dbatesworld.com HOUSE

Nov 9, 2004 _ Getting Closer to Closing
There really isn't a lot to say about what happened this week at the house.although there were a few changes. They finally fixed the door to the powder bathroom. I don't know if I mentioned it before, but they hung the door so that it opened in. When you opened the door it would hit the toilet. It made us laugh but it had to be changed.

Our sales person called today and told us that they are working this week on the yard and putting in the sprinkler and sod and we should have our fence this week also. They will be putting in carpet this coming Monday morning. He also said that we would need to schedule a date to do the initial walk through in the next 2 weeks. Most of what's left is finishing painting the house, and cleaning up.

Master Bathroom

Oct 24, 2004 - Appliances, Electricity, and A/C
Today on our visit to the house, the first thing that we noticed was the front porch light was on. So now we have electricity in the house. Not only that, but all of the lights and ceiling fans are in as well. Also we noticed that the house felt nice and cool inside, and all of the plumbing fixtures were installed. We have running water and everything. One of the other most dramatic changes we noticed was the kitchen appliance were installed. Still quite a bit of work left to do, but I can tell that we are getting pretty close now.

The Kitchen

Oct 16, 2004 - Counters and Tile
We've seen a lot of progress this week. The main thing that happened is that most of the tile work is done. Actually you could say that all of the tile has been done, except for the grout in the bathroom upstairs. Another bit of progress is that they finally put in the correct fireplace.The counter tops are in now as well, and you can really see how the kitchen is going to look once the house is finished..(see all the pictures)

The Kitchen

Oct 9, 2004 - Exterior Paint
The exterior of the house now has a fresh coat of paint, and it looks like they have leveled off the lawn a bit.The only problem (and there's always a problem) is that they didn't quite paint the house correctly. There are two main colors for the exterior. A taupe for the main color, and a biege for the trim. You would think that this would be easy to work out. If it's trim, then you would use the trim color. If it's not trim, then use the other color. It seems that someone had a creative and new idea about what was trim. See the pictures below for specifics. I "fixed" the first to show what it should look like. Sadly, it now looks like the second photo. Looks like we get to send another "love note" to the builder.

What the house should look like What the house actually looks like
Front view of the house

Oct 2, 2004 - Cabinets are in
On today's visit to the house we found that the cabinets had been installed. Of course it's hard to get the full effect of how it will look when they are covered in plastic, but they look nice underneath it. The plastic will probably stay up until they finish painting, which should be pretty soon. The walls are textured, and most of the painting is done. It looks like they just need to paint the trim and touch up a few places with a second coat of paint.

The stairway now has a handrail. Lynsy can rest easy now. Every time we would go up the stairs, Lynsy would ask us if they were going to put in a handrail. I guess she was worried that they would finish the house without it. The fireplace mantle has also been installed, and it looks really nice. The only problem is that it isn't the one that we ordered. I'm sure they will have it replaced this week, but it's still nice to see progress.
(See pictures)

Sep 23, 2004 - Sheetrock Part 2
We went back to check on the progress of the house today, and found that all of the sheetrock installation was finished.(See pictures ) Now they just need to put on the texture and paint the walls. It's really, really starting to look nice on the inside. Just 1 week ago we were still walking in and looking at fully exposed lumber. Speaking of fully exposed, you should read Leah's story about what we saw in the house today.

Sep 20, 2004 - Sheetrock
On this last visit to the house we were plesently suprised to find that the sheetrock was up. We weren't expecting this until next week. The house looks totally different on the inside now, and it's funny how adding things in the house seems to make it look bigger.( see sheetrock pictures )

Sep 14, 2004 - Kitchen Drama
Today we had a little kitchen/countertop/window drama. Leah has had an issue with the way the kitchen window was framed in the kitchen for a couple of weeks now, and I have to agree with her. The window wasn't turning out the way we had thought it should. The way they boxed in the kitchen window, making the wall stick out about a foot and a half away from the window just didn't look right. I just didn't see how they were going to be able to hang a cabinet on that wall and have it look nice.

Leah was a little worried about the way that the counter top was going to turn out as well. We knew that the model home had a nice u-shaped counter, that would allow for lots of room for decorations in the kitchen, and still leave plenty of counter space for setting out plates, ect. Leah had been trying to get some feedback from the builder the last week about how this was going to turn out, and she even drove out there today to see how some other homes turned out.

When she went out to Savannah, the saleslady was busy helping someone else, and Leah went out to a couple of other similar homes to see how the counter ended up. The funny thing is that no two of them were the same, but she did find one that seemed to have the exact same kitchen layout as ours. In this kitchen the counter space was choked down to 3 or 4 inches on either side of the window, the cabinets were missing on either side of the window, and the cabinets under the window were only 12 inches deep.

Leah wasn't very happy with the way thing were turning out. She called me at work several times, and then I called the saleslady who told me that the cabinets were already ordered and they couldn't change the way things were. After hearing Leah say she wasn't going to purchase the house if the kitchen looked like that, I ended up taking off work early and we all drove out to Savannah. I knew that I would never get any peace until this issue was solved.

We met with the builder and the saleslady at the house to discuss the issue in person. It turns out that the model home, as well as several other houses, were not done correctly. He finally explained to us that there would be counters on either side of the window, and that the counter would be even wider by the window than it was in the model house. We even get the full sized 24 inch cabinets under the counter. If only the saleslady would have had half the knowledge that the builder did, we could have settled this issue two weeks ago. (Click here for pictures of the different kitchens)

Sep 5, 2004

The exterior of the house is mostly done. So until they get around to painting the house, adding doors, grass, or some other major change, we won't be updating this page with outside pictures of the house. Instead, we will focus more on what's happening on the inside. So check back later to see what's going on the inside of the house.