Trim and Cabinets

Today (03/06/2014) I went by the house. The crews were installing the trim and kitchen cabinets.

I have to say, the house is looking good. There were two major issues that are going to have to be fixed.

1) The box for the whole home audio on the exterior of the house is still located above and to the left of the kitchen door. The project manager told me he will make sure it is moved. Though it will involve opening drywall and pulling siding off the house.

The "box" to the right and top of the sliding door needs to be to the right and slightly lower than the railing outside the door, for future speakers mounted to the deck railings. 

2) The drywall on the stairs has a bow and a bad corner where it has completely separated from the studs. He had caught it and pointed out that a drywall crew would be out to repair and replace the bad spot. He did not prioritize the repair because it would have delayed the first coat of paint and the trim crews. I appreciate that. However, I have no clue how it happened. I did not ask. I did not take a photograph.

The vinyl floors have been installed in the kitchen, the laundry closet and the living room powder room. It looks good, especially with having bronze hardware for the doors. The kitchen cabinets were in the kitchen, along with the bathroom vanity. The kitchen cabinets look great with the vinyl floors. I am hoping that the granite will coordinate just as well.

Unboxed, and awaiting installation. 

This is going to do a great job of concealing German Shepherd Dog paw prints.  Also it will tie in well with my furniture and the kitchen cabinets. In fact, this will look better with my change order cabinets than the original ones I selected.

The exterior siding is straight, and has no visible bows. The siding crew did a great job. Washington gas has installed the gas line, and has it aligned reasonably with the meter. Some houses the gas line is 3'-5' off from where the line into the house is. Then there is this long gas pipe between the meter and where the gas goes into the house. It looks really bad. Mine, while not as perfect as it could be is acceptable.

And finally, there is the issue of job site mud. I made a bad footwear choice, and below is the end result. My clutch petal got it worse than the gas and brake.

eeeeeks, mud! My poor clutch petal.  

Pre Drywall meeting

Yesterday was my pre-drywall walk through on the house. I asked for the door bell chime and transformer to be moved to another wall, since they were located where I was going to hang a painting. I asked for some of the recessed lights to be moved around. Those were granted. I asked for one of the electric outlets in the owners bath to be moved. It ends up that it can't be because of the mirror. I can respect that. However, the requests for a flexible conduit run for the FiOS transformer/battery back up wire and the interior wall insulation requests were denied, as Guardian and Ryan do not offer these as "options". I offered to do the work myself. I was told that was not permitted. However, I have been reading blogs about others who have built homes with Ryan and their requests were granted either by the project manager getting it done, people paying the sub contractors out of pocket directly, or doing the work themselves. I do have respect for the project manager staying on point, however reading that others were able to be worked with in accommodating some specialized requests does not set right. Granted, I have a couple of non standards that are installed in my home (the deck level hose bib being the main one), along with extra bracing and framing in some key locations. But many others have been able to push the envelope much further. A family member that had a home built by Ryan last year even was able to "bypass" Guardian and run their own surround sound wiring, because they could do it better and cheaper. Their project manager knew about it ahead of time and did not explicitly "bless" it being done, but a blind eye was given to it happening. I paid Guardian to run mine. I would have preferred to have run my own 12 gauge in wall speaker wire as opposed to the 16 gauge in wall speaker wire that Guardian installed my home. But in order for it to be done, I went the honest route and worked with what Guardian offered and paid the price of admission. If I had tried to bypass Guardian, I would have been left in the cold. They offered the option, I paid for it. I can understand not offering the option to insulate between interior walls, or run flexible conduit, but if it is not being offered, why is there a problem with this? If I want these things, they must be done after construction, with a substantially higher cost AND opening up the drywall in the home.

Beyond that rant, I will say, homes are not being built the same way as they were ten years ago. One source of information about energy efficient building is here. All of the features mentioned in that article are present in my home. The whole home fan system is something fascinating. It sucks the air out every 15-20 minutes to make sure any exterior doors are closed tighter. Spray foam insulation is applied liberally though out the framing, and the fireproof (pink) type is sprayed around where wires come out of any electrical boxes. Air leakage is now considered a major thing. Sixty years ago when my dad was a journeyman working on new houses, there was an expectation that homes should have some air loss. Now, the goal is none. I was also present for the testing of the ductwork. To meet Energy Star 3.0 standards, a total duct leakage shall be ≤ 6 CFM25 per 100 square feet of conditioned floor area. Ryan Homes target is 2.5 CFM25, my home was 3.4 CFM25. While I was higher than target, my house was well within standards. My current house does not even have tape around the duct seams, my new home has mastic cement around every joint. These are things that do make a difference in heat/ac bills, and something to pay attention to. I was very glad that I was present for the testing so I know my duct work was done right from the start.

As far as the incident on Friday. My real estate agent and my sales representative are both aware of it and are going to take the appropriate steps. I am staying silent as long as it is addressed.

Here are some recent indoor pictures.

Wall where my big screen TV will go.

Owner's bedroom and bath wall.

Owner's bedroom looking towards the stairs.

