Pre-Settlement Demonstration

Our final walk through is in the books.

We didn't spend much time on the appliances since I let the PM know that we are replacing them all the morning after we close on the house.  I'm going to list them for sale on Craigslist today.

Overall, the house looked great!

There were a few issues with the finishing but they were mostly minor and easy fixes.

PM is ordering a new stair baluster to replace the cracked one.

We noted a scratch in the resilient flooring that will be repaired.

The kitchen countertop issue is being resolved after closing.

We are waiting on a replacement cabinet door.

We noted that some other cabinets were scratched and or blemished.  PM is ordering new materials to fix those areas.

PM is going to have the master bath shower outer tile seam (outside the door) re-worked as the grout doesn't look great. (Note on this - the framing was a bit wide so the shower door fell in a spot where it wouldn't be able to mount to anything.  They doubled up the concrete backer board to make up the difference).

They had missed an exterior window in painting the trim.

They are going to power wash the basement floor (again) to clean up the remaining dirt.  It was pretty rough from the mud/water issues that happened during construction.

I'm sure I'm missing something and will post more notes later if I think of them.  For now, we're inventorying things and working on our current house to prep it for sale.  We have lots of deliveries coming with stuff for the new house and can't wait to begin the transition!!

T-5 Days!

We close in 5 days!

Our neighbor let us know that there were probably 20 people working in our house today.

We can't get in, but from the outside we can tell that the kitchen pendants were installed.  The front door was painted, the house was power washed, the trim was cleaned up (and it looks like painted as well).

Lots of progress and it looks like everything is on track!!

I love the siding color, especially when there isn't much sun.

Grading Complete / Seeded

Our lot now looks a bit more normal.

The grading is complete, the hydroseed is down, the driveway has some smaller stone on it and is a bit wider.

Our pre-settlement demonstration is now firmly set with the PM for Friday morning at 9am.

Still waiting to see that door painted "Marooned".

Dumpster Gone!

I stopped by the house to meet with a paving contractor for a quote and there was quite a bit of activity!  The dumpster was removed while I was there and the yard was being graded/raked and prepped for seed.

I noticed that the tile guy, the carpet guy, and a painter were all in the house working as well.

I booked our Central A/C install for next Friday.

I have a couple driveway quotes - one much lower than the other.

All of our appliances are scheduled for delivery on Wednesday 7/29.

I'm working on the utilities and rolling our FiOS service over.

Ordering the ceiling fans and garage door opener ASAP.

Need to measure the windows for shades - I forgot when we were last in the house.

The Final Stretch

Well, our pre-settlement demonstration is scheduled for this coming Friday (July 24th).  I haven't yet heard a time from the PM.  We have noticed a few things in the house that I assume will be taken care of before then, but we have a running punch list to go over that day if those items are not resolved (mostly finishing issues like cracks in drywall seams, etc).

Our closing is scheduled for 10am next Tuesday (one week!).

The water heater isn't installed yet, but I assume that is because the wrong one was ordered.  There was a 50gal electric water heater sitting in the garage.  I was briefly concerned that I had remembered wrong, but I checked the MSS on the wall and confirmed that we are slated for a 50gal gas powervent unit.  I also confirmed in the basement that we were plumbed for that gas run and that the correct (120V) power connection was present.

My wife and I finished up the low-voltage end of things getting the house prepped for the certificate of occupancy.  We have plenty to do once we move in, but for now just some basic wall plates are installed until we move in.

We have quite a bit planned for next week.  We'll start moving in slowly everyday after we close with a big push to happen the following weekend, but the days following our closing will be filled with:

-Installing ceiling fans and lighting fixtures to rough-in locations.

-Installing in-ceiling speakers

-Installing the ceiling-mounted wireless access points

-Installing window treatments on many (not all) windows

-Having Central Air Conditioning installed

-(Hopefully) having a the driveway paved

-Installing / Swapping in our new appliances

Much to come and some busy weeks ahead.

Fixtures installed in the upstairs bath.

Our dining room fixture (installed in the morning room).

Stair rails were painted/stained. (The one banister is still cracked).

Picture of where the vent was in the foyer/dining room.  The floor seam would have been right in the middle of the vent.

The cabinets have been mounted 2" higher than their previous location.

Exterior Complete

A bit gloomier weather today.  Looks like the exterior of the structure is mostly complete.  The falling siding looks to have been secured and the missing fascia is in place.

I'll be in the house Saturday afternoon for a few hours and will have another update after that.

From the update call, it sounds like both coats of paint are done and carpet may start this weekend.

More to come!

Exterior Progress - Siding Completed

I stopped by the house yesterday in the morning to drop off two surge-protected outlets for behind my TV mounting locations.  While in the community (at 8:45am) it was PACKED.  There were probably 2 work trucks/vans at every in-construction house and we currently have many houses in the works.

