Furnace Breakdown and Fix

As I've mentioned in several previous posts including this one from last summer we have dampers in our attic that have to be adjusted in the spring and fall to maintain the temperature upstairs and down. Getting to the levers to do so requires climbing over the furnace condensation and gas lines while ducking underneath the roof truss.

How it looks in the attic where our HVAC system is located.

Every time I've gone up there to adjust them I've mentioned to Jenny how I don't like how this is set up. Getting through there is a bit of balancing act and I've been afraid every time I do it that I'm going to slip and fall into them. Going around the other side of the system isn't any easier and would require wiggling underneath insulated ductwork and I'm not sure I'd actually fit through there. The poor design of this was borne out this week when, on the brink of the coldest night we've had in years, our furnace stopped working.

Along with the snow we had earlier in the week a bitter cold front swept through the region bringing with it record low temperatures. On Thursday evening I had gone to bump the temperature up on the thermostat a bit when I noticed the display was blank. I checked the breaker which was fine and then realized I could stick batteries in it as a back up. Even once it came on the heat didn't so I immediately called the emergency number for the HVAC company to get a tech out here. In the meantime one of my awesome neighbors (who has also had heating issues) lent us a space heater.

Around 9:15pm the tech arrived and after taking a look at our furnace in the attic discovered that the condensation line had broken off from inside the furnace. From there water had dripped into the pan underneath tripping the moisture sensor and shutting the unit down. Earlier in the day we had had our 10 Month Review (more on this in another post) and the service manager and I had gone up in the attic to look at the system. While up there he had climbed over the lines and must have bumped it enough to break it. (I'll emphasize here that I don't in any way blame him for this. It could have just as easily been me that did it any of the other times I'd been up there.) Unfortunately the technician didn't have the parts nor could he obtain them so late at night to fix it. Facing not having heat I asked (pretty much pleaded) if there was any way he could at least patch it for the night. Enter our friend and miracle worker, duct tape. Using a copious amount of it he was able to reattach the drain trap the pipe connects to back to the furnace and get it running but with no guarantee that it would hold. He also installed a less sensitive moisture sensor that should the patch fail would allow more water into the drip pan and buy us additional time before it shut the furnace off again.

It's hard to tell from this photo but this is the duct taped drain trap.

Needless to say I didn't sleep very well Thursday night worrying that the patch would fail and we would lose our heat. I got up multiple times to go in the laundry room and to make sure I could still hear the condensation dripping down the pipe that runs through the wall. Luckily the patch did hold and we made it through to Friday morning with the heat still running. (Good thing because it was 0 degrees with a negative wind chill outside.)

Friday morning I followed up with Superior Plumbing, Heating, and Air of Ashland, Virginia to make sure the parts to fix it would be available. About an hour later I got a call that they were and they'd be out by midday to fix. True to their word they were there a few hours later and within 20 minutes had the unit fixed. The only thing I'll need to do in a few days once it warms up outside is haul my shop vacuum up into the attic to remove the water from the pan once it thaws. 

I also followed up with our service manager in several calls during Friday as well. I feel like this set up is a poor design that is way too easy to break. Given that adjusting the dampers is a routine maintenance item and that I will have to continue climbing over this line to get to them I'm worried that eventually this situation could happen again. He's going to meet with me next week to look at it but I've told him that I would like for them to install an additional access panel at the other end of the attic. In houses without the pull down steps like we opted for the access panel is located in the laundry room and allows for access to the dampers without climbing over the condensation and gas lines. It seems to me that this could be done very easily and even though I'd have to haul a ladder upstairs when I need to get up there to adjust them it'd be worth the extra effort to avoid breaking the line again.

All of that being said we really appreciate Superior's quick response to our problem along with the service manager's efforts at getting it fixed quickly as well. He mentioned to me on the phone that he had called the HVAC folks Friday morning and told them that if the parts were not available they were to go pull them from another house under construction so we could get it fixed by the end of the day and not have to wait any longer than necessary. I wish it hadn't happened on the coldest possible night but it worked out as best as could have been expected.

*Comments with links to HVAC companies will be marked as spam and deleted.*

Snow!

