Victory

Hello again! We've skipped a couple of weeks from our last blog since nothing major was happening with respect to the builder punchlist, but things picked up last week with a few things completed on their part. We've chosen not to move in immediately, but to overlap the month of January with the new home and the rental we're in. We're actively trying to organize the chaos of moving from one location to the other across 30 days. So far, so good. Now that we officially own the new house, it was time to start playing general contractor with some tasks that we didn't want the builder to do because of timing and/or cost. First up is we decided to have the interior completely repainted (with color) since the builder would not do anything but white on the walls. Since Jan wanted gray tones, and I'm not doing it, we had a crew (finishing up as we speak) repaint the interior this week. It has been amazing watching these guys work. They arrive promptly at 7:30a, and work

We finally closed escrow!   We are now the proud owners of another home. Unfortunately, not all of the work is done yet, but I'll explain later. Can y'all believe we got 3.5" of rain here last week? Crazy! Basically, everything is technically done, however, we still have a substantial punchiest consisting of some additional painting (inside and out), cabinet touch-ups, pool tile and scupper cleanup, additional plants that have to be purchased by the landscaper, and a fountain installation. We expect all of this to be completed in the next couple of weeks. In the interim, I have subs contracted to do work that I didn't want the builder to do such as fan and mirror installation, complete interior color repaint, living room beams, rock and floating shelves, and garage cabinet installation. That should take us to the middle of the month when furniture starts arriving. So we still have a bit of the journey left to complete.... Backyard Activity As you can see, the pool is f

Hi Everyone , This week started with outstanding progress on the completion of the BBQ area, and the beginning of the Travertine stone patio install. Last week the landscapers brought in about two eighteen wheelers of dirt, which was then leveled and pounded down with their gas tamping machine. Thankfully, that night we got a .25" of rain which really made the base solid. They then brought in sand and leveled that to the exact level to slope the patio towards the linear drains along the edge of where the patio concrete meets the dirt. In this pic they level the sand to form a base for the Travertine stone. I thought this was novel since we've never had stone pavers before, or had anything installed over a concrete patio other than stain. In this pic you can see how compacted the tamped dirt became after the rain. Walking on it felt like concrete. The BBQ area is now completed minus the last stucco color coat, the equipment, and the roof of the ramada. Just a few more things 😕

Hi Everyone! These last three weeks have been drips and drabs of isolated activity at the house. Most of the inside work has been a punch list assortment of redos related to painting, caulking, cleaning, etc.  As we mentioned before, we have two milestones this month - our walkthrough on the 17th, and the close of escrow on the 29th, assuming there are no major or critical issues to disrupt the close date. We have an inspector coming out tomorrow to make his list of issues, which I will then pass over to the builder to 'cure' before our walkthrough on the 17th. It will be interesting to see what he comes up with. Here are some updated photos on where we are as of today: Pool Area Most of the visible activity is now taking place in and around the pool. Plants are now in (still missing the metal trellises) along the back wall and sides. Tile was installed a couple of weeks ago, and Jan is happy because that was her first choice. We were told that we might not get our first choice

AS IS TYPICAL , we are building this house army style - 'hurry up and wait'!  Just when we start to see progress at the beginning of the week, the subs disappear by mid-week, not to be seen again until the following week.  Backyard Having said that, we are seeing some major progress on the BBQ and seating area that will be at the end of the Ramada covering. Phoenix has this funky law that says you can't have a BBQ area up against a property line wall, so we have a 4' space behind the wall for trellis plants. (Later) We were originally going to hide the pool equipment there, but opted for the side yard instead. Pool Tile work also got started on the pool this week. We were initially told to pick two tile patterns because of the tile shortage, so we weren't sure which one would show up. Thankfully, Jan's first choice arrived, and they started laying the water line. The tile in the pic below will go all of the way up to the travertine coping line above the scupper.