DaysToCompletion

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Pre-Construction Meeting

Today was a very exciting day.  We signed our contract on December 28th and we never thought this day would get here.  Everything with the Pre-Construction meeting went great.  We finally got a chance to meet our PM and it was great seeing him get excited about some of the options we have selected.  We spent 2.5 hours going through everything in detail.  While we were going thru the list we discovered that we could upgrade ALL of our secondary bathrooms vanity tops to granite for $600...doesn't matter if it is 2 additional or in our case 5 additional it is $600.  We had thought about that but we thought it was $600 per vanity and for that price we said no way.  So, we decided to make that change, but that took another hour for us(my wife) to decide which granite she wanted...and of course the granite(ubatuba) was an upgrade so it was $900 instead...oh well...still a good deal 

Our sales rep and PM had talked before the meeting about our concern for having some access panel square in the middle of our nice jetted tub in the master bath.  Our PM said that was not a problem...couple of options...one - make a couple of the tiles into an access panel that will be able to be removed...two - cut a hole in the inside of one of the vanities and make an access panel from there into the space for the tub motor...three - cut a hole from the garage ceiling up into the area where the motor will be located and build an access panel in the garage ceiling....needless to say...no brainer...option 3.  Can I just say I already love our PM!!!

He also said to call him or send him emails with any questions we have.  He said he will be calling every Thursday to tell us how the week went and what is planned for the next week.  He also said he wants us involved as much as we would like...come by any time...just call ahead to make sure it is safe to come by...he even said if we wanted to come by every day he was fine with that...don't think it will be that often, but it is going to be tough to stay away.

And the final, not so great news, but not bad either.  They don't yet have the permit to start building yet and apparently even after they get that they have to wait till some manager from the main office gives them the go ahead to get started.  We will see...didn't sound like the June 1st start was going to happen and then he was talking about 3rd week of September for closing..way too far out to be sure, but it freaked my wife out.  She wants to be done and moved in by the first week in September so if someone wants to buy our house and be moved in by the time school starts they can....I say tough...it's our house and I am not about to move twice...if that means we lose out on a potential sale of our house...so be it!!!

@HW - We put our request in for the Spa Shower today...wahoooo...THANK YOU for sharing that with everyone...our sales rep said it would not be a problem to do it...will see what price they come back with.  Did you also notice that the valve has a plug on it for electric...don't forget you will need a GFCI outlet behind the shower wall for it to plug into...I am thinking that maybe we will have it mounted inside the vanity so we can get to it if needed...assuming that meets code.  Will also get you some info on moving...

Also forgot to mention...our sales rep is trying to get the 2 big 33" cabinets on the island changed out to a different version...still 33" with two doors, but behind the two doors instead of having a center post with a drawer half way up on both sides, there will be no center post and there will be 2 drawers that are the entire width of the cabinet...1 half way up the cabinet and the second drawer at the bottom of the cabinet.  Great for pots and pans and oval shaped crock pots!!!

13 comments:

  1. Congrats BD!! Hopefully they get the permits soon so you guys can get the show on the road!

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  2. Very exciting - I can't wait to watch your progress!

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  3. Great news! Congrats on the upgrade for the bathrooms, what a nice surprise that must have been. I can't wait to finally see your house get started it is going to be beautiful!

    One of my coworkers is also getting ready to build an Avalon in SC. I’ll have to let her know to read your blog, I think it will be very beneficial for her. I'm also trying to persuade her to start a blog and join us in the fun.

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  4. Congrats!! Can't wait until your house gets started! Great news on the granite!

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  5. YAY!!!! I think we all are itching to see the progress on your house almost as much as you are! lol I can't wait to see it!!

    I do hope they can get all the "red-tape" handled a whole lot sooner than they plan or think. I'd love for ya'll to get into your house sooner than September!

    WOW...you thought ya'll were gonna have to pay $3000 to upgrade to granite in the baths and now you did it for less than $1000! GREAT DEAL!! And congrats on getting the access panel worked out. Hope your new shower works out too!

