Pre-drywall meeting on July 21st

We visited our building site frequently the week before our pre-drywall meeting. Here is the list of concerns/questions we sent to our PM before our pre-drywall meeting on July 21st.  

      (1) A gap between lumbers at back of master tub caused the leaking after storm.

      (2) The window next to entrance door has leaking after storm

      (3) Some vertical frames to support basement stairs are missing

      (4) Many small damage holes (at least 6) in the wall around the  house and garage.

      (5) Many Long Pipes around the house only partly insulated. 

      (6) Some long pipes around the house with support at the bottom, some not.

      (7) The bottom of the window frame on the second floor bedroom (loft) is not leveled.

      (8) One missing vent in the powder room and the corresponding missing pipe in the basement. 

      (9) One small piece of horizontal frame support in morning room is loose.

      (10) One electric box at basement bathroom frame needs to not fixed.

      (11) One vented out pipe in the basement (below family room) from basement bathroom is damaged badly in the middle.

       (12) One vertical support in basement between bathroom and closet is slightly bending.

       (13) The basement concrete floor was broken around several pipes.  What reason for it and is it to be fixed?

       (14) There are big gaps between panels at the top of the roof ridge. Are there any special treatment for it later?  

       (15) Identify the dryer pipe in the house.

       We arrived the site on time. Our PM and SR were already on site.  We started the pre-drywall meeting on time without waiting our realtor, the same situation as our pre-construction meeting. We got all above questions clarified / answered either during our drywall meeting or within one day after our pre-drywall meeting. Our SR was very careful to review the construction details and told our PM the light type in Dinette area needs to be upgraded to the same as kitchen area after she called the office to confirm during our meeting. Our realtor showed up late when we started checking the second floor construction details, and left earlier when we checked outside construction details because her son texted her when she could finish.  

Pre-construction meeting on May 30th

We just have had the pre-construction meeting with our PM, SR and realtor on May 30th. It has been about a month since we finalized our selections and upgrades on April 27th. The pre-construction meeting was about one month late than we expected when our SR informed us the rough pre-construction meeting during our meeting on April 27th.  We understand that we need to wait because she explained to us that Ryan has many constructions signed recently. Our meeting location is just right in front our lot.  Most of the neighborhoods around our lot are either occupied or near the ending of the construction. To my surprise, there are many varieties of pretty wildflowers thriving in our lot.  I will stop by again during the weekend to take pictures before it was mowed away next week.

We started meeting with our PM and SR on time without waiting our realtor who came in late after we almost finished half of the blue print review. Our PM showed us our plot plan, exact location of our house in the lot, and explained to us where the electricity, water, and gas lines enter the house. We do not know where the sew line location yet. We will ask next week.  Our previous house has a large yard and lots of surrounding bushes and trees especially in the back yard.  Tough it was pretty and provided us lots of privacy, it cost efforts to mow the lawn in summer and clear the leaves in fall. We decided to choose a much smaller lot without trees in the back yard for our second house.

Our PM reviewed blue print for each floor plan with us on our choices and upgrades while our SR confirm each selection in her computer. He explained to us that there will be a closet with utility lines located in one side of the bathroom in basement. This closet will change appearance of our basement layout slightly. I asked that if it is possible that the utility closet can be moved to the middle between the bathroom and downstair closet, which is what we saw in one of the florence model houses and does not affect the basement layout. Our PM told us that he can do it.  The foundation of the house have water-proofing treatment and the lot will be graded to make water flowing away from the house. But there is no sump pump in our basement since it is not needed with soil type in our community. All houses built in our community have no sump pumps, and there have been no complains of water problem in the basement yet. Hopefully, the basement will be much drier than our previous house basement, which needed humidifier in summer since it was so moisture. We are told that the new house does not need humidifier at all with the water proofing treatment for the foundation and the proper grading of the lot.


There will be two formal meetings with our PM during the construction process,
  - pre-Drywall meeting: which will allow us to see what behind the drywall, about 1-2 months before closing and the time to fix our mortgage rate.
  - pre-Settlement meeting: which will be a few days before closing date and let us get familiar with our new house.

Besides above formal meetings during the construction process, we can drive by regularly to take pictures from the outside of the house. But we need to call and schedule time if we want to see inside of the house for safety reasons. One staff from Ryan will accompany us to see inside the house. After the closing date, there will be a 30 day review and a 8 month review of the house. Ryan will take care of needed repairs within one year.

Before finished our meeting, we walked around our lot just across the street together and got more detail explanations about lot plan.  It looks like our current lot is not so small as we thought.  It sure will cost some efforts to mow the lawn in summer, but there should not be too much leaves to clear in fall. Our PM told us that he will monitor the weather forecast to break the ground next week. Then follows the foundation pouring. It is getting excited.







     

TimeLine & Overview (updated)

March

3/27/2014 - Met with the SR assistant to see the available lots in the community and showed initial interest on one specific lot.

