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!!
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:
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.
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?):
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!!
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!
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!
