Bathroom (Clara)

Just a couple of pictures of Clara in our bathroom...

She and Nathan LOVE to go see the new house and run around in the open spaces.

Now that the house is getting closer to finishing, it's pretty safe for them to explore now, as there aren't as many hazards as were present a couple of months ago (loose nails, open stairways, etc.)

Its hard to believe we close two weeks from tomorrow. Our builder actually asked us if we would like to move the closing date up to June 25, as the house would be ready then. We declined, as we will be out of town in Newfoundland until the 28th. But we were pretty impressed that he asked nonetheless.

The Basement Window

Last weekend Scott and I were able to walk through the basement for the first time.

Right away I noticed that one of the windows looked like it was too far down the wall. According or our blueprints, it was supposed to be in the middle of the spare bedroom, but looked like it was in the middle of the whole wall.

I emailed Rick early the next week, after going out again just to double check from the outside and take some pictures.

Rick replied right away and said he would look into it.

The next day he called us to say that the window was indeed in the wrong spot and that they would fix it right away.

He also said they would have noticed it eventually, but it would have been later down the road when they were finishing the basement, at which point it would be a lot harder and more time consuming to move. He thanked us for pointing it out when we did.

I was really impressed with the way Rick handled the whole situation, and I was relieved that it could even be changed at this point (because they will have to redo the concrete and everything). At first I was pretty concerned, but was happy to have it resolved so quickly.

Meeting with the Builder

Today we met briefly with Rick to go over how the house is progressing.

He let us know that everything is going fine and on schedule, and that he has no concerns at all about meeting our closing date of June 30.

We discussed updates on kitchen details, flooring (which we will start looking at in the next couple of weeks), stairs, plumbing, sound wiring, and heated floors.

He said he was happy with how everything was going and hoped that we were having fun and not finding the process too stressful.

It was reassuring to hear that everything is going well so far.

Getting Started

We started meeting with the builder in the fall. We spent several weeks developing a floor plan and design for the home.

Rick was very helpful as we went through this planning phase. He listened to Scott and I discuss elements that were important to us and did a great job of implementing our ideas into the plans.

He encouraged us to draw pictures and bring in photos to get a clear picture of what we wanted in a home. He advised us to spend time carefully planning out the details in advance, so that we wouldn't need to make (costly) modifications in the future.

After spending approximately two months in the planning phase, we signed the contract just before Christmas, and the plans were sent to the City for approval.