Robots in Disguise

There has been progress on the house, but most of the progress isn't what I consider "fun."  On the plus side, the progress is very good in the sense that we are getting really close to moving in.  The power company came out to the property a few weeks ago and told Victor, our superintendent from Bob Ward, that he needed to have septic done, run PVC under the driveway for wires, and grade out a flat spot in the corner of our front yard for the power transformer (more than meets the eye!), before they run power lines from the road to our house.  I'm a little irritated that the transformer has to be in our yard when it will eventually power two other houses, but we'll find a way to disguise it I hope.  Anyway, the PVC was dropped off and the spot for the Autobot (because we're good guys) was graded out yesterday.  Still need to run the PVC under the driveway and install septic, but these are promising signs that it will all be happening soon.  Once we have power, I'd say we're only a couple weeks away from move-in unless we run into issues getting the occupancy permit.

In the meantime, stone did not start on Monday...or Tuesday...or Wednesday...or Thursday.  :-(  I'm not sure exactly what the hold up is, but I suspect it has to do with the fact that they spent Monday through Wednesday this week redoing the grading around the whole property.  They re-graded the driveway, backyard, and front yard.  What's exciting about the front yard is that our front porch is now a step (eventually) off the ground!  We think they re-graded the driveway to get it ready for paving...hopefully after they put the PVC under it.

Today we stopped by and saw that they installed the columns on the front porch and the railings on the stairs.  I will neither confirm nor deny that we broke into our own house today.  :-)

View of our backyard without the giant pile of dirt in it!

Driveway redone - Steve's pretty excited about it!

We can finally walk onto our front porch from the yard!!

Columns on the porch - those and the front door still need to be painted.  Oh and they finally finished the shingles on the baby roof over the garage windows!

Railing on the steps, and why not get the fireplace in the picture too?  :-)

Railings

A Good Blog - You Can Count(er) On It!

I have a lot of updates, but not a lot to say, so I'll let the pictures do the talking.  The bad news I have to share in the blog today is that they've locked the doors to the house now which means I don't know how often we'll be able to get into the house until we move in.  I'll definitely blog about the stone since that's the front of the house, and supposedly that is starting on Monday!  Until then, here are the latest pictures.

Shelves in the pantry - don't fall in love, most of these are coming out!  The back wall is going to have a hutch for small appliances and a floor-to-ceiling wine rack!

Hardware installed on the doors (and the window where the stained glass is going)

Hardware on the doors

I promise this is much prettier in person!  Imagine a free standing tub in front of the tiled wall.

Lighting, faucets and towel rack

Light and hardware on closet door.  Don't fall in love with all the lighting because I hate most of it.  We didn't get to pick any of the lights, they all come standard.  We'll change them out over time.  Eventually a pocket door will be put in for our closet.

Guest bathroom faucet, towel rack & other hardware, and toilet.

Dining room lights, one of the few we like

Recessed lighting in the kitchen and a pendant light will also hang above the island.

Front door light - another one I like.

Address numbers and garage lights.  The garage lights are growing on me, but they aren't my favorite (I don't like the long part that hangs down).

Counters were installed today, and no, we didn't get blue counters.  That's the stuff they leave on it while the build finishes.  Just like the shower tile, the color of the granite really doesn't show up well in the following pictures.  If you do a Google Image search for "Moon White Granite" that is what we got.

Counters

I peeled back some of the sticky stuff to see the actual counter with the cabinets.  Again, it's much better to see in person, so make sure you come visit us!

