Sunday, March 30, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Sixty Days!
We close on our house in exactly 60 days from today!! We went out there today to check out the status and it's looking good. I didn't take any pictures because it was 40 degrees and rainy (and just generally unpleasant!).
Anyway, all of the plumbing and gas lines are installed and have all passed inspection. Electrical should be on Monday and, hopefully, shingles too. Our fireplace is installed and all of our bathtubs and showers are in. Interestingly, the bath tubs are completely filled with water! We think it's to test the plumbing and to make sure that nothing leaks over the weekend. It's looking really good.
We're also within our lock period for our mortgage, so we can now lock in our interest rate at anytime. It costs less to lock it in if you can wait until the 30-day mark, but Brian and I have decided that if it is affordable enough and at a low rate, we'd rather pay to lock it in now, rather than gamble and worry about the rates going up. The rates are fairly stable right now, but we definitely don't want to tempt our fate.
I called off the staining projecting for this weekend, since it ended up being so cold and damp outside. I figure there will be better weekends in April!
Additionally, the Web site was updated today, so we're anxiously awaiting the next lame e-mail:
As an aside, I'm also first place in the bracket competition and beating all the roadgeeks!
Anyway, all of the plumbing and gas lines are installed and have all passed inspection. Electrical should be on Monday and, hopefully, shingles too. Our fireplace is installed and all of our bathtubs and showers are in. Interestingly, the bath tubs are completely filled with water! We think it's to test the plumbing and to make sure that nothing leaks over the weekend. It's looking really good.
We're also within our lock period for our mortgage, so we can now lock in our interest rate at anytime. It costs less to lock it in if you can wait until the 30-day mark, but Brian and I have decided that if it is affordable enough and at a low rate, we'd rather pay to lock it in now, rather than gamble and worry about the rates going up. The rates are fairly stable right now, but we definitely don't want to tempt our fate.
I called off the staining projecting for this weekend, since it ended up being so cold and damp outside. I figure there will be better weekends in April!
Additionally, the Web site was updated today, so we're anxiously awaiting the next lame e-mail:
As an aside, I'm also first place in the bracket competition and beating all the roadgeeks!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Movin' out...
We went to the house today because I wanted to see the windows that were delivered this morning. They look good! We also noticed that they installed some insulation where the showers will be located because the plumbing is going to smart tomorrow. We'll definitely be out there tomorrow night to see how it all goes down...
Afterward, we went to Lowe's to check out some things. We want to put a storm door in pretty quickly after we move in so that there will be more light in the front foyer and we also want to lay an arrangement of pretty tiles in the backyard to make a nice patio. We found a door that we like and saw some really nice tiles.
Today after work I stopped by the apartment complex to hand in our 60-day notice. The management chick was nice and agreeable to our idea to extend our lease three days to June 3 (to give us ample time to move). She said we'd get our official NOTICE TO VACATE in the next few weeks (which sounds kinda scary!). As I was driving back to our apartment, I was kinda sad. This apartment will always be sentimental for me since it was the first place we lived after we got married. As an aside, we've almost been married for two years! So, I was kinda nostalgic. It's weird to think about how much things have changed in the past two years. A lot of people told me that the first year of marriage is the hardest and if that's really the case, then Brian and I are smooth sailing because nothing really changed for us. It was seriously like go to work, take time off from work, get married, go back to work, watch the Hurricanes win the Stanley Cup, go to the Bahamas, go back to work ... . It really wasn't a difficult transition for us at all. Don't get me wrong--I'm not complaining. It's just very cool to be so content and I can't wait to see what happens in the next two years...
Oh, I almost forgot!
Brian is continuing his fame, even though he has escaped some of the public spotlight with his new job. He got a shout out by some guy in the N&O:
http://www.newsobserver.com/print/wednesday/city_state/story/1013387.html
Y'all may also hear remants of his work in Selsun Blue, Carolina Back Institute, and Lake Park Condo commercials...
Afterward, we went to Lowe's to check out some things. We want to put a storm door in pretty quickly after we move in so that there will be more light in the front foyer and we also want to lay an arrangement of pretty tiles in the backyard to make a nice patio. We found a door that we like and saw some really nice tiles.
