Counters are Topped

Our granite is in, our appliances have been delivered, our air conditioning unit has been installed and our yard is completely graded!

Kitchen with granite installed.  Hopefully it will be a bit cleaner when we're living there.

Microwave is in!

I'm curious as to what the "myplate.gov" button does.  Is the government monitoring what I eat?  And "family snacks"?  That's a pretty broad category.  lol. 

Dishwasher and stove ready to go in.

Little bar overhang into the morning room.  It was difficult to get a good shot of the granite because it was dirty, but I really like it.  I'm very happy with our kitchen choices so far.

AC unit!  I wish it were on the side because it's going to interfere with my deck design, but we'll just have to work around it.

View of our back yard all graded out.  My MIL will be happy that the big mound of dirt is gone :). 

I was out of work Friday afternoon so I didn't get my weekly update from our PM, but I'm guessing the driveway and walkway are going to go in this week because everything was framed out.  We also ran into the propane guy when we were there (we have propane heat).  He said they will be installing the tank on Monday and showed us where it will go.  It's completely out of the way so I'm happy about that.  We scheduled a meeting with him for next week so he can go over how everything works with filling the tank, payment, etc.  Apparently propane is way more expensive than natural gas, so I'm hoping we'll be able to switch over at some point but for now this is what we have to work with.

Electricity

We have electricity and an address!

I'm really loving these outside lights.

Our island is in and ready for counter tops!

Brackets for counter overhang.

All of our cabinets have pull-out drawers.

Brackets for bar overhang in morning room.

Our hardwood in the foyer and powder room is in:

Closeup of hardwood.  We got the standard gunstock color.

Other miscellaneous updates:

Pantry shelving.  About 1/2 of our closet shelving is in.

Powder room sink and light fixture.

Dining room chandelier!  (I have a nagging worry that this is actually the one that's supposed to be in the foyer.  That one is not in yet and this looks bigger than I remember the model being.  I really hope this one stays!)

My closet shelving is in.  (Definitely going to have to do some built-ins in here).

All of our toilets are in!  (Who would have thought I could get excited about a toilet?)

Fixtures in in the upstairs hall bath.  We got a shower bar, which I was not expecting.

Gutters and downspouts.

Master bath soaking tub fixtures in.

Master bath shower fixtures in.  All of the plumbing is working too.

Now that the details are beginning, the problems are starting too.  Nothing major yet, but I officially started my punch-list last night.  Here's a few of the things I've found so far:

See that dark line in the corner?  It looks like a scratch or something.  It's really just a defect in the wood, but that will bother me forever if it doesn't get fixed.  I really hope he's willing to replace that plank.

Look at that corner in the powder room!  First of all, why is it not a  square corner?  And even if there's a good reason for it not to be square, why is the angle piece not the same width from bottom to top?  See how it gets smaller and smaller the closer it gets to the ceiling?  It looks even worse in person.

I'm not going to put this on my list since it's pretty minor, but seriously... why not make it straight?

Whoever worked on the powder room did a terrible job.  They also mounted the toilet without the tank, so hopefully they put it in the right place.

One of several scratches on the cabinets.  I realize that this is a very small defect, but I'm paying for a brand new house so I'd like my cabinets to be scratch free please.

And lastly, we have been missing the trim on our 3rd garage window for about a month now.  I'm sure PM realizes this, but I'm adding it to my list just in case.

Things are coming along!  It's exciting to see the details coming into place.  It's starting to feel like a real house.

Courtland Model Pictures

Here are a few pictures of the Courtland model in our community.  Unfortunately it's not decorated, but I'll be visiting the Courtland Gate model at a new community nearby very shortly (thanks Danielle!) to get a better idea of what it looks like furnished.

Foyer looking into living room.  Got the hardwood stairs upgrade!

Foyer into study (hi dad, greg and SR!).  We will have the same color hardwood in the foyer and carpet in the study.

Living room looking into dining room.  We upgraded to get that bay window in the back. We will have carpet instead of hardwood (for now).

Kitchen looking into family room

Family room.  We will have two windows instead of the fireplace on the back wall.

Kitchen.  Our cabinets and granite are the same colors, but we have the regular island instead of gourmet (it won't bend around like the one shown here).  We also have the regular appliance layout (still stainless) instead of the wall oven layout and vinyl instead of hardwood.

Morning room... I LOVE those windows!

Greg testing out the shower bench in the master bath.  Ours will have white tile.

Tub in master bath.

Looking into master bedroom from sitting area.

Sitting area, which will serve as a vanity/dressing area for us.

Walk-in closet!

We each get one!

Upstairs hall looking into 2nd full bath and 2 bedrooms (the room Greg is looking into is the bathroom).

Looking down on foyer from upstairs hall.  I love this view!

Pre-Construction Results

The pre-construction meeting was not as exciting as I expected.  (I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting..lol).  I think I'm mostly just excited that construction on our house will begin on MONDAY!!  Yippee! 

Our PM seems very nice and knowledgeable.  My dad (who is also very knowledgeable about house-building) asked him some technical questions and he seemed satisfied with the responses so that's a good sign.  And although most of his answers were "no", he at least respectfully entertained my long list of questions.

Here are the answers to my questions:

Kitchen/Morning Room

1. Can we extend counter top over edge of island for extra seating?   It's probably possible, but they would most likely have to change the structure of the island based on the extra weight on that end of the island.  He said he could do the calculations and come up with a price, but I probably won't like it. 

