Home Progress Update . . .

So people have been asking me about current pictures of the house and how it's coming along. Well here's a brief update and a couple of photos. The house is at drywall stage. On Saturday and Sunday they installed all the drywall. Yesterday they put the front door and the garage door in. The front door for the second time . . .

Sidenote: The model home was broken into a couple weeks ago and the thieves stole all the appliances and the front door of the model home. So they took our front door and put it on the model to keep it secure and ordered a new door for our home. While the thieves were taking the appliances out of the model, the simply drug them across the hardwood floors, so when I was out there yesterday they were tearing up these beautiful hardwoods and throwing them in the dumpster. Sad really. Now that more people are moving into the neighborhood, this shouldn't happen any more.

So this week they should have the house taped and textured. For those of you not familiar with new construction, they tape the seams of the drywall where two pieces meet or a piece meets a wall or a corner. Then they apply 3 coats of drywall mud to the taped joints and feather it out so the wall is virtually smooth. They sand it and then they can texture the wall. Texture are the little bumps you'll see on the walls of most modern homes. The most common is "Orange Peel" that is it is supposed to resemble the surface of an orange and it's what they'll be applying to the walls in our new home.

Once the walls are taped and textured, the painters will come in and paint the walls. Then the millwork guys will come in and do all the basboard trim, wrap the windows, install the railing on the stairs, etc. etc. Then the painters will come in again and paint all the millwork. I'd guess this will all be mostly complete by the end of the month. This all takes a fair amount of time. I think our cabinets are scheduled to be in around the 1st of April or so. Lights and finish electrical usually happen around that time as well. Then all the floor coverings with the carpet going in last. During the floor coverings, the finish plumbing and the countertops will go in as well.

Teri and I will probably have to go pick out our granite slab sometime in the next couple of weeks. That will be pretty cool. I'll also have to start paying off all the upgrades I've added to the home . . .so lots of checks to write . . . one for appliances, one for lights, one to the builder for the upgrades he's doing and finally one to the floor covering folks for all the countertops, etc. Then I can build it all into my loan in May and get all that money back at closing to be able to do the yard, sprinkler system, air conditioning, blinds, etc. LOTS to think about when you build a house! Lots of costs on top of what you actually pay for the home itself.

Anyway . . . here are a couple recent pictures for you to enjoy!