Drywall finished and fireplace installed!

On Saturday we took a ride by the house to see the weekly progress.  We found that all the drywall had been completed, mudded and taped, and the first coat of primer had been applied.

We also found that the garage door had been installed

There were some "goodies" in the garage including our banisters, our interior doors and the granite for our master vanity.

Banisters

Interior doors

Apparently we are getting the shutter-style door on our laundry room, which I was really hoping we wouldn't get, since we have the tankless water heater and do not have the water heater tank in our laundry room.  Oh well, I guess we can always switch it out in the future. 

On a side note, does anyone know what that pipe extending into the garage is?- the one to the right of the stack of doors in the photo.

Sneak peak of our master vanity granite- can't wait to see it installed!

 I was also happy to see that the extra lip of cement slab that was in the garage has been removed and it looks fine, yay!

The first floor of the house looks great, it really is starting to feel like a home!

Living room

Dining room looking into kichen

Foyer with mudroom and stairs to second floor

We did notice a small hole in the drywall on the staircase and alerted our PM, who promised to get it fixed.

When we entered the family room we found two surprises- our fireplace mantel with granite surround had been installed

Close up of the Venetian Gold granite

I think that the granite looks awesome around the fireplace and that the Venetian Gold will look great with our St. Cecilia counter tops.  The two granites look pretty similar so it will provide a nice continuity for the kitchen and family room.

We did notice that the mantel was not completely flush against the wall and our PM said he would address it, as well as the slight bowing in the ceiling above the fireplace.

I don't think our PM really knew what he was getting in for when he took us on, I'm a real perfectionist, and I'm not going to rest until everything is up to my standards.  This weekend I'm going to go visit the house alone and take a level with me and make sure that every wall in the house is straight.  My poor PM is really going to have to work to get his "10's" from me!

We also found our kitchen cabinetry just hanging out in our family room and kitchen, all ready for install.  I'm guess that will take place this week.

 

Going up the stairs we also noticed that the box for the stairwell hanging light fixture had been dry walled over.   I know from reading the blogs that it is a pretty frequent occurrence, but I did let my PM know.  He told me that they would have no problems locating it from the electrical blueprints.

Upstairs everything looked good!

Master suite looking toward sitting area

Master bedroom- I can't wait for all this space!

Master Bath

Loft

Foster's bedroom

Foster's bedroom

I love how the bedrooms have the vents over the door way for better airflow, hopefully that will prevent the rooms from getting stuffy at night with the door closed.

While we were down visiting the house we ran into our across the street neighbors again, who are so nice.  I'm really looking forward to getting to know them better.  They invited us over to trick our treat in the neighborhood and I think we'll take them up on the invite!  Mark and I can switch off sitting in a lawn chair in our driveway handing out candy, and it would be a much safter neighborhood for trick or treating since there are sidewalks and street lights.  Plus it would be a fun way to meet more of our neighbors!   Maybe we'll even have electricity at the house by then and I'll be able to string a few outdoor lights!

Pre-drywall meeting and siding!

Things have been moving along so quickly with our house, and the next major milestone to closing was the pre-drywall meeting, which took place last week.

We arrived at the home site bright and early to meet with our PM.  Luckily we were able to schedule it while Everett was in preschool and Foster slept through most of the meeting, so I was able to get a good look at the work and ask all my questions.  Later that evening we did bring Everett back by the house so he could see the progress.  I want to keep him as involved as possible so he'll feel more comfortable and secure about moving. 

The meeting went really well, primarily the pre-drywall consult is to show the homeowner where all the major utilities are behind the walls and so that the homeowner can check to make sure that all their options are accounted for.   We also brought our PM a copy of the home inspection we had done so we could go over the small items Lance Keller had found and discuss how they would be addressed.

Overall the meeting went well, everything looks good, and the few items we caught were easy fixes.  We went room by room, and I checked to make sure that the all the switched outlets were in good locations (i.e. not where I was going to put computers, alarm clocks, or TVs), and I was satisfied with their placement.  I wish we could have skipped the switched outlets, and I still don't understand why we couldn't, but at least they won't be in my way.  One surprise was that the sitting area of the master bedroom will have its own switched outlet, I hadn't realized that, but the room is so large that code dictates the need for another switch.