Today after work I stopped by the apartment complex to hand in our 60-day notice. The management chick was nice and agreeable to our idea to extend our lease three days to June 3 (to give us ample time to move). She said we'd get our official NOTICE TO VACATE in the next few weeks (which sounds kinda scary!). As I was driving back to our apartment, I was kinda sad. This apartment will always be sentimental for me since it was the first place we lived after we got married. As an aside, we've almost been married for two years! So, I was kinda nostalgic. It's weird to think about how much things have changed in the past two years. A lot of people told me that the first year of marriage is the hardest and if that's really the case, then Brian and I are smooth sailing because nothing really changed for us. It was seriously like go to work, take time off from work, get married, go back to work, watch the Hurricanes win the Stanley Cup, go to the Bahamas, go back to work ... . It really wasn't a difficult transition for us at all. Don't get me wrong--I'm not complaining. It's just very cool to be so content and I can't wait to see what happens in the next two years...
Oh, I almost forgot!
Brian is continuing his fame, even though he has escaped some of the public spotlight with his new job. He got a shout out by some guy in the N&O:
http://www.newsobserver.com/print/wednesday/city_state/story/1013387.html
Y'all may also hear remants of his work in Selsun Blue, Carolina Back Institute, and Lake Park Condo commercials...
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Upcoming Schedule
Brian got a phone call from our field manager today who was calling to update us on the upcoming schedule:
Wednesday - windows delivered
Thursday - windows installed; plumbing and gas line installation begins
Friday - electrical wiring and shingles begin
We swung by the house last night and the framing is completely done, so we were able to completely walk through the second floor and see everything up close. They've also put down the paper-like material over the plywood (that goes under the shingles) on the roof. As we walked through the upstairs, we realized that we were total morons with the placement of one of our cable outlets, so Brian asked Chris if we could move the placement now. He said yes, so Brian is going to head out there tomorrow on his lunch break and tell Chris where we want to move it (we also have to sign off on the change). We're going to double check all our placement tonight to make sure everything else looks good.
I also have a very exciting project for this weekend! When I moved into my first apartment (way back in 2004), my parents bought me an unfinished dresser. Our thinking was that we didn't know what color bedroom suit I would eventually end up with and that it would suck to have one piece in a completely different color. So, fortunately, most apartments have walk-in closets and my dresser has had the pleasure to hide in three (the furniture guy warned us to be careful with it since the wood wasn't treated). I'm planning to stain it this weekend, since the weather should be warm and we have a nicely covered back porch. I have no idea what I'm doing (what else is new?), but I'm going to find some good DIY instructions online. I think I can pick a stain that will match Brian's dresser, so it should look semi-cohesive and then we can match the new bedside tables that we're going to buy accordingly. So if any of y'all have any tips, feel free to send them my way :-)
Wednesday - windows delivered
Thursday - windows installed; plumbing and gas line installation begins
Friday - electrical wiring and shingles begin
We swung by the house last night and the framing is completely done, so we were able to completely walk through the second floor and see everything up close. They've also put down the paper-like material over the plywood (that goes under the shingles) on the roof. As we walked through the upstairs, we realized that we were total morons with the placement of one of our cable outlets, so Brian asked Chris if we could move the placement now. He said yes, so Brian is going to head out there tomorrow on his lunch break and tell Chris where we want to move it (we also have to sign off on the change). We're going to double check all our placement tonight to make sure everything else looks good.
I also have a very exciting project for this weekend! When I moved into my first apartment (way back in 2004), my parents bought me an unfinished dresser. Our thinking was that we didn't know what color bedroom suit I would eventually end up with and that it would suck to have one piece in a completely different color. So, fortunately, most apartments have walk-in closets and my dresser has had the pleasure to hide in three (the furniture guy warned us to be careful with it since the wood wasn't treated). I'm planning to stain it this weekend, since the weather should be warm and we have a nicely covered back porch. I have no idea what I'm doing (what else is new?), but I'm going to find some good DIY instructions online. I think I can pick a stain that will match Brian's dresser, so it should look semi-cohesive and then we can match the new bedside tables that we're going to buy accordingly. So if any of y'all have any tips, feel free to send them my way :-)
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Facebook Pictures
Y'all will also notice that I added a new column on the left side of the blog linking to my picture albums on Facebook.
I'll continue to put some pictures on here, but (frankly) it's a huge pain to upload pictures on here and it takes up a ton of space and time for each blog post. Not to mention, they're hard to look at on here. So you can click on the album links and flip through the pictures very quickly. You don't have to have a Facebook profile or anything because the album is public.
