Pre-Construction Meeting

My lack of posts is a huge indicator of how extremely exhausted I've been. We officially moved out of our house on Sunday, May 9th, closed on the 10th, and handed over keys on the 15th. It was a very bittersweet day. Kevin and I walked through each room, recalling memories from each, and had a good, hard cry in our backyard. We were both thinking back to Oliver - our first 'baby' who we lost just three days after he turned four years old. We had to put him to sleep this past November after he suddenly became sick. It was all too unexpected. We have so many memories with Oliver at the house, and especially of him running like a free soul in the backyard. That was very hard to step away from. But like Kevin said - "It's just a house. We will forever have our memories". He is so right.


I called the realtor's office on the 15th around 11am to tell them we were just walking out and everything was ready for the buyer. I then realized I'd left the garage door opener in our other car back at my in-law's. I drove back there to get it and back over to our house - it took 15 minutes total. When I pulled in, the buyer was already there. Talk about eager! Hey, I'd be that way, too. But that was truly my final goodbye to 7436 Jeremy Avenue.


We're now living in a pretty unorganized fashion at my in-law's. We are so blessed to have a place to stay, rent-free. The transition didn't even affect Riley at all. We took her actual crib to their house, although they already had one that she was used to napping in during the week. We thought this would make her feel like absolutely nothing had changed, and I think that was a good move. Kevin and I have stacks of boxes in our room and are living off of a very trimmed down wardrobe right now. I keep telling myself that time is going to fly by.

Last Thursday we had our "Pre-Construction / Roadmap Meeting" with our Project Manager. During this meeting we re-reviewed all of our selections from the house, from the style of home, to colors, to flooring.  It was really comforting to go through everything one more time, with someone new, just to make sure we were all on the same page.  We were excited to hear that we could request that our walk-in closet shelving be hung a foot higher than what is standard.  We want to add a second row of shelving below it (to double closet space in a simple way), and it needs to be hung at 7' rather than 6' for this to work.  The project manager said this won't be an issue. 
 
He also added a closet under the stairs in the basement!  This isn't an option we had selected originally just because I didn't want to spend several hundred dollars for a smaller storage closet.  However, he needs a place for a small water meter and said since we're finishing almost every other part of the basement, that would be the best spot.  I won't pass up extra storage for zero additional cost!
 
We also hadn't realized until just before that meeting that the garage has only one outlet in it (realized it thanks to this super helpful Blog written by another person building with Ryan Homes for the first time!).  This just won't do.  Now we will have have four outlets in the garage.  Woohoo!! 
 
We also handed over the biggest check I've ever written in my entire life, as we passed over our downpayment. Exciting stuff! We are scheduled to break ground this week and are just awaiting the phone call to confirm that we officially own a huge hole in the ground any day now!  Ha!