Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Pre-Construction Meeting---Finally!!

 
We finally had our pre-construction meeting!!! Our Project Manager (PM) has scheduled us to "break ground" this upcoming Monday.  Yeah.....!!!
 
As you can imagine I had a ton of questions going into this meeting.  It lasted a little over 2 hours and our PM and Sales Rep (SR) were both there to go over blueprints and answer our questions. I compiled a list of questions that popped up on other blogs and some lingering questions that I sat on over the past few weeks.  Our PM and SR were thorough and pretty much answered all of our questions.  I didn't care for all of the answers---but that's another story!  You'll see a list of questions and answers below.
 
While there were no major surprises, I must say that I was disappointed that we cannot have guardrails on the front porch.  According to the building code, rails are only required when there is a 30" rise off the ground.  We will be around the 24" mark.  Maybe I'm overthinking things but a two foot drop off the front porch seems rather unsafe!?!?  Our PM said that he could give us some contacts for installers---but this would likely cost us an additional $1200 out-of-pocket.  After spending thousands of dollars on this home there is no way that we will be open to shelling out this type of money.  I hope we can find a resolution because I'm not thrilled about the idea of falling off the front porch after having a glass a wine! Ok, you got me...I will probably have the wine glass in my hand when I fall!!
 
Another undesirable was the location of the A.C. unit.  The unit will be garage side and visible when you are driving in to our cul-de-sac.  I'm sure that I (well Dwight) can plant some flowers or something green or colorful next to it so that it is hidden.  I'll wait until things are completed to see how much of an eye sore it becomes. 
 
Outside of those issues, everything else was straightforward and as expected.  We went over each room and there features, upgrades, and even sizes.  I was like a hawk in that I wanted details about room dimensions and matched them to what we had on our planning sheets. There were several plans for the Milan going around and what I noticed about this was that the model home that we visited provided us with a slightly different floor plan, offering slightly larger guest bedrooms and a slightly larger plan for the finished basement.  Of course I didn't pick this up until after we had signed our contract, but I guess that I can let go of a couple of inches. We have copies of the blueprints so I'm sure that I will obsess over every nook and half inch during the building process.  I told the PM that I would pull out my measuring tape if I had a question about a room size (I was joking of course). Maybe not....:)
 
Oh, I almost forgot. We decided to change the trim package, door and shutter colors for our home.  I fell in love with a home on a fellow blogger website.  I hope that Nokomis..."Our Journey to Naples" does not mind me sharing.  Our home already had the same siding colors as this home but we had white trim and brown/red door and shutters.  We changed to black shutters and a black door.  We switched to an almond color trim for our home. Therefore our pillars, gutters, garage door, and trim around the home will be the almond color.  Our home will look similar to the homes below (Nokomis-pictured lower) without the rail of course--and we have a slightly different elevation and model.  We will have stone that stretches along the lower half of the home and a side car garage door.  However, in terms of colors it will be pretty similar to the homes pictured below:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
So here is some of the Q & A from the pre-construction meeting that we found out:  
General Questions for the Project Manager:
1.       Estimated timeline/milestones, exact closing date?  Late half of May.  Right now we are scheduled for May 22nd, but I'm expecting the end of May or first week in June.
2.       Can we visit the site?  Do we need permission?  Our PM was pretty cool and flexible here. While we will need permission at some stages, he asked that we use our best judgment in deciding when to visit based on the condition of the lot/home.
3.       What is the best way to reach the PM if we have questions?  Text....yep, he said we could text him!!  I warned him that he might want to rethink this.....
4.       Can we bring our own home inspector?  What is the proper procedure?  Yes...he just needs us to give him a few days notice.
5.   Is the subfloor nailed, glued, or screwed?  Is this throughout the entire house? (squeaky floors)  Subfloor will be nailed/screwed and glued in certain areas.
6.   Exact square footage?  3298 finished and 560 unfinished.  The two rooms in the basement that are not finished, we are planning to complete at a later date. 
7.   Deadbolt on all doors leading into the house?  Front? Garage? Morning room?  On all exterior doors.
8.   Can left over materials: tile, paint, hardwood, vinyl be left in garage for later use?  Yes, they will leave left overs in the storage area of the basement for us.
9.  Extra insulation due to highway?  He is going to get back with us about the extra insulation and sound proofing.  He believes the front windows will have the heavy laminate and there will be an extra layer of insulation in the front of the home...however, this could extend to the sides. 
 