I can only put 60 pictures in each album, so I'll continue to add new album links as we take more pictures. The albums are chronological by album number and each picture has a caption below it with a date. If you have any issues looking at the pictures, let me know.
I'll continue to put some pictures on here, but (frankly) it's a huge pain to upload pictures on here and it takes up a ton of space and time for each blog post. Not to mention, they're hard to look at on here. So you can click on the album links and flip through the pictures very quickly. You don't have to have a Facebook profile or anything because the album is public.
I can only put 60 pictures in each album, so I'll continue to add new album links as we take more pictures. The albums are chronological by album number and each picture has a caption below it with a date. If you have any issues looking at the pictures, let me know.
Movin' on up...
Yup, just as I expected, they made more progress today. We also caught the workers as they were leaving for lunch, so we were able to walk through and take some pictures by daylight without interrupting their work. Since yesterday they've done a lot of work on the second floor and roof. They've got most of the roof covered with plywood (save the part over the front porch and living room) and it's definitely looking like our house now:
Front:
Right side:
Left side:
Back:
2nd floor bedroom:
Roof over over one of the front bedrooms:
Looking down over the living room:
Great room (with fireplace):
Windows in the great room:
2nd floor loft:
Living room through the arch:
Half bath and coat closet:
Kitchen and pantry:
Dining room:
Also, when we went to sign our contract addendum, Stephanie told us that they've sold a few of the spec houses in Collection I (the other side of the neighborhood), but she also said that they'd been pretty busy lately. Hopefully, they'll get some more sold on our side of the 'hood...
Front:
Right side:
Left side:
Back:
2nd floor bedroom:
Roof over over one of the front bedrooms:
Looking down over the living room:
Great room (with fireplace):
Windows in the great room:
2nd floor loft:
Living room through the arch:
Half bath and coat closet:
Kitchen and pantry:
Dining room:
Also, when we went to sign our contract addendum, Stephanie told us that they've sold a few of the spec houses in Collection I (the other side of the neighborhood), but she also said that they'd been pretty busy lately. Hopefully, they'll get some more sold on our side of the 'hood...
E-mail #3
E-mail #3 has arrived. Not quite as lame as #2, but pretty close:
By the way, I know that y'all aren't really excited about the e-mails we receive. The reason I'm posting it is so that we can keep all of our e-house memorabilia together, since the blog is basically an e-scrapbook.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Second Floor Framed
Tonight, Brian and I took a quick drive out to the neighborhood to check out today's progress. It's looking great! The second floor is now completely framed and a lot of the roof framing is done. It's hard to believe that that it's the same place as yesterday! It's also amazing how big the house looks now, since there aren't any other houses out on the cul-de-sac yet. It's very impressive and almost a bit spooky-looking by night.
Tomorrow we have to head out there to sign an addendum to our contract that changes our closing date to May 29. We'll definitely take some pictures and get them online as soon as possible.
Also, the Web site has been updated (lame e-mail to follow soon...)
Tomorrow we have to head out there to sign an addendum to our contract that changes our closing date to May 29. We'll definitely take some pictures and get them online as soon as possible.
Also, the Web site has been updated (lame e-mail to follow soon...)
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Brian has vertigo and Laura has a Wal-Mart flashlight
The guys who are framing our house are beasts. We roll out there at about 7:15 PM and they're still working!! At that time, they had pretty much finished framing the first floor and were working on the subfloor for the second level. We walked around and looked at some things and then decided to go get dinner and come back later when they were finished working.
To kill time, we drove to Cary and had dinner at The Loop, which was fun since I hadn't eaten there in forever! After dinner we went to the Cary Wal-Mart (yee haw!) to buy some super-duper flashlights and then headed back out to Knightdale (we're probably going to put 100K miles on our cars in the four months that we're building our house; we've definitely seen the RALEIGH SKYLINE from about every approach in March).
When we got back to the house, the workers were gone (which was a good thing since it was pitch-black) and we were able to check out everything. Our generic Wal-Mart flashlights combined with the ultra force of Honda Civic bright lights and a full moon gave us a lot of good light. We were able to walk through the whole downstairs and all of the rooms are completely framed. It's really unreal. I am SO EXCITED NOW! The kitchen, breakfast nook, and great room are so awesome. I love how open they all are; it's exactly what we were looking for...
