UNDER CONTRACT and UPDATE ON LIFE

It took 10 months (305 days to be exact), but we are finally under contract.  The inspections are scheduled for the end of this week and hopefully, by the end of April we will be double mortgage free. 

On another note, I can't believe it has been months since I have been out on the blog.  It looks like everyone is moving along very nicely on building, closing, and settling into to their new homes.  Welcome to all of the newbies, I will be checking out your progress.  Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Our community is finished; the last house closed a few weeks ago and everyone is moved in. Several lots still need trees and landscaping, which RH will probably start working on within the next month.  I will take some pictures this weekend and update the "Our Community" page.  Also, we had our HOA meeting about a month ago.

Now that the weather is getting a little warmer, we have been meeting with landscapers to develop a plan for the yard.  We are also working on narrowing down the paint colors for the inside.  We will post our final color choices later.  We haven't bought much for the house, we still need window treatments for most of the windows and we need to purchase a new bed for the master bedroom; we already purchased a king-size mattress --- LOVE IT!!

Also, RH finally finished hooking up the custom tub in the master bathroom.  We will post some pictures later.  We love the tub and shower...well worth the $$$ spent. 

We had to address a few service issues:
1) family room ceiling - the tape on the seam where the ceiling meets the slope is coming down; RH had a contractor come out a few weeks ago to fix it.  It looks good, but I read other blogs where this is a trouble spot and may need repaired more than once.  We will keep our fingers crossed.

2) solarium HVAC - had a minor gas leak.  The gas company came out and shut the unit down.  Thank God, we had the other 2 units to warm the house.  It took RH almost a week to come out to fix the leak. 

Other than that, we are tracking all of the other minor issues that we will address at the 10 month inspection. 

I promise to post more and to add some updated pictures.  I really missed blogging and following all of the blogs. 

GUARDIAN WALK-THRU and MORE PICS

We met with our Guardian rep. this morning to discuss the layout of the security system, outlets (telephone, cable, data), and audio/speaker system.  We were a little disappointed that we only got to the main and 2nd floor, and that we had to reschedule the walk-thru in the basement to next Friday because RH did not have the steps completed to access the basement; nor was the framing completed in the basement.  Also, according to Guardian, they are unable to start tomorrow because the framing and electrical is not complete.  The Guardian rep. indicated that they should be able to start on Tuesday and should be finished in a day or two. 

We contacted the PM to express our frustration because we feel we should have received a heads up regarding any delays with the framing or electrical because both the PM and RH sales rep. were well aware that we were scheduled to be onsite this morning.  The PM expressed that Guardian should have been able to finish the walk-thru today and begin work tomorrow and indicated that he would follow-up with the Guardian rep. 
During our walk-thru we notices a few more (minor) surprises that we brought to the PM's attention.

1) Master Bathroom decking was installed for an enclosed tub (see pic below). Now for those of you who have been following our blog since conception are well aware that we are installing a custom claw foot tub after closing.  When we brought it to the PM's attention; he informed me that he was aware of it and was not surprised that we brought it up.  The PM indicated that it was a communication error amongst the framing crews and that it would be removed.  Our frustration was if the PM knew about it and knew we were going to be onsite today; don't you think he could of contacted us (email, text, phone) to give us a heads up prior to us finding it out on our own.  Oh well, it has been taken care of and we are ready to move on.

BEFORE
bathroom with decking for enclosed tub

UPDATED PICTURE a few hours later...

AFTER
decking removed, ready for the claw foot tub

2) Master Bedroom closets - base on the layout specs that we received (via RH website) the access to the closets were via the bedroom; however, we noticed that the framing was completed that we would access the closets after we enter the bathroom.  Now we actually are ok with this layout; however, it would have been nice to know before hand just in case this was not ok with us.  When we brought it up to the PM; he was unaware of it and indicated that he would look into it when he got onsite.

UPDATE added at 4:42 p.m.: After speaking with the PM, it is our understanding that this is the correct layout for the bathroom because we upgraded to the luxury owner's suite with a 3 car garage; however, it does not reflect correctly on RH's website.  So we apologize for taking it out on the PM; we should have noticed this when we viewed the blueprints during the pre-construction meeting.  As we mentioned before, we are very happy with this layout and have no complaints.  We appreciate that the PM took a lot of time this afternoon to clear up the confusion.

doorway to the closet on the left

doorway to the closet on the right

The following are a few more pictures that we snapped during our visit. 

Fireplace in family room

HVAC system in attic
for the 2nd floor

bathroom and shower
bedroom #2

HVAC
for main floor and solarium

front view
grading is almost complete

Overall today's visit was very productive.  We will receive our weekly call from the PM tomorrow, which will let us know what was completed this week and what is planned to begin next week.

Until then, we are working on scheduling for a sprinkler system to be installed in the front yard and gathering estimates for professional movers.  Any information or guidance is greatly appreciated.