A major (for Central Virginia at least) storm swept through the state last night dumping the most snow we've seen in a while. The governor has declared a state of emergency and most everything is shut down right now. At our house at least we received about 6-7 inches and may receive a bit more tomorrow evening. We're also expecting absolutely bitter cold temperates that combined with the snow I expect will keep us out of school most of this week. (Perk of being a teacher.)

Someone Screwed Up

If you haven't done so already, add "check the outside electrical outlets for spare keys" to your list of things to do after you've moved into your house. In our neighborhood at least that's where the construction crews like to keep one and in our case, leave it there for us to find five months after closing.

Shortly after closing on our first house years ago we, like most people I'm sure, changed the locks on every door. During the final walkthrough with the project manager on our new house we specifically asked if we needed to do this on the new house as well. He assured us that the locks would be changed just prior to us taking possession so only we would have the keys.

This afternoon I went outside with my older son to put up a Halloween pumpkin inflatable. Just to the right of our front door is an electrical outlet with a clear plastic cover. While I've used the ones on the back of the house a few times for power tools, this was the first time I'd had a reason to access the one on the front. And that's when I noticed it. Sitting inside clear as day was a house key. One that fit the locks on our front door perfectly. Five months we've been in our house now and all that time a key was sitting a few feet from the front door waiting for anyone to access it. To say I was livid (and my wife for that matter once I told her about it) was putting it mildly. 

So thanks Ryan Homes. My home was essentially sitting wide open the past five months for anyone thanks to someone within your company's screw up. Seeing as my next door neighbor mentioned to me that she had noticed every time she'd come by to look at her house prior to closing she'd seen them slip the key in the same spot on her's it must be a common practice to place it there. So any of the work crews around here would have known exactly where to go to gain easy access to my house.

Even though it's a weekend I've already called and left terse messages for the project manager and the supervisor over him. I'm not entirely sure what I expect from them at this point but this goes beyond a simple mistake and someone needs to be held accountable for it.

Dampers and Energy Efficiency

Since moving in three months ago Jenny has been complaining about how it's hotter upstairs than down. With a single zone HVAC system I figured this would be the case at least to some extent and the reverse in winter since after all hot air rises and cool air sinks. About a month ago I was talking to my neighbors and they mentioned that it was possible to adjust dampers in the attic to change the amount of air flowing to each floor. This was news to us as it had never been mentioned by anyone. (And definitely not at the final walkthrough/orientation like I would have expected.) I went up in the attic a few times looking but never could figure out how to make the adjustment.

I saw our project manager outside last week and asked him about it. He explained in more detail what I was looking for and once more I went up in the attic. I found what I thought was it but still couldn't figure out how to make the adjustment. (I also didn't want to do it wrong and screw it up either.) I ended up calling the service line Thursday and they in turn put in me in contact with a local HVAC contractor that sent a technician out Friday afternoon.

Essentially the damper is a lever secured by a wing nut on the main air ducts running from the air handler. (Two for upstairs and one for down.) Along with showing me how to make the adjustment the tech also labeled everything for future reference. In the summer the downstairs damper needs to be halfway closed and the two upstairs need to be wide open. In the winter it needs to be the exact opposite. He also discovered that the rear upstairs damper was closed which was definitely not helping our situation.

Instructions left on the air handler for future reference.

The lever that opens and closers one of the dampers.

On the topic of the air conditioning I continue to be very impressed by how energy efficient our house is. Ryan Homes really pushes this fact in their sales materials and what I've experienced so far has proved it. Our old house was a mid-1950's brick rancher that definitely was no where near as sealed up as the new house. On days when the temperature hit the upper 90's or over 100 the air conditioning would routinely run all day and never quite reach the 76 or sometimes 78 that we set it for. At our new house we've had the thermostat set at 74 and with similar temperatures the A/C cuts shuts off throughout the day. Even with the lower setting and a 30% larger house our electric bill has so far been roughly the same or slightly lower than it used to be at the old house. I'm curious now to see what happens this winter with our heat especially with it running on gas now. 

