3 Weeks After Move-In

I wanted to post some pictures since we've moved in.  I followed a lot of blogs while I was building, and it always drove me crazy that once the people moved in, that would be the end of the blog.  What's up with that??!!!  I want to see some pictures!!

So I'm going to post some pictures, give some updates, and heads up- I plan to continue to post about our experiences with Wayne Homes.  I figure our experience with Wayne Homes isn't over once we get our keys-in fact, far from it!  We have quite a bit of "stuff" that has to be taken care of in the spring since our build finished in the winter, when it was too cold to do some stuff, and then there's the warranty, which we may or may not have to use...

I'm sure there'll be a lot more to post about, and I plan to keep you posted!

But first, here are some pictures...

Living Room

 Sun room- We LOVE this room, best money we spent!  I eat breakfast every morning in here, while my puppy sits on my lap and I look out across the yard.  It's so relaxing!

This is also where Andor and I eat dinner most nights.  The other night we saw five deer looking for fallen apples under our apple tree.  We bought a block of food for them today at Tractor Supply.  Hope to see them more often!

 

Our bedroom is HUGE!  Look at all this space!! Bella LOVES the floor space!

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Still wish we had noticed that there weren't doors on our walk-in closets.  Andor tried to add them during the build, but it did not work out.

On a brighter note, we have a TON of space in our closets!  I love that we each have our own.  We designed that ourselves, and it  didn't cost us a penny, but we lost the closet doors.  That's one lesson we learned.  It's best to stick with the original plan Wayne Homes gives unless you're really confident that you'll be happy with your changes and not leave anything out.  Remember the problem we had with the loft window being too close to the book shelf for there to be books on it?  That cost us money in the end.  Also, we changed up the location of the washer/dryer in the laundry.  We found out the washer/dryer we ordered would not fit the way we now have it and had to order smaller ones.  We love our laundry room, but had we kept it the way it was in Wayne's prints, the larger ones would have fit.  Wish when we were planning these things out, someone from Wayne could have led us in the right direction or even explained why things were where they were/notice potential issues.  It happens though.  At least we had complete say in where everything went, not every builder does that.  Now just trying to figure out how to finish the basement.  We had NO IDEA what we were doing when deciding where water treatment goes, future shower/bathroom goes, and living space goes.  Now that we're in, we realize it could have been better arranged.  We should have brought someone who knows about this stuff with us when we planned it all out!

Our master bathroom feels like we're on a fancy vacation.  It reminds me of the spa at our honeymoon.  I've taken more candlelit bubble baths in the past three weeks than in my entire life before this house.  I have to pinch myself that it's actually MY bathroom!  Ahhhhhhh!!!!

Notice the Pinterest wine rack towel holder??  I love Pinterest!!!

And everyone told us that we should get two sinks, for resale value, if for nothing else.  We are so happy we didn't!  We never brush our teeth at the same time, so really there's no need for two sinks, and look at all the counter space I have now!  Also, the one sink gives us the perfect spot for our hamper under the spot where the second sink would have gone!

We wondered what the shelving in our closets would look like, but Wayne Homes didn't have anything that allowed us to really "see" what it would look like.  Here's ours... 

And here's the upstairs hallway linen closet.  It's just outside of the main bathroom.

And this is our pantry in the laundry room. 

ADVICE:  Buy the faux wood blinds from Home Depot.  We shopped around extensively, even online, and theirs are the cheapest.  We had Home Depot measure all of our windows and install them.  It was so affordable, it's unreal!  We had blinds professionally installed on every single window, even the six in the sun room, for close to $1,000.  We had it done the day we moved in (windows were measured by Home Depot prior to), and that was one of the smartest things we did!!!  We've not had a chance to shop for window treatments yet.  Andor was in Canada for a week and New York another week, there's been NO time to shop for and hang curtains.  The great thing is we don't have to because we have blinds!  Now we can take our time and pick exactly what we want or even wait for sales and not have to worry that people can see in our house.  I did make the box valance to match our shower curtain.  They make these kits that are so simple!  I made this out of a shower curtain!   