I ran into the PM and asked him if he wanted the outlets or if I should walk into the house and give to the electricians.  He elected to have me hand them to the electricians.

I didn't grab any pics in the morning since it was so busy.

We drove by last night and saw that our siding was completed, gutters were up, much of the grading work had been started, the drywall in the garage that hadn't been hung yet was now up, and there were still people working at the house around 7pm.

One missing piece of fascia above the front door.
Our exterior lights are different from the other houses...  I checked the elevation printout and they should be the same.  I'm not opposed to being different but I have some concern because they look to be smaller fixtures (cheaper, less light, etc).

That piece of siding needs some help above the Study windows.

Issues...

So, I've got a variety of items to discuss here.  Most of these aren't extremely important, but the height issue got under my skin a bit.  There are other tiny items that we noticed but I believe they will all be part of the finishing process.  I'll bring them up if they aren't resolved soon.


Water In Basement
This issue seems to have been resolved.  If you've been following the blog, you'll remember that there was 2" or so of water in the basement.  Contributing factors were the sump pump being unplugged, the grading not being completed, a missing basement window, and not yet having a dehumidifier down there.  All of these items except for the grading are resolved.


Floor Seam In Foyer
I received a call from the PM during the hard surface flooring installation.  He wanted to let me know that the floor seam between the foyer and the dining room had become an issue.  Since the plans for the Bateman are from another climate, they only call for one heating duct to the dining area.  Because of our location, two ducts were installed.  One of them ended up right in the floor break between the carpeted dining room and the resilient flooring in the foyer.  We elected to extend the resilient to ensure we had enough flooring in the foyer for wet shoes and such.  Also, we wanted the dining room to be resilient as well but they quoted a cost that was unacceptable to do so.

Wrong Counters
The kitchen counters were mentioned earlier in the blog.  The island was too large to have the beveled edges that were part of the Formica 180fx upgrade (counters B).  So, we elected to have the island squared off and to have the remaining counters kept with the double bevel edge.  Well... the counters we saw Tuesday night were all square.

Wrong counters to the right of the range.

Wrong counters to the left.

Correct counters on the island.

The PM looked into it and says the correct counters were ordered.  The supplier is fabricating the correct tops however they will not be available until after we close.  He said this will be taken care of after closing and it will be in writing.  Our SR suggested we keep the current counters on hand after the swap so that we could use them in the basement if we elected to do so.  We have some ideas here.

By the way the color is correct, and we're happy enough with it, but we are anxious to look into our stone replacement in the near future.  The color is too warm for our liking and we'd prefer something in the gray/silver spectrum.


Cabinet Height
Well, this one was a big deal for me.  I called the PM last week and asked what the cabinet height above the fridge would be before purchasing our appliances.  He had told me 72".  This was important because we planned to buy the over-sized Samsung.  When we were in the house Tuesday, the height measured 71"...  The fridge is 71.5" tall in the back and the door hinge is 73" tall.

Fridge opening

You can see that the cabinets are 1" or more lower than the recess cutout for the fridge in the wall.

I spoke with the PM and he said that the cabinets were in fact at the right height and that his earlier measurement was only an approximation.  He further explained that regardless of that he would pay to have the carpenter move the cabinets 2" higher.

I'm not sure why he took that tact, as he could have easily been positive about the whole thing rather than accusatory and blaming me for relying on the measurement that I specifically called about as I was concerned.  During that phone conversation, I even mentioned that the fridge was 71.5" tall...

Its getting taken care of, but this was a sore spot for me.


Cracked Morning Room Window
Not a big deal as it has been an issue since framing, but one of the windows in the morning room is still cracked.  I'm sure it will be replaced before closing.  It is only mentioned here as it is still pending.

Appliances Ordered

We ordered our kitchen appliances yesterday!

We will be ripping out and selling the included builder-grade black GE stuff in the few days after we close.


Fridge:
Samsung RF32FMQDBSR 36" Wide, 30 cu. ft. 4-Door Refrigerator with Cool Select Plus (Stainless Steel)

Range:
Samsung NX58H9500WS Slide-In Gas Range with True Convection (Stainless Steel)

 

 

 

Included Griddle

Included wok plate

Love the front controls.

Microwave:
Samsung ME21F707 2.1 cu. ft. Over-the-Range Microwave (Stainless Steel)

 

 

 

 

Dishwasher:
Samsung DW80J7550US Top Control Dishwasher with WaterWall™ Technology (Stainless Steel)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


We currently own and will be bringing our washer/dryer pair to the new house:

Samsung - 3.7 Cu. Ft. 9-Cycle Ultra Capacity High-Efficiency Washer - Tango Red - WF331ANR/XAA
Samsung - 7.3 Cu. Ft. 9-Cycle Super Capacity Steam Gas Dryer - Tango Red - DV331AGR/XAA

We don't own the pedestals, but this is the best picture I found: