Monday, December 3, 2012

In good trim

Lots of stuff going on!  Which is appropriate, since we're two weeks and a day from closing!  Yikes.  I went over last Wednesday and the place was echoingly vacant...must have been lunchtime.  Either that or they were waiting for paint to dry, because they'd obviously been at work with the paint.  All the windows were covered and the floor was less wood-colored than it used to be.  I took pictures but they're pretty boring.  The only thing notable is that houses look really weird without baseboards and doorway moldings.  :)

Friday I stopped by and they were installing cabinets.  This time I didn't go inside (I don't like to get in anyone's way) but I looked through windows and saw the cabinets.  Plenty of hammering going on, too.  So since we knew that there'd be something to see we popped back in on Saturday afternoon.  Two thirds of the cabinets are in, looks like pretty much all the trim is installed, and all but one basement door installed.  I debated climbing in the dumpster but the thing is much taller than me and my husband would NOT have helped me.  There's a history of falling off ladders in my family so I guess he has a point.  ;)

I wanted to point out, too...you can see in many of these pictures that our paint is NOT white.  It's not exactly beige, either, but it is very clearly NOT white.  Which means it'll be a little more bearable to not paint the whole house immediately.

On to pictures!

Spot 1

Spot 3

I can't get a good picture of the siding color to save my life.
I'll have to try again when it's overcast, I guess.

Garage goodies #1 (the extra pipe mentioned here is for the tankless water heater,
which will be just to the right of those electrical panels) 

Garage goodies #2

I guess this answers why we're still missing a couple shutters?

Sinks for the boys' bathroom

Porch columns!  I think.

Cool little shelf in the back of the garage...I'm going to ask them if they can leave it there.

We have some cabinets!

They left the blueprints with this on top...not sure if we're missing a
page or what, 'cause it doesn't look like what we have!

Our missing cabinet goes HERE, according to the writing on the wall.

Crumb catcher!

Evening light in the morning room.  This house has made me truly realize
the different arcs the sun takes at different times of year!

The capped stair wall in the Rome

Door into master bath

Boys' bathroom, waiting on those sinks

So the laundry room.  Sigh.  We made a non-standard request to have the door be centered on the room, so that we could have cabinets on the wall opposite the washer/dryer.  The blueprints have the door placed all the way at the end (the hallway end, not that it could actually BE at the other end because of the bedroom).  The blueprints therefore had the washer and dryer at the other end, next to the bedroom.  Perfectly logical, I guess, but an egregious misappropriation of space.  Hence the non-standard.  Well, the framers centered it on the WALL, rather than on the ROOM.  Which might not have mattered...except that the PM had them put the washer/dryer on the hallway end rather than the bedroom end.  Long story shorter, this lovely door, so painstakingly framed, drywalled, trimmed, and hung, will not even open two inches once the washer and dryer go in, because that section of wall is about a foot too shallow to hold the appliances.  And we all knew that back when it was just framing, and easily fixed.  Sigh.  The PM says it will be fixed this week, before they do the carpet in here.
The laundry room door of ineptitude

Basement powder room.  Pretty standard, but can't think of anyone else who got it so here's a pic.

A little birdy told me there's a water meter here.

Why so there is!


So here's another conundrum that I discovered while processing my pictures...the living room window.  Does that seem rather low to you?

Living room window
The upper end seems to be the right height, and it's clearly a different window than the one in this model pic (not one of mine, because my models all have a couch in front of that window)...so I'm thinking it's a taller window.  But why?  Is it because we're getting the porch?  It looks fine from the outside, but inside it looks a little funky.  And makes me wonder if I'll have small children barreling through it if I don't put a couch in front!
Model in Bristow (from Nadase's blog)

In other news, I talked to the PM today and got the timeline.  This week will be tile in the bathrooms, then plumbing fixtures and HVAC fixtures.  Possibly the porch will be poured this week too, if all goes well, which is good because I want to get a family picture in front of our house to put in the Christmas cards (I told the PM that, he said they would keep that in mind).  Next week will be all the flooring, I'm guessing electrical fixtures too (don't think he specified, and I didn't think to ask), and the week of close will be finishing touches.  Here's what I see that needs to be done:
Fix laundry room door
Bathroom tile
Flooring everywhere else
Finish cabinets, install counters (they haven't made an appearance yet)
Plumbing fixtures
Electrical fixtures
Pour porch
Finish exterior trim - porch columns, and railings if we're getting them (I haven't thought to ask), and the little things above the windows, and the remaining shutters
Put down asphalt driveway
Final grading of lot
Landscaping
Finishing touches

That's a lot to get done!  I hope they can do it

22 comments:

  1. We were told that we will get two-toned paint... white trim with an "oatmeal" kind of color in the walls. That will definitely make it easier to hold off on painting!

    That sucks about the laundry room door. You'd think they'd want to fix something like that as soon as it was pointed out.

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  2. Amanda, I studied those windows on elevation e and fell in love with them because they are larger but never saw them from the inside since that elevation isn't offered in this area. The model photo you have from my blog is elevation C. I would check with the PM and look over the blueprints together to see the plan location for the windows because there is a good chance he can move them up since they have to fix the laundry door.