Our tub and shower pan were already installed in our master bath, which was a surprise.

and I was very happy to see that the area I am planning to install a medicine cabinet was free from electrical wires.  I still don't understand why Ryan doesn't install medicine cabinets, are they considered outdated?  We don't have them in our house we are renting (built in 1999), and it is really annoying to try and store everything under the sink.  Medicine cabinet install is one of the first projects I'm tackling once we move in!

That big empty space between the outlet and the switches is where my medicine cabinet will be installed

The shower/tub was also installed in the kids bath

I was also able to double check that the attic access was in the upstairs hallway and got a good look at the amount of storage space we'll have available.  It looks like the whole space above Everett's room was floored for attic storage, which is awesome.  I think the extra money for the drop down stairs and storage was a good choice.   Our PM also told me that the floor supports for the attic are the same that they use for the second floor, so there is no worry about overloading the storage space weight-wise.   Its the same floor construction that they use when they do the optional attic living space for the Rome model, so if in the future we ever wanted to pop out the roof and expand, we could do so.

Attic access stairs

We got to take a look at the loft and the extra bedrooms as well as the laundry room.

Loft

Everett's room

Guest bedroom

When we headed downstairs I made a happy discovery, I have an outlet on my stairs!  I was actually considering adding one, and was sort of kicking myself that I didn't do it, but low and behold, there was one already there!  Now I can easily vacuum the stairs and have a nightlight.  Its the little things, right?

When we got downstairs we found a few mistakes, the first the PM had already recognized, and that was that the electrician had forgotten to add the recessed lights in the dining room.  This wasn't too big of a deal, and it let me confirm once again the placement of the lights with the PM.  We also discovered that our pantry outlet had not been installed and our PM made note of that.

Looking into the dining room (minus the recessed lights)

We also asked the PM about the placement for the vent in the dining room.  We noticed in the Rome model that the vent is oriented perpendicular to the window, which means that half the vent is blowing directly on the window, and not out into the room.  We asked the PM if the vent could be switched so it would be parallel to the window, so that it would better heat/cool the room.  The PM told us it wouldn't be a problem (and it has been switched).  You might want to think about this if you are building a Rome, its weird in that the dining room vent is the only one located perpendicular to the the outside wall, all the rest of parallel.

I was also happy to find that there is a vent in the pantry and also one each in the master closets, but slightly less happy to find that there isn't a vent in the kitchen.  There are two located in the morning room, and one in the family room, and I hope that will be enough to keep the area cool/warm.  I haven't read any complaints about the temperature in the kitchen, so I'm hoping Ryan knows what it was doing when it configured the HVAC system.

Looking into the ventless kitchen, gas line and water line for fridge installed on far wall, water for sink to the left

Morning room and breakfast bar (so, so, so glad we added the extra windows!)

Everything in the family room looked fine, the speaker pre-wires and cable connections were in the right places, and the fireplace with blower looks to be installed in the correct location, and the eyeball lights are over the fireplace.  The gas line for the fireplace is offset from center, so I don't have to worry about it when hanging pictures.

The one other small problem we encountered was with the light switches for the kitchen, the ones on the wall between the foyer hallway and the hallway leading to the pantry and dining room.  I had asked during our pre-construction meeting for these to be moved over as close as possible to the foyer hallway so that it would be easier to turn the lights off when leaving the house, and so I could use that wall for a bar cabinet like this one 

Well, the switches were still in the middle of the wall- currently we are working on a resolution, and I'll let you know what happens.

The study also looks great, with the phone jack just where we need it to be and the switched outlet on the far wall away from where the desk is going to go. 

study

They also were able to move our outlet in the garage to the exterior wall close to the garage door.  We have a dedicated outlet in the center of the back wall of the garage for the fridge/freezer, so I thought it would be silly to have two outlets right next to each other, now we'll be able to use the non-dedicated outlet to run extension cords for holiday lights. 

We also got to check out the backyard, and I was able to measure it out and it will definitely be able to house a small swing set.  With the playground just down the street we don't need anything extravagant, but it will be nice to have a structure for the kids to swing and slide and climb on right in our own backyard.

I cannot wait for the boys to have this wonderful safe space to run and play!

We also had a surprise in our driveway, the house siding!  I was able to take a peak, and it looks just as good as I thought it would

Lots of boxes

Irish Thistle

I had one last thing to accomplish before we finished our meeting, and it was an idea I got from some other Ryan bloggers.  I brought a sharpie with me and I was able to write some special secret messages on the framing boards which will be covered with drywall and always be a part of the house.

