Blue skies

Here's a special treat--an early post during the week!  The last time the boss-man came out to visit (Long Lunch ...with the Boss) was back in July so he's been long overdue!  Thanks, B, for coming out today!

Scaffolding?  What scaffolding?  The exterior stonework is complete and it looks awesome!  I can see my porch!!  I am still annoyed that I cannot physically move the dumpster that is obstructing my POR shot (me = massive weakling).  I need a new image to add to the progressive gif!  #pout   The last two shutters still need to go up but the carriage lights by the garage have been installed ... and holy cow, I just noticed from the picture that the garage has been cleaned too! 

one hour

What a difference an hour makes!  When we arrived at the house this morning, the bright blue skies and warm summer sun gave promises of a beautiful day.  We, however, knew a major storm front would be rolling through later that afternoon and after one hour exploring the house, the clouds started rolling in.  This was a fantastic opportunity to see the siding and stone in different light.  I happened to get pictures upon arrival and departure, not because I was consciously thinking about the light but because I am a shutterbug and couldn't help myself.  For those of you contemplating Silver Mist siding, Almond trim, Black shutters, and/or Aspen field stone, enjoy the happy accident!

'shrooms and truffles

The vanity faucets finally arrived so another trip was made this weekend -- not that we really needed an excuse to see the house again.  Not much has changed to exterior except the addition of a driveway, doorbell, and some exterior lights.  The interior, however, is another story.  We have electricity, which means the lights and the AC are on!  The attic is still rather toasty but that might be because the access doors were open and one of the vents was covered (hoping that's the case!).  

As for the tiling, most of it is complete but still left to do are the powder room floor and the kitchen backsplash.  This means the plumber can start putting in the faucets and shower trims soon.  Our awesome PM also surprised us with ordering bronze accessories (versus the brushed nickel); the toilet paper holders were installed last week along with all of the closet/pantry shelving.  

Along with the exterior lights (flood lights, door lights), the electrician(s) hung our separately purchased fans and lights as well as the RH-supplied dining room chandelier and some of the bathroom lights.  The vanity lights are slightly different from some of the ones I've seen posted so that was a (nice) surprise as well.  (edit:  lights are "Renovations" by Progress Lighting)  We were told one of the fan globes was broken so we replaced it with the new one.  The store only had white versus amber but it's not that big of a deal.  I have no idea what the foyer light will look like and am excited to see it hopefully by next weekend.  We also tested out a bunch of the switches to see which controls what lights.

Rockin' It

Schedule Update:  Our house is apparently the slooooooooooooowest one to be built in the community so far so please don't use our timeline as a guide.  A little rain here and there and a permit delay really do impact the crew rotation and schedule.  It's amazing how fast these other two houses have popped up and caught up to us.  We're all going to have final walkthroughs in the same week!

We received our official notice that closing will be on 28 September! ... and we have a sidewalk and a walkway from the soon-to-be driveway to the porch.

Locked In and already Locked Out!

Wow.  Within one week, the house exploded ... with goodies!  

(disclaimer:  photo-heavy post with commentary in the captions)

This weekend, we interrupted the the trim crew, who did not happen to be Eastern European or driving Audis.  I was able to get some pictures but stepped out to let them cause a minor dust storm sweep.  Little did I know that they would LOCK the doors!  We stopped by the model for the key and I took way too many window measurements and of course, more pictures!  (If you haven't already started researching the cost of blinds, holy cow can one burn instantly through the budget!)

We weren't able to lock in the mortgage rate the week of the pre-drywall meeting last week and missed out on a killer combo (3.25% with 1% help -or- 3.5% with 2.5% help).  Considering when we first started, the rate was at 3.875% and so locking in at 3.5% with 1.5% help is still pretty awesome.  This means cash in hand to finally buy some appliances (more on a future post) and to do some minor work on the current house.