A Few Issues and The Survey

We've now been in our house seven weeks and have started having a few issues that need to be addressed.

Our 30 day post-closing walkthrough occurred about three and a half weeks ago. The only real problem that had come up by that point was a soft spot/dip in the carpet in the doorway of bedroom #3. It almost feels like there is a lack of padding underneath the carpet in that spot. The project manager noted it and assured me I would get a call from the flooring subcontractor to schedule a time to come by and take care of it. A week went by and I heard nothing so I called him back. This was followed by a few more calls over the following week after continuing to hear nothing from the contractor. When I was finally called to schedule the appointment (two weeks after the 30 day meeting) the woman I spoke with said she had just been given the report to call. Because of their booked schedule we weren't able to schedule the service appointment until Wednesday of this week, nearly four weeks after the 30 day meeting. It's a minor problem but Jenny and I are both annoyed that it has taken so long to get addressed.

In just the past several days a few more issues have cropped up. I noticed late last week around our front door that I could see daylight through the spot where the door meets the frame. It appears the weather stripping has gotten deformed and isn't creating a tight seal anymore. More pressing is a crack in the tank of the toilet in the upstairs hall bathroom that Jenny discovered Saturday. It's leaking slightly so we've shut the water off at the wall and flushed the toilet to keep the tank empty until it can be fixed. There's no crack in the toilet lid itself (and we haven't even removed that since we moved in) so we're guessing it must be some sort of manufacturing or installation defect. I called the customer service line this morning to report the issues and within 20 minutes I got a call from our project manager to follow up on it. He's putting in an order for a new toilet tank and is hopeful it will be here by Wednesday so it can be installed at the same time the flooring issue is fixed.

The other thing we did several weeks ago was the 30 day post-closing survey. This (and giving perfect 10's) was harped on constantly every step of the way to the point of being downright annoying. Overall we gave everyone high marks and wouldn't hesitate to recommend any of them or Ryan Homes in general to anyone we know. There were a few issues however I noted with the process:
-Getting information about the Homeowner's Association and how to get approval for a fence, shed, etc required far more time and effort on my part than should have been necessary. What should have been a simple question to the model home staff or sales rep with a simple answer in return instead required several hours worth of phone calls and emails to track down the correct information after being given incorrect information by several folks within NVR.
-Visits to officially (i.e. walkthrough with the project manager) check progress on the home were not convenient for working professionals. The project manager was unable to meet beyond 3pm so Jenny was only able to officially walk through the house twice during construction. Thankfully with working for the school system I'm generally done with work around 2:15 at least a few days a week and was able to meet with him otherwise I would have not been able to take off to do so.
-While the front yard was sodded and nicely done, seed and straw was simply dumped down in the backyard without any prep work . We had high winds and rain not long after it was done and a lot of it blew away leaving bare spots all over the yard that turn to mud when it rains. It was almost a waste to have done it if they weren't going to do at least a simple aeration beforehand.


Lastly, on the topic of grass that leads me to one other annoyance at the moment:

I had to call a few weeks ago and again this past Friday to get the grass mowed at the finished but unoccupied house next to us along with the grass on the empty lots on the other side of us. The project manager called me not long after I spoke with customer service and assured me that they're on a rotation to get mowed. It's high enough to be in violation of the county ordinance and has been for over a week at this point. I would have thought the developer would be more on top of getting this taken care of as it makes the community look bad as a whole. With kids and dogs we're quite concerned about the higher chance of ticks, snakes, and other not-so-fun things coming into our yard.

Inspection, Final Walkthrough, and Closing

Time really go away from me since I last updated this blog. I've been meaning to come back and update it for well over a month now but just couldn't find the time to sit down and do it. So let me try to recap everything that has occurred since my last post on April 10.

The week before closing I was on spring break from work and it was a whirlwind of trying to finish getting everything packed up and ready to move from our old house. We also had a walkthrough with the project manager that week that allowed Jenny to finally see the nearly finished inside. This was followed by a trip to Ikea to get some additional furniture to fill up the larger amount of space we would have with the new house.