ANOTHER TIP: Resist the urge to turn that loft into a fourth bedroom (Jamestown Model) unless you NEED the bedroom.  We didn't need it and we're SO HAPPY we kept it a loft.  Look at this amazing space we have right outside our bedroom!  This is another space we spend a lot of time in.  The picture looks really scrunched, but this space actually is perfect for watching tv and hanging out.  I can see Andor watching tv with the dogs here while he waits for me to get ready for dinner.  (He actually did this the other day, and he didn't mind the wait one bit!)

I still can't get over how much space we have in our bedroom!!!  This was one of the reasons we chose the Jamestown Plan.  It's like our own private retreat!!!

I love how the landing at the top of the steps has a place for our table/mirror.  It's so open upstairs!!! 

This is our second bedroom/computer room.  All the bedrooms are HUGE!  We still have to bring in the chest-of-drawers, but we love the versatility of the space.  So does our dog, Katie!  Did we mention another thing we loved about the Jamestown plan is that each bedroom has a walk-in closet?!!

The colors in our house really came together.  We are happy we stuck with neutrals for everything, it allows us to bring in any color/pattern, and it'll work with what we have.  Here is our main bathroom. 

 

We love the fireplace!  Just wish it didn't fog up every time we turn it on.  Our field manager told us that's the cleaning solution they used to wipe it down when they installed it and that it'll have to burn off, but we've already used it for several hours, one night it was on for three hours straight, and it STILL FOGS UP every single time we turn it on.  Every. Single. Time.  It only takes about a minute or two to go back to normal, but I've never seen a fireplace do this before.  Hope the cleaning solution wears off soon... Update: It still does that, but we don't mind.

 TIP: If you add a sunroom, it's worth the money to open up the space below it in your basement.  We're using that space for all of our holiday decorations.  Can you tell how much I love to decorate???

Welcome to our chemical treatment plant!

This was another $$$ concern.  Because we were responsible for getting quotes for well/treatment prior to securing our loan, it was hard to estimate the well because you're not sure how deep you'll have to go and once you get water, how you'll have to treat it.  We thought we had plenty of cushion, but we still went over.  Bad news: The well was 180 feet deep and had to be treated extensively.  Good news: We have AWESOME water now!!!  Honestly, I was worried about switching from public to well, but now that we have it, it's unreal how tasteless our water is!  And I was worried about it changing the texture of my hair or drying my skin out, but no problems whatsoever!!!  Just wish it hadn't cost so much.  We originally thought we had about a $10,000 cushion that could be used for installing a driveway, fence, deck, or landscaping in the spring (all things we'll be paying for ourselves,) but with the excavating and well, we're not going to have any leftover for those things.  It's smart to have a comfortable cushion for extras and overages when building, otherwise you might end up having to go without a few things.  Landscaping, grass, driveway, deck (our first floor is about ten feet above the ground in the back of the house so we can't walk out our sliding glass door in the sunroom until we have a deck) those are all musts, but Andor might be waiting on a shed, and the dogs might not be getting the huge fenced in yard we promised for a little while longer...
Update: We put in the fence $12,000 and Andor built his shed $1,500, and we even put in a poured concrete patio with sitting wall/lighting (Andor did the sitting wall), but we had to wait one year to put on our deck- $17,000.  Andor is building it himself (with the help of family and friends.)



