What's the Happy Happs?
I had a nice meeting with Bert this morning to ask questions, answer questions, and get a general status update on the house.
I showed up at 11 to find no one there. Bert told me how another house has to be finished by Friday, so all teams have been pulled to finish it up. The good news is, I'll get my time for that too when it's the last week for my house. :-)
I need to decide on a stain color for my family room ceiling. I need to decide on a stain color for my front doors. I need to pick brown or gray for my hearth color (I'm pretty positive I'm picking brown).
First I asked about the septic tank and what it'll look like and what maintenance it needs. He says no matter what, have it pumped every 2 years. He says it's only $185 and that is much cheaper than waiting until it's full/overflowing and pumping it then. He says not only do they pump it, but they service it by cleaning filters and all of that. (Praise God for people who do that job so I don't have to.) They have already done all the requests/permits for the septic tank and we are approved and will start digging it when we have a solid week without rain. (Good luck! This is the rainy season, man.) Here is the little picture he drew for me.
I wanted to know about the gutters and drainage system around the house. This is what it looks like (you may need to click on the picture to see the white and black pipes that are buried):
All the PVC pipes that are sticking out of the ground will connect with the gutters. They will all feed into a large PVC pipe that runs around the whole house and has no holes. We want zero water around the house. That large pipe will run all the way under our yard and empty into the woods, and off the side of the mountain. Yes. Just to make sure we don't have water problems, the black pipe on the right absorbs water and feeds into that pipe system at the end and brings any more water there can be away from the house. He says the goal is ZERO water. Nice. He says he and Chris are super anal about this because guess who I'll call to fix it in the future if something goes wrong? Them! And they want to do it right the first time. Very nice. There will be no need of a drainage system under the house because of this pipe system. They will also build little gullies around the yard to feed the water downhill and off the mountain.
We have to fix the master bedroom frame, they are going to put some shelves near that door, and I'm going to look for a prettier vent intake.
Then he said we need to talk dates. He asked if I wanted to sit down for this. I said, maybe you want to stand far enough away from me so I can't smack you. This is what he thinks the general timeline will look like:
He was embarrassed I took a picture of his scribbling, but I knew I'd want to look back at it approximately a zillion times. On the bottom, May 1st is our date. IF there are no setbacks. Yep, because there are never setbacks when you build a house. (*sarcasm font*) In case you can't read it, this is what he's thinking:
1st week of February - finish trim
2nd & 3rd & 4th week of February - hardwood floors and interior walls
Month of March - Install Cabinets (that we haven't even ordered yet!), plumbing, electrical, measure and order countertops, septic system.
First half of April - counter tops installed, appliances installed
Second half of April - finish exterior of yard - seed
Move in May 1st or last of April.
I asked about the porches and patios and driveways and tree removal and carpet and all of that. He said that will be going on at the same time as the other stuff.
When he said the word May, I thought that sounds like forever away. Then he reminded me that May 1st is 90 days from Monday. That doesn't sound as bad.
All in God's timing!! On the one hand I'd love to live there next week, on the other hand, I honestly don't want to live outside God's timing. That fact makes waiting bearable. But doesn't really make me patient. :-)
I showed up at 11 to find no one there. Bert told me how another house has to be finished by Friday, so all teams have been pulled to finish it up. The good news is, I'll get my time for that too when it's the last week for my house. :-)
I need to decide on a stain color for my family room ceiling. I need to decide on a stain color for my front doors. I need to pick brown or gray for my hearth color (I'm pretty positive I'm picking brown).
First I asked about the septic tank and what it'll look like and what maintenance it needs. He says no matter what, have it pumped every 2 years. He says it's only $185 and that is much cheaper than waiting until it's full/overflowing and pumping it then. He says not only do they pump it, but they service it by cleaning filters and all of that. (Praise God for people who do that job so I don't have to.) They have already done all the requests/permits for the septic tank and we are approved and will start digging it when we have a solid week without rain. (Good luck! This is the rainy season, man.) Here is the little picture he drew for me.
I wanted to know about the gutters and drainage system around the house. This is what it looks like (you may need to click on the picture to see the white and black pipes that are buried):
All the PVC pipes that are sticking out of the ground will connect with the gutters. They will all feed into a large PVC pipe that runs around the whole house and has no holes. We want zero water around the house. That large pipe will run all the way under our yard and empty into the woods, and off the side of the mountain. Yes. Just to make sure we don't have water problems, the black pipe on the right absorbs water and feeds into that pipe system at the end and brings any more water there can be away from the house. He says the goal is ZERO water. Nice. He says he and Chris are super anal about this because guess who I'll call to fix it in the future if something goes wrong? Them! And they want to do it right the first time. Very nice. There will be no need of a drainage system under the house because of this pipe system. They will also build little gullies around the yard to feed the water downhill and off the mountain.
We have to fix the master bedroom frame, they are going to put some shelves near that door, and I'm going to look for a prettier vent intake.
Then he said we need to talk dates. He asked if I wanted to sit down for this. I said, maybe you want to stand far enough away from me so I can't smack you. This is what he thinks the general timeline will look like:
He was embarrassed I took a picture of his scribbling, but I knew I'd want to look back at it approximately a zillion times. On the bottom, May 1st is our date. IF there are no setbacks. Yep, because there are never setbacks when you build a house. (*sarcasm font*) In case you can't read it, this is what he's thinking:
1st week of February - finish trim
2nd & 3rd & 4th week of February - hardwood floors and interior walls
Month of March - Install Cabinets (that we haven't even ordered yet!), plumbing, electrical, measure and order countertops, septic system.
First half of April - counter tops installed, appliances installed
Second half of April - finish exterior of yard - seed
Move in May 1st or last of April.
I asked about the porches and patios and driveways and tree removal and carpet and all of that. He said that will be going on at the same time as the other stuff.
When he said the word May, I thought that sounds like forever away. Then he reminded me that May 1st is 90 days from Monday. That doesn't sound as bad.
All in God's timing!! On the one hand I'd love to live there next week, on the other hand, I honestly don't want to live outside God's timing. That fact makes waiting bearable. But doesn't really make me patient. :-)
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