On Monday afternoon (April 21st) of the following week I had a home inspection done by an outside company. With all the various inspections done by the county and Ryan Homes I debated about the value of this but I felt like it was worth the peace of mind to have an independent inspection done by someone outside of the process. I used a local company, Burgess Inspections Inc., that was recommended to us by one of Jenny's coworkers and they couldn't have been nicer to work with. The inspector found a couple of very minor issues (small amount of water in the crawlspace apparently from the irrigation system install and a few things on the siding and trim) but otherwise said it was one of the best built new homes he had ever inspected.

Tuesday morning April 22nd Jenny and I met with the project manager to do the final walkthrough and orientation. We'd been through the house so many times at this point that there wasn't much of anything new to see but he went over the various warranties, operation of the irrigation system and other things, etc.

Thursday morning April 24th was the big day. A little after 11am Jenny and I met up with our realtor at the lawyer's office, signed the paperwork, and officially took possession. I'll note here that we used a lawyer of our own choosing for settlement rather than using NVR even though it cost us more in closing costs. We personally felt like using NVR Settlement Services was a conflict of interest and just like with the home inspection we felt better having someone independent and outside the process put their eyes on it. I'll also mention here that our realtor got a rather rude and poorly written email from someone at NVR Settlement not long after we made them aware of our decision to use our own lawyer that wanted to know why she was steering her clients away from them. This type of thing only reinforced our decision. (Although it's worth noting that particular incident was by far the exception rather than the rule. Everybody else we dealt with during this process with Ryan/NVR was incredibly nice and helpful.)

Following the closing (and the following day) we immediately go in and started painting. Jenny opted for accent walls in the living room and morning room along with completely painting every bedroom. Every wall in the house was painted an off white color so while she'd like to eventually go back and do more painting it's not an overly pressing need right now.

Friday and Saturday were spent moving. We had gotten rid of a lot of stuff in the previous months but still moved with way too much. Since moving in we've put together a fairly large donation and sell pile in the garage that I've got to deal with eventually. We also managed to quickly mark up the walls moving furniture in. Having the laundry room upstairs is great but getting the washer and dryer up the stairs not so much. There was a considerable amount of sweating and cursing involved in that. (Along with getting our king sized mattress and some of the other furniture up there too.)

So at this point we've been living in the house just under four weeks and absolutely love it. There's so much extra space compared to our old house and the open floor plan downstairs is great. We're also really glad we got the morning room on the back. It adds so much extra space and between the windows and sliding door is full of natural light all day. We've met some of the neighbors and everyone is very nice. Our lot is at the beginning of a cul-de-sac so our older son has been able to ride his bike out in the street without us worrying about traffic. We're already making plans to further personalize the house so stay tuned.

Almost Finished

We stopped by the house last weekend to discover that exterior lights and front porch railing had been installed along with the yard being graded. The front sidewalk had also been poured for the third time.

And then this afternoon I talked with the project manager on the phone and he mentioned that something big had happened but he would let it be a surprise. So when went by there I discovered landscaping. Sod across the front yard, shrubs, mulch, and a tree. 

The backyard has been seeded with straw overtop. It doesn't look like much though and along with the over seeding I've already been told I will probably need to do I'm probably going to have to get more straw too.

In other news I submitted the request with the Homeowners Association to get approval to put up a fence. I'll save the full story for another post but simply tracking down how to do this was a tremendous ordeal and one of the most irritating parts of this whole process. What I expected would be a simple question with a simple answer (What is the phone number and name of the person I contact for this?) turned into multiple emails, phone calls, misinformation, and whole lot of wasted time. But it's been submitted and the plan is to get it put up as soon as possible after we close on the house and move in.

Drywall and Primer

I've been a little behind on updates on here. The day after my last post on Week 6 progress we had the dreaded stomach virus make it's miserable way through our house starting with our youngest son. It delayed the drywall walkthrough as the day I was originally supposed to meet with the project manager I was feeling half dead and had to postpone it with him a few days.

When I finally met with last week not only was the drywall up but the first coat of primer had been put on the walls as well. He explained to me that painting is a multistep process done over the course of a week or so with primer, patching, paint, more patching, and another layer of paint added before it's finished. The kitchen and bathroom cabinetry had also been added with everything covered in plastic to keep it protected from stray paint.