Grout Expectations

I have a couple really fun updates to share today.  The first update is that on Saturday we were completely surprised to see that the stone fireplace surround was installed!  As Steve and I pulled into the driveway we saw chunks of rock in the dumpster and we thought that was indicative of the counters being installed in the kitchen.  We didn't look close enough to determine what it really was, but I was a little bit sad when we walked in and didn't see counters.  Then Steve said, "Well that's different!"  So I looked into the great room - and there it was - a gorgeous stone surround!  For those that saw my post on Facebook about it, that was my actual reaction, along with jumping up and down like a goofball!  :-)  I thought the kitchen cabinets were the new love of my life, but that was before the stone.  On Sunday morning, we had a lot of time to kill before Father's Day festivities and my flight, so Steve and I went out to the house just so I could stare at the cabinets and the fireplace before I left for a few days.  Yes I know, I have a problem.  My name is Becky, and I am obsessed with our new house.  We also had fun planning out what each cabinet was going to store so that we are all ready to go in the kitchen once we move in.  If you haven't figured this out already - Steve and I are the planning type.  ;-)

Beautiful, right?!?!

Next update is the tile.  The tile guys came back and grouted all the bathrooms and finished off the master bath tile, so now you can officially see what the shower looks like.  Sadly, I haven't even seen this in person yet since I'm in Dallas right now, but the picture has me extremely excited to see the real thing!  Quick funny story - the guys were still working while Steve was there to get pictures.  Steve saw the shower wall and before saying hello to anyone said, "That looks incredible!"  One of the tile guys had a laugh and said "That's what I just said!"

Guest Bathroom all done 

Hall bathroom all done

Closeup of grout - I actually wanted darker, but this is the darkest color they had.  White grout is impossible to keep clean!

Master shower - the stripe is also on the inside of the shower (the other side of the wall you see pictured)

Fallston, We Have A Problem!

Before we decided to build, I think we had more people tell us not to build than we had people who said we should.  Everyone who said not to build said that it is such a pain and builders are notoriously difficult to work with.  Every time I've posted a blog about the house a little part of me would think, "haha, this will show all the anti-builders - we have the best builder out there and we haven't had any issues!"  Well, part of that statement is true...

Yesterday, Steve and I stopped by the house on our way to the Meyerhoff to see John Williams (John Freaking Williams!!!) conduct the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.  It is still pretty amazing to say I was in the same room as John Williams!  Anyway, this blog is about the house, not John.  When we walked in the house I jumped for joy because they started to install the kitchen cabinets!  I was so in love with the cabinets that Steve had to pull me out the door to get to the concert on time!  While I was admiring the new love of my life, I realized that something was wrong.  We had no place for a microwave.

Let's rewind a bit...

When Steve and I decided we were building this particular house, we were going through the back and forth of adding and removing items to get an idea on pricing.  One of the things we added was an apron hood over the stove.  Since Steve is the cook in our household, I let him go crazy with the kitchen upgrades.  In the model home, the microwave is hanging from the cabinets above the stove top.  When we added the hood, we asked JoAnna where the microwave would go.  She sent us a drawing of the cabinets on the side wall where the fridge is with the microwave hanging there.

Fast forward to a few months later when we were frantically trying to sign the contract so we can apply for the mortgage and settle on time.  We were very careful to go over the contract and all the plans and we even asked JoAnna about the fact that the revised kitchen layout was not in the plans.  In fact, none of the cabinet drawings were in the plans - it was only floorplans we were approving.  We never heard from JoAnna about the hood/microwave and long story short, us following up on that slipped through the cracks.

That brings us to last night.  Realizing the microwave is kind of a big issue, because cabinets need to be uninstalled, reordered, and replaced, I texted Megan with a "help!" kind of text.  Remember, JoAnna is on maternity leave, so Megan is stepping in for her.  Megan has been awesome and we love her just as much as JoAnna!  Megan replied right away and asked me to send the drawings and an email the next morning (today) and she'd jump right on it.

Megan wrote back with a couple drawing options (more decisions!) how to fix the issue, but she also included that option 1 was $800 and option 2 was $1200.  I'm not sure how many of my readers know this, but when I feel I am not in the wrong and something like this happens, I go from 0 to "OH HELL NO!" in a fraction of a second.  I called Steve and vented my frustrations at him and said I'd email Megan to let her know that's not acceptable.

I did write the email, but never sent it.  Even though I feel like I had a nicer tone to it than I felt, you just never know how email is going to come across to someone, especially when it's about an issue.  I'm also the type of person that when there is an issue, I like to try the nice way of fixing it first, and I'll escalate from there if nothing happens.  So I decided a phone call would probably be the best way to resolve this.

