The Masters House

WOW, that is all I can say – WOW.

Literally on the eve of getting ready to close on the new house that we are building here in Texas I get a reminder of what others are facing around the country.

I took a break this afternoon and started poking around realtor.com to see if we were indeed getting a good price for our new house compared to other previously owned houses around our area. The good news is that we are getting a great deal and that makes me happy .

At the end of poking around my current neighborhood (my new house is in the same neighborhood) I decided to look at the neighborhood that I lived in California when I lived there. The neighborhood was Horsethief Canyon in Corona, California which is in Riverside County. It is actually in an unincorporated region of Riverside County but still has a Corona address. It is actually the last neighborhood before you get to the city of Lake Elsinore.

Anyway, in 2001 I bought a 1450sqft 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath house that at the time was 10 years old (the same model/neighborhood as the one to the right). I bought it for $180K at the time. 2 years later I sold the house for $252K as the market was beginning to take off.

As time went on I would check to see how much similar houses were going for and would kick myself for selling so soon each time I saw the price go up. About a year ago that same model of house in the same neighborhood was going for $439k. I could not believe it. I mean that was over double what I had paid for it a little over 5 years before.

Well today instead of kicking myself I stood in amazement.

The same house today is going for $249K. In the last a year the value of that house has dropped almost $200K. Unbelievable. I can only imagine the person who bought the house a year ago for that much money and what they may be facing today. That same type of house is now selling for less then what I sold it for 5 years ago. Crazy.

To make matters worse there are at least 3 of the same exact houses for sale. The one that I have a picture of here is empty. I can only imagine why.

I really feel for everyone that is at the front of this ship as it sinks. I know how you feel, it happened to me 3 weeks after I bought that house in 2001. I got laid off from my job due to the tech bubble bursting.

Hang in there, things will get better eventually…

In 2 days the house went from having mud on the drywall to having character. This is a list of what happened in the last 2 days:

• All the brick on the outside of the house is done
• Texture on the walls inside of the house
• Baseboards, door, and window trim in every room
• Doors hung in all rooms
• All cabinets in kitchen, bathrooms, and utility room
• Stair banisters in place

All that in 2 days. The had 4 different crews there yesterday alone. It is amazing the progress that they are making on the house.

I think that they may have painted inside today which would be cool.

Yesterday was the first time that I have walked inside of our house that we are building and didn’t have to use my imagination to see how things would look. The drywall guys covered the last remaining places where there were previously just studs.

They also did a coat of mud as well which gets us one step closer to texture on the walls. The texture is significant because our Forman has told us that once the texture is on the walls that he can give us a pretty accurate finish date. That means that early next week we will know when it is time to move and do some final planning.

We should still be looking at the end of March which remarkably is only about a month and a half away. It is hard to imagine that in less then 2 months that I could be sleeping our new house.

There obviously are a lot of things that still need to get done once the texture is applied such as:

• Trim
• Paint
• Tile
• Cabinets
• Appliances
• Final electrical
• Landscaping

All of those things are really on the down slope of getting the house done though and if they keep up the present pace we should be on target for the end of May.

Now if only the brick guys would get it in gear and finish…

So it has been about 2 weeks since I post about the progress on the house. During that time the following items happened:

• We passed inspection for Plumbing and Electrical
• The outside brick was started
• Drywall was hung
• First coat of Drywall mud and tape applied

The builder is not wasting any time in trying to get this house done. I think it is because we are the only ones building a house right now in this neighborhood (they are building spec homes). I also think they want to get us into the home before we change out mind or something. Either way they are getting things done quickly.

Here is a slide show of the progress on the house. I am still messing around with various photo gallery websites to try to determine the one that works the best so please be patient.

That’s right, I spent almost 3 hours  yesterday at the house filming and snapping pictures of the drywall-less walls of our house. The plumbing and the electrical have reached the point that they are ready to be inspected and covered up by insulation and drywall.

I took pictures of the house that we are in right now when it was in the same state but only concentrated on the plumbing in the case we needed any repairs. I kicked myself for not taking more pictures when I converted the formal dining room into a bedroom as I did not know when some of the electrical was. I had to climb around in the attic to figure it out.

This time around I not only took several pictures and angles of the same walls but video along with it. The issue with pictures a lot of times is that it can be difficult to know exactly what you are looking at. With video you have the progression from one place to another so you can see where things go. I figure that with the combination of the photos and the video that we should be in really good shape for any repairs and/or upgrades that we may want to do.

The part of this mini project that really made me saw WOW was how complicated the plumbing system is in the house. The difference between the new house and the one that we are in right now is that in the our present house (which is a single story) the majority of the plumbing is under the foundation. In the new house only the main water line is under the foundation, everything else is in the walls and in the ceiling/floor between the first and second floors. Also, we have more then double the bathrooms, water heaters, and air conditioning units so that adds to it as well.

