Walls Up!

Walls are up on the house! Here is the latest picture from our Sales Rep.

First Floor and most of the second floor complete.

Aerial Photos

My friend who is building in the same neighborhood took some pictures when he flew over our houses. (He has a plane, he isn't a bird or Superman).

View from the North. Our house is in the lower right corner.

View from the South. Our house is in the top middle of the picture.

Foundation Going In!

Our first picture of progress on our home! Here is a blurry photograph of our foundation being put in.

Foundation Before Brick

They must think we're good for the money...

Pre-construction Meeting and Tentative Timeline

We had our pre-construction meeting on Thursday, June 13th.  I was the only one that could attend, so I had a massive list of questions compiled from my wife, my dad, my brother-in-law, and my research.

The meeting went very well, going through all of our options, the house layout, flood levels, and more. Between all the briefed items I had the chance to ask all of my questions. I had many of my outstanding (and they were outstanding) questions answered, with the majority being "good answers".

Our Project Manager seems to be very competent and flexible. We're putting in a deck later, so he is putting in the foundation where the deck supports will eventually go. He was also amenable to insulation before drywall. Thanks to other blogs for the tip.

The most important information I got from the meeting was our (tentative) timeline!

Our house should start construction tomorrow, 17 June. We are supposed to have our final walkthrough on September 10th, and settle on September 12th!

Flooring and Bathroom Selections

On June 1st we had our Flooring and Bathroom appointment at Advanced Flooring & Design in Richmond. Going into the meeting, we knew most of the items we wanted. Based on the upgrades we wanted and our friends who just went through the process, we were also prepared to have to pay more than our Sales Rep allocated.

Even with telling our Sales Rep most of the details for our flooring, he was significantly low on his estimate (word of warning). He allocated $6280 for: Hardwood in Kitchen, Morning Room, Dining Room and Foyer, and Tile in bathrooms and laundry room. I planned for at least a $5,000 "buffer" due to any additions. With our modifications, our true total was $13,820!

Here were our selections. Note the cabinet in the pictures is Wyoming Cherry Bordeaux, not Cherry Java like we selected. The showroom did not yet have the Java cabinet display.

14 Day Appointment Selections

Our 14 day appointment was on May 25th. When we got there we learned with the post May 15th changes, there were more cabinet colors than we knew of previously. For the highest tier (Portfolio Select), there are now the following options:

• Wyoming Cherry Spice
• Wyoming Cherry Java (new. Replaced Bordeaux)
• Rushmore Painted Maple Linen (new)
• Rushmore Painted Maple Butterscotch Glaze
• Rushmore Painted Maple Hazelnut Glaze (new)

A combined image of the five different colors from the Timberlake site:

Appliance Details

I'll try to keep this short with as much value as possible.

When preparing for your 14 day, get a list of the appliances from your SR. It will show you color, level names, model number, and Ryan code. Don't wait till your 14 day to have to make a quick decision. You'll be cooking a lot so it is an important decision. If you don't cook, and just use the oven to store your shoes (like my wife when she was single), just get the cheapest option. Nothing to see here.

Appliance options change, but this was the current list when we went through it (Appliance Packages 2012).  This is only the standalone ranges, since the separate option was quite a bit more expensive and we ruled it out.

Research Before the 14 Day Appointment

I'm still catching up on posts. I blame it on being busy with grad school and laziness. Probably more laziness.

We had our 14 Day appointment (on our 13th day) on May 25th. After our whirlwind build decision, we took the time to really research (read: overkill) into all the options, selections, colors, tips, tricks, and regrets of other people. If you can have other people make mistakes for you, why not? Or to be more politically correct, "personal choices that we would not choose, but you are a great person and we still like you".

Here's the bottom line. Before your 14 day (and flooring), you will spend much of your free time debating options. Without even considering structural changes, this includes: appliances, extra electrical outlets, water bibs, extra light fixtures, ceiling fan rough ins, kitchen islands, et cetera. My wife spent many a night after our children were asleep staring at a blog, Pinterest, websites, and more.