O Happy Day!

[slvrsleeper]

My house is framed and should be under roof by this weekend! The wife and I drove out to look at the hole in the ground this past weekend and found our foundation already curing. All our framing lumber was laying in bundles in the front yard too. We went to the builders office and asked when we might see framing started the lady told us "this week easy" Woohooo! Then on Tuesday my wifes co-worker (who lives in the same developement) called to tell us that the first floor was framed and the garage is under roof. Man I am sooooo stoked! Now if I can just get out of my neighborhood without shooting anyone.....LOL Sorry I just had to share. :)

[hyunelan2]

YAY! ME TOO! They put up the first wall on Wednesday. Yesterday they were working on the second floor! We're supposed to have our "pre-drywall inspection" by the end of the month, and close 30-45 days after that. So, I've got about another 6-8 weeks left in this damn redneck-area apartment.

[slvrsleeper]

My wife just called me from work and told me the roof is on! Second floor went on Wednesday and they shingled the roof yesterday. Yippee, guess this means I should start packing huh?

[hyunelan2]

See, that's what I've been trying to debate. When to pack. I don't want to do everything last second, but at the same time I don't want to be living out of boxes for a long time. Recommendations?

[Nerraux]

As a former framing carpenter, I can tell you that the framing is the quickest part, so I wouldn't start packing just yet. However, most development companies throw houses up pretty quick, so I'd say you have about 2 weeks max to completion. Congratulations!

Not to be a prick, but you might want to get some kind of guarantee on the foundation. Most developers include maintenance for a year or two after, but you'll want to be especially careful since your foundations were winter-poured, and they don't always cure the same as one poured in more favorable weather times.

And if Dan Ryan is your developer, you may want to take this into consideration:
http://www.thamike.com/story/stories.php?story=04/06/24/9637219
The end of that thread pretty much degrades into a pissing match, but the first few posts might give you an idea of the types of things to look out for in a development home.

[hyunelan2]

Thanks for the tip on the foundation. I don't know how his house is and the weather in VA, but it's damn cold here. They worked around that by putting up a circus-tent over the entire site. They heat it and let the ground thaw before pouring. Then they pour and let cure the concrete in the heated tent before they remove it. i dunno how much that actually helps, but some of the building inspectors I work with here say I shouldn't have much to worry about with it being poured like that.

As far as production builder, yea - you've gotta be careful and do the research on a builder before you get involved in that. Mine seems pretty decent, and pretty damn big, so I don't think they're going anywhere. http://www.neumannhomes.com/ I also spoke with some people we know that bought from them before, and they all had only positive things to say. Granted, the development is only a year old, so there could be things that haven't become apparent yet. Lets just hope it's good for the 5 years I plan on owning it. I've already made $6,500 in increased value since the purchase in November (base price in Nov was 138,900. Now $145,400). My price with options was $149,500. It has a special assessment, so add about 30G into the price and that's what it'd cost without that.

[slvrsleeper]

I'm figuring about sixty days to closing. Mike, my personal feeling is that the less packing I have to do on moving day the happier I am. We have a 5X10 storage unit right around the corner from our house and we're filling it to the rafters. Our builder is a small semi-custom oufit named TEL Builders, they seem like a good bunch of people. Every time I call them I talk to the president of the company, thats got to be a good thing right? My place has appreciated by 37,000 since we signed on the dotted line in Sept last year. Price when we bought was 210K now starting at 247K. With our hefty down payment we won't have any PMI which is always a good thing.

[BobMs_wht2k2]

I commend you both. We moved in Thanksgiving weekend. We were out everyother night to see the progress. That's when we installed our surround sound wires and boxes and we put our own deck on.

As for moving, we sold our other house and moved to an apartment for 8 months while we found property/built the house. So we never really unpacked from before.

[hyunelan2]

I take it you have an did a 'real' house (not a townhome like me) at those prices? I wish I could go in and do work myself, but I had to sign a contract that I wouldn't go onto/in the property unescorted. So, I just had to pay to have things like surround wiring done in the contract. I can't wait to get an 'actual' house, but with pricing the way it is, townhome was the reasonable option for now. I can't wait to have a basement to finish. Here, I have no basement, the compromise was a 2-car garage. It's next to impossible to find a townhome here with both (that was in my pricerange anyway).

[BobMs_wht2k2]

Ours was a "custom" home on our property. The actually encouraged us to come out and make sure things were how we wanted. No basement(didn't want one) but 2200sqft and a 25x36 garage for 146000 for the house and property was another 60k for a little over 2 acres.

[slvrsleeper]

Yes, we bought a stand-alone home. We are actually going to be in West Virginia not Virginia(were we are now) The townhouses in NOVA are selling for the mid 500's if you can believe that. We have 1850 sq/ft plus 900 sq/ft of unfinished basement and a two car garage. I would love to prewire the basement for the uber-system but I just don't have the time right now, nevermind the 50 mile one way trip to the new house from the old one. Maybe this summer after the dust settles...

[hyunelan2]

I drive right past my house every night on the way home from work... well, it's about 1 mile outta the way. I look at it on my lunchour, then go look at it after work to see how much hey get done in 4.5 hours. It's a lot actually. I can't wait to go see it again in another... 1.5 hrs!!! Damn this day is long. Maybe I'll go by tomorrow when no-one is there, and trespass.