And here are some recent exterior pictures.

I am very happy with the exterior brick details. I wish I did not have to have fake shutters on the brick.

I have asked for the dormer windows to be closed. I have not checked in the past day or two to see if they have been.

I think I have the best elevation on the row.

Not a happy camper.

Everything with the actual construction of the house is going fine. I have my pre-drywall meeting on Monday morning. However, I am not going to go into details, but my real estate agent is trying to address an "incident" that happened over the past few days.

Guardian, Electricians and Sprinklers

Over the past few days, there has been substantial progress on my home.

I met with Guardian on Monday morning (02/17/2014). They wanted to meet in the afternoon but I explained that I work midnight shift and the rep told me he would make a point to have an early appointment with me, before his meeting, and then the appointments with the other people in my row. I moved my phone jack and future charge and play locations within the kitchen from between the fridge and stove (tight fit) to above the dishwasher.

I noticed on Tuesday morning (02/18/2014) when I went to the house the electricians started to locate boxes within the house.

I went by the house later in the day on Tuesday, the electricians were finishing up their work for the day and asked me a question about where to put the fifth recess light in the recreation room, I have a fan box where there normally would be a recess light.  I also saw that the sprinkler system technicians had put in their system today (they were not there at 7:15 AM nor at 2:30 PM, so they got that system in quickly)

Tomorrow the electricians are going to be finishing up, and Guardian is scheduled to come in and do their wiring. The bricklayers are starting the brick front of my house.

I am scheduled for my pre-drywall meeting for Monday. I guess this will be purchasing some insulation for some strategic locations (between Bedroom 2 / Bedroom 3, around the half baths, around the washer/dryer closet, around waste pipes) to cut down on unwanted noises around the house. I hope they give until Wednesday (when I am off work) to get this done.

I do plan on posting some new pictures, but have been kind of quiet on this point.

Have a good one everyone.

This weeks wild weather.

Since I last posted, the plumbing trades and HVAC trades have finished their work at this stage, though I noticed one issue that is going to have to be brought up at the walkthrough, unless I catch my project manager head of that. I had put in a request to have a hose bib at deck level. It was located next to the patio door. I don't think it will be a big deal to have one run at this point.

On Monday morning I am going to be meeting with Guardian to finalize the rough in locations for my multitude of wiring I paid for. I also know the electrician is going to be starting my house either Monday afternoon or on Tuesday morning. I do have some concerns about them getting the spacing right for my ceiling lighting in the living room and recreation room, otherwise everything is pretty standard, except for adding a few dedicated circuits and electrical outlets.

The masonry trades were starting to the brick on the end unit of my row. However, it was slow progress for them due to the amount of snow. Hopefully with the warmer weather this coming week, we will start to see the outside of the home really shape up.

Lennox MPD40 Fireplace.

Gas line runs straight front to back, then over for the fireplace. Good to know if I want to make my grill natural gas.

Tonight's update

Earlier today (02/10/2014) I went by the house twice, once after work, and once around 5:00 PM. The trades were starting to install the plumbing and had installed the HVAC equipment. I also got a chance to talk to my sales rep, and the issues with the specs sheet are in the process of being addressed (they were working off an old copy at the site). He is e-mailing the project manager to make sure they do not put almond bathroom fixtures. He also told me that he got a call from the project manager about the bronze hinges and door knobs. The electrical issues are just due to the old build sheet, he showed me the most current copy, and everything was correct on that one. Below are pictures of today's progress. I hope that the impending major snow event does not slow us down too much.

HVAC hoses in the attic space.

More detail of the framing for the tray ceiling.

top floor HVAC in the attic space

Plumbing contractor parked in the future front yard.

I now have shingles (not the disease)

This morning on my way home from work, I stopped by the house. I now have shingles on the roof(s)

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Now with the shingles installed, I am hoping they have a only a few more minor things before the mechanical technicians can start really rocking and rolling to get things roughed in for drywall.

I also am starting to enjoy the view out my living room window too. 

Other than the single family home to the left, it's just a view of woods. Which will fill in nicely when there are leaves on the trees.

I am also glad my real estate agent talked me into getting the tray ceiling option. I think it will make the owners suite more interesting than a standard flat ceiling.

This can't be added later.

I did notice a couple concerns on my spec sheet for the house though, I plan on discussing this with the project manager, especially since these "issues" were brought up to my sales person. I wanted to have white tubs, toilets and vanity tops. They are still coded on the list as almond. Secondly, my light fixtures and knobs and hinges are still coded as brushed nickel. (My change order paperwork shows I had changed everything to oil rubbed bronze, except for the kitchen faucet and kitchen cabinet hardware) Third, my recess lights for the living room were not listed on there (I have my change order paperwork showing six (correction, five :-( ) extra were purchased, along with the two extras for the bedroom and the two over top the fireplace 

(the two for the bedroom and fireplace were on the master spec sheet) ) Otherwise everything was spot on. I will talk to my project manager on Monday to make sure that those things are addressed before the heavy trades get going inside at full blast.

Everyone, have a great weekend.