I was trying to follow each pipe individually but gave up after the 3 pipes. The area over the downstairs bathroom is just a huge nest of red and blue flexible PVC pipes going all over the place. I ended up taking pictures which lying on my back of the first floor ceiling in several different places order to get a good "map" of where all these things go. The truth is, I hope I never need to break these photos out due to a leak. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Going through the house like this also gave me the opportunity to really go over everything with a fine tooth comb. I noticed that one of the outlets that I paid extra for in the garage was not installed so I need to ask about that. Also, in several of the areas where faucets go (not all) there are extra pipes that are tee’d off then capped off. I am not sure what these are for but will be asking the foreman about them. I also discovered that the garage outlets are on the same circuit as the exterior outlets on the 3 different porches we have at the house. It is good to know that I won’t be knocking out the TV in the family room when running the table saw.

It was more work then I anticipated and I still need to capture the video and categorize the pictures but I think it is a couple of hours that were worth the investment. Years down the road I am sure that I will be happy that I took the time to catalog this.

Technorati tags: New House, Home Construction, DR Horton, Framing, Austin TX, Round Rock TX, Plumbing, Electrical

Our issue with the attic storage area has been resolved. The foreman over the construction of the house really put a lot of effort in and got it fixed exactly the way we wanted it. The floor is now the same level as the rest of the second story and the diagonal trusses have been removed. The floor is solid and there is plenty of space for us to put all of our junk stuff.

I really have to give a pat on the back to the foreman. I was hoping that we could get something similar to the way the other houses in our neighborhood had been built out. Well he did not get it similar, he got it exactly. I could not be happier. It is true, a company really wins over a customer when they screw up and fix the issue correctly for the customer.

One of the reasons that I am so happy is the extent that they went to in order to build it the way that we wanted it. They ended up ripping out 3 of the trusses that were put together between the 2 car and the 3rd car garage – THE WHOLE SET OF TRUSSES!!!. They replaced it with the 2 – new – higher trusses that were supposed to be there. Along with that they added a third truss to the double truss that was incorrect (side note – the framers had switched the third and double trusses – the foreman had them do it right).

I know it was not cheep to get 3 new trusses in and then tear out the ENTIRE attic storage area and then rebuild it – but they did it.

At this point when the house is finished I plan on writing a formal letter to Corporate DR Horton to express my gratitude to our foreman for going the extra mile to correct this for us. There was nothing that was stopping him from saying "Sorry, that is the way it was built" and leaving us hanging. Instead, he made it right for us and I want to recognize him for it.

Anyway, there are some pictures sprinkled throughout this post of the attic. I am working on updating the photo album so I will add more pictures there soon.

Technorati tags: Technorati tags: New House, Home Construction, DR Horton, Framing, Austin TX, Round Rock TX, Truss

Well I waited a day like I said I would to see if they were going to trim down that truss (I called it a beam in my last post). When I went back on Tuesday night to see if it had been trimmed quite the opposite had happened – they built on top of it. This was not good.

Building on top of it now caused about a 5 inch rise that you had to step over to get into the attic storage area. The next morning (Wednesday I went to the house and the framers were happily framing away and I caught up with the foreman. I told him of my concern and he said that he would look into it and that most likely they would trim it later.

Last night I went to the house to see the progress and to see if they trimmed is and was blown away by what I saw. Not only had they not trimmed it them had framed out the entire floor of the storage space – ALMOST AN ENTIRE FOOT below where the rest of the second story floor was at! This means that in order to get into the attic storage area you would need to step up ~5 inches and then down about another 14inches + to get into the storage area.

This was a big deal because in the other houses that were being built down the street there was no step – up or down – to get from the closet to the attic storage. My wife was along with me and she was furious. Basically she said if they didn’t fix it then she did not want the house.

Before I go on I have to give a little insight as to why this is such a big deal. The first reason is that we have a big family – 8 of us. It is me, my wife, our 3 kids, my mother/father-in-laws and my brother-in-law(temporary). We have a lot of stuff – that is why we are getting a larger house. This storage space was a huge selling point along with the walk-in closets in every room. We need this space to put stuff.

The second reason that this is a big deal is that when we met with the foreman for the first time to go over the plans of the house this is the only thing that we brought up as a concern. We had seen another house that had a step down from the closet to the attic storage of about 3". I had seen 2 other houses with no drop down and asked that we get the one with no step. This is the only thing we asked for.

The foreman assured us that he would look into it and try to get the one with no step.

Back to the story…

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I drove by the house last night to how things were going with the framing and the first floor was done. Along with that the stairs were framed out and the second story floor (plywood) was installed. There weren’t any walls on the second story so walking around up there was like walking on a flat roof.

