January Starts

When we returned from California we wanted to go by and see the house.



They got the cabinets installed the some of the flooring in.Bathroom cabinet and flooring.
Walls and trim painted. This is the family room.
The door goes out to the backyard.They installed the hardware and doors in the house. This is part of the master bedroom closet.

Whats left.
1) Electrical finish. (outlets, switches and lights)
2) Plumbing (install the faucets, toilets and sinks)
3) Carpet
4) Final stucco coat and siding on the house
5) Garage door
6) Walk through with the builder
7) Touch Ups
8) Move in January 26th

December Ends

We decided to head to California for Christmas. Just before we left I went to the house to see the progress.They were just getting ready to start the stucco.

They were finishing the trim and finished the drywall.

And installed all the built-in Closet shelving.

Insulation, Dry Wall, Walkway and Stucco

Monday they insulated the house. Yesterday the started dry walling the house. Today the were putting the mud on. The scaffolding is sitting around the house and will go up in the next day to start the exterior. Our walkway, steps and door pads were poured. The house is coming along.

Bathroom Window

One of the issues we had with our house is that the wrong bathtub was installed. This caused the window to be removed in our bathroom. We spoke with our contractor who showed us that there wasn't enough room for the window where we wanted it as the tub took up the space. Clark helped us negotiate with the builder to come up with a solution that would make us all happy. The builder came up with a great idea of replacing the window with a skylight. We are now going to have a skylight in our bathroom. It is a great addition that we never expected. The builder went above the call to make us happy. Thanks Scott and thanks Clark for all the help.

Easement Resolved

So our easement issue has been resolved. Ben's brother's have helped us alot and Ben has been doing a lot of research and talking to a lot of city guys and irrigation people.

The easement is being nullified. The irrigation engineers came out and declared that there is no need for the easement and that they don't even use that irrigation ditch. So there is no issue!

Here is a picture of the irrigation grate. Our fence will be just to the right of it.

Another look

And a far look down the side of the house. Our house is on the right. The best part is our neighbors now love us. They have been fighting this issue for 2 1/2 years. So they just gained 5 feet of yard back.

I hope our neighbors still like us after we move in. Because the Everitts are really loud!

House Drama

Who knew that building/buying a home would be so frustrating. Anyways we have some new drama in our house saga. We just found out that their is an irrigation easement on our property. At first we thought it wasn't going to be a big deal. But after some investigating and talking to our neighbor we found out that it is a big deal. We loose 500 sq feet of our yard and can't use it at all. We can't put a fence, grass or anything. So in the long run our house looses a significant amount of value if we were ever to resell it.

So after a bunch of run around from the builder we have resorted to our secret weapon, Everitt and Clark (Ben's commercial real estate brothers). They are opening a can of whoop-ass on the builder. Basically we have 3 options...

1. Give us back our money and we find another place to buy
2. Build us a new home on a different lot
3. Significantly lower the price of our home

So I will keep you updated on the outcome. We are just grateful to have caught this issue before we moved in.

A new Look

So we have had a few setbacks like some of the window being stolen but the house is coming along.