1/18/2013 Digging Day is Here!

Yesterday, Brandon shot me and email, saying that they had finally received the permit and will commence digging today.   Yea for Ryan keeping abreast of the situation, boo for the permit jerks at Washington Township for holding this up. 

Standing in our Basement

The Ravenna that broke ground 3 weeks ago

We went out to the site and saw that they had neatly dug a 4-6 foot hole the size of the house (and finished it).  Figuring it's not dangerous at this point, I went down into the hole and stood in my basement for the very first time.   This was the first time you get the feel of how big your home's footprint  is going to be.  Looking across to the neighbors house, they were just past the framing stage and you could tell it was going to be a Ravenna.   We can't wait to see the face of our house in the next few weeks.   It's kinda like seeing your child on ultrasound for the very first time.  With the MLK holiday coming up and dropping temperatures, we're not going to see too much next week.

1/22/2013  Coldness Sets In
Since  Monday was MLK day, we took a break from our natural committment to see the house and it's progress everyday.   Today, we were back on track and went out to see the site after work.  With the temps being sub freezing, we weren't expecting them to do too much (and that's a good thing).  But we did see that the area of the basement was covered with tarp to protect the earth underneath.   Though we are always happy with progress, we are more happy when things are done right, even when it takes a little time.   Hope that this attention to detail and care continues.

All Tarped Up Due to Cold Weather.

We finally made our Guardian selections and sent them late to Ron.   Following the mixup with my email address, poor Ron had to wait a total of a week and a half for us to make a decision.   Though it took alot of thought, it's done and we locked in our following selections:

- Basic Security System package.
- Basic Home wiring package
- Essential Monitoring System
- HDTV Prewire over the FP

We wanted so much more than this but the costs were really expensive, especially with the Audio Speaker Systems and the IT wiring.   After doing countless years of both for the Govies, I figured that we could better justify the costs by doing what I want ourselves.   With systems like Surround Sound and Computers well into the wireless realm, there was no justification on spending thousands for those systems.  Return on investment for those items would be minimal.

We currently have chrome faucets in our house in an attempt to cut costs.  Orignally, Amy wanted Bronze and I wanted Brushed Nickel and I fought it, noting that like brass faucets of the 1980's, Bronze will look horrible in 10 years and Bronze is a passing fad.   I think we are going to go for the Brushed Nickel and pay for the upgrade.  Thank goodness that these change orders aren't so earth shaking.   I will be getting with Kelly soon to make the change order.  Of course, like with everything else, it's going to require additional dinhero.  *SIGH* and again, the cost of this house creeps up yet a little more.