Pre-Drywall Meeting

We were at the house this morning, bright and early before work. We were meeting our Project Manager there for our pre-drywall meeting. The purpose of this meeting was for him to walk us through the house, room by room, and show us everything that has been done that we won't be able to see once the drywall is in place. He showed us all of the electrical as well as what switch connects to which outlet or light (something I am certain I will never remember as there seem to be a million switches in the house!). It was a lot of fun to see all of this again. He gave us a rough idea of our remaining timeline, along with a quoted pre-settlement date of August 9th. He said that two days later, on the 11th, we'll receive our keys. At last! A more solid date!

Here is the rough remaining timeline (going off of memory, so I could be a bit off with my estimates):

• Today: Insulation inspection and Home Energy Star inspection take place; drywall is delivered.
• Tomorrow through the next 10 days: Drywall is hung, taped and mudded.
• By end of week: Brick is installed on the exterior of the house (** More on this below)
• After drywall is complete, ceiling is textured.
• Flooring is installed
• Siding is installed
• Paint crew primes entire house
• Cabinets installed, trim and doors painted and installed
• Lighting and appliances installed
• Carpet installed
• Cleaning crew comes through and does heavy cleaning
• House is complete

Wow - really isn't a LOT remaining - but lots of one-day long tasks in there, too. He mentioned how many times the painter comes back to do touch-ups, as well as a walk through he does himself where he sticks blue tape everywhere that he sees a blemish with trim, drywall, etc. I love hearing how meticulous they can all be. 

When we were in the basement, thank GOD I asked a question about the French doors that are going to be installed from the living room into the playroom ... because it was met with "What French doors?".  Quickly, our PM flipped through his papers and admitted to it being a mistake on his part.  He overlooked the note that we were to have French doors there (this is customization, so I am sure it isn't something he is used to).  I had no problem with that since he quickly said they would re-frame it and admitted to it being a mistake on their end.  No harm, no foul!  I just want my door!

All in all I was very pleased with today. Except for one thing. This is probably my first personal experience being somewhat dissatisfied through this process.


When we were originally picking everything out for the house, Kevin and I were 100% certain that we wanted the exterior to be vinyl siding with stone accent. We were told at that point by our sales rep that stone wasn't an option in this development, only brick. That stunk, but we still wanted the brick. We picked out a great color and I remember driving through the neighborhood that night realizing that yes - no one had stone, only brick.



This morning when we pulled in for our meeting, we quickly noticed something. One of the houses across the street from us had some of their exterior installed since we were there last. And it's STONE. I immediately asked our PM about this, letting him know that we wanted stone but were told we couldn't have it. He wasn't 100% positive, but believes that something recently changed to where you can now have stone. This is where I get frustrated. Knowing that we originally really, really wanetd stone, why weren't we contacted when this change was made so we could file a change order? Especially because those people started the building process before us ... so this option had to have become an option while we were still in the planning process.

Suffice to say, I have an email and a voicemail in to our sales rep already this morning. Our brick is sitting in the front yard, waiting to be installed by the end of this week, so I don't know what our chances are of getting this change in. I will still love the brick if we can't get the change, but REALLY want the stone. Both Kevin and I do. And this is something I don't ever foresee us redoing on our house, so I'd love for it to be perfect the first time around.
I'll keep you posted.  Pictures from this morning's meeting coming up in the next post, since this has become so long.