Monday, August 31, 2015

Getting under roof

It was a very busy weekend for the two of us.  We have been devoting all of our attention to the house transition since May.  This weekend we had maintenance of items in our lives we have been neglecting……our cars.  Our cars needed tons of work.  The Jeep needed new tires and the Nissan needed new brakes, rotors, and calipers.  It made for a stressful weekend.

Most of our weekends are stressful because we are always working on things to help sell our house.  This weekend we had an open house.  I’d like to share the experience of the open house and what I have learned in the process of selling and moving to Ryan Homes.

1)      Agents in general don’t think open houses are worth it.  My agent refused to tell me why she won’t sit or organize an open house for my property.  She basically notes that an open house is for agents looking for buyers. 
2)      This is the 2nd open house that we, the owners, actually put out the Coldwell Banker signs, put out cookies, and hosted buyers.
3)      I found open houses trigger extra advertising.  Coldwell banker would do an ad in the local paper, and all the major home sites such as Zillow and Realtor.com note it.  It’s really cool that Zillow sends an email to those who saved the house as a favorite about an open house.  Open houses seem like a good thing from the extra advertising.
4)      I also noticed that weeks where I have an open house, there is less traffic of special showings.  I think some buyers’ agents save time by sending their clients to open houses.
5)      I have spoken to a few friends/associates who have sold their houses via an open house.  This is contrary of what Realtors post online and my agent even told me.
6)      I noticed that if your schedule to show the house doesn’t work for a realtor and their client, they normally just write the house off.  I had roughly 4 people ask for showings at 10am which is impossible for us since we work and have dogs.  I offered lunch time showings, evenings, and weekends but never heard back from them.  I think an open house makes your house more available and worth the time.
7)      We seemed to average 8 groups per open house.
8)      The scorecard for our house is that 1 lowball offer came from a private showing, I was told last night that someone at my open house is working on an offer for today, and the last open house an agent stopped in and she brought her clients through twice and they are considering it also.  It looks like the open house strategy will pay off for us.

Enough of the home selling drama and now to the Landon.  We stopped up Saturday to find the remaining big framing items completed.  The trusses on the garage were finished, all the plywood was laid on the roof, and they installed the porch roof.  I didn’t notice any internal work or fixes.  I think their goal was to get the house under roof as fast as possible.

My PM called me Friday to respond to me emails.  He noted that the framer will go back and fix various damage items.  In many cases it’s installing a new board, butting another board up to add structural strength, or fill the gap with spray insulation.    Our call went really well.  The PM noted the roofers should be shingling today and if they can get the roof finished, the inside stuff can start.  He also set the pre-drywall meeting date for 2 weeks.  He said we might make a closing by the end of October but it depended on the weather.  Rain today or tomorrow will push back the rough in until next week and high humidity will push back drywall. 

While we lost nearly 2 weeks waiting for framers, everything seems to be coming together.  If the house sells this week, the final remaining hurdle will be nailed down. 

Here is the updated photos



View of our Landon from our Neighbors's Morning Room


We found a crack in our concrete


Gap in the top of the roof for the ridge cap vent


Truss wall that separates the attic space of the master bedroom and the rest of the house


The 2nd floor (Laundry Room)




Friday, August 28, 2015

Rasing the Roof

Last night we stopped and they made lots of headway on the roof.  All the house trusses were up and one side was covered in plywood. The garage roof was half way on.  We still do not have any windows, but I'm ok with that as the roof take precedent to keep our rain.  Today is another dry day so I expect the roof will be installed today.  I can't wait to see it tomorrow.

The rates has stabilized and back up.  I'm pretty frustrated that NVR delayed me in locking in a rate with them.  They quoted me a lower rate delayed my lock in because they didn't have a closing date on my house, by the time they got the closing date, the rate went back up.  I'm now bank to watching the rates with other banks and suspicious of NVR.

I emailed my PM Wednesday morning over all the gaps between panels used to build our Landon.  As of the time of this post, I still haven't heard back from them.  This sucks because I see other bloggers with PMs who seem to talk to them daily.  I was hoping the new PM was more responsive but this seems common between Ryan Homes and NVR.......lack of a timely response.

