NO TURNING BACK NOW...AND MET ANOTHER NEIGHBOR

Hooray, what a beautiful blue sky and day for ground breaking day.  We stopped by the lot this afternoon to catch a quick peek at the progress.  Also, we met another neighbor - this one will live next door to our house in the Esquire house.  She is already planning on adding a fence...to keep the deer out of her yard.  We can't wait to meet more of our neighbors.  So far everyone has been very nice an inviting.  It is so nice that we will all be moving in within weeks of one another. 

The following are a few pictures taken today.  We probably won't make it back to the property until Friday, which by then they plan to be done with all of the digging. 

our lot fenced in



approaching the lot



front yard

front yard

left-side of property

where the public sidewalk will go



start of the driveway

driveway



end of the turn table driveway

...and we have the start of a hole.
(middle of the house)

Pre-con / Break Ground / Closing

We met with the PM and RH sales rep today for the pre-construction meeting.  The meeting lasted about 2 hours. We reviewed the details for all of our custom requests and then reviewed the details regarding the house.  We had to add 2 GFCI dedicated circuits in the Owner's bathroom to accommodate the custom tub and custom shower request and we caught a few errors, but overall the process was pretty painless. 

We are still waiting for RH to provide us with the revised quote regarding the custom shower request; but other than that all change orders are signed and submitted.

The lot is staked; however, we didn't have time to go to the lot.  We plan to visit with the PM tomorrow and we will take some pics.  Our PM is very nice, but appears to be a little stressed out.  This is his 7th house in 7 weeks and he is overseeing a new townhouse community.  However, he indicated that he will be there for us and we can contact him at any time regarding the process.

We are scheduled to break ground on 06/01/2011 with a 08/29/2011 closing.  However, the PM indicated that our custom requests may push the closing date out a little bit (a few days or week).

Overall it was a great day and we look forward to getting the process started.

Additional notes from the meeting:

• 80 gallon hot water tank
• solarium comes with a tray ceiling
• turn-table driveway
• brick to grade (all around house)
• above windows - solider course with Keystone
• hardware - RH had satin nickle s/b bronze
• 110v hookup above range; even though RH can not add microwave because it would violate code
• oak tread steps (upgrade)
• Custom Tub - RH approved and we signed a changed order that reflects $1000 credit to remove tub/decking; 
• we confirmed with PM who stated he will work with us after closing to install the tub; 
• we were under the impression that the tile from the decking would be used on the walls to surround the tub and that tile would be installed under the tub.  We are very disappointed that RH is not including the tile surrounding the tub in the package, especially because the cost of the additional tile should be minimal because the tile from the decking can be used on the walls.  We plan to follow-up with the RH sales rep. to see if there is anything we can do.; 
• PM needs to know if it comes with external hardware and does it work with pecks?
• Garage - Additional insulation was approved
• HVAC exterior mechanical - PM will f/u with us on location
• Custom Spa Shower - waiting for approval from RH
• External Sprinkler system - need to wait until after closing
• Pendant lighting - we need to choose a light and get back to RH; PM will install

Pre-Construction / Break Ground - scheduled

Our pre-construction meeting is schedule for 05/26/2011.  We already met our PM earlier because we had to discuss which existing trees were going to be cut down and which trees would stay.  Also, we discussed the layout of the house and pushing it back a few more feet away from the road to decrease the slope in the front yard.  So this meeting shouldn't take too long.  We really like our PM, he appears to be very friendly and polite.

RH plans to break ground on 06/01/2011.  (Subject to change due to weather conditions, which it wouldn't surprise us if the date changes because of all of the rain). 

We are still scheduled to close around the end of Aug. / beginning of Sept.  We were told that we will have a more exact date once the framing is complete.

We are still very excited about the whole process and we look forward to watch the house be built.  We live about 30 minutes away from the lot and there is a lot of road construction that may inhibit us from going to see the progress as much as we would want to.  However, we plan to take lots of pictures.