3/28/2014 - Our first meeting with SR and did initial selections and estimated the cost. We also informed SR that we visited old houses around the area with our realtor for a couple of weeks.

3/29/2014 - Clarify questions with SR by emails and phones.

3/30/2014 - Our second meeting with SR and introduced our realtor to meet with SR.  

3/31/2014– Signed Purchase Agreement and paid 5% as good faith deposit.


April
4/8/2014  –  1st meeting with NVR loan officer
4/12/2014 -  Options updates and exterior colors selections with SR
4/15/2014 -  Guardian Meeting for low voltage wiring (cable, data, security system) 
                     (We cancelled the Guardian security system as soon as possible 
                     after we read all kinds of  customer complains online and 
                     decided to use SimpliSafe for security system.)  
4/16/2014 -  1st meeting on Flooring Selections at Rite Rug Store
4/16/2014 -  NVR Mortgage initial Approval
4/22/2014 -  2nd meeting with NVR loan officer for questions of GFE. 
4/23/2014 -  Lights selections meeting with SR
4/23/2014 -  2nd meeting on flooring selections at Rite Rug Store for updates
4/27/2014 -  meeting with SR to finalized all selections to our home.   
                
May
5/30/2014 - pre-construction meeting with our PM, SR, and our realtor

June
6/11/2014 -  Ground breaking up
6/12/2014 -  Footing done
6/19/2014  - lumber delivered on lot
6/23/2014 -  Foundation Poured (by Amish)
6/27/2014 -  Foundation waterproofing applied


July

7/1/2014 - 7/8/2014 Framing (by Amish)
7/21/2014 - Pre Drywall meeting
7/31/2014 -3rd meeting with NVR loan officer for final Approval, 15 year fixed mortgage choices, and closing process questions.


August

8/2/2014 - interior insulation done and bathtubs installed (by Amish), 
8/7/2014 - lock rate (30 day period) with NVR (15 year fixed rate 3% with 1.125% points)                  
8/8/2014 - First interior painting done
8/14/2014 - ceramic flooring and basement flooring done, cabinets installed 
8/14/2014 - 8/21/2014 siding installed
8/15/2014 - hardwood floor done in one day.
8/19/2014 - bought house insurance from the same company as our car insurance with discount. 
8/25/2014 - granite countertop and backsplash in kitchen installed
8/26/2014 - gutter installed 
8/27/2014 -8/28/2014 Second interior painting 
8/28/2014 - landscaping
8/29/2014 - HUD1 from NVR received for review



September

9/2/2014 - pre-settlement meeting (scheduled)
9/2/2014 - house inspection (scheduled)
9/5/2014 - closing (scheduled)
9/6/2014 - washer, dryer, refrigerator to be delivered (scheduled) 



Overall, we are happy about the building process with Ryan so far and would like to give high reviews for our SR, PM, and NVR loan officer for all their efforts during our building process. But our realtor is not a positive experience. She helps us nothing either on making selections, or negotiating price, or communicating with Ryan during the process. We went to see the site and chose the lot ourselves, we negotiated price ourselves. We read all needed information from Ryan customer blogs online and contacted with our SR or PM directly if we have any questions/concerns and get the answers/solutions quickly. Our realtor did come to some our meetings with Ryan (Our introducing her to Ryan and Signing Purchase Agreement with Ryan, Guardian meeting, Pre-construction meeting, Pre-drywall meeting). The only time she was on time and did not leave early is our introducing her to Ryan and signing the Purchase Agreement with Ryan. For all other meetings she attended, she came in late and left earlier with different excuses.  She recently even said that “she came to all our meetings except one, other realtors do not bother to do it at all and never come to construction sites for new constructions”.  She might feel regret for those words and added quickly that “She was willing to attend those meetings and happy to help us”. Her words did make us consider seriously that we do not need a realtor to buy a new construction house at all. There are two more meeting she is required to attend as our realtor: pre-settlement meeting and closing meeting. Then she will finish her contract with us soon after the closing. We need contact with Ryan ourselves for any fixing work within 10 month building reviews.

Decisions on Ryan Homes

We started house searching in western PA in late February. After visiting houses on market for a couple of weeks, we decided to consider new constructions in mid March.  We checked three new construction companies: Heartland, Ryan, Miranda and visited houses on market built by those three companies. Heartland has the best quality among three. But the price is high for us and no building location is within our preferred distance. Miranda has the cheapest price but poor quality. We decided to choose Ryan because of the price and quality based on the online reviews and blogs. We visited several Ryan's model houses within our preferred commuting distance, talked to Sales Representatives of those model houses, and chose our favorite community. We felt so helpful by reading those online resources during our decision process and decided to post our experience with Ryan Homes construction.