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    1. BTW-which room is the 15 lite door being installed on? I was told that the 15 lite door is standard with the study on the Rome. Did it come standard or was it a custom request or standard? It did not show up with the door order and they refuse to order the door even though our SR told us it was a standard. #pissed

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    2. Hey Nadase! The 15 panel door was a non standard request in our home but the SR mentioned that in some neighborhoods this is a standard. I can't remember who it was but someone did mention that it was standard in their home.

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    3. I don't think we get one...I don't think any of the doors in the garage are single doors, if that's what prompted the question. And I didn't go over and look in the study so I don't know what was installed. But I actually would rather have a standard door, so if we get the 15 door I'll meet you halfway and switch! ;)

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    4. @ Abby, thanks for the response. If I had not been misguided I would have had the doors installed as a non standard request. I want a total of three and again, was told that it was standard in our Rome so I did not request them. #stillpissed

      @Amanda, I told you we have family in Richmond, don't get me started. The question was prompted from the photo with your porch columns. It looks like it's a single door, I guess it's a double patio door.

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  3. Thank you for the pics! We are in framing mode now so I will definitely have to follow up on the laundry room since we asked for the door to be centered on the ROOM as well. As for the window- I too have not seen it without a couch in front of it. The model in your neighborhood is a different elevation E. I will have to double check the one in Harpers- darn couch! I can't tell from my pics. Not sure though why if anything can be done to raise it as it the top seems pretty level with the bottom of the porch awning. PM is definitely getting a call today!

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    1. The laundry room wouldn't have been a big deal if the W/D had been at the other end. I would have been able to put shallow cabinets back there and that's fine. But since they put all the pipes and ducts over there, they really don't have any choice in the matter. It's a little irksome too from the fact that if I'd known they would put the W/D there, I wouldn't have had to make the request!

      The model in my neighborhood is a D, the one near you is an L, most of the other blogs are A/B/C etc...I haven't ever seen an E from inside. I need to talk to Rachel & Tommy and see what they got, they're the only finished E that I know about!

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    2. We closed on our E last Thursday. You LR windows are like ours. I don't have small children but I plan on keeping the windows locked. Since I don't have window treatments yet, I had to put up my tree to help with the privacy. BTW 2 weeks comes around fast :)

      DK

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    3. Good to know, thanks! I looked at the blueprints I have, too, and that's definitely the way it's supposed to be. Haven't decided yet whether I'm going to care. :)

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    4. Congratulations, DK on our closing!

      Amanda, girl it's getting close--are you ready???

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  4. Is that a crack in the boys bathroom sink? If it is I hope it doesn't hold up installation for you guys! Two weeks is just so close, Id be bouncing off the walls with excitement!!!

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    1. Oh my goodness!! I didn't even notice that, how embarassing! Maybe that's why it hasn't been installed yet? I don't know if they installed the master sinks or not, come to think of it...

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    2. Too funny, Amanda! I saw the crack but thought it was addressed since you did not mention it.

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  5. If you have pets, they'll love having those windows so close to the floor. I have a dining room in the front of my house, and my dogs can watch the front street all day while sitting on the floor instead of jumping up and scratching the window sills!

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    1. We have a cat...and while I'm sure we'll appreciate not having claw marks on the wall from his inelegant attempts to reach the windowsill, even the regular height would probably have been easy enough for him. :) I can definitely see where a dog would love it, though!

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    2. That's right, Esquire-Ran, some of these things we don't think about. We have a floor to ceiling window in our current dining room and my husband keeps the blinds up just enough for Harley to watch the squirrels and kids playing on the playground and somethings he sleeps there too. Animals love window watching. lol

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  6. Amazing how some options have changed in the year since we had our Rome built. I wish we had an elevation E option with a full porch. We will probably add it later on cause I have always dreamed of having a front porch. I see that your mud room does not have a closet - did you all ask to have it removed, or did they change the plans? We had ours removed to put in a bench and cubbies, but I also see that your door to the garage is closer to that wall than our is.

    I agree that it looks like a huge crack in the boys' sink. I'm sure they can swap it out pretty quickly (probably steal from another site for now).

    Getting so close now! Good luck.

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    1. We asked for the closet to be removed, for the same reason you did. I got the idea from WodyJ. Have you put in your bench and cubbies yet? I'd love to see them! Didn't know our door was different, but that may be because we're a side-entry garage?

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  7. Sorry about your laundry! It shouldn't be that hard to do because they already have blueprints: that laundry config comes standard with a crawl space, but on special orders sometimes they don't seem to connect to what they already have. I think they designed our porch from scratch even though it should have been identical to the porch from Elevation E (as far as I know).

    I did just do a post on paint colors http://dreamrome.blogspot.com/2012/12/paint-colors.html

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    1. They certainly didn't have any trouble framing in our living room doorway for french doors down the road, so I'm perplexed by the laundry room issue. Off to read your post! :)

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    2. Julie,

      Our elevation C was kept to its original design and they just extended the porch (from scratch). I was told they just created a hand drawing for the porch to be added. I would have preferred to have the columns that Amanda has with her elevation E.

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