We've Closed!!!

Closing was not as smooth as we anticipated, but hey all that matters is we are proud homeowners. I  promise I will come back and share our closing stress sometime soon, just give me a week or two. Shortly after closing we dropped the paint off at the house, because the painters were coming that night to get started, and should be finished by sometime this evening. We went by this morning to get a sneak peek and it looks so damn good already! Our movers are scheduled for the 30th, but were going to start moving in the items we've purchased this weekend. Home Depot installs the blinds on Monday so after that we will start moving in our larger/ more expensive items.

I am such a bad blogger and didn't realize until we were at home last night- I forgot to take photos for the inside of the home, or them handing us our keys.

Here's one of us shortly after closing in front of our home.

The Alexander's

4 Days until closing!

Thursday we went by the house and the landscaping was complete as promised. I became pretty pissed after opening the kitchen cabinet under the sink and seeing a large hole in our cabinet floor. I also noticed that there were numerous, possibly little things, that have not been started let alone was there anyone there doing anything. I guess nobody else got the memo that we are supposed to close in less than a week.  As Hubby and I continued to walk around we saw that the dual thermostats had not been installed on either floor, nor had the breakers been completely repaired. What the hell?

After a frantic call to our PM he assured me that none of this would prevent us from closing on time and would all be resolved by Monday. He also scheduled our Pre-Settlement meeting for Monday at 10. We are both so excited!

Hubby drove by the house last night after work to get a picture of it all lit up.

 

Wish us luck on Monday and that there are no major findings. We're so ready to get out of this apartment and be in our home. 

Until Next Time,

-The Alexander's

Our House is 90% Complete!

Today marks Day 100/ Week 15 of our process, and so much has happened since our last post. This past Saturday the bottom half of the driveway was poured. Sunday there was no change. We were disappointed and thought nothing would happen being that the following day was Veterans Day so we assumed not much would change.

Yesterday (Day 99), the tile guys were back adding grout to the back splash that morning. We didn't want to be in the way so we decided to come back later that evening. We were both shocked to come back and see lots of carpenters and painters cutting up trim for the interior and adding finishing touches to the exterior as well. We didn't get out due to all of the men still working but we did notice the other 1/2 of the driveway was present.YAY! When I got home I then became convinced that they mistakenly painted the shutters the wrong color and the trim was not dark enough. Let's just say I was "straight tripping".

Can you see the ugly colored shutters?

Day 100- First thing we noticed was our perfectly color coordinated house in all the colors we remember picking! I am so happy I didn't send an email to the PM last night about the color anxiety I was having. He definitely would have thought I was crazy.  Once we got to the front door we noticed the house had electricity and had the permanent lock. I take it we will have to start visiting during business hours only for the next 7 days. When we walked in all doors had handles and door stops on majority of the doors. Wall dings were taped to be corrected and a bob cat was outside getting ready to start the grading. All missing baseboards were added, and did I mention we had electricity? That was of course until I blew the fuse by trying to test the garbage disposal. I was positive I broke the house before we even owned it, but the PM ensured us that 2 of the breakers were acting wonky so the Electrician would be back out to repair it. He also informed us that evening they would be finishing grading on the property and tomorrow landscaping would be done. Hubby already had a conversation with the PM in regards to picking the location of the trees so we came back later this evening after grading was complete and hubby placed stakes in the yard.  On our way out we saw that whoever did the grading damaged and cracked the driveway on the edge. It has been pretty cold for Texas the past 2 days so the upper half of the driveway is not completely dry. It looks like the person drove on it or hit it while doing the grading or both.

Isn't she lovely?

 Pardon the screens do not belong in the kitchen, or the fact that the outlet covers have not been added  but it still looks gorgeous!

 Did you notice the missing cabinet is now installed?

 Me enjoying Standing on the back patio. Go Longhorns!!!

Our cracked driveway :(

 I think that our PM saw the cracked driveway, because the 'Do Not Park' block was added later that evening when we returned.

 Hubby and I made a pact that we will not go back in the house until our orientation, however we will drive by and see the landscaping progress tomorrow. :)

I can't believe that in 8 days, this home will be ours. Ahhhh!

Until next time,
-The Alexander's

More of Week 12

Day 79- All of the painting began on the walls, doors, baseboards, and shelves.

Day 80- During today's visit hubby saw the painters inside, and asked them if they do any side jobs for extra cash on their off days. Much to our surprise they said all the time and said they would do our job fora little less than $700. I was ready to go ahead and just cancel the following estimate, but hubby suggested we still follow through with the final estimate. As we were leaving we ran into our PM, and he informed us that the tile work on our tubs should be happening this Friday,  someone would be coming out to do some preliminary cleaning, and that the missing cabinet was on back order- but should be in soon.