We were also able to go upstairs, which was fun. Basically, all there is right now is the subfloor and three halves of walls. It's funny--even though we've looked at the floorplans a billion times, it's still really hard to picture everything upstairs. Although, I'm sure by tomorrow night it will be completely framed! I can't believe how fast they work. It's also really cool to see how high up our house sits compared with the surrounding lots. Since there are no houses being built around us right now it is especially exaggerated, but our lot is still a good bit higher than the others around us.
And to make the day even better, my bracket is 11/12, whereas my dear husband's is 8/12. God Bless America.
To kill time, we drove to Cary and had dinner at The Loop, which was fun since I hadn't eaten there in forever! After dinner we went to the Cary Wal-Mart (yee haw!) to buy some super-duper flashlights and then headed back out to Knightdale (we're probably going to put 100K miles on our cars in the four months that we're building our house; we've definitely seen the RALEIGH SKYLINE from about every approach in March).
When we got back to the house, the workers were gone (which was a good thing since it was pitch-black) and we were able to check out everything. Our generic Wal-Mart flashlights combined with the ultra force of Honda Civic bright lights and a full moon gave us a lot of good light. We were able to walk through the whole downstairs and all of the rooms are completely framed. It's really unreal. I am SO EXCITED NOW! The kitchen, breakfast nook, and great room are so awesome. I love how open they all are; it's exactly what we were looking for...
We were also able to go upstairs, which was fun. Basically, all there is right now is the subfloor and three halves of walls. It's funny--even though we've looked at the floorplans a billion times, it's still really hard to picture everything upstairs. Although, I'm sure by tomorrow night it will be completely framed! I can't believe how fast they work. It's also really cool to see how high up our house sits compared with the surrounding lots. Since there are no houses being built around us right now it is especially exaggerated, but our lot is still a good bit higher than the others around us.
And to make the day even better, my bracket is 11/12, whereas my dear husband's is 8/12. God Bless America.
Lame E-mail #2
The Web site is a bit behind the actual progress of the lot, but, fortunately, Brian still receives e-mail updates. E-mail #2 may be lamer than e-mail #1...
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
We Were FRAMED!!!!
Lots of fun stuff to report!
Sometime at the end of last week or over the weekend, they finished back-filling the other sides of our house and our backyard looks AWESOME. They decreased the slope of our backyard, which make the yard look much bigger. We're pretty pleased!
Yesterday, Stephanie called Brian and asked him if we were interested in moving UP our closing date because they were AHEAD OF SCHEDULE! Heck yes we are!!! So, instead of June 4, we're now closing on May 29, which is kinda cool because that will be exactly 2 years and 2 days after our wedding. Even better, now we can move out of our apartment earlier! Conveniently, we also received a letter that our 60-day notice is due March 31. We're planning to extend the lease for a week into June, just to have plenty of time to move and clean. We called our mortgage guy at USAA and he said it would be no problem to meet a May 29 closing, which was good.
Changing the closing date was good/bad. Since we moved it to May, our first mortgage payment will now be due July 1, instead of August 1; so that kinda sucks. However, at closing we'll save about $650 dollars since we'll only have to pay interest from May 29-31, as opposed to June 4-30; so that kinda rocks. Mainly, we're just thrilled that they're ahead of schedule.
Speaking of which, we rolled up to the neighborhood today and low and behold we actually have a frame. Like a real house. It's pretty incredible. In fact, they were still out there working at 7 PM. It looks awesome and they move so quickly. We were pretty shocked. I think the reason they frame it so quickly after the lumber delivery is because there is a ton of wood and nowhere to store it and I think it's pretty likely that it would be an easy target for theft. (We would not be pleased if some fool jacked our wood!) So they were totally moving on it--most of the first floor is already done and it looks like tomorrow they'll be starting on the second floor. Oh happy day.
A few pictures
Back yard:
That's a lot of plywood:
Front-ish view:
Front view and Brian practicing his Spanish (which consists of hola and muchos gracias):
Side yard:
PS: I just realized how blurry some of those pictures are. Sorry. I am not completely lame with my camera--it was windy was all get out and that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Sometime at the end of last week or over the weekend, they finished back-filling the other sides of our house and our backyard looks AWESOME. They decreased the slope of our backyard, which make the yard look much bigger. We're pretty pleased!
