Groundbreaking Week (or not)

So Monday, we're expecting a ground breaking as the clouds cleared on Monday as Brandon has predicted.  I couldn't make it to the site this week, so I had Amy go out and take pictures as they were excavating.  Amy reported that they didn't and were awaiting permits to excavate.  Really?   I guess the weather wasn't to blame for this delay but it was the permits.  At the same time, Amy was having heartache with the orientation of the fireplace.  Somehow in the planning/pricing meetings we did not have the choice but to put it on the back wall of the family room and it did not pose to be a problem then.   Now she wanted it on the side wall of the living room--after the production release had been signed!  So, we asked if we can have this change in fireplace arrangement and though the answer was never no, it was going to cost us in time and money to rerun the permits.   Kinda miffed right now at Brandon for leaving out this permit thing and Amy for not making an issue of this until now.  Brandon and I are going to have a talk about this when I get out there and Amy has let the fireplace issue rest--for now.  Sometimes I wonder if all of these customizations are worth the headache.   In a pre-existing house, at least we can just suck it up and accept it--end of story

Guardian, surprisingly has been MIA and so I emailed Ron yesterday.  Turns out he got the wrong email address and did get the estimates to me in a timely fashion.  But, going to review his proposals and decide whether they are worth the money.

Hopefully, the permit people get off their keesters so we can start on this house.   We'll see.

1/10/2013 A Day Before Groundbreaking

Last week, during our meeting with Brandon, our Project Manager, we were told that the initial excavation of the home would not be until Monday the 14, due to the rainy forecast this weekend.   With the closing prediction on April 2 and my lease on the rental ending on May 31st, a delay such as this wouldn't pose any problems to my arrangements given that this is the ONLY delay.   Only time will tell.

1/11/2013 Meeting With Guardian

After a cancelled meeting a little under a month ago, we finally met with Ron from Guardian Home Technologies.   This is one of the last things to add to the bottom line of this house as the  price of the house keeps rising the more things we add to it. 

For those who didn't know, Guardian handles most of the low-voltage connections through the house.  Phone lines, coax lines, security, and sound systems among other things.  The do have great offerings as far as product and services go, but always as we have experienced on this journey, at an additional cost.

On this particular day, I had a bit of business to do at the Benham Estates Model.  For one, since the last pre-construction meeting, I have been promising Kelly, our SR, our final selections for elective electric outlets and lights since last week but I've been a total schlub and haven't done it until now.   No excuses, but a very full week at work.   So we arrived about 30 minutes early to take care of that to the tune of an additional 1300 bucks--ugh.   Kelly had to pour through the floorplans in order to document the particular feature so it ended up taking about a hour.  Luckily, Ron had left us a message saying he was going to be half-an hour late so the timing was perfect.

Ron, is one hilarious dude.  I'm not sure if it was because he was slaphappy at the end of the day or that is the way he really is.  It made for one fun meeting though.   Because the Guardian meeting has been know to run over 2 hours, I told him we had an hour fifteen so that we can have the condensed version.    

Ron gave us the condensed versions of his communications, audio, and security schpeel.   He was very respectful of our time and really cut to the chase about the offerings.  Being forwarned about hard-sell techniques such as looking at the wife during the security schpeels, were looked for but didn't happen.   This was testament of Ron's integrity for if he had done any of that, it would have had an opposite effect.   

So we looked at having a CAT5 /Coax package, surround sound in two of the rooms, and a security package priced.  We concluded the meeting feeling good and relieved that it did not take two hours as some home owners have mentioned in their blogs.   There was a bit of urgency though, since we are in construction, this is technically a late meeting and I assured Ron that the turnaround after his pricing quote should be quick as well.