Cookin with Peanut Oil (We have a hole and a basement!) Also Mortgage rates are rising…FYI

6/26/2015

House Progress

-So unfortunately delay on updates, however thats because we became parents on fathers day to a beautiful baby girl!

      So over the last week, the hole got dug, the footers then got poured, and now walls for the basement are in. After speaking with the project manager today he said that the basement got waterproofed yesterday and backfilling has begun.  Pic at the end with some captions.

-One thing I had not thought of but did the other day while driving around Timber Ridge was to see about any over runs on the rock for the elevation of our home. I had read somewhere a guy who had brick put on his home got some leftovers so….. I asked and my PM said although the amount they buy is usually very close to exact if there are any overruns he will ask the guys who put the stone on. I figure why not, we are paying for the stone right? So we shall see, but either way I appreciate that we have such an understanding PM who is willing to ask things like this and is fairly attentive to all customers with multiple builds going on.

 First day/digging

 Good to see where the drains and water lines come in, can also see the different layers of earth in this pic the clay at the bottom then roots/soil, and top soil

 Footers poured with drainage around it, also I have to say the pumps were running with this all going on since the rain in Cleveland lately has been out of control!

 View from back, can see that since clay came up high here, they left it higher where garage will be poured.

 View from driveway with slip forms

 View from back right corner facing street, can see in this pic the blue rubber hose which they have been trying to drain….

NVR and Rising Mortgage Rates

So with the Spring buying season having kicked off and a generally improving economy unfortunately the initial 3.75 rate we were working with is now well over 4% for example today is 4.375% we plan to basically keep eyeing the market and hopefully buy the rate down below 4 if that ends up being possible.

It sounds strange however if Greece defaults on loans on the 30th of June the world economy will be less strong and the rates may see a little drop from what I've read. So word to the wise anyone currently shopping loans, I would say lock sooner than later because the projections are rates will rise sharply this fall (good for those of us now or the ones who bought in the spring)

-Big thing none tells you at NVR (or well any mortgage brokers) is that you can spend a little money (1000) and get percentage points to bring your rate down… so we will see what happens below are some links I've been reading that may remain helpful to most people on mortgage rates.

http://www.bankrate.com/news/rate-trends/mortgage.aspx

http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/consumer_rates/

Update 6/14/15

June 14, 2015

So..... they were supposed to stake out the house on Thursday or Friday per the PM of Last week (June 11) however we called our PM and were unable to get a hold of him. Needless to say we were disappointed. Well I shot the Sales rep and the PM emails saying hey your phone number doesn't work, please give an updated one. We did receive a response that same day and the issue was a misprint on our PM's card. (My advice before you leave your Roadmap is to verify the number with the PM) The area code was incorrect on the card so that was an easy fix. However they did not stake or dig as of yet (6/16) and the plan per our PM is to stake tomorrow and dig Thursday. 

I guess we will see how that goes, and hopefully we will be seeing our daughter soon as well, since she's due today but hasn't shown up yet.

Take care, -Kyle

Road map Meeting, a great Project Manager, and a very nice surprise!

June 7, 2015
  So this past Friday we met with our Sales Rep and Project Manager to knock out all the final details. We started with going over the outside of the home and basic overview of topography. We added an extra outlet in the garage for future use, otherwise there wasn't much in the regard to upgrades or changes.
  I had one personal thing to address, which is making sure there was some kind of backflow on our storm water sewer (there have been water problems in much of northeast Ohio over the past few years). With that being said the PM did a great job drawing out how the sump pump will work with a yard drain and he also drew a basic diagram explaining where the backflow valve is in the sump as well as a blow off if the water backs up. I was really impressed with the answer to say the least. The other question I asked was "what if the drywall guys showed up and there was insulation in some of the interior walls?" Now I expected them to say no sweat equity blah blah blah but if it happens it happens, however I got that and then I also got its strongly not suggested so not sure how to approach that at this point.

Continued with the Basement, placed the sump on the side of the property with the yard drain so that it goes directly to the storm sewer, we talked about plumbing rough ins, overall not much to talk about but our PM said he would be very cognizant of the fact that we plan to finish the basement some day in regards to where electrical, water, and the garage drain are run. (the garage drain goes to storm sewer was my understanding)

First Floor
  We discussed where the fireplace would be, he pointed out carpet and linoleum breaks and we discussed the extra outlet that was placed above the cabinets (for Christmas lights and such). Fan rough in was discussed in the morning room and the "safety gate" across the back door was explained to us. I will say I get the whole safety gate on the morning room door but I do wish they at least provided stringers.... I will be doing that myself once we move in.

Second Floor
 The floor plan we chose was 3 bedrooms with the loft, one thing that the PM addressed here as well was that we shouldn't be surprised when we come by to look at the house and the bath tubs or other things like it are dirty or scuffed. The PM gave us his card and said if there is anything at all that seems out of place to let him know ASAP, he also said he prefers phone calls during business hours for a few reasons, emails get lost as he gets many, he prefers to immediately address issues, and he generally doesn't answer his work phone when the day is done. Moving on we have Fan rough ins for all bedrooms, beyond that the only thing needing discussed was the shelving they provide. I requested that at least in the master bedroom that they don't put in the shelving. I plan to put the brackets with arms in that are directly secured to the studs (those angle arms they provide just aren't all that strong IMO)

-Note here I also found out that the tub/shower combos are not just one piece if anyone is curious. I was curious because I am thinking of tiling the baths in the future.

Last but not least we did a detailed look at our Topography map and he explained everything we will see on our property when finished.
-We will have a "swale" between our home and our neighbor where the yard drain is to promote drainage to the drain itself
-There will be a storm sewer cap in the front (I know I don't love it either)
-There will be a shared electrical box on the property line
-A water shut off in the front yard
-There will be a clean out for the yard drain sticking up (which I can cut down and recap later)
-A tree will be placed out front as with every house

(So what your saying is I have a shitload of stuff in the yard......)


The nice surprise we received was that all homes in this development will now be coming standard with a Lamp post for no charge. My wife has wanted one, but didn't want to speak up so it got left out on our selections, but luckily we ended up with one anyways.

Another great thing throughout the Roadmap was that our PM color coded everything with highlighters so it was much easier for everyone to understand on the blueprints.

Welp enough of my rambling,  hope ya got something out of all this, plan is to flag out the site next week, and start to dig the week of the 15th (we might not get to see it since our daughter is due the 16th of June but we will see) I'll try to post some pics of topo maps if I get time, until the next update, have fun building, reading, and researching!