The Masters House

One of the things that I was tasked with when we signed the contract for our new house was to take the Floor Plan layout and mark up where I wanted the various options that we had purchased. In looking at the piece of paper they handed me I knew that my chicken scratch on that paper was going to nothing but confuse people. To top it off the floor plan was reversed which made it really hard to mark the correct wall I wanted a switch or outlet on.

I decided that I would take it home and fire up Photoshop so that there would be no misunderstandings as to where I wanted each item.

If you click the picture above you will be presented with my hour of labor in reversing the original floor plan and then adding color coded options to it. The options that are listed in the diagram are:

• Additional electrical outlets (extra outlets that we purchased)
• All the cable outlets (standard and extra)
• All the phone jacks (standard and extra)
• The extra door off the 3rd car garage
• The upstairs deck door
• The 2 additional concrete slabs to extend the down stairs patio
• The fence line

When I presented my printout to our sales person she was blown away by the level of detail. I did not do it to impress her but to make sure that there is no question as to where things should be.

In our last house I had marked up the cable outlets by hand and sure enough they put one in the wrong place. I caught it the same day they did it so I called the foreman and it was corrected the next day. I will be checking when they put these things in with my trust diagram in hand to make sure there are no mistakes .

Some people may think that this overboard but it was an hour of my time and was actually a little fun to build my house on paper.

P.S. The model of the house that we are building is “The Sparrow” and is by DR Horton.

Technorati tags: New Home Builders, New Home Construction, Second Home, Housing Market, DR Horton, Round Rock TX, Ausitn TX, Central Texas

There have been some updates since my previous post – A Few Problems Pop Up.

The plumber ended up coming out twice but there still appeared to be water at the bottom of the cabinet. So I called the super again. He called me back this morning and asked if it was OK if he came and took a look at it so he would know what to tell the plumber. I said sure.

He showed up within 5 minutes so both of us set out to figure out what was going on with the leak. As we looked under the sink there was currently no visible leakage so I showed him the picture of the leak that I had on my other post (see blogs do come in handy, when was the last time you took a picture of a leak just to have a picture of it?). He mentioned that the first plumber had found that one of the valves had needed to be tightened and thus explaining the location of the leak in the picture.

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Well after a week and a half I guess the honeymoon is over. We are having a couple of issues with the construction of the house. Now don’t get me wrong, these are not major issues, but issues none the less.

The first issue is that we have some sort of leak under one of the bathroom sinks. It is not pouring but we do have a bowl under it to catch what does fall. I called the superintendent yesterday who got a plumber out here this morning to fix it.

The plumber showed up, did something, and then left. Unfortunately the leak is still there.

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Well after a marathon of shopping, packing, and unpacking, we are moved in.

During the move I installed 2 ceiling fans, water sealed the fence, and installed a new thermostat.

Also, we had a couple of un-scheduled projects during the move. One was a new gas BBQ. The other was via my wife’s parents – a flat panel plasma TV – which we mounted on the wall.

The good news is that I took pictures of each project (except the BBQ) and will be adding posts in the coming days/weeks (we are still trying to adjust from the move).

I will be posting about the TV later today.

Technorati : Buying a House, DR Horton, New Home, New House

We got the keys!

After spending an hour signing piles of papers we where handed the keys to our new house. Now we are going on a shopping spree to get all the things that we need for the house.

Some of these things are:

• Trees for the back yard
• Sprinklers for the hoses
• A new digital thermostat for the AC
• Ceiling fans
• Grout sealer for the tile floors
• Wood sealer for the fence

As you can see there is quite a bit that we are doing before we even move in.

I am going to try and post for each project that I do along with pictures but under the time crunch that may/may not work.

Technorati : Buying a House, DR Horton, New Home, New House

I have just upgraded my Flickr account to “Pro” and uploaded some of the construction photos.

I have a whole bunch of other construction photos on my other computer so I will be uploading those shortly also.

I will probably still link to the individual photos the way I have been (with the overlay pop-up) but will provide a link to the photo set if available.

Technorati : Construction Photos, DR Horton, New Home, New Home Construction, New House, Round Rock, Round Rock TX

We went to visit the house today and they have finished a portion of “The List”.

The things that are now done are -

• Gas is hooked up (we have hot water now)
• Back door seems to work the way it is supposed to
• Washer and Dryer are in
• Refrigerator is in

That just leaves -

• The AC (Everything looks like it is hooked up but it does not turn on yet.
• The hot water flow in the bathroom
• The touch up paint
• The windows blinds (these happen the day we get the keys)

The other thing that we noticed today is that the light and fan switch for the masters bathroom is on the outside of the bathroom instead of inside it. I am not sure why that is but I put a call into the super to see if it can be changed.

I just have to say that I have been really impressed with the responsiveness of the superintendents of DR. Horton. When it seemed that they were not going to meet the date that they set, they manned up at got it done.

Technorati : DR Horton, New Home, New House, Round Rock, Round Rock TX

We had the walk through today at the house and things went great.

Our Superintended really hustled and got most of the major things done. The only things on the list other then paint touch-ups were -

• Hook up the AC
• Hook up the Gas
• Adjust the back door so the dead bolt locks easier
• Adjust the flow of the hot water in the bathroom
• Install the washer and dryer
• Install the refrigerator
• Install the window blinds

We are scheduled to do our final walk through a week from today and then we get the keys the next day.

Technorati : DR Horton, New Home, New House, Round Rock, Round Rock TX

More has happened on the house over the last couple of weeks.

The outside brick, Kitchen appliances, and carpet mainly. There are probably several things that we would not noticed also. (Click the photo for the big pic).

I guess the biggest change is that we do not get to go into the house whenever we want now. Ever since the carpet was installed the door has been locked (I still go by and peak in the windows though!).

We have our first walk through one week from tomorrow and we are scheduled to get the keys on the May 12th. Needless to say, we are very excited!

Technorati : DR Horton, New Home, New House, Round Rock, Round Rock TX

There has been a lot of progress in the house over the last 2 weeks.

Last time I had posted they had just completed the texture of the drywall (click the pic for full-size).

Well during the last 2 weeks all of this has been completed -

• Walls Painted
• Base boards, trim, and window sills added
• Kitchen and bathroom cabinets installed
• All faucets and toilets installed
• Bathroom showers, tubs, and tile installed
• Bathroom towel and toilet paper fixtures
• Air conditioning / heater unit installed
• All switched, outlets, and light fixtures
• Kitchen counter and tile back splash
• Floor tile in the Kitchen, closets, entryway, and bathrooms
• Closet and pantry wire shelves
• Outside brick has been started

Wow, that is a long list. I did not even realize how much had been done until adding it here.

Things that still need to be completed are the brick on the outside of the house, actually hooking up the electrical, the carpet, fence around the yard, and landscaping.

The foreman has let us know that our first walk through will be May 2nd and we are expected to have the keys on May 12th.

It is really exciting to see all the progress.

Technorati : Dr Horton, New Home Construction, New House