We showed the Landon to some family and their comment was "wow, it's so big"  We forgot how big the Landon is since they shut down the model in the area.  We already got volunteers to host thanksgiving this year.

No change in our house sale.  One couple seems on the fence with our house.  Their hangup in the basement bathroom because it's outdated in style, but still very functional.  They are looking at a smaller more updated house further away.  I pitched the idea if they buy it, I'd remodel the bathroom for them and include it in the asking price.  No word yet.

Now on to some pictures:



Found more damaged product


The Garage Attic is huge



I found one of our framing 2x4 cracked in half


Thursday, August 27, 2015

Let's wrap it up

Last's night visit was pretty cool.  The 2nd floor walls were installed.  The external and internal walls all were installed and I was able to walk around.  It reminded me how big this house will be compared to our existing home.

When I arrived, the HVAC guy was there.  He noted he likes to walk through a house a week before his crew comes in.  He told me we were scheduled for HVAC on Wednesday.  He said our neighbor's house will be ready since they have their trusses up, and we might be close.  He said if the weather stays nice they should be able to have the roof on and he can install.  Considering they have 4 business days to put the trusses on and the decking......seems doable.

I noticed a few odd things last night.  1) Two installed joists were removed and a temporary 2x4 structure put into place.  It was odd because they cut them out and left the joist hangers on the beams.  The HVAC guy noted sometimes they do this to replace a bad joist damaged in production/shipping/installation.  2) We have some more serious gaps between the wall sections.  The corner in the master bedroom has a crack and it looks like their staples didn't even hit the 2x4 corner.  3) The walk in closets were requested to be made the same size in the pre-con meeting.  They are framed different sizes and will need changed.  4) There are big gaps where the morning room beam sits. 5) The put vapor barrier on the 2nd floor before the first.  I find this odd as the first floor vapor barrier should be under the 2nd floor so water cant get between the barrier and the plywood.

I have been shopping around financing.  NVR was actually looking pretty good when I compared the big picture.  they give you a credit to use them but their rate tends to be slightly higher.  Our NVR rep gave us a pretty decent rate and I emailed her to lock in the rate.  She replied that she isn't sure if we can lock in a rate yet and I assured her we could as we were on build day 45 and have 50to60 days left which is under the 90 day lock in.  NVR said they will confirm and get back to me the next day to lock in.  The next day came and I got an email from NVR letting me know I am clearing in my "lock-in" window, but the rate moved up.  The increase in the rate due to NVR inability to quickly figure out if I can lock will cost me 18,000 more in interest.  I'm not happy that our loan officer wont honor the rate I was trying to get and missed it because of their delay to find out if I can lock in.

Our house showings have really slowed down even with a reduction of the asking price by another 4k.  The couple who were considering it must have wanted more of a price reduction.  They are comparing my home to another and while it's newer and flatter, the other house is more expensive, further from stuff, smaller, doesn't have a 2nd bathroom, 2nd deck, hot tub or a finished basement.  I almost want to pitch an offer to them that if they buy at the current price and buy, I will stay after closing and remodel and update the basement bathroom which they feel needs updated to use.  (It's total bullshit as the all plumber works fine, it just looks like a 1960's tile bathroom)  We have an open house Sunday and if nothing comes from it, it looks like we will have to have another price reduction.

Some pictures to entertain you.....


Removed Joists


Missed framing the closets the same size


The corner with a huge gap in between the plywood and stud


Internal of the same corner


Weird open area over the morning room

Another gap in framing.

Piles of dirt ready to be put back


Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Stairway to Heaven

Last night I stopped and it was pretty clear they made headway.  All the joists for the 2nd floor was installed, the plywood floor was laid.  They also installed the stairway.  I was able to go to the 2nd floor and walk around.  The plywood floor while it is particle board is glued down and nailed in place.  I had friends complained about some floors not feeling solid or making sound, but ours seemed not to have any give or made any sound.

