We also bought the knobs for our kitchen cabinets.  They are going to look awesome.

We went to the property today and they have started framing the second floor.  I was surprised they were working on a Saturday but I guess to they need to get caught back up since they are a little behind.

Funny story.  We were in the sales office and our sales woman came in with a lady and her mother, she had been showing them a house with our floorplan.  We got to talking and the woman said how she has money down in another community.  This builder had an original delivery date of last winter, then this summer, and nothing has happened yet and they haven’t even started building yet.  She is tired of waiting so she started looking around at other communities.  Turns out she has money down in the same Engle community that we were originally going to buy in and walked away from when we got a bad vibe.  She also told us that Engle filed Chapter 11.  A little bit of Googling shows that they filed back in January- a MONTH before we even went there and were about to sign papers.  So their sales woman knew they had filed for bankruptcy and still tried to sell us a house.  The worst part is that in the contract it stipulated that they had up to 2 years to actually complete the home.  The slabs have been down since September, if not before.  We dodged a huge bullet by walking away from that place.

We drove down to the site today and they’ve started on the first floor.  The second floor should be up by this weekend and the all the materials are onsite, except for the 4th floor which will arrive next week, and if they stay on schedule the 4th floor will be done by the end of next week.

I would have gone inside, but we were told not to unless we called in first for insurance reasons so they can give us hard hats and junk, and the field manager lives on the property and happened to be walking his dog while we were there.  It was actually good because I’ve been wanting to ask him something.  When we stopped Sunday night and took the pics of the chalk lines we noticed that quite a few pipes were not within the walls…  It turns out that the original plumber was in a serious car wreck and all the diagrams/etc were in his truck and destroyed.  So they had to have someone else come in and lay the pipes based on the architectural drawings, because of this the pipes ended up being put in slightly incorrectly.  He said it’s a lot of work to fix, but it won’t slow us down since they can fix it while the carpenters are working on the 2nd floor and it should be all fixed by the end of next week.  They have to dig the concrete out, move the pipes and then re-set new concrete.

Framing has started!

On our way back from VA Beach/Norfolk Sunday we made a pit-stop at the site to take some pics.  The wood was delivered and the carpenters put the chalk lines down to outline the walls.  Neat stuff.

Gravel was put down for the driveways.

This is the downstairs hallway closet.

This is the entrance from the garage.

This is the hallway nook in front of the closet.

A bunch of wood.

Steel i-beams.

Some kind of wood-like panels.  Maybe hardiplan or hardiboard.

The roof/ceiling/floor trusses.

More trusses.

More wood.

Yesterday morning we met with Blake, the field manager, who oversees all the construction for our community.  We went over the timeline for construction, certain milestones our options, etc.  Blake is a really good guy and seems real honest.  He also lives in the community which is a definite plus.

Alongside the back of the property is a railroad track that carries commercial freight.  When we first started looking at the place it turned out that a CSX engineer who frequently took his train down that line saw the community and bought a house there.  As a result, he waits to blow his horn until he’s a few miles past our community.  That’s pretty neat.

Yesterday, while talking to Blake we found out that a VDOT engineer also lives in the neighborhood.  VDOT is currently doing a huge construction project at the intersection of Route 29 and I-66, click here, here and here. for some info.  This engineer moved into our neighborhood specifically because of the “cool stuff” that is going on to improve this traffic area here in the next few years.  That’s pretty cool.

Here are some pics from yesterday.

This picture is taken from the stoop directly across from our own.  I’ll be using this vantage point to take shots, hopefully, to show the progress from the same spot.

Our driveway, poured:

This little wall with the holes is put in to run the low voltage wiring between the buildings.

While were at the slab a truck came by to deliver some steel i-beams that will be used in the house.  Also, the carpenters were out to start chalking the concrete for the wood since it is arriving today.  I plan on heading out again on Saturday to, hopefully, get some shots of our new wood and to see if they have make any more changes.

We went down to the lot yesterday and took some pics of the foundation.

From the back:

The garage floor, vapor barrier and rebar:

From atop the stoop:

From the “front yard”:

The frame package should be delivered this week so they can begin putting up some wood.

I talked to Blake today, he is the Field Manager who oversees all the construction and I scheduled our Pre-Construction Orientation for Thursday of next week.  We will meet with him and go over all our options, the siteplan and the time table for the construction.

The foundation should be happening this week…hopefully today so I’ll have pics to post after we go out to the lot on Saturday.

Here is a pic of the overall siteplan which includes our development and the town center. The town center is slated to be completed in 3 years and will have over 120 shops, a grocery store and a hotel.

Also, they turned on the fountain.

Good times.

We took some more photos this Sunday. They have installed the water pipes!

120, that’s our lot!

There are some more pics at the flickr site.

We were supposed to get a call last Thursday to schedule our pre-construction meeting but it didn’t happen, we should be getting that call today but we’ll see. They are supposed to be pouring the foundation/slab on Wednesday as long as the weather holds out which means that framing should begin sometime next week!