Locked Interest Rate

Today we locked interest rate for our FHA loan @4.75%. The rate has been static for the past 2 weeks and hence decided to lock today.

Pre Drywall Pictures

Here are some pre drywall Pictures

Garage:

Foyer:
Living Room:

Library/Study Room:

Family Room:

Kitchen/Dinette:

Dining Room:

Staircase to 2nd floor:

Laundry Room:

Master BedRoom:

Blocking for Flat TV (Master Bedroom):

Closet (Master Bedroom)

Master Bathroom:

Bedroom 2:

Bedroom 3:

Bedroom 4:

Basement Staircase:

Walkout Basement:

Pre Drywall meeting

We had pre-drywall meeting today. The meeting went fine - we went through all selections (electrical/guardian) and location of the rest (windows/plubming/gas outlet) etc. There was nothing much i could find wrong with. The basement window is now in place (we now have 2 full size window in the media room).

Now comes the interesting part - in the afternoon the building inspector (whom i hired for pre-drywall inspection) went through the house. He took 2.5 hours and checked to minute details. He came up with 5 issues and 3 suggestions - one of them was a major structural issue.

Issue 1 - CRITICAL - Load points in family room dont seem to line up with blocking in the basement. There were no load bearing points in the basement that could match the load bearing points from the master bedroom on the family room. My picture does not show what i am talking about - but here is the illustration of the problem:

Once i understood the issue, i was very upset - and called the PM to come to the home site. The building inspector explained the problem to PM - PM acknowledged the issue and he blamed the blueprint for the mishap (blueprint comes from some central location). This issue was not noticed by the county inspectors who have approved the framing structure! Yikes!!!

Good that my money spent on pre-dry wall inspection was worth.

The rest of the issues were minor - draft stopping at various locations (can see light through the studs), additional metal hangers needs for blocking in the basement that were "Toenailed" - PM said he shall take care.

I shall upload the framing pics in the weekend.

Current Status:

Couple of inspections will happen tomorrow,

Wrapping, insulation next week

Drywall late next week or in 10 days

We can lock the rates now - PM said that the settlement would happen in the second week of June. Hoping the rates could come down little bit in the next one week (following this link daily for the past couple of months - his advice on when to lock the rates seem to be pretty accurate: http://www.moving.com/mortgage/mortgage-market-commentary.asp)

I still love Ryan Homes, Sales rep was awesome and the PM is doing his best. But it was unfortunate that it happened to our house - but happy that i went with a private inspection and fortunate that all ended well(so far) .

Suggestion: "BLOCKING" for flat screen TV

Today, representative from Guardian came to the site to mark the locations of our selections (Structural wiring/Flat screen rough-in/phone&TV cables).

He suggested that we could request PM to install "BLOCKING" - a piece of wood that goes across the studs - which would help flat-screen TV installation. Posting this as i am hearing this term the first time.

Google search revealed that this is more useful for cabinets. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blocking_(construction)

I called my PM - he said that blocking can be installed - i just need to let him know where the Flat screen should go.

Update:

Plumbing is half-way thru, Electrical connections in progress, bath-tubs have arrived.

Pre Drywall meeting - Your experience please

The plumbing work has started. Guardian folks will be coming in tomorrow and electrical connections will start this Friday.

Our PM called this afternoon to inform about the Pre-Drywall meeting next Wednesday. I already found a building inspector - I told PM that i will be bringing the inspector as well with me. He wanted the inspector to fax his state license info to the Ryan office. (Since i requested the inspector to do both pre-drywall and final inspection, i got 15% discount :-)

Though the inspector would check the various aspects (building codes, proper installation etc), there might be other things that we need to watch out for - as we are the one who know the selections that we made earlier. I am going through various blogs regarding the pre drywall meeting. Please share your experiences as well and let us know the list of items that i need to watch out for.

Also - we have not selected electrical outlets outside the house (Christmas light, mowing etc). Does these connections come by default or we need to specifically request them?

Framing Day 3

Framing is continuing this week.

So far:

Day 1 - Sub-flooring

Day 2 - First Floor

Day 3 - Second Floor

Here are the pics:

Taylor Model, Elevation C (with porch):

Right Side Elevation:

First floor windows (side) : Study room (2), Family room (2)

First floor front: 2-car garage (ya, you guessed right)

Second floor windows (side): Bedroom #3 (2)

Second floor windows (front): Bedroom #2 (3 - includes 1 double window), Bathroom #3 (1)

Left side Elevation:

First floor windows (side): Dining room Bay Window

First floor window (front): Living room (2) - partially visible in the below picture

Second floor window (side): Large window on the Stairs (1), Laundry room (1), Toilet - attached to Master Bathroom (1 - small), Master Bathroom (1 - other one on the rear elevation)

Second floor window (front): Bedroom#4 (3) - partially visible in the below picture

Rear Elevation:

Basement Level windows/openings: Media Room (2 - should be large windows - this is yet to be fixed), exit to backyard

First Floor windows/openings- Family room (2 - separated by fireplace), 2 ft extension double door opening (this will blocked till we build our deck), Kitchen (1)

Second Floor windows: Master Bedroom (2), Master Bathroom (1 - second one on the left elevation)

Basement Poured

We didnt realize that the basement has already been poured. Yesterday, we sneaked into the basement. Here are the pics (90 degree view stranding from the corner of the basement)

View from basement