Yesterday, Stephanie called Brian and asked him if we were interested in moving UP our closing date because they were AHEAD OF SCHEDULE! Heck yes we are!!! So, instead of June 4, we're now closing on May 29, which is kinda cool because that will be exactly 2 years and 2 days after our wedding. Even better, now we can move out of our apartment earlier! Conveniently, we also received a letter that our 60-day notice is due March 31. We're planning to extend the lease for a week into June, just to have plenty of time to move and clean. We called our mortgage guy at USAA and he said it would be no problem to meet a May 29 closing, which was good.
Changing the closing date was good/bad. Since we moved it to May, our first mortgage payment will now be due July 1, instead of August 1; so that kinda sucks. However, at closing we'll save about $650 dollars since we'll only have to pay interest from May 29-31, as opposed to June 4-30; so that kinda rocks. Mainly, we're just thrilled that they're ahead of schedule.
Speaking of which, we rolled up to the neighborhood today and low and behold we actually have a frame. Like a real house. It's pretty incredible. In fact, they were still out there working at 7 PM. It looks awesome and they move so quickly. We were pretty shocked. I think the reason they frame it so quickly after the lumber delivery is because there is a ton of wood and nowhere to store it and I think it's pretty likely that it would be an easy target for theft. (We would not be pleased if some fool jacked our wood!) So they were totally moving on it--most of the first floor is already done and it looks like tomorrow they'll be starting on the second floor. Oh happy day.
A few pictures
Back yard:
That's a lot of plywood:
Front-ish view:
Front view and Brian practicing his Spanish (which consists of hola and muchos gracias):
Side yard:
PS: I just realized how blurry some of those pictures are. Sorry. I am not completely lame with my camera--it was windy was all get out and that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Silly E-mail
We drove by the lot on Friday night on our way to visit my parents and it looks like they've back-filled at the front of the house and on one of sides, but not the other two sides. We're not sure if they're done back-filling or if there is still more work to do.
We certainly give Centex credit for being really good with communication (both on the local and national levels). On Friday morning, Brian received an e-mail from them about the progress of our house. We thought it was pretty cheesy, but at least they get points for trying :-)
I wrote a research paper on the American Dream in The Great Gatsby when I was in high school. If I had to rewrite that paper now, I'd probably use this e-mail for my introduction, but that's for another day...
Thursday, March 13, 2008
[IT]'s a brick----house...
The [bricks are] stacked and that's a fact, ain't holding nothing back....
OK, so, technically, it's not a brick house, but it does have bricks completed along the foundation! And they look awesome.
Pretty colors:
Hot water heater pole:
Backyard:
Garage and frontyard:
Bricks at the back of the front porch:
Layout with expansion joints:
View from the front yard:
OK, so, technically, it's not a brick house, but it does have bricks completed along the foundation! And they look awesome.
Pretty colors:
Hot water heater pole:
Backyard:
Garage and frontyard:
Bricks at the back of the front porch:
Layout with expansion joints:
View from the front yard:
Centex Web site Updated!
I'm pleased to report that our MY NEW HOME Web site from Centex is now updated to reflect our progress!
We're heading out to Churchill before we go to dinner, so hopefully the bricks along the base will be complete and we'll have some more pictures!
We're heading out to Churchill before we go to dinner, so hopefully the bricks along the base will be complete and we'll have some more pictures!
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
The wisepeople built their house upon the rock...
... and so it came to pass.
Brian and I both learned from an early age that only foolish men build their houses upon the sand, so we were pretty pleased when our field manager called Brian today and told him that they were pouring the foundation. The plan is then to complete the brick footing tomorrow and then back-fill any dirt that they displaced that we might need. Chris also mentioned that the lumber is set for delivery for mid-next week, so next week should be framing!
After work, we headed out there, camera in tow, to check out the progress. By 6:30, they had pretty much completed everything, but there were still three workers out there finishing up the concrete in the garage. One really cool thing is that our front porch is like completely done now, with respect to cement. It was cool to see the little patterns in the cement (like all the other houses...). I was really fascinated by the foundation--it's very clean cut and smooth with sharp, straight edges around the perimeter. 'Twas very exciting :-)
Tomorrow we should have some pictures on the progress of the footing.
Some pictures:
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