Megan was great!  She listened to me explain why I felt this wasn't our fault and she explained that stepping in, she's only gone off our contract for information.  So she had no idea about the miscommunication between us and JoAnna and the fact that we did discuss the microwave placement when building the house on paper.  Remember that blog where I mentioned they didn't build the bump out for the fridge and we let that one go?  I also said in that blog that I'd remember that for something just like this.  I did remind Megan that we worked through the fridge issue which was in the plans, and we need to find a better solution than us paying for this to be fixed.  After Megan got the background, she took that to Clark (our architect) and she called me back soon after to say Clark was very apologetic and this is not something we need to pay for.

Whew!!!  Before the resolution I was thinking about writing this blog and how everyone was right about builders and I was so sad that our builder wasn't different from everyone's experiences.  But then Megan called with the revised resolution and while I'm thrilled we don't have to pay anything to fix this, I'm more thrilled with the fact that Megan and Clark heard our story and corrected the issue.  I know we're not done building yet, but today definitely made me ecstatic to be a Bob Ward client.

After all that, I'm sure you are dying to see pictures.  :-)  Before the pictures, I have a couple quick updates to share.  First, the tile guys are coming back on Monday to grout and do the shower tile in the master bath.  The downside to that is, I'm out of town on Monday and won't get to see it until Wednesday!  If all of my readers could bug Steve to share progress on the blog while I'm gone, I'd really appreciate it!  The other update:  stone.  I've been thinking that stone was going to be put up while I was gone for work next week and it was completely bumming me out that I'd miss it.  The good news is, there's been a delay ordering the stone, so it's not going to be installed until the week after next - so I won't miss it!  Alright...on to the pictures of the cabinets.

Hall bath cabinets - sink was installed today but I forgot to grab a picture

Guest bath (the one in the bedroom)

My vanity

Kitchen cabinets!!!!  ALL THE HEART EYES!!!!!

How cool are these tip outs under the sink!?  Perfect for sponges/dish brushes so they don't have to sit on the counter!

Where the double oven will go (we think they are going to take out the white bars to make it fit).

Don't fall in love with this - this is the set that needs to be fixed for the microwave.  The drawing of the option we chose is shown below.

Looking in the kitchen from the family room

Revised layout for the microwave

Decisions, Decisions

Back when Steve and I decided to build a house, I was so excited because that meant we could pick everything out ourselves and the house would be exactly what we wanted the day we moved in.  Now, I can't wait for this to be over because I'm feeling extremely overwhelmed by all the decisions we have made so far, the decisions we are making now, and the decisions I'm sure are yet to come until this process is done.  Don't get me wrong, it's still incredibly exciting and fun, but man I can't wait for the day to come when my hardest decision to make is what is for dinner (ask Steve, that's a struggle sometimes).

When Steve and I were on vacation in Atlanta a couple weeks ago, we heard from our new sales person, Megan (JoAnna is on maternity leave!), at Bob Ward that we never made decisions on the flooring and shower tile in the bathroom that is in one of the guest bedrooms.  I remembered that on that October day when we made all the decisions, I emailed JoAnna about what our options were for that because I realized we hadn't picked anything.  Up until Atlanta, I had completely forgotten about it.  Megan relayed that there was a sense of urgency for us to pick something because they were close to being able to install it, but I wasn't about to pick out something without seeing it in person first.  So we didn't pick anything until we came back.

When we were initially making these decisions, we were getting close to the top of our budget and the back and forth between us and JoAnna on pricing and other options was just getting too overwhelming and confusing (on my part, not JoAnna's).  We chose vinyl flooring for the bathrooms to save a little bit of money and Steve would tile them soon after we moved in.  The closer we got to this point in the build process, the more I realized I really wanted tile in the bathrooms and the more Steve realized he really didn't feel like installing it.  We knew if we prompted the change on our own, it is on us to pay cash for the work/materials and a $1000 change fee on top of it.  Since I knew they needed to order the materials for ALL bathrooms I suggested we change the floors now.  Thankfully, because we had to pick for the one bathroom anyway, we didn't have to pay that change fee!  :-)  That's the long way of me telling you that we upgraded the other two bathrooms to tile (we do have to pay the difference, which is fine).  But, Steve and I are much happier now that it's just going to be done when we move in.

