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Friday, May 10, 2013
Monday, May 6, 2013
Porch swings
In a previous post, I talked about the porch swing I really wanted for the front porch. Well, turns out my folks bought be one off Ebay that wasn't quite the one I wanted, but still a nice swing. Once we started getting settled in, I decided I would use the swing my folks bought me in the back, under the deck. Then late, I decided to get the one I wanted for the front porch. Now I am extra happy, because both swings really fit nicely!For the back deck, I went to Lowe's to purchase some stain, the color is Dark Walnut, though I think the end result was lighter than expected because either the wood, or more likely, I didn't actually stir it that well (as I a found out later). Each slat was removed, stained, varnished, then reassembled by my expert assistant.
The front porch swing I knew would be a bit more challenging, since hanging it would require removing all of the soffit and trying to find suitable points for the eye-bolts. I had troves of photos I had taken of the house during its building stage, but in all, there were only like 4 or 5 that showed the underneath of the porch ceiling trusses. The laterally mounted studs which span the porch were not going to be acceptable, so instead I drilled through the truss, having a nice vertical support stud to place the eye-bolt. The chain that came with the swing was super thick, too thick, rated for 1300 lbs, making the swing capable of sustaining a ton of weight. They looked kinda ugly, so I bought more chain at Lowe's to get something nicer looking, yet still rated to support a great deal of weight. Once the swing was mounted and positioned the correct height and angle, I re-installed the soffit. When I got the the location where an eye-bolt was going to be, I simply set the vinyl panel in place, reached up an over with a long pencil, dropped it down the hole I drilled, and marked a point on the back side of the panel to drill the hole. Actually the previous soffit install job was suffering because the final piece was too long, and would drop down looking like the ceiling was falling out. I trimmed the last piece a little smaller, and now it all looks flawless.
Enjoy!
The Back Deck
The Front Porch
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Towel rack space
Anyone researching the Rome will know that the master bathroom is a little limiting. Small in size, lacking towel bars, shower door location... but trying to maximize functionality, and loving it anyway, I found a place for some additional matching towel rings purchased at Homegoods. If you get the chance to see the master bath before drywall, you will know the right side of the vanity has a ventilation duct filling much of the space behind the wall. To securely mount a towel ring means you may likely require puncturing the duct. In my case, and possibly yours, you may get lucky, since as it turned out, drilling through the wall, at the exact mid-point, 11", I just skiffed the metal edge and retained the integrity of the vent shaft.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Put to good use!
Probably somewhere in a previous post I talked about all the goodies one could find in their dumpster at various points throughout the life cycle of home building. Anything from carpet, to tile, vinyl siding. Well, the vinyl siding was especially useful in my first dumpster project to date.Our dog Charlie has a dog house. Very well constructed, durable, etc. Only problem it was painted radio-active green. It was only a matter of time before before the HOA would be showing up with a nasty-gram or something, so I knew something had to be done. Fortunately, my frugal side came through, and I was able to create a mini-Rome for our dog Charlie, using nearly all recycled, scavenged products taken from our dumpster.
Here are some photos...