2. Can we get a switched outlet behind cabinets for future under-cabinet lighting?  He said he can't ask the workers to do this (since we didn't pay for it), but if we remind him as it gets closer he will drill strategic holes in the studs behind the cabinets to make it easier for us to run the wires in the future. 

3. Can we put two of the recessed kitchen lights in the family room (or somewhere else)? No.  This is the answer to some of our other electrical questions too.  They said they can't change the electrical plans at all, but they also said the locations of the switched outlets are not set in stone.  So it's kind of contradictory.  Basically, WE cannot have the location of a switched outlet changed, but they can change it if it makes it easier for them. 

Living Room/Dining Room

4. Can we move the columns in the master bedroom to between the living room and dining room?  No.  He made a good point that the 2nd floor ceilings are 8' and the first floor are 9' so it wouldn't work anyway.  I didn't even think of that.

Basement

5. Basement windows… can we move any that are in our “storage area” out to the other areas?  No, they will not move them.  Which stinks, because the plans show one in the storage area, which is such a waste.

Bathrooms

6. Where will towel bars be mounted?   I forgot to ask this.  I'll keep it on my list for later!

Garage/Laundry

7. Can they make shelving in laundry room out of empty space between laundry room and powder room?  He said that area is pretty packed with HVAC stuff so he doesn't think we'd be able to fit anything.  I still plan on taking lots of pictures of these areas and hopefully we can do something in the future.

8. Could we get a utility sink rough-in in the garage?  It would have been $500 to get a rough-in either in the laundry room (in which case we'd have to stack our w/d to fit it) or the basement.  They won't put it in the garage because they won't put plumbing in an unfinished space.  This is the same reason they won't give us a rain shower head in the master bath since the plumbing would have to go through the attic and that's an unfinished space.  I'm skeptical of that though because I've heard of other people getting this.  But about the utility sink, my dad said we could easily put one in the garage later and they sell kits to insulate the pipes so they don't freeze in the winter.  So we'll add this to the list of projects for later.

Outside

9. Where will hose bibs be located?  Both sides of the house.  Their reasoning was that most people put decks on the back so they don't like to put them there and they put one right off of the driveway for washing cars, etc.

10. Outside light placement. Two on front door, two on garage, one in back next to morning room. 

11. When will final grading/landscaping be completed? Before we move in.

General

12. Which switches go to which lights/outlets? Can we determine?  See #3 above.  He also noted that in the bedrooms, only 1/2 of each switched outlet will be switched, so this addresses my concern of having a switched outlet where we'd want a tv or an alarm clock or something.  Also, the switched outlets will be upside down so they are easily identifiable.

14. Trim on windows (inside)?  No. Just sill and the thing under the sill (I forget what that was called).  Screens on windows? Yes, on bottom half.

15. Ceiling finish? Smooth.

16. Flooring transitions? Carpet to vinyl: metal strip, nickle toned to match door hardware.  Hardwood to vinyl: hardwood strip.  Hardwood to carpet: hardwood strip.

17. Smoke detectors and CO detectors… how many and where?  A lot, according to code.


A few other things we discussed:

1. Our lawn only gets seeded, not sodded (I priced it out and it would be >$10,000 to get just our front lawn sodded).  PM suggested seeding every fall to help the grass grow.  Hopefully it will help that our original seeding will be in the fall too.  Greg will be in charge of caring for our lawn :).
2. We get just minimal landscaping out front, but we do get some street trees in the front, so that's nice. 
3. Right now we are looking at a late September closing date.  He said they pride themselves on finishing on schedule so hopefully this is true!
4. Wallboard is glued, nailed and screwed, which is nice.  Hopefully this will minimize nail pops in the future.
5. There was a little issue with the foyer area, but I'm going to save that for another post since it's it's kind of a long story.
6. We reviewed all of our upgrades, color choices, etc and they got everything right, so I think that's a good sign!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL OF YOU DAD'S (especially mine :))!!

Need Suggestions: Furniture Layout

Has anyone done the morning room with the standard island?  There are a few upgrades (like this) that I would have liked to have gotten, but in an effort to save money we decided against.  We actually had the gourmet island listed at the beginning, but then traded it for some other things that I wanted more.  I'm totally ok with the layout of the regular island; my only concern is all of that extra space between the end of the island and the family room.  I was thinking maybe I could put a wine fridge or something at the end of the island, but I don't know how that would look.  Another option would be to put a small kitchen table in the kitchenette area and use the morning room as more of a "florida" sitting-room with some chairs and a coffee table.  I picture myself sitting in there with a book and coffee watching my future children. :)   Below is a sketch and renderings of my first option with the kitchen table in the morning room:



Option 1 with table in morning room

 


Looking from kitchen into family room

 



Looking from family room into kitchen (lots of open space)

 

Here's a sketch/renderings of the second layout idea with the table in the kitchenette area and the morning room as a sitting area:

My other dilemma is where to put our cable jack in the family room.  I was originally thinking directly across from the kitchen because that fits my desired furniture layout the best (and then I could see the TV from the kitchen while I'm cooking dinner), but we are getting two windows on that wall, so depending on how far apart they will be I'm not sure if it would be good to have a tv on that wall.  The other option is on the wall between the family room and the garage since there are no windows on this wall.  Here are sketches/renderings of the furniture layouts for each option.  Any thoughts or suggestions? 

Option 1: TV on wall opposite kitchen (we are getting two windows on this wall... not sure how far apart they will be)



Option 1 rendering



Option 2: TV on wall between garage and living room (no windows on this wall)



Option 2 rendering