Guest bedroom's bathroom - pre-grout (gray)

Hall bath - pre-grout (gray).  They tiled the shower today too, but I forgot to get a picture of it.

Going back to feeling overwhelmed by decisions, let's talk about the master bathroom now.  First, let me share with you my obsession with tile.  I love tile.  All of it.  It's all so pretty to look at.  When we go to Home Depot (which feels like a weekly occurrence lately between both houses), Steve desperately tries to keep me out of the tile aisle (hey, that rhymes!).  Inevitably, I find a tile I like and ask where we can put it.  This exact moment happened months ago when I fell in love with a tile that I thought would look awesome as an accent tile in our bathroom.  The problem was, we were not allowed to supply the tile, we had to pick from what Bob Ward's subcontractor had.  The options in the model are very slim.  But, because we are sort of a custom build by not being in a Bob Ward neighborhood, JoAnna told us we could go to Home Depot and send her the name and brand of the tile we like and she'll see if it's available.  Great news - it was!

This meant we had to pick the main tile, and I went with a marble look from Bob Ward's options.  I don't know why I felt this way because I liked the marble look, but I felt like I was settling with this tile and I was concerned with how it would look with my beautiful accent tile that I found at Home Depot.  I was nervous it would be too busy.  I agonized over this for months and Steve constantly reminded me it was too late to change it.  When Megan emailed us about the guest bathroom, she also mentioned our master bathroom selections weren't listed.  I thought this was a good opportunity to revisit the decisions since I was feeling so nervous about them.  Super long story short, I felt too overwhelmed with the decisions by this point that I kept the same selections I just mentioned even though I was still worried with how it was going to look.

Now that the marble look has been installed, I'm feeling much better about it!  They haven't installed all of the tile yet, but finally being able to put the accent tile next to the main tile for the bathroom, I am feeling much better about that too!  When Steve let me make all the decisions, I thought he was the best husband ever by giving me full control like that.  Now I know he just didn't want to be overwhelmed.  ;-)

One last update on the house - all of our cabinets, sinks, and appliances were delivered today.  We are so close!!!

Master bath floor (all pictures before gray grout)

Master bath toilet room

Master bath hallway leading to closet (we actually had no idea this was going to be tile because it's carpet in the model home - we love it!)

My beautiful accent tile!!  This will be used as a center strip down the wall between the shower and tub (shown below).  The tile guy actually suggested we make it a 16" stripe instead of 12", which I'm 100% on board with.  Can't wait to see it!!! 

Tiled the shower floor today

Shower floor - we actually had no idea this was going to be smaller tiles, but we love it too!!

Pretty surprised to see all of our cabinets and appliances delivered today!

You Bet Your Glass!

It was a pretty boring week at Home Base.  They primed the walls last Friday.  Since then there have been drywall touch ups and then white paint everywhere.  That's it.  I'm super sad that we still haven't seen stone yet, but I'm hopeful that starts next week.  We do know that some of the tile will be installed on Monday, so at least we have that to look forward to.

One way we're personalizing the house is by having my Dad make a stained glass piece above the front door.  Because the foyer is kind of a dark spot in the house, I wanted to use as much clear glass as possible so we still get some sunlight in the foyer.  But, I also wanted a pop of color.  My Dad just stopped by to run some glass ideas by me and here's a preview of what he's doing.  I'm so excited to see how this turns out!!  Thanks Dad!

LOVE IT!!!!  :-)

Siding!!

Not a whole lot to write about today, but siding is done!  Next up is stone!

It's hard to tell unless you are in front of the house, but the siding above the garage (the three windows on the left) is shaker siding.