Some observations:
1) Our kitchen has another framed wall nailed to the actual wall.   It seemed odd as this wall doesn't go to the ceiling joists.  I suspect this is maybe for the kitchen cabinets, but again kind of weird.
2)There is a 1/4 inch gap in the wall between the powder room and the study.

Hopefully when I go this evening they will have the 2nd floor walls up and maybe some windows.

Now for a few pictures.









The large gap in our external wall



The inside gap in our walls showing light coming in



Tuesday, August 25, 2015

like watching pain dry.....

I took the kids up to see the Landon this evening.  From what we have seen from how fast they framed our neighbors, we figured some major headway would be made on Monday.  It looks like Monday the remaining first floor walls were put up and all of the first floor internal walls.  Our neighbor looks like nothing was done.  The wood beams spanning the openings of the first floor were installed in preparation of the 2nd floor.  We still don’t have windows in or the external vapor barrier.  It seems like the framers working on two houses at once has things moving slow……like watching paint dry.

Other news, rates have dropped and I started shopping around outside of NVR.  The difference between the base rate and the APR is really high for NVR.  It looks like even with their 7k incentive, their closing costs are much higher.  I know some banks have 0 loan origination fees.  I wonder if NVR jacks up the price just to discount it off so it looks like it’s a better deal.  From what I can see so far, the prior rate given to me was lousy, but pushing back and shopping around is getting better rates from NVR.


Here is the updated picture


You can see a hole in the plywood sheeting


Outside hole in the plywood sheeting


Corner with ripped off plywood

The I-Beam stopped short so the HVAC can go up there


Beams for the 2nd story


Weird framed in area......I suspect for the main HVAC duct work


Not sure there should be light there


The indent into the garage



Monday, August 24, 2015

Taking shape

Saturday a small group of neighbors organized a social at the big turn around on our street.  We were planing on driving up and checking out the framing headway so this was an added plus.  Our neighbors all seemed nice and many of them already seemed to have close friendships.  I couldn't help feeling out of place since we didn't have any kids, we really didn't know them, and we were not the hetero couple.  One thing I learned from my neighbors, they all had a few horror stories to talk about with Ryan Homes.

Our landon had slow progress being made.  They installed just about three sides of the walls on the first floor.  Our neighbor passed us in the progress as their house has their entire first floor framed, internal walls installed, and the outside covered in plastic.  Another neighbor just had their pre-con as we saw them on site and they already have their footer and foundation forms up.  Our house seems to be the slow one on the block.  Since we haven't sold our house the slow construction speed is a blessing.

Here are the pictures




Friday, August 21, 2015

Reboot

Its been pretty stressful with the sale of our house lately and going to the Landon has been stressful with 2 dogs during a showing and not finding anything done.  Last night we didn't have a showing, so we headed out after work and left the kids at home.  We were excited to find that the framing has started.  The house next to ours which used to be a week behind us had their framing started as well.  It looks like they are going to frame them at the same time. I haven't asked yet, but it seems like the extra week ahead of schedule we had is now gone and we might be behind schedule.  I plan to ask our project manager for a new updated time table.

The framing crew installed the I-Beams and all the first floor joists.  They also un-bundled all the lumber.  There were a few weird spots we noticed.  1) there was a gap in the wall where the I-Beam and frame on one side 2) two of the joists are difference as they look like butted up regular lumber and not compressed particle board. 3) We still have a slight indent into the garage.  It's nice they are moving along, but now we have to get our house sold.

Lastly,  We had some neighbors drive past and stopped.  They informed us that there is a mixer for our street this Saturday.  That seems really cool.  I do worry how we will be received since we are a lesbian couple without kids.  Hopefully our neighbors are modern people and see us like any other couple getting married and planning a family.

Now for the pictures.....


The indent in the garage corner


Weird gap noted where the I-Beam goes.


Can you see which Joist is different?


Here is the different joist......its doubled up.


Broken Window


The basement has a good inch of water blowing in the wind like a lake