Friday, April 19, 2013
Post-closing Update
The Bad News
It's about 3+ weeks after closing, and the house is hanging in there, as is are we. The banister I paid $$$$ for was poorly crafted. Beams were not aligned with balusters, and running your hand down the rail might be great if you were trying to exfoliate your hand, or file your nails, but for smoothness of touch, it was not great. The wood was entirely lacquered and in some places, brush bristles were epoxied into the surface, as if being preserved for future generations. Fortunately, I was able to get some nice folks over to fix it. It still isn't on par with the $$$$ I paid for it, but it is better. There have been some other settling effects in the house, doors getting stuck, spider cracks in the drywall in a couple places, but I'm not too bothered by these, and expect them as normal for the break-in period of the home. Another feather-ruffling point was the fireplace. During our final walk-through, the fireplace was on, and by the end of the walk-through, we were smoked out of the house. The smoke smelled of burnt plastic, as if someone left a zip-loc bag on top before it was installed. To be assured, I was told a smoking fireplace is typical, that they require a good burn-in period (like 5 hours), but there could be other points to consider, such as the possibility the fireplace was designed for gas, rather than propane. Again, the fireplace company technician, nice fellow, came out within a couple days and looked it over to say again, the smell was normal for the initial burn-in period, and also to reassure me that the fireplace was fitted for propane correctly. In addition to the fireplace burn-in, because the burn-in period was so lengthy (more like 15 hours or more probably in total), this and other factors led to us running out of propane the third night in our home. What does that mean? Well, we weren't going to freeze to death, but we were going to have to live without hot water. How long? Well, in theory up to two weeks, while Suburban Propane, Inc. files my paperwork, verifies my credit, and performs a system leak test. In actuality, we were without hot water less than an hour! Read on to find out why...The Good News
OK, so all this crazy-bad stuff huh?!? Well, I'm writing about it because it happened, not because I am upset about it. Quite the opposite actually, in fact I am quite thankful for having probably the best Project Manager in the whole freaking country! Ascertaining the consequences of no hot water is not desirable, but it is manageable. Millions of people go without it everyday. Fortunately however, our PM called in an emergency service order, on the claim we had a potential leak. After all, we prematurely ran out of propane, didn't we? This caused one disgruntled, on-call, Suburban Propane employee to have to come out and service our tank, verify there wasn't a leak, and provide a temporary surplus of propane. I can imagine how much it sucked for him, and he definitely expressed his displeasure upon arrival, but with all said and done, I gave much thanks and appreciation, and a most notable kudos to our PM for a rock-star performance getting us hot water back.As for some other items, well I am less concerned. Not necessarily because there are minor problems here and there, but more so because they'll get addressed. There are a hundred reasons we are glad we picked a Ryan Home, if only you had the opportunity to come out and see for yourself, the place is actually quite stunning! So, to offer a moral to this story, expect there to be a few problems getting moved into your new home. Be happy it didn't burn down, fall down, get blown away, or drown, and be persistent in your intent to get the problems resolved. You may not get as awesome of a PM as I did, but RH does have a reputation to uphold, so leverage that!
Friday, March 29, 2013
Closed!
Almost exactly a month later, we are closed! Tonight we a busting out the tent & sleeping bags and camping in our new living room in from of a cozy propane fire. Life doesn't get any better :PMonday, March 4, 2013
Limbo
Closing was delayed.We were supposed to close February 28th. But that did not happen.
Three days before closing, NVR relayed to me that they didn't have a 2011 tax transcript. I swore I filed it, but it turns out I didn't. There aren't too many things I procrastinate about in life, but if there is one to take the cake, it would have to be anything to do with the I.R.S. While I had prepared my tax return back in September, on the counsel of NVR saying "it's probably a good idea to get your taxes filed..." I must have lost sight of actually sending in the 1040. Well it all came out just three days before closing (I'll let you draw your own conclusions about that).
February 25th, upon learning that the underwriter required the transcript in order to close, I raced down to the local Federal building to submit my paperwork. The plan at the time was in hopes a stamped submission would be adequate. I am now 4 days past closing, and here to tell you it's not adequate. Also, at the time, we were working on a backup plan to arrange another local lender to service the loan. Sadly that didn't work out since it would mean a new rate lock at a substantially higher rate with a a bank unwilling to honor my deal with NVR.
So here I sit, in a veritable limbo, waiting to hear from NVR as to what the game plan might be. In speculation, I am to guess it's not in their interest to delay a solution, but if some plan isn't formulated, then it could be up to 8 more weeks before the I.R.S. registers my transcript.
Discussing this with NVR, to their credit, they did acknowledge in this worst case scenario, that they would extend my rate lock period. Now that is A++ service!
Hoping to hear something soon!
ISZ
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