Driveway Pour

Our house has received it's first coat of paint this week! The paint we chose is the flat white standard paint, because we plan on painting the house ourselves either before we move in or shortly after.

Yesterday we stopped by and they were pouring our driveway, front porch and today our back patio will be finished! Dave was at the house (as usual!) giving us a full rundown of the work going on this week. Our gutters and siding will be put up later this week. Next week they should be starting on the vinyl flooring.

Driveway

 

Driveway being poured

Yeah! Front Porch

Back patio formed

Kitchen paint

Family room paint

I cannot believe we are going to be moving into our house in what now seems like the foreseeable future! We are so blessed to be able to go through this experience and are enjoying every moment.

On another subject, if you have a chance to go to Homerama in Ohio it is so worth it! We went this past weekend and were able to get paint and decorating  ideas. The absolute best house (and I'm not just saying this!) is the Fischer Home. It is an AMAZING home with a fabulous master suite and lower level, and a brick pizza oven in the backyard.

Drywall Complete

Drywall started going up the middle of last week and today it is COMPLETE!!!

Each day we have visited our house this week they have been working very hard putting the drywall up, mudding and sanding. The rooms look great and the drywall mud is very smooth.
I am not completely sure that the ceiling is complete, however it does have the nice textured look that it will have when we move in. We haven't seen the completed drywall upstairs yet since they have been working up there during our visits and we don't want to disturb them or come out covered head to toe in white dust.

We have accomplished the task of locking our rate this week as well. It was a somewhat stressful decision on whether to lock early on or not, given the fact that interest rates are a roller coaster. After we had originally met with our loan officer we continued to check the rate every few days. Some people have said that locking the rate early on (a 6 month lock) worked better for them, however for us it has paid off to wait and do a 60 day lock. We are projected to close in late July!

Family Room

Dining Room

Decorative Shelf in Dining Room

Side View

Sunroom Windows and Trim



Family Room Ceiling



Sunroom Ceiling

Brick Complete

Our brick wrap has been completed this week! We are really happy with the brick color, and hope that it blends well with our siding and shutter choices. We are also very glad that we did a brick wrap all the way around. I didn't get any pictures of the back yet because it was muddy.

We went to look at living room furniture today to get ideas. It's not at the top of our 'need to purchase' list right now but shopping is fun :)

Some of our need to purchase items include:
- Sump Pump Battery Backup
- Washer and Dryer
- TV
- Blinds
- Garage Door Opener
(And of course there are a ton of little things as well.)

We are trying to prioritize our list and determine what needs to be bought immediately and what can wait. Another list I am starting is people that we will need to call and coordinate visits with after we close (Gaurdian, telephone, cable, water, electric, etc)

One MAJOR update this week is that the drywall is up. Ceiling and walls were all done in 2-3 days. We can really get a feel for the room sizes and its actually looking like our home now. The boxes of drywall mud were in the house so that will probably be done sometime next week.

Brick complete

Dining Room

Sunroom

Family Room

Living Room

Brick

We are still making our daily trips to see our house! Dave (our superintendent) continues to be at the house answering our questions and letting us know what will happen in the next few days.

We have continued to be blessed with good weather. Here are several things that have taken place in the last week - including Saturday of Memorial Day weekend.

- Brick wrap (still very happy about our color choice)
- Guardian installed speaker pre-wire and plasma pre-wire (for tv to be hung above the fireplace)
- Front door
- Insulation on exterior walls
- Trim placed around windows

Our garage door and front door are both on however they will be painted last so that when carpet and other things are brought in the house it won't be messed up.

Here are a few pictures from the progress this week:

Drywall!!

Speaker pre-wire in family room ceiling

Trim around front window

Brick

Wires above fireplace (will be hidden behind tv)

Front door (not painted yet)

Insulation



Brick

My little one and his friend who spend most nights at the ball park. So cute I had to post this one!

Right now I am overwhelmed (in a good way!) by thoughts of paint and decorating. Any tips are greatly appreciated. :)

We continue to check the interest rate every few days but still haven't decided to lock in our rate.

Have a great week, Thanks for reading!

Guardian Walkthru

Once again, ALOT of work has been done on our house over the past few days. I have probably said this before but I am enjoying the process because I am learning so much. There are so many departments that have to work together to get things done.  This afternoon we had our walkthru with Guardian, who will return tomorrow to put in our wiring (speakers, cable pre-wires, etc). While we were there, a heating and cooling truck pulled up and they started working, and another truck pulled up to drop off several wheel barrels and machines.

Items that have happened in the last week (that I can see - I'm sure there are many more!)
-Windows are all in place
-Garage Door is on
-Roof is complete including shingles
-Ceiling Fan rough-in's are in place
-Electrical (phone, cable, outlets) wiring
-Bathtubs are in!
-Plumbing is in place

We noticed today when we were walking around that three out of four of our ceiling fan rough-in's were being held up by an extra 2x4. When our superintendent Dave arrived while we were there we asked him about it and he said it would be no problem to put an extra one up in the fourth bedroom. Whether it was needed or not, he said that was no problem.

We have seen Dave at our site the past several times we have driven by and he is always very patient with our questions and willing to walk around and show us things. We greatly appreciate this! Fischer has been extremely easy to work with.

Here are pictures from today

Shingles

Kids bathroom

Sunroom

Family room and fireplace

Dining room

Master bathroom

Steps to 2nd floor



Kitchen

House plans

Windows and Roof

We have seen another few BEAUTIFUL days here!! We continue to see significant changes each day when we go see our house. And no matter what time we are there someone is always working.

As we start to see our house take shape, we get more anxious and excited about so many things! The Whitman has a very spacious first floor plan for all of the entertaining I plan on doing. The kitchen has plenty of cabinets AND a large pantry (no more storing food downstairs). Neither of us have ever had a fireplace so we are looking forward to it.

When we stopped by the house yesterday our project manager Dave was there and showed us a few things around the house. We had a few extra boards put up above the fireplace and in the master bedroom so we can hang our televisions.

We feel so blessed to be on this wonderful journey!

Looking in the front door

Living room and Dining Room

Sunroom

Windows and roof (Wednesday)

Front porch and roof

Fireplace

Framing!!!

Fischer definitely took advantage of the great weather we have been having this past week! The concrete for our basement floor was poured early last week, the dirt was back-filled against the foundation and the support beams were placed in between the basement and first floor.


Support Beams

Beams and Back-fill

Driveway and garage

Our first wall!!!

 

Looking towards the back of the house. Love those sunroom windows!

Building the first floor

We typically drive by around 4:30 or 5:00 each evening. If they are still working we just take pictures from the car. Our new neighbors have said they have seen people working as early as 5:30am! That makes for a long day but we are very excited and appreciative that they are working so hard.
After just a week of framing, the second floor is up!

Framing

Framing

 We have been reading the www.fischerhomes.com Homeowner Login page. Fischer updates when something has been completed on our home (Foundation Complete - 5/8/2012). We also have access to our contract information, selections and homeowners association guide. This is great to have electronically without having to look for paperwork to check on something.