Taking Advantage of the mild December weather

Besides the pillars, painting the door black, and pouring the drivewalk/porch/sidewalk - the exterior looks almost done. Wasn't expecting to see shutters, trim, and all siding done yesterday. I love it!

Drywall done

Drywall is up everywhere (even the basement)! I haven't been able to look at it in the daylight, but here are some phone pics my husband took of the kitchen/morning room, family room and master bedroom. Also, the brick and siding have been done, and we picked out a new king bed.

Brick!

We got brick this week - we wanted a lighter brick all along, but I was worried that the brick we picked was too light.

On the first day of brick,it looked so dark and nothing like we picked (see cell phone pic.). By the time they were done, it looked perfect and we love it. We were worried after day 1!

They are ready to drywall - the materials are already in every room.

Rate locked and some pics from pre-drywall phase

Locked into rate today - glad to have that decision behind me. Thanks to Gina, sgt rich and tammigirl for their input - it was kind of nerve wracking to make that decision in advance but I knew I'd be happy with anything under 4%.

We locked in at 3.875% for 30 yr conventional. Could've bought down for 3.75%, but it would've taken 10 yrs for the decrease in monthly payments to cover increase in the closing costs. I'm a CPA in real estate - so numbers games like that are fun for me (ha, i know that is sad).

Brick was started today, insulation tomorrow. Drywall next week after Christmas. Here are some pics
From the weekend before the predrywall meeting:

Pre-drywall meeting and rate lock question

We had our predrywall meeting yesterday (12/20) - it took about 1.5 hours, and I went through the whole house with the Project Supervisor. Learned a lot about the house - he showed me what every cord was for, whole they sealed the house, and gave me a timeline of things to come. Everything looks good - a couple issues and new things I learned below.

I didn't take a single picture during the meeting - I was too busy listening to everything else. It was so interesting to learn everything about the house. We never planned on building, but this location/price point was something we couldn't pass up. So glad we did this experience because of everything I am learning about how the house is built and set up.

3rd party inspection - 1/25 3pm
Demonstration - 1/27 8am
Closing day - 1/31 - 1pm walkthrough and 2pm closing

I wish the closing day was a few days earlier, but we will deal with it. Looks like we will be moving on Super Bowl weekend - and the Super Bowl is in town this year (we live in a suburb of Indy). So that could be an interesting weekend. Plus, I'm a CPA, so January is bad for me - we were aiming to close before Christmas (so I am JEALOUS of those of you closing soon), but due to the backup with the permits and the sale of our house, we were pushed back. Oh well, we will be so glad to be in our new house.

New things I learned and issues:
-House comes with a dehumidifier. I knew the house didn't come with a battery back up sump pump (and I am planning to get one right after closing). I figured I'd buy a dehumidifier too at that point, so that was a nice bonus
-There was one switch plug (aka half hot) in the family room - and it controls the outlet where the TV will be plugged in. PM said that was a very strange place in the room for the switch plug. It will be moved to the wall where the furniture will be per PM
-The full bathroom in the basement has a lower ceiling (think the height of the bulkheads in the basements). That's unfortunate but unavoidable with the framing of the house and location of the supports.
-The location of the HVAC and water heater are unfortunate but can't be moved. They are both set up across from each other in the unfinished area of the basement, and basically form a little blockage to the storage area. You can get through between the two, but it is a little tight. Disappointed by this.

Any tips on rate lock? Or maybe put in the comments what rate you got - I am curious what others got recently. Something below 4 would get me really excited for 30 yr fixed. Does anybody take a gamble and just wait and see how the rate changes every day? My mortgage rep emailed me yesterday and say she'd call me mid-morning today about locking the rate.



I'm

Pre-drywall meeting Scheduled

Our house finally looks like a house! This is the fun part of home building. Our pre drywall meeting is next Tuesday 12/20. Closing is set for end of January - i should have an actual date next week, so I can make a ticker

We've been able to walk through once - it just stinks that it is dark at 5pm once we get off work. Only issue is that we are waiting on a home office window - the one originally delivered was The wrong size.

Here are some pics of the exterior, and one of my son checking out the family room.

Framing progress

We finally have something that looks like a house on our lot! It seems like most bloggers comment that framing is so fast and done in a handful of days. That hasn't been our experience. It seems like it's taking forever.

Pm emailed 11/23 and said framing would start that weekend after thanksgiving and we'd see lots of progress in the next week. But we saw nothing - maybe 2 hrs of work.

The next week, we did see progress - it's taken 10 days (;plus the first 7 days of nothing) but they've done all the framing and windows and it looks awesome. Roofing looks next.

I think waiting has been more difficult because it's Christmas and we are in a temporary home and it's kind of depressing, but we are glad to see progress! Hoping to get a closing date soon. Or even a pre drywall date. Ha. Here are some pictures - first floor started on 11/29 and the most recent pic is from 12-9. We hope to walk through the house this weekend.