While on the second story I was able to map out in my mind where the various rooms were. One thing that caught my attention was a huge beam that was running along the first story ceiling of the garage. I figured out that this was the wall that separated the master closet and my daughter’s closet from the attic storage area.

The beam caught my eye because the top portion of it was about 2 inches above the second story floor. This was an issue because there is not supposed to be a step between my daughter’s closet and the attic storage area (that is how you get to this portion of the attic). I went to another house in the neighborhood that is the same model as ours that is further along in construction to go compare it. Sure enough the other house did not have this step up.

I thought about calling the foreman again but decided to wait since the were not done framing yet. Maybe they would cut off the top portion of the beam to make it even. I would wait and see.

This morning I drove by before going to work and they had walls going up on the second story. I snapped a couple quick photos from my phone while driving by but still could not tell from the photos what was going on with that beam. Here is one to the right.

I think at this point I need to just sit back and let these guys do their work without me getting in the way. I will still drive by everyday and check out what is going on but unless I see something that is completely out of whack and it doesn’t seem like it is getting taken care of I am not going to call. It is so hard though because I am so excited to see it go up.

More pics will come as they frame it out more.

Technorati tags: New House, Home Construction, DR Horton, Framing, Austin TX, Round Rock TX

I stopped by the house last night to see if any progress had been made over the weekend and low and behold the first story of the house had started to be framed. This was a cool development so of course I walked around in the dark to check it out (actually I had the lights from the car and a flashlight).

During my stroll I attempted to walk through the downstairs bathroom and the only water pipe in the entire foundation was sticking out of the ground in the walkway. It should have been about a foot to the right inside of the wall. With the site of that my dreams of a foundation that would never have to be cut into were dashed against the rocks (or the foundation for that matter).

I quickly dialed up and left a message for the foreman to let him know that he should take a look at it. The majority of the ways for the house were in place so you could tell which rooms were supposed to be what. The stairs had not been started yet and the first floor ceiling was not in place yet. It was really cool to see it start taking shape.

I stopped by this morning to snap a picture of the rogue water pipe and the framers were there but on a break (I was glad so I wouldn’t get hit in the head with something falling or disturb them). While I was snapping pictures there was a guy standing out by a truck in the street who looked like the boss who informed me that the tub drain was in the wrong place as well.  It wasn’t as bad because they leave a square area open in the foundation to make adjustments when putting the tub in. I quickly took a walk around the rest of the house to make sure that there weren’t any other pipes or drains sticking out of the wrong place – there weren’t.

The guy out at the truck also informed me that he had already let the foreman know when they had started on Saturday about the misplaced pipe and drain and that the process to get it fixed up was already in process. That was cool. I called and left another message with the foreman letting him know that I knew that he knew about the plumbing issues (whew, what a sentence).

Anyway, the framer boss did not think it was that big on a issues and was still determined to get the rest of the house framed even though these items needed to be fixed. I’m sure that is not such an un-common thing to happen.

I figure in another day or I should be able to walk around in both stories of our new house. Cool!

A final note – I am definitely going to be keeping an eye on the plumbing in the house for the rest of the construction. This issue had to of been caused by the plumber putting these things in the wrong place as opposed to the cement guys moving them. That’s a little scary.

Oh well nothing that cannot be fixed.

Technorati tags: New House, Home Construction, DR Horton, Concrete, Foundation, Driveway, Pumbing, Austin TX, Round Rock TX

The foundation and the driveway for the house were poured within the last 2 days. I was really surprised to see them pour them back-to-back when in our current house it was almost a whole month between each one.

One interesting tidbit is that there is only one water piper under the foundation. This is the main line that comes into the garage for the water softener. This makes me happy because that means that all the rest of the water pipes in the house are going to be in the walls.

While it is not such a nice thing to have pouring out of your walls if/when a pipe fails it is a whole lot easier to fix. With a pipe repair in the wall you have drywall that you need to replace and probably flooring. With a under-the-slab repair you have to rip up the flooring, cut into the foundation, and ding into the dirt under the house to get to the pipe. The less foundation cutting the better (and cheaper too!).

This is not to say that I am expecting to have plumbing problems but I am sure I will need to fix something within the next 20 or so years while we live there. The other thing that is cool is that they are not actually using pipes – it is flexible PVC tubing instead. I would imagine that it is less prone to corrosion and bursting when it freezes.

Before the pour I ventured out with my video camera to document where various drain pipes and the single water pipe was located. At the time I thought that they would add more pipes under the cement and almost erased the video. I am sure glad that I didn’t now.

Finally, part of our roof trusses have already showed up as well. I fully expect that the house could be completely framed out by the end of next week. It only took 1 day to frame our current house. The new house is 2 store and 50% bigger so I think it will take somewhat longer.

Anyway, exciting things are happening.