Hurry up and wait...

I have not posted anything recently because there is not a whole lot going on right now.  We accomplished most of the tasks given to us after our last meeting, but nothing is really moving forward mostly due to our loan.  We are doing a Va loan and it is sloooooooow and involves lots of paperwork.  Just this week we were sent 23 separate disclosures that we had to read and sign and then the next day about 6 more documents we had to fill out.  One included a child care statement.  We had to fill this out even though none of our kids are in child care!  According to the people doing our loan some of these items and the time invovled is because it is a Va loan, but a lot of it is due to some federal regulations that have recently passed.  We closed on loans for our previous homes in 45 days and they are trying to keep us close to that, but he said that in the future most people are going to be closer to 90 days, which sounds crazy.

The biggest disappointment is that we were suppose to dig the first week of September, but since our loan may not close until September we are looking at closer to the end of the month,  It is funny to think that last year when we bought this property we thought we would be moving in September!  `

Pre-Construction Meeting

Since we did not get in our Preconstruction Meeting last week we had it over the weekend.  The Sales Manager at Wayne Homes told us to plan on 4 hours, which I thought sounded overboard since our last meeting was so long, but she of course was right.  We had to bring all 6 kids with us since our sitters were all busy or out of town.  Bryan and I were really nervous about missing out on an important detail because we would be distracted.  We bribed them with the dvd player and a movie, and it worked great.  However, I would highly suggest finding a sitter if you can!

When we arrived they had all of our previous choices out on the counter for us to go over.  Most of what we picked we still loved, but we did make a few changes.  While looking through the Wayne Home flickr page we saw an interior door that really caught our attention.  We really liked it more than what we had picked so we switched.  I also had found a different style laminate counter top that matched with our cabinet and floor choices in the kitchen much better.  Luckily Wayne can order any from the company they use even if they don't have one of the chip samples in the design room.

New laminate color.  It will look so nice with our white cabinets and blue/gray tile!

The other big change we had to make was all of our cabinets.  We found out that they discontinued their relationship with Merillat and now use Arisokraft cabinets.  Although there was a chance that we would have everything ready and loan secured in time to still order the Merillat it was not a guarantee.  I did not want to have to try to redo everything and pick cabinets online if (when) we found out the Merillat were no longer available.  Especially since the Aristokraft did not have a similar color to the toffee color we chose for the kids bathroom and powder room.  My biggest fear was that the countertops or floor would no longer match and it would cost us more time, money, etc. later on so we just made the switch.  I think I actually like the kitchen cabinets better, just really wish they had the warm toffee/caramel color for the other rooms.

The night before our meeting we also poured over our change order list and thought of anything else we might like to add or change.  It is apparently not easy (or cheap) to switch things later so we wanted to make sure that we were happy with our choices.  I had an entire list of questions. concerns, clarifications and changes when we were done.  It really helped us make sure we did not forget anything during the meeting. Bryan added a gas start to our fireplace which he was super excited about and I am excited that I will not have to house a ton of paper for the fireplace anymore.  I also upgraded my kitchen sink since I had already made the faucet a oil rubbed bronze and decided I would like the sink to match and just wasn't feeling the stainless steel with the oil rubbed bronze.   One thing I noticed in the packet we had from Wayne was the lighting page did not list anything for the living room, which will be our dining room,  or the family room.  This is because there is NO lighting in those rooms.  Thankfully we already some in our PPI for additional electric, but really glad we caught it.  We would not be happy if we found out later.

The Sales Manager had some updates for us too.  CAD had a couple concerns about the placement of items including the layout of our masterbath.  The funny thing is layout was a choice for the Williamsburg model on their website when doing the virtual upgrades.  When I showed her this she sent an email to them so they could change it.  She had a great idea how to fix the issue though and I loved it a lot more than the orginal design.  It makes our toilet way more private, before it was right across from our glass shower, takes away the odd half walls on either side of the tub and made our linen closet bigger.  I will never turn away more closet space!  We had to go over some of the changes due to our lot as well, but it did not turn out to be that much more in cost and we are both please that now part of our basement has to be framed in and sided,  Bonus it is the side we wanted to finish so we are part way there and we were able to add three windows to that side so it will make it more like a room  with lots of natural light when we finally get to finish it.

We are anticipating an early September dig, so it is really close.  Now to cross our fingers that everything is going well on the loan side and we keep moving along.

Lot Inspection

Despite all the rain recently we had a dry day for our field meeting this past week.  Our field manager Steve met us at the lot early in the morning.  Bryan and I had an idea of where we wanted our house, however we needed to make adjustments because our survey came back different than what we expected.  The county website had our land all the way to the street and the past owner had been using about 10-15 feet past where the property line actually was on the side.  Luckily the lot is a nice enough size that it did not effect us too much.

Bryan walking the property with the field manager

First Steve and Bryan figured out how the house should sit in the front.  We decided to follow the curve of the road for the most asthetic look, but this did mess with how I envisioned it coming off the private road on the side.  This also set us even father back than we orginally thought due to the survey. 

Putting first stake in

 We are going to have a much bigger driveway than expected, which mean more concrete, which means more money.  Not the best scenario, but this is the house we are going to live in for quite some time so we want it done right.  Once the house pins were set our field manager showed us roughly where the deck and the door from our walkout basement will be.  At this point two of the boys who came along with us were covered in mud from running around on the lot.  I left to take them home and Bryan and Steve stayed to finish shooting elevation.  

