Progress Update

Lots of things happening at our site.  I got to spend some time there last night starting the trim work for the A/V wiring I installed.

We noticed a handful of things that need to be addressed. A couple of them are things we explicitly discussed that have been done wrong. I have another post coming for those.

Photos:

Garage is a bit more open now that items are being installed.

Hard surface flooring is in.  That's a remnant piece on top of the craft paper.

Front of the dining room/foyer.

View of the foyer from the dining room.

View into the office.

View from inside the office.

View of the kitchen/morning room.  Island countertop isn't set yet.

Another view of the kitchen.  There are some issues in here.  I'll delve into them in a post later today.

Morning room window is still broken.

Pantry doors are in.

Railings are in.

Laundry room.

Hallway closet upstairs (master bed entry).

Upstairs bath flooring and vanity installed.

Another shot of the vanity.

Master bath vanities.  We'll be painting these quickly.  Likely white. Floor tile installed.

Shower tiling started.

Flooring in the master bath closet is incomplete.  Must have run out of material?

Dehumidifier is finally in place.  Basement is mostly dry now.

No change in the panel, but electricians should be in over the next few days.

We're going to make some great storage under the stairs.  They left some flooring remnants - more than I thought they would.

Furnace is all set up.  Still waiting on water heater.

Microwave and dishwasher are on site.  Oh - we ordered our appliances that will be replacing these!

Still drywall work to be done in the garage.

Handle sets and hardware are in boxes in the garage.

Locked

I'll be receiving my weekly update call from the PM late this afternoon.  I'll write something up on that when I'm able, but I am out of town this weekend for our annual guys' trip to Skirmish in Albrightstville, PA.  The 2015 Invasion of Normandy Paintball event.

We locked our interest rate yesterday.

I've been seeing 4.25 as a common trend and 4.375 has come up very often in the last two weeks as an option.  Yesterday's two rates were 4.125 with a buydown of .125 points and 4.25 with a credit back of .750 points. We took the 4.25 rate as it credits us quite a bit towards closing and after all of the calculations are done, the straight payback is 7 years before we would have benefited from the lower rate.  Adjusting for inflation over that time, plus the potential to invest that money, plus the benefit of having additional cash on hand for our appliance package (oh yeah, I need a post on that), window treatments, and new furniture...  It all adds up to the higher rate making way more sense from both a financial and personal happiness perspective.

Otherwise, not much to update on.  I'll hear more later today and I will be in the house on Tuesday July 14th to do trim work for the A/V items I installed.  That visit will certainly allow for pictures and quite a few updates.

-wmc

Appraisal

I received our appraisal today from NVR.  The good news is that it is above our purchase price.

Now, prepare yourself for my rant.

The appraisal came back exactly $500 higher than the purchase price.

The appraisal process is ridiculous! The appraiser is provided with the purchase price of the home and is told about closing costs being rolled in.  By providing this information, don't we already skew the entire process?

We're building a house that is 2888 sqft and has a ton of tech built into it, high-end kitchen cabinets, etc etc etc.  Our final cost is less than $100/sqft.  Our comps on the appraisal varied from 1900sqft to 2400sqft. We're the largest house with the most upside in terms of features, but we were not even valued close to the highest comp on the list.

The appraisal process has become very simple.  The appraiser received the purchase price and specs of the home and proceeds to search the MLS for 3-4 similarly priced homes in the area.  They list those similarly priced homes as the comps to validate the number, but don't consider anything about the individual houses (such as size, features, upgrades, etc).  Its a simple "should I validate their purchase price??"

I believe that there should be more work involved to keep people honest.  The appraiser should be given the prints and a list of included options - and they should need to seek out similar houses as comps and derive what the value should be with all of the included options from some formula.  Quality of construction and materials used should all be considered in this formula.  Visual inspection of the finished home should be required and should be very thorough.  If the appraised value is much lower than the sale price it indicates a problem with the builder's pricing and that they are charging too much.  If it comes in much higher, it means the builder is either selling at a nicely discounted price or they undervalue their homes and quality.

Our process has become a joke.  Simply a formalized yes/no question to satisfy current mortgage legislation.

Exterior Trim and Interior Shots

So, I drove by today and noticed most of the siding was now complete and that the shutters and door topper were installed.

Door still needs to be painted "Marooned".  Various fascia still missing.

Pebblestone Clay Shutters installed.

We don't like the door topper very much, but it is two pieces and should be easy to swap with something later if we find something we like.  Still need to finish the upper siding too.

I met the SR for a tour of the house to get some progress shots as well.  I stitched a bunch of these together manually, so forgive the seams and missing edges.

This stitch job is rough, but at least it is a decent interior feel for the open concept space (360 Panoramic).

Views: Bateman by William Casolare

Study

Master Bath

Master Closet

Bedroom 4

Upstairs Bath

Bedroom 2

Stairwell from upstairs

Sitting area

Sitting area and closet

Pantry

Great Room

Kitchen

Kitchen / Morning Room

Basement still a bit wet.  PM Says not much they plan to do about it until the ground dries up and they can do grading work.

No ETA on this missing hopper.  Humidity control won't be very effective until its sealed up...

Commercial dehumidifier is delayed based on the rental company issuing them to various local emergency situations from all of the rough weather recently.

Panel area starting to clean up a bit

Doors are all here

Cabinets / Vanities look to be on hand