Day 81- We went by to get our final paint estimate and the painters were in there adding glossy paint to all of the "wet" areas and baseboards. Of course hubby mentioned something about the back fence that I didn't see while we were there, so I just had to go back to see it later that evening. When we got there that evening, we immediately noticed that they set up plastic over the exterior to all windows and the back door. To me that means they are getting ready to paint all of the siding. Woohoo!!! The back fence did go up and they added some dirt in the back to level out the land some more.

Almost Homeowners

Prior to walking into work today, I received a call (followed by an email) from our SR, where he informed me that we are closing date has officially been moved up to Wednesday, November 20th! It took all of me not to scream. That means 1 month from tomorrow I will be closing on the home that we have been building for what seems like forever. Ahhhhhhh. I am so excited, I can barely concentrate as I sit here writing this at work.

Week 11

10/14/13 Day 71 

Stopped by the house and saw all of the guys working hard to finish out all of the drywall. One of the guys informed me that's. Different crew would be by to do the mudding on the drywall.  It must have been close to 10:30am and they were all in the garage finishing up. 

Day 72

We made an agreement that we would not visit the house until Thursday, since we assumed that it wouldn't change much between now and then. Well 8 hours into my 12 hour workday I had a change of heart. I called up hubby and asked if he could stop by and see if anything has changed on his way home. Being the awesome man that he is- he agreed! An hour later I received an email titled" Time for the Brick". Despite the title, nothing could have prepared me for this:

He didn't go in since the guys were still working, but if you look close enough you can see that the mudding in the garage has been done.

For the past 2 weeks we've received numerous e-mails from our loan officer with different interest rates. After much thought, we decided to lock in our interest rate. Unfortunately it is not as great as rates were when we first started this process, but hey what can you do?

Day 73

Initially, we made an agreement to not go back to visit the house, but yeah I broke down and did it after attempting to get an oil change. It was so rainy and muddy, but I was determined once again to get an up close view of our brick as well as see the inside.  I really love how the brick is coming together, but feel like it's a shade darker then what we initially thought it would be. 

I have no clue what the trailer is there for, because they definitely were not at our house.

My in the car photos weren't cutting it, so I got out to get a better view of the brick. 

After seeing the brick, I woke up with a little anxiety and felt the need to start scheduling estimates for painters, measurements for blinds, and quotes for movers. We went out to Home Depot and scheduled for them to come out and measure the morning of October 30th.We have 2 estimates scheduled- one this Saturday and the other October 24th. I haven't gotten an estimate for any movers just yet, but trust and believe that is on my to do list for before I go back to work on Friday. 

 I am going to try to put together a post of our house buys so far, if not this week maybe next week.

Until next time,

-The Alexander's

Week 10

This has been one of our slower weeks, where not much has happened, but we know this is in preparation for our upcoming drywall.

Day 64 (10.07.10)- We had our pre-drywall meeting with our P, Travis, where we went over all of our specs and confirmed that everything was in the right place. We had no major issues, with the exception of our plumbing in Bath 2 still not being changed. He re-assured us that it would be fixed before the end of this week, being that drywall is supposed to start on Friday. Our PM realized that we were missing an outlet needed for all of our guardian goodies that are in a box in the master closet so he is going to have the electrician back out to add that along with an outlet for TV wall mount in our bedroom. We came armed with plenty of Sharpie's so that when it was over we could add our prayers/blessings onto the studs of our home. Shout out to Stacey over at Savoy-r-ing The Moment for the great idea. Later that evening all of the insulation had been added along with the rounded corners for the entryway to the den.

Day 65-  Nothing happened

Day 66- Deadwood was added- so that the TV can safely be mounted to the wall.City and private inspector came out for insulation inspection, and it passed. Hopefully they will start drywall tomorrow, and the masonry's will be beginning our brick early next week.

  

 

Right next to the front door

Entryway wall

   

The low wall bar in the kitchen 

Psalm 23. A family favorite added to the dinning room

We added an "In Memory " stud 

Rounded corners for our den/office

It already feels a little toasty with all this insulation

Living Room wall mount and conduit

Master bedroom mount and conduit. PM is going to have someone add more supports to the bottom since the gaps are currently to large.

The best of it all is that our closing date has been set for November 25th!!!! Our PM states that next week they may change this to a week earlier, because he thinks our home will be complete by this time next month. I don't want to get emotionally attached to the thought of closing early until we know for sure, but the 25th sounds great.

Until next time,
- The Alexander's