Basement and Lumber Pack!

We have a basement!! It was nice to see some action when we stopped by our
lot on Friday - a full basement AND 3 HUGE lumber packs (and windows, shingles, etc.)
Our PM, Ryan, said that they started the underground plumbing on Friday and will continue 
that on Monday and the framers will start on Wednesday. He also said we are still on 
schedule for a pre-drywall meeting the week of the 22nd. It finally feels like we are
moving fast - about 60 days until close give or take a week!! They also dug the 
hole for the neighbors so we were able to see how close they are to us, it is not
as bad as we thought it might be. It seems like in Pittsburgh they jam as many
houses as possible in the neighborhood. Here are a few pics of the basement and the
Large loads of lumber and brand new windows! Hopefully next week's update shows
a fully framed house!!

Forms!

The forms are finally up! The every-other-day Spring rain the past two weeks is really starting to make me worry (along with a tip from a neighbor that Ryan is down some crew members) about our close date. Everyone keeps saying that once they start moving it goes really fast - well, let's start moving then please! Here are a few pictures from Friday's visit to the money pit: 

Footers!

With each passing day that our lot sat there without any action I worried that
we would not be moved in before school started. Imagine our surprise when we
drove by the neighborhood at 5 pm today (a Friday night!!) and there was a team 
of guys still working! The footers are in! They told us that early next week our walls would be poured and after 3 days the forms would come off.

Progress!

We drove past our lot on Saturday and we were pleasantly surprised with this 
huge hole!! Our PM said footers would go in this week - hopefully we will make up 
for all the rain last week because we are on a SUPER tight schedule to close before
school starts. Here are some pictures (does anyone know why they put a tarp down
where the driveway goes?):

Starting Tomorrow!

Our PM, Ryan, sent us a text that they will be excavating tomorrow! I will 
drive there on my lunch hour to see if I can catch some action! After 2 months
of nothing but paperwork and stress - I want to see some action!!

Ready to Dig!

We had our pre-construction meeting today! Our lot has the equipment on it to start digging 
and they should begin early next week. They told us all about the house, the selections, 
the schedule for building, plotted the house out on the blueprints AND took us to the
lot to see all the stakes. The house, property line, garage (we have a side garage), 
morning room, driveway, etc. were all staked out for us to see. It is much easier to visualize 
it now that the mounds of snow and ice are gone! We had them move the thermostat, outlet,
exhaust fan in the bathroom and a few other minor things. I have to say we are disappointed  that the backyard is smaller than when we measured with our Sales Rep, but our front yard is big because of the side garage and we have a corner lot so we have a decent side yard. The bonus is that "street" they paved next to us that they are not expanding the neighborhood into, the boys can ride bikes there, play basketball, etc. So.....fingers crossed for good weather next week. 

Our PM, Ryan, said that our lumber pack will arrive June 5. We are going to be REALLY
close to making it into the house before school starts...he said once the roof is on they 
will work as hard as they can to get us in. Here is a picture of the house plotted on the lot -
no other good photo ops today! 

Pre-construction Meeting (FINALLY)!

We got word yesterday that our meeting will take place May 7th. 
Close date is supposed to be Aug 11th - nothing like waiting until 
the last minute!!! We need to be in before the kids start school on
August 17th!

Another Model Home!

We went to see a Ravenna model home in Greensburg, PA today and we were 
surprised when we pulled up and saw elevation M!! We were told it was older
and the model in Mars, PA would be the nicer of the two! We have never seen 
a cottage elevation in person, it's exciting to see exactly what it will look like. 
I took almost 100 pictures!

Yesterday we went to finish up some last minute paperwork at our neighborhood
model. While we were there we met our new next door neighbors and gave them
fair warning that we have 3 boys and 2 dogs! Our sales rep said our pre-construction 
meeting will need to take please "really soon" as our close date is August 11 and we 
can't push it any further because school starts on August 17th! As we were leaving
he handed us copies of everything and said " I can't wait for your house to get started
so that I can start hearing crap from every neighbor and prospective neighbor about
your side garage". HA!

SOLD sign!

We visited our lot today and since the snow is (FINALLY) gone we decided to get a new 
photo of the sold sign with the whole family. We can easily see where each lot begins and ends now too - it is spray painted on the black top. You can tell by the look on our faces that it was very sunny!

Selections

Photos of the exterior selections:

Pictures of the interior selections:

Kids bathroom and upstairs carpet

Kitchen granite

We chose the left side hardwood - kitchen cabinets and family room carpet

Our Cottage Ravenna in PA

Ravenna Model M - Side Garage

After looking at too many houses and new construction options we have finally decided

on the Ryan Homes Ravenna. We selected our lot on March 8th, picked out all of our options and signed the contract on March 15th and we are scheduled to close on August 11th. 

We have never actually seen the elevation M or the side garage in person so we are

basing our decision off of photos. We have been to a Ravenna model about

an hour away from our new neighborhood, but it's an elevation C.

Our exterior colors will be very similar to this Ravenna - just with a side garage

Here is a video of the model home:

Ravenna Model Home Video


This model did not have the loft (a.k.a TOY ROOM) that we added.