On the outside the driveway was in the final stages of paving when I arrived for the walkthrough. Gutters had also been installed. With a lack of trees in our yard leaves won't be much of an issue but at some point I plan to get some sort of cover installed on those. Getting up on a ladder to clean the gutters on my existing one story house has been difficult enough and I definitely won't be climbing high enough to reach the second story on this one.

The project manager asked me not to include a picture of it but he was also going to be tearing up the sidewalk and getting it re-poured for the third time. I mention this because I've really appreciated his attention to detail and it seems like everything Jenny and I have noted as potential issues during construction he's already seen and made note of. The previous two pours of the sidewalk looked fine to us and we never would have thought to ask about it. But clearly he saw a problem both times warranting redoing it. I've also really appreciated his constant communication throughout the build. He's called at least once if not twice a week and always been willing to meet me for a walkthrough. As I've noted before Jenny and I have read through numerous other Ryan Homes building blogs and at least some of them have noted a lack of communication from the project manager but this has certainly not been an issue for us. 

On to photos:

Paved driveway.

Rear of house. Note the safety railing covering the sliding door. After we move in my brother-in-law is going to add a simple set of steps for us until we can build a deck. We opted not to one built during initial construction as our sales rep told us that their cost was around twice as much as what we could have it added for later. We're also probably going to add a patio of some sort too.

More photos behind the cut here.

Week 6 Progress

The house is coming right along. From the outside at least the major things completed this week have been the siding, shutters, trim, and garage door.

The project manager called me this afternoon to give me an overall progress update. In addition to what I noted above several other things have been completed as well. The big thing inside is that drywall has been hung. And just this afternoon the water, sewer, and gas lines were finished, inspected, approved, and buried. He also told me that the sidewalk had been pulled up and re-poured because he wasn't pleased with the finish on the original one. I've arranged to meet him Monday afternoon to do another walkthrough to see the progress on the inside and take pictures. 

Water and Sewer Lines

Jenny and I drove by the house this afternoon on the way out to get some groceries. We noticed as we approached that a small excavator was out front and a guy was working in one of the trenches that had been dug. I thought one of them was for the drain line from the French drain under the house but come to find out from talking to the contractor doing the work that it was our sewage line out front and water line on the side. Standing at the street I snapped a few photos:

Sewage line coming from the house.

Curving around to where it connects with the sewer underneath where the driveway will eventually sit.

Trench for the water line.

I didn't notice it until this evening until Jenny pointed it out but you can also see from that first photo above that the sidewalk that was poured earlier in the week has apparently been removed. It looked fine when I walked through with the project manager yesterday but something must have happened to cause it to be ripped up. I guess I'll ask him the next time he calls. 

Insulation

The project managed called me yesterday and asked if I wanted to do another walkthrough with him now that insulation has been put up. I'm definitely not going to pass up an opportunity to go through there with him so we arranged to meet this afternoon. Seeing as I just went through there with him on Monday and the only thing that had been done so far as the insulation it didn't take very long as there wasn't much else to see. We talked briefly about the failed inspections from earlier in the week. He showed me where the missing fireblocking is supposed to go and also in the garage where the steel i-beam needs additional bolts. It didn't sound too major but at least the issues were caught and corrected.

As I left crews were working outside putting up the vinyl siding. I also noticed that the concrete for the sidewalk and front porch floor had been poured as well.

Sidewalk

Front porch.

Insulation along the side wall of the garage. They only add insulation to the living area walls of the house and don't do the parts of the walls of the garage that don't back up to inside areas of the house. I wish it had been an option to do the other areas as well. I insulated the walls of the detached garage on my current house and it made a big difference. I will probably eventually go back and do something similar in here as well depending on how cold it gets in the winter. I want to be able to work out there comfortably year round. 

Insulated walls of the garage against the living areas of the house.

Uninsulated side wall.

More photos behind the cut here.

