Well, we had hoped we'd be in by now. We had pictured (and been told it was possible, but made very clear that there were no guarantees) ourselves spending Christmas and then New Year's Eve in our new house this year. Looks like it'll be next year... we hope. With Thanksgiving, Christmas, the new year, and some other setbacks, we are now hoping to be in the house early January, guess we'll wait and see. The most recent tentative date we were given was Jan. 5, now it's Jan. 9... Thank God we haven't had ANY snow, or that might have delayed us even more. This timeline is based on no weather delays, only scheduling delays. Subcontractors have stuff come up and get behind.
Actual Timeline of Our Build
(not too bad considering the three holidays and our field manager going on two week-long vacations!)
Original dig date was set for 8/28/14. That morning on our way to the site it got called off. The excavator had to go fix an emergency problem from his previous dig. We were so bummed. Fortunately, my substitute teacher hadn't arrived for the school day yet, so I didn't waste a personal day.
Dig Day got pushed back to 9/2/14.
Footers were poured on 9/4/14.
Our field manager realized that our elevation was not going to work the way it had originally been planned. There would be too much of a dip in the back that would collect water where our walk out basement door would be. We'd need to raise the entire house about four feet and fill in the front yard to the house with dirt to accommodate this change. The field manager we were originally assigned (James Bailey) left Wayne Homes, so we were assigned Brant Brothers. We're really happy he caught this, but we wish we had him working with us from the start. This was an unexpected $3,500+ we had to shell out, and that's with Wayne Homes working with us to cover part of the extra costs to fill the garage with $5,000 worth of rock.
On a bright note, we did like that the land in front of the house was raised as it resulted in less of a dip in the driveway.
Foundation went in on 9/15/14.
9/23/14 everything stopped when one of the Amish workers realized our footers were poured at the incorrect angle. Amish noticed it, but it wasn't their mistake, it was the guy who poured the footers. It was less than 10 degrees, so we figured it wasn't a major deal, and we didn't want to hold everything up, so we let it go, although Wayne Homes was willing to tear out the footers and re-pour. This would have set us back a few weeks, maybe?
30 Tri-axels of dirt had to be brought in. $$$ Garage had to be filled with rock since it was now sitting about four feet higher than originally expected.
Rough Grade of lot was 10/8/14.
Framing went up 10/14/14. We realized that they didn't catch on the CAD drawing that the window in our loft was entirely too big and would be too close to the built in bookshelf for the shelving to be usable. We had to keep the window. They keep moving it out of the way and now it's outside our house resting against the siding. Anyone need a huge Anderson double window, double hung? Never used!! Our field manager, Brant, installed the new window himself to save us the $300 plus to pay the window installer to come back out and hang one window. We still had to eat the cost of the the wasted window, plus the price of the new window. Total cost out of pocket = about $350.
Roof installed 10/23/14.
Well was dug 10/29/14.
Around this same time concrete was poured. They hooked up two HUGE propane tanks to dry the concrete and keep the house warm, but it was unbearable to be in the house. Our well guy could barely work the day he installed the pressure tank. When we'd open the windows to walk around the house (truly it was unbearably hot) you could see the heat waves where the doors and windows were open. Our metal posts in the basement were so hot, you'd literally burn your hands if you touched them. We think the valve was broken because there was only one setting- SWELTERING. Even with the gas turned down all the way it was still over 100 degrees inside the house. Once the furnace was turned on, fortunately, the propane could be turned entirely off.
Update: We were luckier than a fellow home builder we know. One gentleman visited us quite frequently during our build, and even brought us a bottle of champagne after we moved in. He was also building a Wayne Home Jamestown model at the time, and he said the same thing happened with the heat in his basement, his was so hot that it melted some of his plastic plumbing, and it had to be replaced.
Electric wired 11/3/14.
Electric inspection 11/5/14.
Drywall put up 11/15/14. Not much else went on during this time. It felt like about a month where nothing much happened except for drywall. We heard from out field manager that the drywallers were a nightmare to work with- they were Mexicans who offered us food when we'd stop by. We like the texture of the ceilings.
11/24/14 We called Wayne Homes to ask when we'd be receiving the gift card to put toward our appliances. We were planning on doing some serious Black Friday shopping. Greensburg manager, Scott Schnoover, was not returning our calls or emails. Called our original salesgirl, Melissa, and found out that Scott was no longer with Wayne Homes-this has happened to us a lot. Melissa did an amazing job at getting the gift card for us. It arrived on Black Friday, and we used it the very same day!