Yesterday was our first Valentine's Day in our new home!  It's so amazing that we're in it after the long journey of deciding to buy vs. build, shopping for a builder, picking a floor plan, finding land, selling our townhouse, picking out every detail for our new home, living with family while our house was being built, the roller coaster of building (I believe this happens no matter who you build with), and FINALLY moving it- it's just so amazing that we're starting to make memories in OUR HOME that we helped design and plan every single little detail.  Someone asked me if we had the chance to do it all over again would we still build and choose Wayne as our builder, and I said, "yes."  It was a roller coaster, not for the faint of heart, and there was WAY more work involved than I ever expected, and we're not entirely done yet, and finances were a little scary at times, but in the end we're happy with the product we got, and we're happy with Wayne's customer service.  They truly have worked with us through all the bumps in the road.  When building, you can't anticipate all the bumps in the road ahead, but Wayne Homes has made good on their promises and the journey has brought us to a place better than we dreamed.  We LOVE our house!

Tomorrow our field manager, Brant, is coming out to follow-up with some things that we noticed after we moved in.  It was reassuring to know that after we got our keys, Wayne Homes would take care of anything we missed prior to moving in.  Here's the list of things we want to go over with him.


* Our master bathroom and main bathroom showers aren't working like they should.  When taking a shower water still pours out of the lower bath spout.  We spoke with our plumber about this and he said it's because they are the cheapest ones you can buy.  We talked to our field manager and he said this is a common problem with them that they all do.  I never had this problem in my other homes, though, so I'm hoping it can be fixed.  I want ALL of the water coming out of my shower head when showering, not SOME of it.  Update: No longer an issue.  Fixed.



* Lots of nail pops.  They already came out to fix several before we closed on the house.  Now, Wayne Homes will come out once more, only once, within the next two years to fix any more that pop up.  We figure we'd better wait until the end of the two years.  Andor and I hope that our walls don't look like they have chicken pox by then, but if Wayne will only come out once, we'd hate to have them come out this spring or summer and then have more nail pops.  Andor can't figure out why they nailed the drywall instead of screwing it in with screws.  Time saver to nail versus screw maybe???  Update: Waiting for our two years to be up so they can come to address this.



* Window Screens- We didn't realize all of our windows would be full screens.  That means that you can't open your screen to throw a bug out the window, it doesn't slide up.  We definitely don't like this and he's supposed to give us the number for the window company for us to call and see about ordering the kind that slide up and down.  Hope that's not too much $$$... Update: 84 Lumbar is the only place around that can provide screens.  Looks like about $300 for the whole house. 

* One of the window stoppers in our sunroom is broken.  That'll need to be fixed. Update: Fixed. 



* We need a set of keys for the sliding glass door in our basement and the sliding glass door in our sunroom.  The last time we saw them was before the drywall went up.  They were hanging on a nail on the framing.  We haven't seen them since the drywall went up, though.  Guessing that was another "Oopsy" the drywallers messed up.  Hoping the keys are behind the drywall and not that someone took them cause that'll leave us wide open if someone took them with bad intentions.  With all the sub contractors coming in and out, it's a little unnerving that someone may have the keys to get in to our home!  My husband thinks I overreact, but you can't be too safe.  We're going to need that lock changed on both doors.  Update: Replaced keys, not locks.



*  Our powder room sink has a scratch going across the front.  It'll have to be fixed or replaced.  We tried to clean it, but it's not coming off.  Update: Magic Eraser is a miracle worker!!!

* There are several drywall issues that we didn't notice until now, and one was marked before we moved in, but the painters (and we) missed it.  The blue tape is still there, but this and a few others will have to be fixed. Update: Painters addressed issues.

  * There is a crack in the wall (to the left of the light switch) and some parts where the fireplace stone was removed (to fix the mantle issue) that now left a soft spot in our wall there, including some parts where there is open space.  The mason came to repair this after we moved in, and it looks much, much better, but it still has some issues that have to be taken care of. Update: Addressed.

* Our exposed block was supposed to be painted to match our siding, but they painted it (in the freezing cold hope that's not a problem) and it's cream, not at all close to our Tuscan Clay siding.  We're hoping that's just a sealer and that they're coming back in the spring (like we were told) to paint it to match our siding.  No picture right now, sorry!  It was 3 below today, too cold to venture outside for pictures!  Also, we're thinking they're not done, because whoever did it detached our corrugated pipes that Andor attached to the downspouts and never reattached them. Update: Addressed.



