Basement Bathroom & 10 Month Review

Today is our  10 month review.  We had sent a small list of things to our PM of our items.  I thought it was a relatively small list.

1) Various nail pops & cracked drywall - expected
2) Some cracked caulking around the sinks and master shower - expected
3) Venting problem with microwave.  This winter our microwave has been exceptionally cold.  Like 36 degrees cold this morning.  That's refrigerator cold. The PM pointed out that the vent is on the west side of the house - since the wind blows from that direction we are fighting a losing battle. I get it.  They did do something to the damper so that hopefully its a little better.
4) Cold air coming from fireplace.  I understand this is going to happen as well. They took a quick look at it and taped some spots where cold air was  coming in, so it should be better.
5) Driveway cracks.  They'll fix this when it warms up (it's -3 degrees here today). It sounds like they should be able to just replace sections of it rather than the whole driveway, which is preferable.  We'll see how that goes.  That's really the only major thing.  

Overall I've been really pleased.  Our PM has been great.  A few weeks ago we had my son's 10th birthday party, a sleepover.  Have Mercy.  The kids were playing ping pong in the unfinished part of the basement.  Someone got a bit wild and pulled some of the insulation off the wall.  It's held on by these nailed washer things.  My husband wasn't able to find them at the hardware store.  I asked the PM where we could buy them and he brought us half a dozen. Perfect. They probably cost Ryan homes, like .10 each,  so it was nice.

The PM was also impressed with our basement bathroom.  We finished it up right before the wild sleepover so the boys sleeping in the basement would have a bathroom to use.  My  husband did it all himself and I'm so proud of him.  It turned out great.  The PM even joked about Bob becoming a professional drywaller.  Bob emphatically replied 'No!'

I'm not sure what we spent on the bathroom, my husband says he has the receipts and plans on figuring that out.  We tried to choose cost effective options.  The tile was purchased at Lowe's for $5/square.  If you've looked at tile that's a great price.  I think  the vanity was less than $120.  We had replaced the bath fixtures in the master bathroom - we didn't like the way the installed ones sat in the granite.  Husband kept bumping his hands on the back of the sink, so we purchased two that had a longer neck for his big hands.  So, we  were able to repurpose one of those.  The other one was given to my sister in law who had a leaky faucet in her bathroom.  The towel rack, tp holder, and cup were purchased on clearance for $10 for the set from KMart.  I can't remember where the wood finish tile was purchased from.  My dad is a retired electrician, so he did all the wiring for us and had a fan for us to use. My husband did the plumbing - our neighbor had previously done their basement bathroom so he had all the necessary PEX tools for us to borrow; so that cost us a 12 pack of beer.  :)

Getting Moved In

We are getting closer to being moved in.  The bedrooms and guest room are unpacked. The kitchen is unpacked, but I'm still moving stuff around. Living and dining room have new furniture.  I haven't put any pictures up throughout the house, so it doesn't feel quite complete yet.  Basically, we have the office and the 5th bedroom (studio) that haven't been unpacked at all.  The basement is even mostly put together with the exception of the stuff in the storage part of the basement.  Here's a few pictures of how things are coming.  Other pictures are on my phone, so I'll upload those in another post.

Kitchen: we haven't yet decided how to cover the sliding doors. I also would eventually like a new, coordinating table for the dinette.

The area to the left of the fridge has become my catch all. A rare clean moment here.

I haven't yet organized the pantry; but there's food in it!

Mudroom: I look forward to being able to build something to better organize coats and shoes. The closet in the mudroom is still a disaster.

Master Bedroom: complete with kitty cats.  The dresser/desk in the corner was my grandmothers. I've recently refinished it. I may post some pictures of that in progress at some point.

Master bath

Master Shower.  Not sure why my husband put the scale there. Lord knows I don't want to step on it right now.

Master closet, my half. This is remarkably cleaner than it was. I can't wait to get a better shelving system.  It's not quite working for me yet.

It's hard to believe we have our 30 day walk through scheduled for next week.  We have a large memorial day party each year, so that's been our motivation to get so much done so far. 

Lucky 13, Part 8

Lucky 13, Part 8 

Separate Master Bath 

Our current house has two full baths.  The bathroom downstairs has a standing shower only, which we never use.  We share a bathroom upstairs with the kids. In the new home we will have two upstairs baths and 4 sinks between them! We can shower in the morning without worrying about waking the kids and more than one person can brush their teeth at the same time. Our family had a case of food poisoning/stomach flu earlier this week.  I was really wishing we had the extra bathroom space now. Plus, we have a separate guest bath, so my guests won't have to use my kids bathroom. Which, I've already decided, they will have to clean themselves. (The kids, not the guests!)

Above are my current bathrooms.  What an upgrade we'll be getting!

New Tile Choice

Last night we drove up to Rite Rug to see our other tile choices.  I was less than impressed that Ryan still only allows us to chose from a small portion of tile that Rite Rug offers.  Even so far as to limit us on size, for example, one board had 4 different versions of the same tile.  A one inch square, a 5/8" square and two rectangle sizes.  However, we were only allowed to chose from two of those four sizes on that particular tile.  WTH?  We have to be extra careful with our choices because the main tile is already in, the cabinet is in and the granite counter top is installed.  This means that the tile that we pick has to match all three.  This right away removed some of our choices.  We were able to pick a tile that matched and that we are happy with, but boy, it sure would have been nice to know our first pick was unavailable before now.  