Siding installed week of 12/8/14. One set of shutters was the wrong size, so we're still waiting on a few more shutters.
Gas meter installed 12/9/14.
Cabinets, counter tops, and trim week of 12/15/14. A few were stained poorly, so they're replacing them. When we changed the layout of our house from one master closet to two, they removed the one closet and closet door, and added two closets, but forgot to add two doors. We didn't notice this on the prints (our fault???) so instead of paying $400+ for Wayne Homes to install two bi-fold doors, Andor special ordered them and installed them himself- $100. Only problem is we had to buy trim for around the closet doors, too, and Home Depot and Lowe's don't have the same exact that was used everywhere else in the house. Fortunately, it's not too noticeable.
Paint/stain week of 12/22/14. Did not plan to paint whole house, but our painter gave us an offer we couldn't refuse, so we picked a neutral color we loved and paid him out of pocket- not part of Wayne Home allotment.
12/23/14 Gas turned on. Furnace turned on. Finally the propane can be turned off!!!
Stone on fireplace 12/23/14. It looks like someone measured incorrectly. Look at how the stone goes to the top of the mantle. This is not like any of the pictures we've seen. We're meeting with our field manager today to do a walk through and this is at the top of our list. The mantle was also stained a different color than everything else. Hope this doesn't set us back too far. Andor says there is no way we'll be in by Jan. 9.
Soon we're hoping to have our excavator come out to do the final grade and spread the topsoil. Unfortunately, part of building with Wayne Homes is that you get price quotes for anything outside of the actual building of the house. Wayne Homes estimates costs for paint and plumbing and electric for you before you secure your loan. It's hard to say what some things will cost, like well digging and installation and water treatment- who knows what depth of well and type of water you'll get, electrical upgrades, paint, and especially excavating. We are thousands over on what we estimated our excavating costs would be. So many trenches (well, electric, gas, sewage) **Hey! At least Armstrong Cable takes care of their own ditch for the cable, internet, and telephone! We'll take a freebie anywhere we can get it!!** and conduit for trenches and grading and DOT certified guy to install gas line in the trench, tree removal (after we removed about 10 trees ourselves, our excavator is getting rid of the stumps in addition to the 4 or so huge trees he tore out, trench with gravel where Wayne Homes had French drain run to, rain drains, topcoat of rock for the driveway since we won't be able to put in permanent driveway until spring, and, and, and.... They say to allow for overages, and they aren't kidding. We planned to have all excavating come out of our loan, but we are now about to be paying out of pocket.
When building a Wayne Home we decided to pay out of pocket for appliances, garbage disposal, house numbers, mailbox, utility tub (install ourselves but have Wayne run the line), garage door opener (Liftmaster installs), laundry cabinets (install ourselves), garage shop cabinetry (install ourselves), garage bench and shelving to be used as mudroom (Andor will custom build and install himself), blinds (Home Depot will install), and in the spring a blacktop driveway/turn around area, concrete walkway to front door, grass, landscaping, deck, fence maybe if there's enough left??? None of this was included in our loan, but that was our choice.
So what's still on the "to do" list before we can close?
* carpeting
* flooring
* gutters
* final touch up of paint and trim
* final grade, spread topsoil, run gutters to back yard (we do all of this, well our excavator does)
* putting down more rock for the driveway since we won't be able to install real driveway until spring (our excavator does this)
* water treatment (we pay our well guy to do this, we might be over what we allowed for in our loan, so some might be out of pocket)
* install house numbers and mailbox (we do this)
* appliance delivery
* final electric (install plates and fixtures inside and outside)
* finish plumbing (install sinks and faucets and toilets and garbage disposal)
* Wayne Homes sends out a cleaning crew to make it spic and span
* fix fireplace, finish hanging shutters, fix problems with drywall, fix dents in front door, replace cabinetry that was stained incorrectly, sure we're missing a few things but those are the major ones...
* oh, and remove huge dumpster from front yard and port-o-potty. Unless that's our housewarming gift, in which case we'll put it in the back yard, about an acre back, next to where we're planning on having our fire pit!
And this is just so we can close on the house. We have another whole round of "stuff" to do once spring comes around. (driveway, grass, landscaping, walkway, deck, fence, patio...)
Let's hope the next post is before January 9th, 2014 stating that we're set to move in! Andor is laughing at me as I type this. Until then, Happy New Year from our temporary home with the in-laws!!!
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