* The flapper that goes out of our master bathroom vent to the outside CONSTANTLY flaps!  It makes a ping pong tapping sound that is so loud it wakes me up most nights.  The other night Andor found me standing on the toilet with the vent cover removed trying to find a way to make it stop.  It is SO LOUD!!!  I'm hoping something can be done.  Even with the bathroom door shut, I can still hear it! Update: It was an installation mistake and has been fixed.  Thank goodness!



* The main hallway bathroom has a fan that is always on.  Always. On.  It has to be as per Wayne Homes and the warranty.  It's noisy.  Not as noisy as the flapper in the master bathroom, but why does this fan have to be on 24-7?  Our electrician said it can be turned off, but we don't want to void the warranty.  Maybe our electrician is wrong?  He said our fans couldn't be wired to run off of two switches because they came with remotes.  Remember, our fans accidentally weren't ordered, so we chose to pick some up at Lowe's and take the $84 credit per fan for them?  Well, the ones we bought have remotes and our electrician wired all the fans to run off of two switches- one for the light, the other for the fan.  Well, he ended up wiring both the light and the fan to the same switch, leaving one switch useless.  Andor, fortunately, is very handy.  He fixed every fan to run the right way.  Wish the electrician had done this though, after all, we did pay him to do it.  He also left off a dimmer switch, but Andor bought one and installed it himself.  We figured it's not a big deal since he didn't charge us to swap out the foyer light that we decided to replace (after seeing the original one that came with our package- okay in the picture we saw but UGLY in person.)  He had to bring in a huge ladder to swap the fixture out, just wish he hadn't cracked the original when he put it back in the box.  Not that we could have gotten much money for it- it was pretty unattractive!    



* Wayne Homes sent us a $500 check for going past our guaranteed completion date.  What an unexpected, happy surprise!!!  We were never told our guaranteed completion date, but we must have gone over it, or Wayne Homes was being very generous to us!  That was a big bonus!  We're putting it toward the laundry tub and cabinets Andor installed in our laundry room.

  Andor is working on a garage mudroom space.  I saw it on Pinterest!  I'll post pictures of it and some other stuff I left out soon.  We paid extra to extend the garage by two feed wide and two feet deep, but honestly, it's still tight.  Not sure how we possibly could have fit two cars in our garage had we not done this.  We'd have bumped doors every time we got in/out.  ADVICE:  Get a three car garage!  Oh, and upgrade your garage door.  We spent $$ insulating our garage ourselves for nothing.  When we had our guy come out to install the garage door opener, he told us ours is the cheapest door available, and he had to specially adjust the torque on our opener so it wouldn't rip the garage door off of it's hinges.  It does let a lot of light and air rush in through the cracks.  I guess that's not a huge deal though, after all, you don't live in your garage.   

To Be Continued...  

Fnal Walk Through & Keys!!!

We're in!!!  We had our final walkthrough with our field manager on Friday, January 23, 2015.  We were given a shiny new set of keys, and we've been moving in ever since.  There are still a few things that Wayne Homes needs to address, many of them have been done this week.  And we're noticing things as we go, and Brant has been great about making sure they get addressed, too.  For example, our plumbing hot and cold were flip flopped, and our shower isn't working exactly like it should- neither of which we noticed before we moved in.  My husband has been off this entire week so that he could be at the house when the plumber, stone mason, well guy, painters, appliance deliveries all arrive.  The exterior of our home still has some things that will need to be finished by Wayne Homes in the spring and A TON that we'll need to do.  Anyone want to help plant grass?  Right now we've got enough to juggle with getting settled in on the inside.