I made a quick stop back at the house before going to Rite Rug.  They have already stained the banister.  They have also installed the plumbing hardware. The tubs were filled with water to check for leaks.  And the correct brick has arrived.  

Cabinets are in!

I went by the house this week and I actually squealed when I saw the kitchen cabinets were in. 

Full picture of the kitchen

Kitchen

Wall that the fridge goes on

Banisters in, need to be stained

Guest bathroom vanity

Master bath vanity

Master shower

You can see in the master shower where there are some missing tiles. We go to Rite Rug tomorrow to look at the tile again. I asked the PM is we had to chose a 1" tall tile. He seemed confused by the question. I was afraid that since the original design was for that size tile we would have to stay with it. He said it would've be a problem. 

Garage, Stone, Trim

The PM and SR called today to give me an update on the house.  The garage slab is being poured today.  Once that is in, they should be able to get the garage doors installed.  They are running the electrical trench to hook the house up to the meter. The trim work should be mostly complete by the end of the day.  It will be painted on Wednesday. Later this week the stone mason will be there to complete the fireplace. There was a wonky duct that ran under a joist in the unfinished ceiling of the basement.  This would have made it difficult to finish the ceiling of that part of the basement later.  That has been corrected. The correct brick should be delivered tomorrow.  I am still waiting to talk to the DG about the tile for the master bedroom.  Things seem to moving along great!  We close 4 weeks from today!

Bathroom Tile on Backorder

Yesterday I received an email that the accent tile we chose for the master bathroom is on backorder and won't be available until the end of April.  They sent an email with what is supposed to be the same tile but upgraded because it's diamond shaped instead of rectangle.  

Above is the tile we chose.  

This is the tile they say is the same.  I'm sorry, but I don't think it is the same. I think this one is blue and green, whereas the one we chose is red.  Sigh.

So, I've made a call to the sales rep.  I think we need to go look at the tile to figure out what to do.  I definitely don't want another situation like we had with the brick.  

In other news, the house is completely primed and the cabinets have been delivered.  They were supposed to install some of the flooring Friday but I haven't been inside to see that yet.  Here's a few pictures from this week.  

Picture of the brick after they started taking it down.

Brick we ordered (left) and the brick they put on (right) Not very close.  

Cabinets delivered!

Cabinets and doors!

Kitchen, looking towards the Pantry.

Master bath, the shower is on the left, closet straight ahead. 

Upstairs hallway, looking towards the kids rooms, with a big closet between.  

Younger son's room.

My craft/studio

Hallway looking towards the Master bedroom. 

Pre Drywall Walkthrough

On Friday we had our Pre Drywall meeting walk through.  The PM lead us through the house explaining various things such as light switches, where things were located, how the plumbing was ran, what they do for the energy star rating, etc.  We were pleasantly surprised that almost all the insulation has been put in.  It was extremely windy and so some of the insulation and attic vent things were actually being blown out by the wind.  

Here is the Porch.

This is the back of the mudroom closet looking towards the kitchen.

This is the wall the Fridge will go on.  You can see what the wind has done to the insulation.

The stove wall; that is the vent for the microwave.

My husband being helpful, putting the arch up.

Living room wall.  Need to be careful not to puncture those water lines!

Living Room wall looking into husbands office.  The TV will be on this wall.  Again; water lines.

Master Bedroom.  The bed will go between the windows.

Master Bath sinks.

Master bathroom looking into master closet.  Extra outlet put in for my towel warmer that will go outside the shower.  So excited!

This will be my oldest son's room.  It shares the wall with the boys bathroom, you can look through to the master, but not for long!

This will be my younger son's room.  It shares a wall with the laundry room.  You can look through to my studio, again, not for long!

Here is the panel and water heater in the basement.  

The PM had already fixed the closet issues.  He had originally planned on using the door from the laundry closet in the guest linen closet but it didn't size right, so he ordered a new door for that.  I think he said it was 18 or 20" so it will be a small door.  I don't mind the size, I just want to be able to have a place to store guest towels, a first aid kit and extra toilet paper.  It should do the job!  The nice thing is, he will leave us the extra door. With any luck it will work for the future basement bathroom. Speaking of the basement bathroom.  Really, the only thing that we found on the walk through involved the bathroom.  There is an outlet at the bottom of the stairs going into the basement.  It is also on the wall that the door to the future bathroom will go. They hung the outlet on the side of the stud where the door will go according to the plans.  Its an easy fix before the drywall goes out.  They simply have to remove the staples that hold the wires and stuff in place and move it to the other side of the stud.  They had also continued the 2x4 along the floor where there will be a door going into another section of the basement. Basically, I don't think the door would fit with a 2x4 on the ground and it would be a serious tripping hazard for my clumsy self.  They were aware of that and it was on their punch list.  

Today the city inspector will be in for the inspection.  The energy star inspector will also be in today.  They make sure that the house can qualify for the energy star rating.  If the house passes both of these inspections, drywall will start tomorrow.  Once drywall starts to go up, the PM will prepare a letter that goes to the mortgage company advising our completion date.  With that, we should know our closing date by the middle of the week!  We've only had a couple of showings on our current house, so we hope that once the weather starts to stay consistently nice that will start to move along a bit better.  

We are really pleased with the way things have gone with Ryan homes so far. We are getting really excited for the house to be complete and move in!