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

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 2^nd 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

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

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

If you build it they will come...

We had another showing of our house last night so we packed up our dogs and headed up to see our Landon.  We were excited because we both believed they would have finally started to frame.  I was told framing would begin August 7th and over 10 days later nothing........our visit found no change.

Nothing new was done.

We decided to sit and eat our dinner on the garage floor.  A group was at another home site apparently doing their pre-con meeting.  The new PM was there and stopped over to introduce himself.  He told us they are having a hard time getting a framing crew as everyone is super busy.  He did arrange one for us and they will be starting Wednesday.

Looks like the Landon framing might move forward.

On the other fronts, NVR is calling me to start the loan proecss.  I'm not sure why they are pushing this since they know I have to sell my current home before we can move forward.  I'm also not happy with their rates offered.  I'd like to show the loan around just because NVR doesn't seem to be trying to get me the best deal with interest and PMI.

Lastly, our house had a 2nd showing.  I'm not sure they will be making an offer, but a bunch of new houses are hitting the market in our price point and I think the steepness of our driveway frightens people.  I'll be lowering the price again next week.  We have put so much work into this house it breaks my heart that no buyers love the private wooded back yard, the closeness to majors stores, the ability to walk to a market, the hot tub, and the new kitchen and bath.

Hopefully this week has everything more forward.

Come in Tokyo

Basically a week has past since I had a conversation with my PM who noted that framing is ready to begin and could start as early as Friday 8/7/15, but in all realty it most likely wont start until Monday 8/10/15.  On Wednesday 8/12/15, nothing really has been done.  The I-beams are still sitting on the foundation and the wood frame is still sitting in bundles.  Thursday I emailed the PM and got his auto response that he was out until 8/17/15.  My fiance emailed the sales team and the site supervisor contacted us back that the reason framing hasn't started was because the sub-contractor is delayed.  They noted they were as frustrated as we were.  Basically no framing sub-contractors are available so the Landon is at a stand still.

I do wish the lines of communication were open a little more.  It's disappointing that they knew it wasn't going to be this week and didn't reach out to update us of the delay.......specially when it conflicts with information they already provided us.

No, Nadda, Nothing

While my house was being showed last night, I decided to stop past the Landon with the dogs.  My PM said last week that framing could start as early as Friday, but he expected it to start Monday.  Well, three days later and they still haven't framed anything.  The only real change was that they installed the welled window.  The I-Beams are still sitting on the foundation walls.

The house next to our received their wood.  I suspect they waited to do our until their was a crew available and the house next to our was ready so they could come frame two at once.

I have another showing tonight, so I may drive up again to look.  Then again Sunday.

On the home front, we had a couple like our house but wanted to see a few more before placing an offer.  They didn't like the driveway and they were the first people to comment on the large amount of tree roots pushing on top of the soil.  I looked into it last night, sadly, cutting out surface roots can kill a tree.  I'm not sure how to fix that for them but carefully cut out small roots.