Moving Inside

Good news!  The how is still progressing.  Every time I drive up to the house, I look for cars parked in front of our house and hold my breathe and hope that a crew has been working on our house.

On Friday they painted the siding (I cannot wait until they deliver the brick and stone).  The siding color is called "Applesauce Cake".  Whoever named it was definitely hungry.  They also expanded the hole for the missing window.

July 23, 2010

Right now, most of the action in happening in the inside (see first photo).  First they added stairs in the garage.

Today, they started installing the electrical cables.

We are still cautiously optimistic that we can get to the sheet rock stage in the next week.  But, that means a lot is going to have to happen in order to meet that deadline.

PEX, Not PVC Piping

Since the framing crew is done, new crews are coming to work on the house.  Some are working on the HVAC system, others on the plumbing, and others on the exterior.  Every time we go by the house, I hold my breath and pray that a crew showed up to work on our house.  And they have been showing up.  Over the past week crews have installed the HVAC system and the plumbing.  They have also put in (very) little electrical and on Thursday they were calking the exterior.

Here is a look at some of the HVAC.  We have been checking the location of all the vents. 

They also installed the bathtubs and the shower pans.  If you look closing in these pictures you will see blue and red tubing.  That's our plumbing.  No, copper or PVC pipes for us.

Instead we have what is called PEX piping.  It is flexible piping that can expand more than other types of piping, thus reducing the chance of bursting.  Since it can be bent around corners and walls, less joints are used, meaning there are fewer places for leaks to pop up.  Plus, it is also supposed to be easy to fix.

Window? What Window?

In addition to being the squeaky wheel and staying on to of the speed of the building, we have also learned that it is important to ensure that the correct things are being built or installed.  While they were framing the house, we noticed that they did not frame in one of the windows.

We pointed out the missing window to the builder and he had it installed.

Last Friday we went by the house to see the progress.  It was 6:30 p.m. and we were delighted to see a crew still working! You never want to disturb a working crew unless you are providing them with rations (more on that later).  We took a quick stroll with the dogs around the neighborhood and then sat in the shade and watched magic happen.  As they were covering the wall above the garage we noticed that they were covering over where the window was supposed to go.

Jordan went over to the crew, pointed to the lone window sitting in the garage (all the other windows were installed) and pointed to the wall they were working on.  The crew member either did not speak English or did not want to extend his Friday evening work hours because he pointed to the side of the house, as if to suggest that is where the window belonged.  He then proceeded to finish sheathing that wall and we emailed the builder.

Apparently, the crew does not like to make on the spot changes.  They would rather wait for someone else to notice the mistake and then put in a change order -- resulting in more money for them.  The window is now sitting in our garage with "Friday" written on it.  I think that means it will be installed on Friday.

First Rennovation: Dog Door

Our house is not even finished and we already have changes in mind.  Being a two dog household, one of the things we are looking forward to is having a backyard for all the fetch and frisbee we can handle.  To maximize the benefits of having a great backyard, we want to install a dog door.  Specifically we want this automatic dog door.  The dogs wear magnets around their collar so the door opens when they approach the door, but stays shut when anything not wearing the magnet approaches.

Since we do not have drywall yet, now is the perfect time to pick out a place to install the door.  That way we know where all the wires are hiding in the walls.  We have narrowed the location of the door down to two options: A and B.  These locations are both on the patio, hopefully decreasing the amount of mud the dogs will track into the house.

Ideally, we would put a dog house in front of the exterior door.  This would not only hide the door, but discourage curious humans from trying to enter.

From the inside: While there is more space for the door on the B side, the main problem is that the door would be in the direct line of our front door.  A is in our breakfast room, so it would be mostly out of the way.

From the outside:  Again, B has the most room.  It would be difficult to put a dog house in front of A.

Where would you install the dog door? 

Predictions Become Reality

At our meeting with Todd, the project manager, he stated that our house would look like this by the end of this week.

Considering our house looked like this at the meeting, I was not too confident.

July 9, 2010

When we stopped by today, our house looked like this.

July 18, 2010

Pretty impressive.  At our meeting Travis also predicted that our house would be ready for sheet rock in 2-3 more weeks and that they were aiming to close at the end of August or beginning of.  We are cautiously optimistic.

Framing the House Cont.

Our house is really beginning to take shape now.  In the past two days they have added the floor to the second level and then walls.  Next they will put up the roof and put the siding on the exterior.  Once that is done, they will be able to take down the braces haphazardly placed around our house.

July 12, 2010

July 13, 2010

July 14, 2010 (mid-day)

Framing the House

During our meeting on Friday with Travis and Todd the framing crew showed up and started working on our house.  With an 80% chance due to a tropical depression, we closely watched the radar and prayed that the rain would not run the framing crew off.  After all, if the crew left, we were not sure if they would ever return.  The crew worked most of Friday and then returned on Saturday.  According to Travis and Todd, the framing should be compete on Monday.

July 9, 2010 (a.m.)

July 9, 2010 (p.m.)

July 10, 2010

Meeting with the Project Manager

Today we had a meeting with the project manager, Travis, and the substitute* builder, Todd.  Today is the 95th day of construction and things have been inching along (see here, here, here, here, and here).

During the meeting they both admitted that the building process is taking too long and reaffirmed the goal of having our house completed before September 1, 2010.  Travis believed that we could be to the sheet rock stage in three weeks.  This is significant because once a house reaches sheet rock, the construction is shielded from inclement weather, allowing the time line to be firmed up.  There is a lot that needs to happen between where we are now (a foundation) and sheet rock.  

The first step of which, was getting underway as we left our meeting.  The framers were on site (and working) with all the necessary tools to frame our first level.  Now we just need the rain from the tropical depression to skip Austin.  If all goes to plan, our first level will be framed today or tomorrow and the second level and braces will be framed on Monday.

*Our main builder, Tony had back surgery on Tuesday and will be out for two weeks.  While he is gone, project manager Todd is heading up the construction on our house.  We're hopeful he can get things rolling in the right direction.

Foundation Complete!

Ninety-three, yes 93, days after our red line meeting, we have a complete foundation. For three months I have been looking forward to showing you this picture (and then moving on to the framing stage).  In case you cannot see all the work that has been done since April 5th, here is a look back.

July 6, 2010

April 5, 2010

It turns out, the photo is not very exciting.  Here's a close up -- proof that we do have a foundation.  Hang with me though, it WILL get better -- we're at the framing stage (and it only goes up from here).  

Home Buyers Tax Credit Extended

Great news! The (second) extension to the home buyer's tax credit has been approved by the House and the Senate and is just waiting for the President's signature.  The extension does not allow potential home buyers to go buy a home now, but instead allows individuals who signed a contract prior to April 30, 2010, but could not close before the old June 30, 2010 deadline to claim the credit if they close before September 30, 2010. 

The extension easily passed after it failed as part of a larger economic package earlier this month.