10.       Smooth or rough ceilings?  Smooth....
11.       Switches for lights in family room. Will there be dimmers?  Yep, with dimmers.
 
12.       Door handles- which rooms get locks?  All bedroom doors and doors in the basement.
 
13.  Is there a sump pump and where will it be located?  Yes, it will be located near the exit well staircase.
14.   Where are the hose bibs located?  How many?  There are 2...one on the back of the house and one on the side.
15.   Gutters around the entire house? Covered?  Yes, around the house---but they are not covered. :(
 
16.   How many steps to the front porch?  Guard Railings?  3 steps but no guardrail...:(
14.   How many steps into the house from garage?  2
15.   Location of outdoor AC unit?  Heat pump?  Garage side of the home.
16.   Is the driveway asphalt or concrete?  Asphalt
Here's to breaking ground next week......
 
 
 

 

24 comments:

  1. And here I thought you were worried about your little one falling from the steps, lol. I think it may cost a bit less than what your PM quoted. The average cost I saw was $750 for 25 feet. I would just start getting cost estimates, you may be able to afford it (and not finance it) and have it installed after closing.

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    1. Yes, we will certainly get a few quotes if we move in that direction....your average cost sounds a lot better than $1200 :)

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  2. That's what happened to use as well. We want rails on our porch, but they don't come standard because of the rise as well. :( We may add them ourselves because I think it will look so much better. And I totally agree.. that wine glass will be going down with me. ;)

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  3. That's exciting that it's almost time for RH to break ground on your home! I hope that the building process goes smoothly for you and you get to close in May!

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  4. Yay! You guys will be breaking ground at just about the same time as we do. Unless the weather sets us back again. We are slated to end in June though.
    We had the same issue in our pre-construction meeting, answers we didn't necessarily like. At that point, what can you really do. Good luck with your build and congrats!

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    1. It'll be exciting to see both homes coming up at the same time....here's to breaking ground on both homes!! :)

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  5. Very nice they let you keep the blueprints, we were told we couldn't. That so weird about the railing on your front porch. I thought the law was 2 feet or more then 2 steps a railing is required. Maybe it's different in my area. I will warn you when they say all exterior doors that excludes the garage at least in my case it did, I had to ask for them to clarify, but yours could be different. They said as the garage wasn't exterior door to them as it leads to inside the garage, I think it was a play on works on my SR/PM part. Great questions by the way. I wish would tell us these things without asking, they just don't want to say unless we ask to keep us happy.

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    1. Thanks for the info, Page! We have a side car garage that does not have an exterior door to the outside (kind of weird)...but that means that there won't be a door or lock for the garage side.

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    2. We were told we couldn't have a copy either. I actually thought it would be cool to frame them as decor for the office / study.

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    3. We were told we couldn't have a copy either. I actually thought it would be cool to frame them as decor for the office / study.

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    4. Wait, really? We got our architechural plans when we signed our purchase agreement, and I scanned those bad boys right in... I figured I'd lose them later and it would be good to have if we ever needed to do anything structural later:
      http://greenbeltmatisse.blogspot.com/p/ryan-homes-matisse-floor-and-electrical.html

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  6. If you have an HOA, check to see if they have any construction guidelines. For instance, our porches must be at least 6 feet deep with black metal railing and 6x6 posts.

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    1. Good point, Chris!! We have an HOA--however, I have not had a chance to read all the guidelines. Geez, guess I know what i'll be doing this weekend! Thanks :)

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  7. We are also scheduled to close that same week but I'm trying to push it back to the beginning of June.

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    1. Katie, might I ask is there an advantage to pushing it back to June?

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  8. Well I'm a teacher and it would be a very stressful time for me at work so I would love to close when school is out.

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    1. OK, that makes perfect sense. We heard something about being able to skip a payment so I thought it was related to that BC that would be ideal for us as well.

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    2. I know your first mortgage payment isn't due until 2 months after you close. Is that what you were talking about?

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    3. Yes! I thought that was the case, but thanks for the info.

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  10. Hi. your post is so informative. we are scheduled to break ground on March 25 and close maybe in July. Our pre-con is scheduled on March 19. your questions will be so helpful :) happy building!! our blog is mydreamryanhome@blogspot.com.

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  11. Ritz, glad they were helpful :)

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