Although our landscaper is coming today to map out our property and create a blueprint of what our yard will look like in the spring...  This is a slow season for him, so we scooped him up now so we can be prepared as soon as it's warm enough to plant grass/plants/trees.  I can't wait to see what he suggests!   


Right now, I'm in the process of mid-year report cards for my students, wrapping up a grad class, and moving in all at the same time, so it might be a little while before I can post pictures, but I definitely will.  This blog is our "scrapbook" of our build, and it wouldn't be complete without photos of the finished product.  More to come soon...


It's been a little bit of a rollercoaster, but now that we're in I can honestly say
I LOVE MY NEW HOUSE!!!!!! 

Carpet, Flooring, Electric, Touch Ups, Almost There

Since my last post, we've now been told we should expect to close on January 23rd.  We're keeping our fingers crossed.


The mantle is going to be replaced, big sigh of relief.  It will be stained to match the cabinets and will look the way it is supposed to.  Can't wait to see it!


Last week the carpeting was installed, the flooring is almost done.  They still have to lay the flooring in the sunroom.  We changed our minds on the sunroom flooring and decided not to do carpeting there.  Wayne Homes changed it, we paid a little extra, and now we're waiting on the correct flooring.  We're throwing the carpeting that would have gone in the sunroom in the basement, even though it's unfinished, it'll warm up the gameroom space down there.   

My husband and I installed drawer pulls on all of our kitchen and bathroom cabinets and we hung lighting in the kitchen and sun room.  If we could do it all over again, we'd tell Wayne Homes to leave off the lighting fixtures (other than the dome lights that go everywhere,) but that we'd install our own.  We ended up replacing the lighting in the kitchen above the sink, foyer light, and we really want to change the exterior lanterns.  They look exactly like they did in the picture, but they are sooooo small!!  They look kind of silly. 

We're in the process of installing a mailbox.  It's kind of hard with the ground frozen, though, so we might have to pick up our mail at the local post office until land thaws. 


We also are going to have to wait until spring to do the final grading, painting of the exposed block, painting our front door white, and our door from our garage to our house, too, and installation of the walkway to the front steps and driveway, and deck.  The only part of everything I just mentioned that Wayne Homes takes care of is $400 of the grading and painting the block and doors.  Basically, everything on the inside will be done when we close, but we'll have quite a bit of work to do on the exterior in the spring. 


The electrician is finishing up next week, and the painter will be back to touch up, too.  We decided to have him paint the walls going down the steps into the basement and stain the railing there, too.  We didn't realize how unfinished it would look from the first floor, not sue how we missed that, but regardless, it was $125 extra, but the hallway going down the steps to the basement will be finished, and the view from the first floor will look a little nicer when the door to the basement is open.


We are still on top of things.  We are realizing that part of building is taking on the responsibility of being "co-project managers" along with the field manger.  With how much we're responsible for on our own to begin with, it makes sense.  We've found that it pays to go to the house every day to check on things.  We catch a lot of the things that need to be addressed and fill in our field manager since he's not there every day to monitor the progress.  I think it's kept things moving more quickly, and my husband feels like as long as he is looking at every step of the way he'll catch things the field manager might have missed.  I think our field manager is amazing, but it's a shame that Wayne Homes has him working on 9 or 10 houses at a time.  I could never juggle that many projects and catch all the mistakes.


Right now we're waiting on more mistakes the drywallers made.  In addition to cutting holes too big for many of the outlets and switches, they also covered up our vent in our main bathroom and the vent for the dryer in the laundry room (although technically that might not be their fault since the guys who hung the siding never installed the vents. 


Next steps are to schedule installation of appliances, blinds, cable, internet, phone, moving van and movers, and wait...


It's getting close, but it still feels like we're never going to get in!!! 

Cabinets, Countertops, Doors, Paint, Trim

Progress!  Since our last post, they've installed the cabinets, countertops, doors, trim work, and are about to start painting and staining!  It’s looking so good!!!  

After that will be flooring and light fixtures...