Failed Inspection

Throughout the build process Jenny and I have been checking the county inspection records that are available online. Everything so far has passed until today. Checking on it this afternoon the house has failed not one but two inspections.

Jenny and I both think based on the comment on the second framing inspection that the inspector is just a wee bit annoyed right now. I was supposed to meet up with the project manager this week to do another walkthrough once the insulation was up but it doesn't look like that will be happening until next week now. I drove by the house today and boxes of vinyl siding were sitting in the driveway so it looks like that will be done in the next few days at least. 

Pre-Drywall Meeting and Closing Scheduled

I met this afternoon with the project manager to do the pre-drywall walkthrough of the house. Similar to the walkthrough we did last Wednesday it was another chance to see everything done so far and prior to the hanging of drywall and ask questions. Similar to the pre-construction meeting Jenny and I read through numerous other Ryan Homes blogs to find out what to expect and questions to ask.

The major things were to double check to make sure that things such as cable and phone jacks, ceiling fan rough-ins, and similar things were installed and placed where we wanted them. Most everything else were things we went over in the walkthrough last week or even in the pre-construction meeting or subsequent phone calls with the project manager.

One thing I noticed today that I was especially impressed by was how thorough they seem to be with the energy efficiency thing. Everywhere you look there's either yellow or pink expanding insulation foam that has been used to seal every possible area where air could leak into the house. Even the electrical outlets and ceiling fan rough-ins have been sealed in this way.

Based on suggestions I received from several coworkers one thing I did today during the walkthrough was take photos of each wall to have a record of where the wires and plumbing are before they're covered up by drywall. This way if we ever want to hang a picture or something else that requires putting a nail into the wall we have a rough idea of where things are. (Along with using a stud/wire finder of course.)

Over the weekend we also received a letter in the mail with the schedule for our new home orientation meeting and closing. The former is scheduled for Tuesday April 22 and the latter for April 24. It sounds like this is pretty much set in stone at this point although after talking with my realtor the closing date might change slightly since we're using an outside law firm for settlement.

Breaker box in the garage.

Main air intake and wastewater lines.

Laundry room hook ups and plumbing for washing machine and dryer.

Upstairs central ductwork.

Upstairs bathroom plumbing.

Bedroom wiring.

Surprise Walkthrough

I got a call from our project manager early this afternoon. Along with the usual progress updates (ductwork and HVAC installed over the weekend; plumbing and wiring being installed this week) he also asked if I was available to meet with him and do a walkthrough of the house later in the day. (NOT the pre-drywall meeting. That's going to happen next week.) Since I work at a school and my day generally ends by 3pm anyway I jumped at the chance meet him. As luck would have it Jenny was also able to leave work a bit early and also attend.

Jenny and I had walked through the house over the weekend and noted a number of minor issues that we went through with him. Among other things (and his responses):
-Gouges in the garage floor. (Normal and unavoidable. Will be patched prior to closing.)
-Several cracked 2x4's in the framing. (Imperfections are common and these were on non-load bearing walls so it's not an issue.)
-Several holes in the plywood on the walls. (Apparently the construction crew will do this intentionally to give them hand holds to lift walls into place and they will be patched later.)
-Numerous spots where you could look up at the second floor and see where nails were secured into the floor joists. (Also normal and results from going so quickly with a nail gun. The subfloor is secured with not only nails but screws and glue as well to prevent squeaks.)

We also found out what the deal was with the bedroom closet/laundry room nook issue I noted in my previous entry, Slight Deviation in Plans. According to him this was a result of a common tweaking of the house plans based on customer input and other factors and it just hadn't been reflected in the sales materials yet. Like I mentioned in that entry Jenny actually preferred it that way and is glad to have the spot in the laundry room for extra shelving/storage space. (Although he said if we really wanted it the other way it wouldn't have been a problem to re-frame the space.)

We went room by room and had a chance to ask questions. All the ductwork and plumbing had been run, and a crew was working inside on the wiring as we went through it. Being as curious as I am about such things I probably bordered on the annoying with everything I asked about. Seeing as all of this stuff is covered up behind the walls it was absolutely fascinating to me seeing how these systems come together and work.

