Drywall, Gas Meter, Permanent Electric, Siding, Shutters

It's been about a month since I've last posted.  There were a good two weeks when not much happened.  The drywallers and siding installers got held up, so we didn't really make much progress at the house.  As a result, our move in date got pushed back.  We're now looking at January 5th.  We were hoping to be in by Christmas, then New Year's, and now we're just looking forward to being in. Period.  At least if it gets pushed back another week, Wayne Homes will give us $500 for going past their 120 day promise.  Update: They did. 

So what's happened since my last post?  A lot last week and this week.  Here's a summary.  The drywallers came in and put up the drywall, taped it, finished the seams, and put a really cool stipple texture to our ceiling. 

Update: Drywallers were Mexicans.  They didn't do a great job- Brant, our field manager, was not pleased with their work.  They even drywalled over the only set of keys to the sliding glass door we had, and Wayne Homes had to get new ones cut for us.  One year after living here, we're seeing some issues with the drywall and nails popping.  We're waiting to have them addressed though, because Wayne Homes only comes out once in the first two years to fix all that.  We're waiting until the end of that two year period so if anything else happens before then, Wayne Homes will address it. 

Our electrician, Ray DiCarlo ran all of our electric.  He wired the WHOLE house in two days, and he even stuck around to finish the job when he had a family emergency.  We appreciate that and the fact that he didn't try to sell us on extras. 

Update: One year after moving in we do have some regrets as to where switches were placed, but I think that's to be expected.  Our upstairs hallway switch is located in the loft, so if we ever turn that into a fourth bedroom, we will have to move that switch to the wall of the stairs, where it should have gone to begin with.  Ray no longer works for Wayne Homes.  He did not have good things to say.  We're just bummed, because he was supposed to come out and do another switch for lighting above our cabinets, but we can't get a hold of him.  We were his last Wayne Home he worked on.  Noticed a trend with this...  Anyhow, we had to have  it done by someone else. 

A few of the cool ideas Ray had included outlets on the exterior of the home hidden in the soffit so we can easily hang Christmas decorations, and they can all be turned off and on with the flip of a single switch in our garage, outlet in the pantry closet, a hidden outlet in the mantle of the fireplace, an outlet for the foyer window in case we want to put decorations on a ledge there that require electricity, cool lighting ideas for the kitchen and master bath, special outlets in the garage for Andor's workshop, and sconces for the sun room.

We loved picking exactly where every single switch and outlet and fixture went.  We're happy that we'll have the option put our televisions in different locations in each room because we are wired to do so.  It's so hard to say now where things will go.  Not to mention, it'll be nice to have the option to easily move the televisions around down the road.  We're also excited about the canister lights that we added, especially the one above the fireplace, it's going to look so nice. 

The temporary electric was disconnected, and now we have permanent electric.  The gas meter was installed today!  Our well guy, Chuck Haeffner (love him!) is going to get our water pressure tank installed along with a constant pressure system.  He's a great guy to work with.  He is so good at what he does, and he is easy to talk to and work with, very flexible.  He gives us options, doesn't try to push us into what we don't need just to make extra money, and is an expert at what he does.

Utilities are moving along.  I'll be calling Armstrong once the siding is finished so they can trench for the cable, phone, and internet and hook it up.  Praise the Lord that is one of the few things that isn't costing extra.  They do that for free!  We are really happy we had budgeted for extras outside of our PPI's, it looks like we're going to be substantially over our estimate. 

Update: We were.  Fortunately, living with our parents saved us on this one, otherwise, it could have been a nightmare. 

I have to admit it's bee A LOT of work building this house.  I've learned a ton about the process, but I didn't anticipate the amount of time and number of phone calls, nor the minutes on hold this process would require.  We literally are responsible for paying for, picking who does it, and scheduling every single thing that's not the house itself.  That includes:

* applying for permits for all utilities
* getting all utilities installed when our field manager tells us it's time
* inspecting, trenching, and having conduit run for utilities (water, sewage, gas, electric, cable, internet, phone,)
* all excavation other than foundation, including removing topsoil, grading the land, spreading the topsoil, running the drains, French drains, construction driveway installation, permanent driveway- We ended up paying our excavator $25,000 for all the work he did, a chunk of that was for the 30 tri-axels of dirt. I think we got ripped off on excavating fees- our fault. 
* sidewalk/front walkway to front door- Update: we didn't even get around to this until a few months after we moved in- my husband built temporary steps for visitors to our front door.
* planting grass, landscaping Update: Still working on this a year after we moved in.
* any extras that come up like extra brick and dirt for when the elevation of the house has to change (we brought in over 30 tri-axels of dirt!!)  I feel like I'm still forgetting things.  Getting quotes alone for these different services took entire days worth of work.  It's been a HUGE time commitment, but on the bright side I really feel like we "built" this house, too.  We did a lot more than pick out colors and carpeting, I can assure you that!!   And, because I priced several different subcontractors for each job, I'm confident that I saved us some money but didn't sacrifice quality where it counted.  I'm happy we're on the home stretch.

This past week has been one of the most exciting because we're finally seeing COLORS!  Our exterior is almost complete.  We are in love with the siding, roofing, and shutters.  We are so, so happy with the choices we made.  We just hope we're this happy with all the interior color choices...

 Siding = Tuscan Clay       Shutters = Merlot       Shingles = Weathered Wood          Trim = White

On Black Friday we did all of our appliance shopping!  Wow, did we get some good deals!  Honestly, I think that might be the best week to shop.  We love that Lowe's will price match all competitors.  We took advantage of that, big time!  We went with all Samsung, except for the dishwasher.  Consumer Reports gave the Samsung models poor ratings, so we went with Kitchenaid for our dishwasher, but you won't be able to tell, they're all stainless, so they all match.  I can't wait for our fridge!

The cabinets were dropped off this week.  We had to open a box and take a peek.  We upgraded our cabinets and can't wait to see them installed.  We added crown molding, too, but we're going to pick out our own drawer pulls once we're in, and Andor is going to install them himself.  Wayne homes wanted too much money for them.  We can do it cheaper ourselves.  Plus there is a nicer selection at Lowe's than at the Wayne Homes showroom.  Here is a sneak peek. 

Finally, we went to Sherwin Williams this week to choose a paint color.  Our painter, Andre, from Galaxy Painting, is going to do an awesome job, we can tell.  He's so nice!  He's so reasonably priced!  We can't believe we can have our whole house painted, two coats, any color(s) we want, for under $1,000!  We weren't expecting to be able to do this, but since it's so affordable, we're going for it.  Unfortunately, we have all of our "colors" tucked away in boxes, so picking colors to match our bedspread, shower curtain, living room wall art, kitchen theme, sun room furniture, etc. would have been really difficult, so we decided to go with a warm neutral throughout the entire house.  That way we don't have plain, boring white walls to look at for the next year, and we have something that'll match whatever decor we have or go with down the road.  What I love about Sherwin Williams is that they have pre-selected paint families to make decision making easier, which is amazing considering my decision making skills closely resemble that of a squirrel when crossing the street , so if you pick a color in that family, you can also pick any other color in that family and know that it'll compliment the other colors in your house.  If down the road we decide to change the color of a room or two, all we have to do is pick a color from the family.  I figure if experts put these colors together, and they fit the colors I use to decorate, I trust them.  Anyhow, we decided to go with.
CANVAS TAN!!

Next week they're supposed to paint and install the cabinets and trim.  I'm hoping it won't be quite as long between posts next time.  To be continued...