  Once they were done everyone came back to our house, this usually happens at a restaurant but since we live one street it made sense to just go to our house. Our field manager drew up the elevation on the house plans and then went over LOTS of papers with us.  We also went over small details like where water spigots will be, gas meters, steps for the deck, needing a rail for our porch because of the elevation and all the small things Bryan and I wanted to add like more windows.  It took a while and therefore we did not get to have our final meeting at the Greensburg office to finalize everything.  We are an hour away from the office and even if we did not break for dinner we would have finish after 8PM.  The sales manager decided it would be best to postpone.  Not what we wanted to hear, because Bryan and I are anxious to get things finished up and start our dig!

Stakes set!  Getting closer

Colors Meeting

Today was a long day.  We met with the sales manager at Wayne Homes today to pick out everything in our house.  For some reason Bryan and I had it in our head that this would not be a long process, but we were there for 5 hours.  We left the big kids home (thankfully), but the baby was with us and he was a champ!  I think we are really happy with our choices.  I am really excited about what we chose for our master bathroom.  I really think it is going to look amazing when it is all done.

Master Bathroom cabinets, flooring & tile for shower

Cabinets, counter and flooring for the kids bathroom.  I have this for the powder room too, but contemplating going with a pedastal sink..

The kitchen was probably the biggest challenge for me.  I have always said that when I do a kitchen I would have cherry cabinets.  Lately I have been drawn to white.  I know, with 6 kids anything white sounds insane.  I found out Bryan was thinking along the same lines.  After doing a lot of research I found that most people who have white kitchens love them.  So we went with the white, the actual color is Chiffon.

Siding, shutters and roof.

I have to say the only thing that disappointed me about the meeting was the paint colors.  All of the literature that you get states that the Signature series homes come with full house painting and a "wide variety of paint colors."  I assumed that wide variety would mean a large selection and that we could pick what we wanted in each room.  What that translates to is they have 8 colors to choose from, 4 are white, 3 are tan and one is gray(which looked very green to us).  You can pick one color for the trim and one color for the walls. They use Sherwin Williams paints, we chose Alabaster for the trim and I think Canvas Tan for the walls.  We will obviously be visiting a paint store soon to pick different colors and will need to repaint everything.  

Overall I am really happy with our meeting.  We picked out a lot of really nice things and we even added some nice upgrades like a double bowl sink for the kids bathroom and hardwood floors for our dining room.

Flooring choices.

Picking our House

  

When we first started this process we had found a house plan that we loved online.  We tried taking it to a couple builders, but most of the "custom build on your lot" builders we went to meant build one of their homes and they will let you change things about it.  They did not even want to look at what we had.  When we walked into Wayne Homes (without an appointment) they were extremely welcoming and took a look at the plans that we had drawn up.  Melissa took them and let us know that she would get back to us in a few days to let us know if they could make them work.  She did and they could, however, it was really out of our price range and not in line with houses in our neighborhood.  We quickly realized that we would have to go with one of their houses.   After a lot of deliberation and even briefly trying one more builder we decided on Wayne Homes and their Williamsburg plan.

Wayne Homes Williamsburg

We have our colors meeting soon and our lot inspection meeting at the beginning of next month so Bryan has been busy making sure that we have everything cleared.  He removed more trees and has been busy cutting up the wood into manageble pieces.   

We are sad at some of the trees that we had to remove, but on the upside we now have lots of firewood for our future fireplace and fire pit! 

We went over to the property the other night so I could see all the work Bryan and the kids have been doing.  While walking I found this in the middle of the yard. There were about 4 petunias just growing on their own.  It was a nice little surprise and I am excited that next summer I will be planting lots of flowers.  

Demolition

About a month after we purchased the property Bryan got to work removing several large pine trees in the front of the existing structure and then demolishing the house.  He and the kids had lots of fun knocking over the house and moving dirt around with our rented "toys".  It was a lot of work, and I am lucky that Bryan did all of it with the help of some neighborhood boys who were eager to have the chance to knock over some walls and ride in an excavator and a skid steer.

Watching Daddy getting ready to knock over chimney

Bryan and the kids

What a difference a week makes

Land Purchase

Last year a condemned house in our neighborhood went up for sale in our neighborhood.  The house sat on a nice piece of property and Bryan and I lamented how we missed out on the sale almost every time we walked past it.  We watched as the new owners gutted out the house in the attempt to renovate it.  They moved quickly at first and then the work just stopped.  All summer long we watched as the house just sat there day after day.

One day in September we realized that we were going to have to move soon.  With the addition of our 6th child we were no longer fitting into our house.  We looked at available houses online, not finding anything we really liked and sad that we would have to leave the neighborhood that we loved. That same day we walked over to a party in our neighborhood, past the property with the condemned house.  I told Bryan we should look into who owned it to see if they were still going to fix it up, since it would be great if we had made the move when we talked about it and bought it ourselves.

Two days later on his way home Bryan decided that he would drive past the property to see if anyone happened to be working, after nothing for weeks, the owners were in fact there.  He asked them if they had considered maybe selling it instead of continuing trying to rebuild the house.  They were open for the discussion and in just a few months we had an agreement and purchased the property ourselves.

What we purchased.