At the starting line...

Not much has happened at the site this week, except for one key thing: the electric company installed the meter on the utility stack. Framing could not start until there was power on the site, as I understand it. We've been told by the builder that framing will begin tomorrow or Tuesday (leaving room for Labor Day on Monday). We're really hoping for tomorrow, as we'd like to see some progress before the long weekend, but if not, there's not much we can do about it. We're hoping to go to the site today and see a load of lumber delivered... they won't be doing anything tomorrow or any day without lumber.

So, we're here on the starting line, just waiting for the starting pistol to fire... know the feeling?

Latest update

There has been a little activity at the house site, but no framing yet - next week?!? The gas company came around to all the new sites, three in all, and dug trenches from the supply line to the foundations, ours included. It is interesting to see the exposed supply line, because normally it is invisible. The supply line is plastic and has a wire accompanying it (though not attached to it). Presumably this wire is so that DigSafe can find the line later. I took a picture so we could tell the general place the line is located later. Pretty much all of the utilities come from the same place and go to the same place, so if we ever need to dig in the future, we just need to avoid that one corner.

We made a few changes to our flooring choices, most notably finally going with linoleum in the laundry room instead of tile. The flooring guy thought it was wise, as a mis-aligned washer bouncing on top of tile could break a tile. While we plan to buy a front-loader, so that won't be an issue, I thought linoleum was wiser in case things got wet and also because it seemed pointless to spend good money on a room few will ever see.

Finally, congrats to Rob and Bridgette on selling their house and finding a new one to buy! Good news all around!

More pouring done

I stopped by the site today on the way home, not expecting much of anything since we'd been told that framing won't start until next week. As I approached the site, everything looked the same, but just as I was about to drive by, I noted large truck tracks in the gravel of the driveway-to-be, so I stopped. I noted that a hand-held tamper which had been on the porch was gone, too. I walked up to the garage and lo and behold, the floors have been poured. So the foundation is now complete. I didn't notice if the marked sections that I wrote about earlier had been fixed (I can't even say why they were marked or if they were marked to be fixed or for some other reason).

There are wooden boards at the edge of the garage floor, which I presume will be removed, and a smaller board was nailed to the top of the hole made for the stairs to the basement - so there is now a place to put actual stairs. Aside from these things, nothing else has changed, but it was a good step.

I did not visit the site yesterday, so I'm unsure if the work was done today or yesterday, but I think it was today - the concrete, even that in the shade, was still warm, curing. So, framing can now start any time!

In other news, the house next door had its siding delivered, so they may start putting it up any time. The last time we went into it, the drywall was nearly done, and the only thing that I think was being done was second and third coats on the taping. I can't wait until our house is at that stage.

Foundation is done - we think

I got the order of our appointments a little out of whack in my last post, but by the end of today, we had basically gone through them all. Everything went swimmingly.

We are below budget in both the kitchen and batchroom and in lighting. We were almost $2000 over in flooring, but someone realized that our allowance for flooring was never adjusted to accomodate the sunroom, so that about halved the overage. We will have some overage in the recessed lights, which are not part of the lighting budget but instead the electrical budget. Did you know that? Learning something?

The other place we are most likely to be over is in plumbing. We upgraded most everything there, from using "biscuit" instead of white to using "brushed chrome" instead of "chrome". We may have opportunities to save a bit and spread the savings out to the overages in the plumbing (since the kitchen estimate includes built-in sinks and the plumbing estimate included drop-in sinks) and in flooring (where we might replace tile in the laundry room with linoleum).

At the site, the rough site work is nearly done - or it may be done. It is hard to say. The trench that was dug for utilities is filled in, and we have an electrical installation in place, something the framers will need to run their saws and the like - so that's good. We're not sure the next step. Some of the foundation has been marked to be touched up, so that may be next, but really the next big thing is either the basement floor and garage floor or the beginning of framing. At the beginning of this week we were told framing would start in two weeks - which would mean Monday after next, or thereabouts (everthing is "thereabouts" it seems). We're hoping for earlier, obviously, but there's not much hoping seems to accomplish.

Progress

Today we saw our choices for a fireplace - they were limited, which is good, so far as we're concerned. The fireplace itself was directed - the only choices were in the trim and we left it alone. The mantle was also directed, and we like it, so we're good there. We had the choice of two firebricks, and we chose clay over red. We chose to add a blower for $200 and we chose a wall switch over a remote control.

