The roof! The roof! The roof is...

Ryan Homes started installing our roof!



I will confess, blogging, with any sort of frequency and relative content, is more work then I imagined. Between work, kids, actually having to check on the home site, and then making time to report back on progress (or lack thereof), it's well, a LOT (13...see what I did there?)

We don't need no water let the !@#$ burn! Sike...don't do that. Please don't

Ashley doesn't like the hip roof as much I do. But she does like having a roof, so I guess there's that medium ground :)

But what does she know :) 

Side profile shot

The good ole back of the house. You can see the morning room and family room

What is this hip roof you speak of? One might ask, well, good question!
According to good ole wikipedia:
A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope. Thus it is a house with no gables or other vertical sides to the roof. A square hip roof is shaped like a pyramid.



To whom it may concern, there are actually (and obviously), pros and cons to the roof choice of your new construction. Some of which can be found summarized here: http://www.roofcalc.net/top-15-roof-types-and-their-pros-cons/

In any event, the house is inching faster and faster into feeling like a home!

To the Windows...to the Walls (Part 2)

So, I was unable to attend the last home site drop in, but Ashley did, and lo and behold, she found...

Windows!!!

If you look reallllly close, there are definitely windows

And then of course, us at Field of Screams last weekend

All things considered, this has been an awesome week of progress and in general joy...!

To the Windows...To the Walls!!! (Part 1)

It's amazing how some cliches are actually true. After reading in blog upon blog, about how time flies by after a certain point (if you're lucky), I was a little skeptical. However, we took a quick trip to the site last weekend and much to our chagrin, we found this staring at us!:

We've got a roof

Roof and walls and insulation and a garage

To hip, or not to hip? That was the question...

Is it just me, or do the workers seem to like dumping on the site a little too much

This one is a personal favorite, because that was the original title of our blog :)

Can't wait to see what's in store for our next trip!

Not all wood is built the same

When we were walking around our house yesterday and marveling at that framing had actually begun, Ashley made note of some pieces of our lumber and framing joints, not looking as spiffy as others. While I took the stance that all pieces probably didn't need to be perfect, and that our PM was "likely" aware of such, we still decided to take some pictures and bring them to his attention, just in case. Especially since after all, Ryan Homes has been pushing him to complete all homes in our development by the end of the year!

Hole in plywood

 

Gap in seams

Another gap in seams

We also noted that while thought we had asked to have the optional windows we selected for the living room, to be moved down to the study (first floor bedroom), apparently we hadn't. Since we couldn't find any documentation stating that we had done so, we figured we'd ask our PM, when we inquired about the suspect wood.

I sent him a text the next day and his response is below:
Walter thanks for your pics and texts. These are things that are addressed when my framer comes for his punchout after I check the framing of your house. It is too late to make changes to your selections. I will however check to make sure everything you selected is included once they are done framing the roof. I'll reach out to you next week to discuss that and the upcoming schedule.

As you can see, straightforward answer to our inquiry! So no worries.

I'd also take this time to say that I am kicking myself for not getting every optional window possible!! According to our SR, Ryan Homes didn't offer bay windows in our region or on our model...i don't recall. However, I'm a big fan of natural light. Regardless, we definitely should have double checked that we did indeed, have the change order put in moving the windows from the living room to the first floor bedroom.

Framing: What Ryan Homes decided to do with our lumber?

After seeing that the foundation had been poured and knowing that framing would begin soon, we decided to trek up to the house site as a treat to ourselves yesterday. And lo and behold, we found something interesting. Framing had begun!!!!

Ryan Homes used our wood for this??

Ok, so it was apparently only me who was concerned that Ryan Homes would repurpose our wood for boat building purposes. So I was thrilled to see that they indeed, decided that using it for our home was a better idea!

Front of the house

Ashley talking to one of the framers

Back of the house

Morning Room

From the side of our house

Next post, I'll include some things we noticed and how our PM responded.

Garage and basement foundation

Life's been busy, but in a good way, so I haven't been able to post as much or frequently as I'd like. However, we carved out time and drove by last Saturday too see what progress, if any, had been made on our home, and much to our pleasant surprise, it looks as if the basement and garage concrete had been poured. Not only that, but it also appears that our lot is no longer the "dump" lot! So the developer has cleared a lot of the extraneous dirt and junk from our site.

Not this sort of "Foundation"

Here are some of the pictures we took of the progress. All things considered, it was very cool to see the foundation and a better feel for the outline of our future home!

Basement Egress

Sump pump will go over there somewhere

Garage foundation

Windows and lumber

I wonder does this tarp outline Ryan Homes line of disturbance

Pay not attention to the tiny football player

Once again, don't mind the dancing 5th grader

Foundation and stone

Long time no post. As almost any and everyone is familiar with, moving sucks! I always say that I'm going to hire movers, and yet, never do it. So it was that I spent about 2 workdays, and several nights, slowly packing and moving my life to either storage, the dump, or Mom's house. Good news is that the kids take it all as one adventure! And they are all for grand mommy time. But mentally, I'm literally counting the days until we can close and move in!

Last week was hectic with moving, and then a much needed 3 night vacation in Cancun. The two photos beneath should aptly sum that trip up!!!

So when we came back, of course the first thing we did was cruise by the house and see what's new, and there appears to be foundation walls, along with our lumber and windows and such! Excitement abounds.

I just sent a text to our PM asking for an update on our estimated home completion date and a "what's next". I also spoke with a co-worker who, among other things, mentioned I should inquire about radon testing. But also his home has a well and septic system, so he was able to ease some of my concerns regarding that stuff.

Here are some of the myriad of pictures I took. (Editors Note: Some of these pictures are over two separate trips over 2 weeks).