    Keep us posted!! And congrats!

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  6. That's great news about the bathroom countertops. Fingers crossed that the permits come through soon!!

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  7. Thanks everyone...yes we are excited to finally get going...our sales rep has been a great sport during our 6 months of selecting options.

    There is a single room in the house that has not had an upgrade or an option added to it. Can anyone guess what room that is? My wife couldn't figure it out...I had to give her all kinds of clues before she got it.

    @Minaq2 - Would love to see someone else building an Avalon join our blogging efamily...even if she just participates in the comment banter it would be great. Please tell her to feel free to ask any questions she might have.

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  8. BD - yeah, we had to add a dedicated GFCI for the valve and one for our custom tub. Great suggestion on the location. We will bring it up to our RH sales rep and PM to see what they think. Our RH sales rep is still working out the details and pricing, but didn't forsee it being a problem. Our PM is great, but he didn't seem too happy regarding our custom requests...a little comment slipped out something like 'we are not a custom builder'...we almost went off, but we kept our cool. We just think he is a little stressed out because he has a lot going on and needs some help. This is the start of house #7 for him is 7 weeks; plus he is overseeing a new townhome community.

    We didn't get a chance to go to the lot today; so we are going to the lot tomorrow to take pics before they break groun on 06/01. Sorry to hear that your date got pushed out a few days...it will all work out.

    We are looking forward to following you through the building process...like we have said before, we sooooo love the Avalon layout and really wish we could have built one instead of the Waverly.

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  9. hope that permits come through fairly quick! Your house is going to be gorgeous! Glad you are going with uba tuba granite in the bathrooms it will look pretty sweet. Cannot wait once you break ground and the pictures will come.

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  10. I am so happy for you BD!!!! We are having our pre-construction meeting on Monday (6/6) and I am so excited!

    We had asked awhile ago about putting dual shower heads in our bathroom ( i never blogged about it, because it was the hubby's idea), they said they could as long as the water pressure would remain the same. We are currently waiting on a price, not exactly sure what the spa shower is? Is that the same thing?

    Our Sales rep actually asked us did we want to move in at the middle end of august, we originally were supposed to close around mid to end of September! I am so excited! I still would not mind moving in September, gives us more time to rent the current home, but the interests rates are so low right now, that I want to lock as soon as possible! I pray that they remain the same or even better go lower! This is the lowest they have been all year I believe.

    Anywho, I hope the permits come in soon and that is so cool about the granite. I hope our PM will be as helpful as yours. I wanted to have glass cabinets added to our island, but I never saw that as a upgrade. I will definitely ask at our meeting. We were supposed to meet this tomorrow, but our PM doesn't hold meetings in the evenings or weekends???I thought we were the clients, oh well and have a great week. I hope on Monday I can add our pre-construction ticker!

    I'm so excited, it is finally time for us to build. We started in March and I have seen so many houses go up! Happy its our turn now!

    Good night and sorry for the long post.

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  11. Thanks Chelly...I know your feeling...we have been waiting since December.

    Our island has regular cabinets on one side and glass ones on the opposite side.

    The Spa Shower has a rainfall shower head, then a handheld regular shower head that can be mounted on a adjustable height slider and then there are 4 spray jets that can be aimed at the body area...all controlled by this computerized control unit. You can program up to 4 unique setups including temperature and what is on or off. You can even us a remote control from outside the shower to start it all up...little bit of heaven. I have to thank HW for the great idea.

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  12. No problem! I don't know how you have waited this long!!! However, I think the long wait gave you an opportunity to blog and learn so much about what you want and don't and what to look for and not!:)

    Wowzers, I went to HW's page and saw the specs! Nice! We just asked for a simple addition, One additional shower head! I know you both will have heavenly showers! Nice!

    Okay, that's what I figured about the island. I am going to add that to my list of questions for Monday, because I didn't see that as an option.

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