We are still hoping we'll be in by January 5th.  That was the tentative date our field manager gave us.  

Update after Meeting with Field Manager

We met with our field manager, Brant Brothers on Tuesday, December 29th.  It's Friday, January 2nd.  We had a long list to go over with him that looked something like this:  I put in parenthesis our field manager's response to each issue. 

Master Bedroom- Andor will fix closets after we move in.

Master Bathroom-The towel bar was never ordered. (will be ordered)

Loft- Crack in wall must be repaired (will be)

Sun Room- Crack runs along entire length of cathedral ceiling (waiting to hear how Wayne Homes will address this.)  We're beginning to wonder how Wayne Homes even justified paying the drywall guys.  Look at next issue.  

Outlets- drywall guys cut out the outlet boxes in the drywall and over cut with the rotozip about half of them.  Holes are visible outside of outlet covers and need to be fixed (circled each one with a pencil on the wall and will be fixed)

Paint- Splatters (will be touched up)

Basement- Cracks galore (to be expected, all too small in width currently to be addressed keep an eye on them)

Entryway closet- drywall guys- surprise!!- covered up electric wire for light in closet (electrician will come and fix their mistake)

Front Door- dents (will be fixed)

Entry door from garage to house- same issue

Dining Room- thermostat wired in middle of wall- wrong place (they will move to correct spot and painter will patch and paint hole even though it wasn't his mistake)

Kitchen- cabinet door stained unevenly (will be replaced, field manager ordered two just in case)

Kitchen- cabinet nicks and dents from installation-minor but there nonetheless (field manger will touch up with wax marker) hope this works as they cost us over $2,500 in an upgrade!

Island- electric outlet never installed (electrician will cut it out and install)

Phone Line- we forgot to put one in! (electrician will install one where we choose along with an outlet there for an answering machine for about $75) Update: Electrician never came out to do this. He quit working for Wayne Homes.  Our cable provider took care of phone- it runs through our internet. 

Ceiling Fans- paid for 5, only 1 was shipped.  (Field manager looked at prints, they were on there.  He still wasn't sure though. We were! They were on the prints!!  He texted us back that night and said they were paid for but accidentally left off of the order.  We'd be getting $84 credit per fan and could go buy ones from Home Depot.  We like the ones we ended up buying more, but they were more than $84!!!)

Living Room- fireplace mantle stained wrong color (field manager checking into this...) he agrees about color, but not sure what his boss will tell him to do about it due to next issue

Fireplace Mantle- wrong size.  On our paperwork it said "custom built mantle on site" but clearly it's too small for the stonework that had to cover the width of the hearth.  (Field manager tried to say this was standard for Wayne homes but after showing him several pictures from Wayne Homes' flickr albums, it was clear this is not the case and is a mistake that needs to be fixed, yet he still made no guarantees and told me he'd get back to me sometime today, even said it could cost us $$.  Still waiting for a response as of 5:00PM, texted him, too, guess we won't hear today since business day is officially over...)

Here is a picture of our mantle and below it are some from Wayne Homes Flickr albums.  What do you think?  We think it's pretty clear.  See how ours has the stonework going up the sides of the mantle to the top of the mantle?  If the mantle were wider, like it should have been, the stonework would have stopped at the bottom of the mantle.  We measured the stonework, and the mason had to go beyond the original dimensions from our contract (6'8'' x 4'8'') to accommodate the stone going up the sides of the mantle.  It's just frustrating that we even have to argue this.   

On a side note, I hate that our walls look yellow in the pictures I've taken.  They are so much warmer in person.  They are a warm taupe/beige that I love, not at all how it looks in the picture.

Our Fireplace

Here are some Wayne Homes fireplaces from their flickr page.  

They all look the way ours is supposed to look.  

Notice how the mantle is wider than the stone work. 

Our Honest Timeline (Dates Included)

Today-December 30, 2014

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!!! 

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...