Right on at the entrance to the house I copied a traditional Irish blessing and added our names and the date

and I also wrote a little blessing for both boys on the inside of their bedroom doorways

I just thought this was such a cool idea and I'm so excited that I got to continue the tradition in my own house.  This is one of the special things that you get to do when you build and I think it is so neat that our names will always be a part of this home.

Bonus Update!!!

A few days after our pre-drywall meeting I drove by the house (mostly to check on the pantry outlet, dining room recessed lights and dining room vent position), and I found that the siding and the shutters were up and the house was completely dry-walled! no moss grows on this crew!

Irish Thistle siding, dark berry shutters

I love the front door detail, its so Greek revival!

We even have drywall!

 
This Saturday evening we'll be headed back by the house to take a look and see what progress has been made, the drywall will probably be taped and mudded, and maybe we'll even have some paint!

So much progress in so litle time!

Things have been moving along so fast at the homesite, I can't even keep up!   Ryan homes certainly employs some speedy workmen!

The day after our "pre" construction meeting I went down to the site and found our foundation being poured.  We sat around and watched for a little while and got some nice views of them pouring the slab for our driveway.

Cement truck at work

Slab is poured

driveway being poured

Apparently there was a mistake made when pouring the slab.  I'm guessing someone read the blueprints wrong because there is a two foot lip of house foundation slab that is sticking out into our garage.   We were supposed to have two extra feet because we chose the garage extension, but it was supposed to be two extra feet of garage space, not house space.   The PM caught the mistake early on, and the house was framed property, and they are supposed to come out at some point with saws and remove the lip of concrete and make the entire garage floor flush.    I'm going to keep my eyes on this, and if I'm not happy with the outcome, I'll be making them fix it until it is right!

A few days after the foundation was finished framing began.   We showed up in the early afternoon on the first day of framing and found the entire first floor has been nearly completed!

Front of house

Front door and walkway

Everett checking out our new home

Side view

Back of house

The pile of lumber

I was wondering where they were going to store our lumber, since our street is mostly built up, and they used the lot behind us for storage.

We returned the following afternoon to find that the whole house was framed!

Front of house

Front door and window

Side of house

Back of house

The awesome framing crew saw me outside taking pictures and invited me inside for a closer look.  I didn't want to get in anyone's way or slow down progress so I quickly checked out the living and dining room and then left.

Garage (you can see the lip of extra slab, its the step up that the tools are resting on)

Living Room

Dining room

Looking into kitchen and morning room

View up the stairs (hopefully we never see daylight coming through the roof again!)

Everything was moving incredibly fast, and by that following Friday all the pre-drywall work had been completed. I was also very pleased to hear that the PM had nothing but praise for the team working on our framing and even told me that they would be the crew he would hire to frame his own house. 

 We chose to have a private inspector come out and actually used a company that I had found recommended on another Ryan blog.   The inspector we used was Lance Keller of Keller Corp and we were really happy with his services.  His report was very thorough and easy to understand and his prices were reasonable.   He only found three small items (which were quickly addressed), but the piece of mind was priceless.  I also feel like if the PM and crew know that you are going to use an outside inspector (I told my PM at the pre-construction meeting and he noted it on our paper work in capital letters!), even if it is subconsciously, that they will pay a little extra attention to make sure everything is right. 

I have been really surprised by how quickly everything is moving, so far we have had no delays and are still on track for a late Oct completion.  I spoke again with our SR and PM and both have confirmed that the house will be fine to close in Dec even if it is completed earlier.  The PM told me that it is actually nice to have some extra time because that way we can address any issues before we take possession of the house.   That is actually a real plus, I'm sure I'll be visiting the house at least weekly once it is completed, and any thing I can find that can be fixed before our actual move in will make it so much easier and cut down on my 30 day punch list.  I have a feeling it is much faster and easier to go through the PM to get things fixed BEFORE we take possession, than dealing with the Ryan home hotline post move-in.

Our PM also told us he is not going to lay the sod until closer to our move-in date and that he will have the home cleaned on extra time prior to our move in, which all sounds great.   Since everything seems to be satisfactory, I'm not going to push about getting our money refunded that we paid for the delayed build.   I don't want to cause a big fuss now, just in case something goes wrong in the future (I'm looking at you extra garage slab), something that going to need a big fix and some extra goodwill in the future.