Rumor has it..

So I have it under good authority that drywall will be complete today.  We were so not expecting that!  Can't wait to go and get pictures this weekend!

Also, you will notice that we changed the look of our blog.  This way seems to make it easier to navigate.  Let us know what you think!

Itsy Bitsy Spider....NOT!

You guys know already that our current apartment is a spider hotel.  Well here is proof!  Look at this nasty bugger I found this evening.

 

Needless to say, I cannot WAIT for our house to be done!  Even if we have spiders there too, at least I'll have a better understanding of where the heck they are coming from. 

Speaking of which I have a picture of the house that is new.  Its of the insulation as well as stacks of drywall that got delivered!  Mike took it when he went to go check out Trinity's installation.

 

Awesome customer service - LOVE our PM!!

So last week at the pre drywall meeting I casually mentioned to Adam how much I disliked the pineapple ornamentation that will be over the front door. I had assumed that because it was in our house, it was meant for us.  He said that they get switched around all the time and what was in our house might not end up being what is actually installed.  So my hopes were high that the pineapple is not what we would actually get.

Adam, our awesome PM randomly emailed me today to confirm that indeed the pineapple was not destined for our door!! WOOHOO!

I'm lovin' the fact that Adam even remembered and thought to email me about it.  GO ADAM!

He even sent a pic of the plans.  Not sure who got the pineapple though because that other one in the pic is just the oval shape.

Homesite visit - Week 7

Since Mike and I visited our home last Tuesday for our meeting with Trinity and last Thursday for our pre drywall meeting, there wasn't much to see when we visited on Saturday.  We had originally been told that Trinity would be installing this past Friday so we had hoped to get photos of the wiring before insulation went in but they got delayed and won't install until today.  Mike is going to drop by after work and get some photos of the wiring for future reference.

Other than that, we got confirmation that insulation goes in this week which is awesome.  We are also expecting to see siding and possible a driveway as well this week!  And of course like I said in a previous post, drywall is scheduled to go up next week.

I hope to post this weekend with new pictures!

Pre Drywall Meeting - DONE!

We had a GREAT pre drywall meeting today!  Yesterday I sent Adam a very short list of questions/concerns so he knew what we were going to being looking for.  He pointed out a lot of key points about the internal structure of our home as well as addressed any concerns we had.  Ill be honest, I was really impressed by the pains Ryan homes goes to in order to ensure our home is as energy efficient as possible!

Anyway, Adam expects the siding and driveway to be completed by the end of next week and also hopes to have the insulation in as well.  If all goes well, the drywall will go up the following week.

I only took two pictures for the blog today because the only changes were the electrical wiring being installed.  I did however take videos of the everything for reference later.  Both pictures are kind of funny, but before you look at those I gotta tell you about the brick layers that were working on the end unit close to us, which got partial brick on the side.  So there was a guy up on risers about 8-9 feet high and then there was a guy in a pickup truck bed full of bricks.  This dude was stacking 3 bricks on top of each other and then tossing them up to the guy on the risers!! Not only did the bricks stay in their neat little stack but the guy in the risers caught them perfectly in a stack!!  I was AMAZED and I am really kicking myself in the rear for not recording it, but they already looked weirded out that we were watching them, haha!

So anyway, here are my pics:

Someone must have needed something to write on STAT so they used our wall. HA!  It says 703-587-0490.

This is in one of the spare bedrooms. "Gonzalez" I got a kick out of this because I have seen something like this before.  I believe one of our other blogger friends has something similar!  Perhaps its just a tradition for framers to leave their mark?  Kinda cool. :)

Wiring is confirmed!

Mike and I met with someone from Trinity today to confirm all of our locations for the wiring.  I'm glad we did (the meeting was optional) because I didn't like some of the locations we had marked on the floorplan once I saw it in person!

Anyway I took a bunch of photos of where everything would be so that we would know what we have behind the drywall.  For example, we got pre-wired 7.1 surround sound in the living room and we know that eventually we will mount our tv to the wall.  Knowing exactly where those studs will be in relation to the speakers will help us visualize the studs when it comes time to hang the mounting hard. 

We also got to see the brick guys in action as they installed our little strip of brick our front.  They were nearly done with ours by the time we left after the meeting.  We also discovered that the plumber already did our roman shower pipes.  Remember earlier this week I talked about requesting higher shower heads because Mike was tall? Well they put them in at 90 inches!!!! Mike measured himself to them and they were way high even for him! He likes them that way, but I worry about the shower heads being too high above the tile.  Im also wondering if that will effect water pressure at all being that high.  All questions for our pre drywall meeting on Thursday!

On another note I have a quick question for my blogger friends.... I was looking at the sub-floor in various places and noticed some instances of gaps between pieces.  Not large gaps but still noticeable to me.  Have you heard of this causing problems later on?  Part of me thinks it could be an issue, but the other part wonders if this would be better than having the sub-floor pieces rub together making noise or even buckling.  What do you think?

Anyway, here are some of the pics I got while Mike was talking surround sound with the guy.

Measuring out the surround sound

Markings for our data/cable hookup and our security panel in the background.

Markings for where the smoke detector and speakers will go on the ceiling as well as the carbon monoxide detector on the wall.  I love how bright the room is right here.  I was worried we wouldn't get enough natural light.

Another speaker and the same smoke detector.  In the background is where our powder room will be.

Token shot of our house, now with brick!

Close up of the brick!

Homesite Visit - Week 6: A very happy birthday

So this was really the first time I've spent my birthday like I would any other day.  In the morning I went to the dentist to get a cavity filled, me and Mike had dinner with my family and we made our regular trip to the house to get some progress photos.  Nothing too exciting right?  It was still a great birthday though because we got to see our home look more like a home!

Anyway, we got some photos of the inside, but like many of you already know, its hard to get good photos in a house that is only framed.  It all looks the same.  They cleaned it up ALOT and started electrical and HVAC.  Like I mentioned the other day, we do have all of our windows and our doors.  Next week I will pay closer attention to make sure none of them are broken..

This is on the 1st floor.  I don't like that there is a hole in wall, however the fact that its painted orange probably means that Adam or Colin spotted it too.

Looking into the living room from the kitchen..

This is the long wall in the kitchen where the fridge, stone and microwave will be.  The ventilation you see is for the microwave.

Mike standing in the master bathroom.

He was looking at this..."Raise shower heads".  It was one of our requests at the pre construction meeting.  He is 6'5" and the shower heads in the model were not tall enough for him!

Our duct work in the attic looks like a spider.

Our walk in closet backing up to the guest bath..

Our door ornamentation.  I hate the pineapple.  Who comes up with these ideas?!