Today we also went to the house several times as we were out and about and watched as they backfilled the foundation. We returned after quitting time and met Karen's brother there, who declared that all looks good. We rely on his expertise because frankly he knows a ton about all of this and we know almost nothing. The yard is much more flat, though not done - there is a trench dug to access the electrical, cable, and phone wires, for example. But we can see the rough outline of our yard now. It will be very nice. I don't know how much more there is to do in the foundation phase, but we're ready to see lumber delivered and the framing start.

Tomorrow, we go out to look at plumbing, lighting, and kitchen. Friday we meet with the flooring guys. We got a message from the kitchen people who said our design came in under budget, so we're going to see if we can add a few small things - maybe upgrade counters in bathrooms or add some cabinetry to the laundry room.

Busy days

We've had some pretty busy days lately. The footings are in, the foundation poured. On Saturday, we think (since we were away), the foundation forms were removed. Yesterday and today they coated the basement walls with a moisture barrier, and today they filled in most of the gap between the new foundation and ground level. They are not done - there will be more to finish tomorrow, but they're nearly there.

We did note that they put a pipe, riddled with holes, all around the outside edge of the footings, and which was then covered with gravel. We don't know what that was for - some sort of drainage I'm sure, but beyond that I don't know.

We met with the builder today and got a list of things we need to pick. We have picked most of that stuff already - paint, shingles, siding, some flooring. Tomorrow we go to pick a fireplace. In the days to come we will pick flooring, plumbing, and lighting. There are lots of choices - too many in some cases. It is good to have choices, but so damn many?

News

It has been a few days, so here's the news:

Our appraisal came in well above where it needed to be for the home equity loan, so we're ok to get the remainder of the 10% downpayment.

We accepted the offer on the house, and we signed the sales contract.

On Monday, the new house was staked out on the site and we met with Tom to look at it. We adjusted it a bit to center the house in the lot a bit better - he had it off to one side to provide a larger side and back yard, but we liked it better 20 feet over.

I went to the site to take pictures on Tuesday morning and the hole was already being dug. One of the excavation workers was someone I knew in passing from my time in the National Guard so we chatted for a moment.

By the time the boys and I went to the site that evening, it was dug out and filled with gravel. The footings should be poured today and the foundation walls will be up by Friday. Weather looks good for the rest of the week.

We will be meeting with the kitchen guy at some point before the end of the week and with Tom on Friday to go over a few details. By the time we get back home with Brittany next week, there should be significant progress, weather permitting. We're praying for rain on all weekends and none on the weekdays from now on!

Good news

Well, when it rains, it pours. We got the final version of our plans, and all looks good. Of course, we still worry about money, but we can worry about that later. We have word that the site will be staked out on Monday, and on Wednesday, they will be digging for the footings and foundation. We're hoping that there is some real work done by the time Brittany is home after this next weekend.

Then, yesterday, we heard that we had an offer. It was too low, but it was real - $310,000. We countered with $320,000, which is lower than we wanted to go, but not by much. They countered with $315,000 and said they would go no higher. We countered with $315,000 with a November 3 closing. If the building on our house goes perfectly, it will be ready around then. Every delay will mean time we have to find somewhere else to live, and we watned to minimize that.

So we have not yet accepted the offer, but I suspect that we will. We only need a little more time to think about it.

Address

We found out today our new address: 301 Raven Circle. Karen wanted something with a 4 in it, as that's her "lucky" number. But it is what it is!

What's done is done

We did it - we put $20,000 down on the new house, and we now await the appraisal of our house to get the additional $25,000 (Tom said that the down payment would be based on the base price - any options are added at closing and not counted in the initial price).

We got answers to some of our questions: the house has one heating/cooling zone - can that be changed? Yes, but at some expense, as ductwork would have to be reworked. We'll deal with it. Are gutters included? No. We can add those later for relatively little if we decide we need them. Is a garbage disposal included? Yes. Will HVAC registers be on the floors or the walls? Floors.

Next steps: Tom will take our plans, to which we made a few adjustments, and do a final plan. This will include the sunroom and porch and a few doors that we requested be larger than in the plan. He'll print off copies for us and submit them to the town, and assuming all goes well there, they will break ground soon thereafter. Adam thought it might be this week, but I think it more likely to be next. Once they do, I'm going to try to take photos of the work each day.

Now all we need is a contract on our house.