinklers were installed around the yard. We have tons of sprinkler heads, so shouldn't be a problem getting our lawn watered very well. Our thermostat and humidifier controls were also installed this week. The remaining pics are just new ones of our freshly cleaned house. A couple days ago I visited, sat in the tub (to make sure it was big enough -- it was. Ha!) and laid on the floor of our master bedroom trying to take it all in. Yes, I thought. Yes, I can live here. :)

I just want to start decorating, hanging art, putting rugs down and towels in the bathrooms, but I must sadly wait. Call me a nerd, but the excitement is making me a lil' crazy. :)

Interior Complete: Cleaning Crew At Work

Well the exterior needs some work, but lots of rain today and in the forecast so that will set us back a few days. Today the cleaning crew was at our house vacumming, dusting, cleaning windows and mirrors, polishing floors, and sweeping the basement. They are hard at work making the inside all sparkling clean and pretty. It was great to see those shiny kitchen floors again! A few minor fixes to be repaired and the gas stove and garage door openers still need to be installed, but besides that... the inside is done! Whooo hooo! The remaining exterior projects include grating our land one last time(1/2 day), installing sprinklers (1 day), and laying sod (1 day). I think that's about it!!! Not too bad. We're closing in 9 days!!!


Our formal dining room floors (carpeted and look great)


Shelving installed in our kitchen cabinets


Pantry in Kitchen (one of my favorites about the house) :)


Master Closet Shelving (another shelf on opposite side)


Laundry Room on 2nd Level

And The Countdown Begins... 3 Days Left until Completion

This week Dustin is out of town on business, so it's just me to see the excitement of our house during its final week of completion. Scheduled to be done this week, each day I've seen more and more finishing touches. Full electrical was completed, carpeting was installed in Monday as well as the fence post installation. Tuesday (today) I found our front storm door was installed, the screen to our sliding patio door was put in as well as the shelving throughout the house. We're still waiting on exterior paint, sprinkler systems, garage door openers, installation of the gas stove, final grating of our yard and placement of sod. Besides that and a few minor repairs, we're a "GO" for closing next week. Too excited to words!!! :)

Lighting & Electrical

This week our electrical, appliances and light fixtures were put in. We have our Dishwasher and Microwave installed, all of our electrical outlets are in (there are a ton!) and our light switches as well. We also have our bathroom mirrors installed, the rest of our plumbing fixtures and the tack strips for carptet are in. They also installed the control box for the sprinkler system.

We are getting extremely close to being done and are more excited than ever. We visited the house yesterday afternoon and went again at night so we could see it with all of our light fixtures on (sad, I know).

House Pictures at Night with our new lights on!!! :)

Our front porch...

The Entry Way

The kitchen at night... (It looks like Heaven)

Our (my) closet! ;-)

Our unfinished basement...

Plumbing, Railing and More!

Today we were met with more surprises. We now have our railing on the front porch installed! It makes it look so finished. We are glad it's finally up. Hopefully we'll get the house painted this week now that it's up.

Now for the inside, we now have our dishwasher installed and some other plumbing fixtures including our faucets, shower heads/handles, toilets and our pedestal sink on the main floor. The construction door was removed and our permanent door was installed. They have added all of the spindles for our curved stair rail inside as well.

Grout, Stain & Door Hardware

Today our grout work was finished as you can see by the fireplace photo. Now, all tile work is completed. In addition, we are on phase 2 of the stain work for our wood floors. Don't they look awesome?!?!?! We also got most of our door hardware installed. And as an added bonus, our Master Shower door was installed! Things are really coming together quickly. We can't wait to get back out to the house tomorrow to see what else has happened!