Our Journey to a Strauss--Building a Ryan Home: We Have a REAL Closing Date!

Well we had our pre-drywall meeting on Friday (3/1), and our PM Jim gave us our official settlement and closing dates--April 18th and April 22nd! WAHOO!! The official dates make it seem so much more real now!

We were hoping for earlier in April or the end of April, since the hubby will be on business in San Diego for two weeks straight mid-April, which could be problematic. After reading all of the NVR horror stories about having paperwork faxed last minute and needing to keep a constant stream of communication, the fact that he will be on the other side of the country right before we close if worrisome. With me being a teacher, it is virtually impossible to call and fax documents in the middle of the day. We don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but we are a tad worried.

My parents came down for the meeting and a visit. My dad is a contractor so we thought he would be a good second pair of eyes, especially since neither one of us really knows what to look for! My dad plans on building a deck for us in the summer so he asked our PM to put some kind of beam on, which will not be a problem. When he brought us outside to point out what they were talking about, we noticed every other unit in out building has one of the beams already, making ours the only one that did not add on a deck as an upgrade. Talk about awkward! Oh well, my dad is excited about building our deck for us, so I guess we will just suffer a few months of embarrassment being the only townhouse without a deck ;)

Everything else with the house looks great. I know I've said it before, but I absolutely LOVE our elevation E choice---partial stone, bay window, with a small peak roof. I think it is the best looking one! I love our tray ceiling in the master, and am so excited to use that soaking tub. Yay for the Strauss! Our PM said he has worked for Ryan for 25 years, and he believes the Strauss model is the best of all the townhouses. I have to agree!

We took a trip through the model to show my parents some of the things we eventually want to do, and to show my mom what it will look like when it is all done since it is hard to envision just from framing. I am SO excited to finalize paint colors and start designing our house!

Sorry the pictures kind of suck, I clearly was not that into taking them. Or taking notes either, even though I brought a notepad. Oh well. Insulation was finished yesterday, and drywall will begin tomorrow! Yay for drywall! Looking forward to our visit next weekend!

And on a side note-------> Yes, our wedding was in October, but we finally planned our honeymoon! We will be going to the Paradisus Resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic! The all-inclusive resort is beautiful and affordable, and since C has so many miles from business travelling our flights were free! Except for the taxes of course, but I still think $200 for two round-trip tickets was a good deal. Fingers crossed Congress can get their acts together and figure out all of this sequestration nonsense so we can actually go. This vacation is much needed!

Here are some of the pathetic pictures I took. If you think these are bad, you should see the ones I didn't put up!

Circuit breaker...obv

Utility closet

Rec room

Standing in the kitchen looking towards the living room. My dad and hubby talking with our PM.

I took a picture of the dripping pipe. Our PM said the plumber is aware of issue and supposedly fixed it. Obviously not. PM said he would be back on Monday to fix it.

Master closet. We took a trip to IKEA on Saturday and plan on doing one of their closet systems. Much more affordable than California Closets, but we know not as good of quality. Does anybody have any experience with IKEA's closets? Are they worth it?