We selected Florence model Elevation B and signed Purchase Agreement with Ryan in late March. All houses built in our community have the following default options: morning room, brick front, and concrete driveway.  Our house has garage on the left because of lot location. Our first decision on options/selections is carpet free because of our previous experience of carpet floor (hard to clean even with Rug Doctor) and my allergy. We choose hardwood for whole 2nd floor, family room and dinning room in 1st floor; ceramic tiles in morning room, kitchen, powder room, all bathrooms, laundry room, and entry foyer. We choose vinyl for basement (similar color and style as our hardwood floor). Though there are more color choices for non-hardwood cabinets, there are only four colors available for hardwood cabinets. Aware some non-hardwood cabinet corners showing worn out signs in model houses, we choose hardwood cabinets with an neutral color close to our favorite: Wyoming Square Cherry Spice Timberlake. Our decision on basement option is from our experience visiting florence model house during  a warm day. We felt that the air in the basement is so comfortable and fresher than 1st floor and thought basement is a nice place when it is hot during summer. We decided to have the finished basement with a full bathroom and a closet. We added 4th bedroom in the loft because the size of bedroom 2 and bedroom 3 is small.  

Florence - Elevation B 

Garage Door: Resort Facade      
      -(2)Remote Control

Basement:
        - Window Egress Basement (included, code requirement)
        - Finished basement 
        - Full Bathroom 
        - Closet under stair basement

Morning Room:       
       -Extra windows morning room 
        - Sliding glass door morning room: included

Kitchen:
       -Kitchen island 
       -Kitchen Wyoming Square Cherry Spice Timberlake 
       -HDWR KIT CAB ~HDWR Vanity ~HDWR OWNR BTH 
       -Cabinet Hardware Finish Satin Nickel (included)
       -Cabinet Crown Moulding kitchen 
       -42'' wall cabinets kitchen 
       -Granite Countertop kitchen upgrade #1 (Santa Cecila)
       -Range Gas Hook-up: 
       -Feature IV FRSTING- No Microwave ~ Vented Range
       -Kitchen Tile Backsplash
      - A rough-in for the ice maker on the refrigerator.

Family Room
        -Fireplace Granite 

Formal Dinning Room
        - Adding a chandelier

Owners Suite 
         -Add an extra window
         -Upgrade owner bathroom to tub+glass shower
         -Double bowl owner's bathroom
         -Wyoming Square Cherry spice Timberake cabinet

Secondary Bathroom
          -Wyoming Square Cherry spice Timberake cabinet 

Third bedroom
         -Add an extra window

LOFT 
         - Upgrade as 4th bedroom (an extra window included) 

Flooring Specifications 
     -Ceramic in foyer 
     -Ceramic in laundry room 
     -Ceramic in kitchen 
     -Ceramic in morning room 
     -Ceramic in powder room  
     -Ceramic in owner's bathroom & Surr Bath 
     -Ceramic in 2nd bathroom 
     -Ceramic in 3rd bathroom basement 
     -Hardwood floor in dinning/living room 
     -Hardwood floor family room 
     -Hardwood floor all 2nd floor
     -Vinyl in basement  

Interior Specifications
       -Oak Stair with Oak Handrail, Baseplate/white balusters (Chestnut color)

Electrical Specifications
       -Recessed light (4x) in master bedroom
       -Overhead Light Joy/Bravo (3x) each one in other 3 bedrooms
       -Recessed Lights Kitchen
       -Recessed light (4x) family room
       -Ceiling Fan Rough in morning room
       -One Dedicated Circuit near inside Garage Door
       -One extra Exterior Garage Door light

Plumbing Specifications
      -Faucet Fixtures bathroom upgrade #1 (NICKEL Color)

Exterior Specifications
       -Two Outlets exterior (front and back) 
       -Two faucets exterior (front and back)
       -Siding Color: Island Pearl
       -Brick Color: Craggy Mountain/ Butt Martar
       -Shutter Color: BlackWatch Green
       -Front Door Color: Marooned 

Discounts/Incentives
     -Brick Front Standard (included in our community) 
     -Resort Facade Garage Door (included in our community)
     -Concrete Driveway (included in our community)

Picture of our choices:

Cabinet choice for the kitchen and all bathrooms

Granite Countertop for kitchen

Front brick of house

hardwood floor for part of 1st floor and whole 2nd floor

Vinyl in basement (Top sample is Handrail color - Chestnut)

Ceramic Tile Choice for part of 1st floor/bathroom/kitchen backsplash 

Colors for shutter, siding, front door (left to right in picture) 

Nickel Color for vanity in powder room/bathrooms and cabinet knobs 

Floor plan of our selections and options on Florence (All imported from Ryan Homes online). 

Pictures from Florence Model Houses (All imported from Ryan Homes Online)

Master Bathroom

Family Room

2nd Bedroom

Master Bedroom

Morning Room & Kitchen

Kitchen

For more pictures/videos of Florence model houses, see the following link:

http://www.blackstreamcreative.com/builders/tour.aspx?tn=1915