Week 6: Updates...updated

This past weekend our PM let us know that all HVAC/Cooling/Plumbing had been installed in our home.  We had some heavy rain a few weeks ago so they were trying to dry out the home before placing electrical.  All is dried out and ready for electrical to start.  He also went through the house and did his own inspections marking areas the framers needed to come back and address.  So by the end of this week electrical and fixes should all be done.  The municipality needs to come out and finalize inspections on all the new items.  Our PM hopes this will be complete by Friday.

You know what is next???? Our Pre-Drywall meeting!!!  We were going to hire a company to come out and inspect our home, which was an additional $300.  We have heard great things about this and did not do this prior.  We also didn't really have any issues with our last home.  After talking with our PM and hearing about all the inspections our house goes through we decided against it.  Our PM is also VERY thorough so I feel like we can rest easy and save those funds for something else.  

I don't have any photos this week.  All looks the same at this point until we get to go into the house. Which again should be next week.  Fingers crossed things keep moving smooth like this.  Our last home from the date they started drywall we were only 25 days out from close.  So I am crossing my fingers that we are on the same time frame.  I would love love love to move in before Christmas. That would be the ultimate Christmas gift.

**MORTGAGE NEWS**

So my previous post I shared that we had locked our rate with NVR.  Randomly last Wednesday I received an email from our loan officer at Union Savings asking if we were still set to close in November.  Clearly she hadn't seen my emails letting her know we were not closing until potentially January.  I also let her know since I hadn't heard back we locked with NVR.  Basically, kindly said have a happy holiday over the next few weeks! She came back with an offer she took to her Manager. They offered us a lower interest rate that drops our payment about $30/mo and our closing is super low.  Well darn it we don't want to rock the boat, but HELLO we want that lower interest rate.  Today I sent the dreadful email to our reps at NVR and our sales team.  Surprisingly he came back asking for the estimate to see what they can do.  I haven't heard back but it sounds like we are in the negotiation phase again with lenders.

I hope you found some of this useful!! Until next time, have a wonderful week! <3

***UPDATED***
NVR ended up coming back and matching the 3.625 rate Union Savings offered us.  Even though it is minimal this does save us almost $30/mo.  So we went ahead and stayed with NVR.  They didn't want us to leave like last time and use another lender.  So we are back in the same boat locked and ready.   We just sent over all our updated pay stubs and banking documents for the file along with our insurance rep information for the Homeowners insurance.  So all the paperwork is up to date!

Week 4: We have a house with soon to be roof!

This week if I am a guessing person brings a roof and maybe the start of electrical and plumbing.  We normally get our weekly updates between Wednesday and Friday from our PM.  So hopefully I will know soon what to anticipate before next week arrives. 

Yesterday we finally locked our rate.  This time around we have decided to use NVR for our lending. They offered us a decent incentive that allowed us to bring less closing costs to the table.  We are going with a lender paid mortgage where we take a higher interest rate to avoid the PMI on our mortgage payment.  Which even taking the higher rate it was still under 4%!  We may refinance in the next year depending on rates and equity to get back down to the low 3% rate with hopes we will have decent equity to avoid PMI in general.  So at this point we no longer need to worry about the election affecting our rate.

Interior plans-  As you know in previous posts, we are still planning to replace some flooring before we move in and paint the main areas of the home.  Our first home we had someone paint before we moved in and I wouldn't have it any other way.  Ryan does do the fixes but they do not touch up with your paint.  So you are responsible for this.  We had to repaint our stairwells but it wasn't a huge deal.  I am all about a home feeling like a home right away verses waiting a year to paint!

Flooring wise we plan to replace the vinyl (basic included) with the LVP.  Unless we get an amazing deal on a hand-scraped engineered hardwood.  We are leaning more towards the LVP because it is hardier for our kids and dogs with less maintenance.  It is also easier to clean and gives the wood look we are going for in our home.  I would love to do our whole first level, but we are still pricing out the flooring.  Hopefully I can get a decent deal to pull this off.  If not we will do the entry, powder room, dining room, kitchen, morning room and possibly the study.  This would leave the living area with carpet.   We did not upgrade our carpet or pad.  We plan to do this in the next year or so.

Check out a few progress photos below.  Until next time....have a great day!

Paint colors:  I am actually between these two options...Which Gray do you like?

Flooring: Love the color of these Luxury Vinyl Planks. Do you have LVP?

Framing has begun and is probably finishing up as I type this...

So Wednesday ended on an even more exciting note.  We have the start of what looks like an actual house.  This house on the outside definitely looks larger than our Florence did on the outside.  I will say though, our Florence was deceiving.  Once you walked in it was a very open floor plan.  The kitchen was by far my favorite part of our last home.  I cannot wait to see what our kitchen will look like in this home.

Our PM has really been amazing about keeping us posted on our progress.  The last photo is one he sent us at 5:30 pm yesterday.  So we are really thankful that he communicates with us on a regular basis. I would say by Friday most of the framing will be complete.

 Check out the progress below.....

Week Three: Basement Floors, Wood Arrived, and Even Framing...

Whoa, I feel like it has been a lot longer than three weeks!  Time seems to be really dragging until  I look at the calendar and realize they are really busting butt to build our home.

On Monday they poured our basement and garage floors.  They also installed the water and sewer lines to our home. By the afternoon of that same day our wood had arrived!!

Tuesday things got even more exciting.  They have still been working on tying in the lines from the house.  But they also in the evening started framing everything to start building.  We have some great friends that live in our community who take evening walks and photo our progress.  Things are starting to get a little more exciting over there and I can't wait to move in .

Backyard:  We are still concerned about this.  As we know this is not really our PM's issue since he came in later with the plans and went over the plans with us at the pre-construction meeting.  However, we are a little more upset that we were told during the initial selection of our lot (which is "premium") that it would have a gradual 2 ft drop in the back.  Now, it is a gradual 4-5 ft drop from the morning room to the edge of the yard.  When we stand at the back of the home we are high enough to see our neighbors roof.  During selection we picked a yard we could utilize and have a swing set for our kids. At this rate we cannot have a swing set.  We have voiced this to our sales team and they are hoping we can bring in more dirt  to help level things out. We are early in the game so there is still time to fix it.  But my advice would be to make sure you double check everything!  Especially when it comes to the lots.  Initially we were told our lot was not a premium, but when we sent in our options they came back and said it was a mistake and was a premium.  So as you can see we have had a few hiccups with communication and these are some what major items of concern for our family.

Hopefully by the end of this week we will be sharing some completed framing photos!

Week Two Continued....

An email from our PM with this image attached.....

The foundation is now complete and I plan on installing the waterproofing tomorrow. After that we will hopefully install the sewer/water service to your home along with the underground plumbing, structural steel, and drain tile gravel. Once all that is complete we will backfill your homes foundation. 

I already spoke to Savanna a bit about this earlier. The dirt around the foundation now is just stock pile. We will use that dirt to fill the voids around the house and it will not be steep! I will do the best I can to give you guys a useable yard a promise. 

Have a great day,

Brandon

Yesterday I had emailed them after driving past our lot with a concern about how high the piles of dirt were.  I was inquiring if our back yard would be a large hill.  We plan to add a swing set and this hill would not allow for it.  Thank goodness it will hopefully be less noticeable.  



We also are excited to see that we will still have a fairly decent yard in the back.  Our front and side yard are fantastic, but we were concerned that it would take away from our backyard.  Things are looking up!