A few other things of note I learned today that I found especially interesting:
-Electrical wiring around the exterior walls of the house is run at the bottom instead of in the middle as you see on interior walls. Apparently this is an energy efficiency thing. Lower on the wall creates a smaller gap when insulation is placed over it.

-Each spot where the wire is passed through a stud is covered by a little metal plate. This prevents a nail from accidentally hitting the wire if someone goes to put up a picture or otherwise do something that involves putting a hole in the wall through the stud.

Small metal plate protecting the electrical wire.

-One of the things Jenny and I had noticed over the weekend and were curious about was why there a piece of house wrap on the interior wall of the master bathroom. It's the only spot inside the house like that and we figured it was there for a reason but just weren't sure what that was. Turns out we were right and it's actually yet another energy efficiency thing. That piece of house wrap sits between the tub and the exterior wall and helps to keep the water in the tub warmer.

House wrap on the wall of the master bathroom.

I also received a slight slap on the wrist so to speak from the project manager regarding my visits to the site. He had told us any time we wanted to go on the property we needed to check in with the neighborhood office and be escorted. The first time I had done this I was told by the sales representative there that this was more of a formality and I could go down there whenever. I've also read on numerous blogs and talked to other folks that have been through the build process that they had no problem visiting anytime so I didn't think much about it. I've been waiting until evenings once the crews leave to go look around and snap photos and check on things but I was reminded this afternoon that I do need an escort for my own safety.

As it is we're scheduled to do our pre-drywall meeting next Monday and should find out for sure at that point our expected closing date. Hopefully we've finally seen the last of the snow and things should move right on along from here.

Slight Deviation from Plans

My wife came back from a work trip this afternoon after being gone for a few days and of course she wanted to go see in-person the progress made on the house. She has a better eye for detail and when we went upstairs one thing she noticed almost immediately was a difference in the floor plans versus the way the house was actually framed.

On the floor plan it shows the closet in room #3 as running the length of the wall and having double doors:

The way it was framed however leaves the closet smaller with only a single door and a small nook on the other side of the wall in the laundry room.

Looking at the closet from the bedroom.

Looking at the wall from the laundry room with the small nook on the right.

I haven't been able to find pictures on other Sienna blogs to see if other houses were built in a similar way but Jenny says she remembers seeing it in the house identical to ours that we walked through several weeks ago. I'm going to ask the project manager about it the next time I talk to him to see if there's been a change in the plans or an actual error in framing but Jenny would rather have the extra nook for shelving to store linens, towels, etc. so I guess it will be staying that way.

Week 3 Progress

One thing I've noticed both in our neighborhood and on the various Building with Ryan blogs is that the framing of the house doesn't take very long at all. Ryan seems to have the process down to a science almost and doesn't waste time putting it together. Our house has certainly been no exception. Every day I stopped by this week there was progress.

When I stopped by Monday the crew had begun building the second floor:

When I went by Tuesday the garage floor had been poured and roof trusses had been delivered:

By Wednesday the rest of the second floor above the garage had been added along with the stairs:

On Thursday afternoon the roof was on and windows had been installed:

This afternoon I got a call from the project manager letting me know framing had been completed and roofing work would proceed this weekend. Next week work will commence on installing ductwork, wiring, and plumbing with the expectation that we will have a our pre-drywall walkthrough sometime in the next ten days. 

I had a chance to walk through it this evening. It's amazing to me how far things have progressed. Just three weeks ago the lot was still bare and now we've got a framed house.

Even more photos of the interior after the break:

Framing Begins

The project manager called me yesterday afternoon and let me know they had begun framing the house in the morning. Due to a storm that came through in the middle of the day they only got the floor and one wall done but were going to be working through the weekend.

How it looked Friday evening.

When I stopped by this evening the first floor had been completely framed.

View from the street.

Left to right: half bathroom, coat closet, mudroom.

Looking from the living room into the kitchen with the pantry in the left corner.

Morning room with sliding door opening on the right.

Looking from the morning room towards the dining and living room.

Stairway/under stairs closet, entry hallway and front door, mudroom.

Garage.

Back of the house.