Furniture

They started to move furniture in yesterday. We were able to actually sit in our living room :) It is pretty nice stuff, she put up paintings all over the house. There is a couch and 3 chairs in the living room.

Pictures

Put some pictures up on Flickr.

A very busy week (final)

Today I call up the warranty company to inquire about getting the work yesterday reimbursed. It actually sounded pretty promising, she said that calipers are covered, but that I was supposed to get the repairs approved prior to having them done. It was pretty dumb of me actually, I could have just had Firestone call them and they would have paid them directly. As it is I had to fax the invoice and now wait for a response via snail mail.

So we will see how honest Tech Serv is, cause it should definitely be reimbursed.

A very busy week (cont.)

Yesterday was pretty crazy because I also had to get some repairs done on the car in the morning. Luckily Firestone was a ghost town so they were able to get me in right away. I called them and asked what it would cost to replace the brake pads (160). I dropped it off and expected to wait, but was told it would be at least an hour (couple people had come in since I had called...), so I walked to work (very cold out).

I received a call from them about 11, a caliper had seized so that needed to be replaced (580)... I called up VW and asked what they charge (680), and if it would be covered under my warrenty. They wouldn't commit, so I just told Firestone to fix it (I knew VW probably wouldn't be able to get me in till next week).

Firestone had told me that they would have it done by 2:30, so I call at 2:15 and ask about the status and I get this "Oh yeah, I told you it would be done at 2:30..." Great... So they offer to get it done as quick as possible. I start walking back over there, it is still cold out...

Long story short, I leave Firestone at 3, with a bill for 838.78 (new rotors required as well, plus a brake flush, and of course tax). Rush home to pick up some papers that I ended up not needing and speeding to closing at 3:30 in Roseville, hurray.

A very busy week

We had the closing on yesterday. It actually went very well. I don't have the closing docs with me, but I will post them later. Of course we got raked over the coals with fees, but what else can you expect? I think we ended up paying about 1300 for the modification.

Mel and Rob were there representing Lighthouse, they were very nice and paid us the full amount that we agreed upon for renting the model. They even gave us a house warming gift (set of kitchen knives), which was very nice. Stacee was there as well and great as usual, she brought us a plant.

The title officer was a different woman (Amy) then we originally had, and apparently she was new to the file. So there was a bit a her getting up to speed. I guess there were many calls back and forth between Mel and her and Stacee that morning. But it all worked out :)

Received an invoice from Tom (the lawyer), I think that will be the last one, unless he charges us to close the account as well... I guess he provided some piece of mind, but it was an expensive piece (637.50).

Appliance Delivery

The appliance delivery was on Tuesday morning. I received a call at 7am, and Keith told me that he would be at the house in 30-40 minutes. So I had to hurry out there... ;)

Keith and Freddy were the delivery men, and worked for a company other then Home Depot. I can't remember what it was called at the moment. They were really good though. Friendly and helpful. They got the stuff in and hooked up without a problem. Keith didn't need the expandable pipe to hook up the dryer so he said that he would credit that back to me, not sure if that has happened yet.

I didn't have any cash otherwise I definitely would have tipped them. All i can do is give them a 10 when Home Depot calls for a review of them.

The delivery was delayed from Saturday to Tuesday, so I was a little upset by that, but the delivery went very well. 4 stars (out of 5) for Home Depot appliance purchase.

Walk thru

We had the walkthru with Steve last night. It went fine, he was nice and didn't have a problem with anything that we noticed. Informed us that we have a one year home warranty, which will cover pretty much any problems that we have... We'll see.

Closing is going to be at 4ish in Roseville on Thursday, so Jen won't have to take a day off. House looks very good. I am guessing they will take good care of it. Steve last night that other builders are the harshest critics of parade homes, funny.

Steve was also saying that they are going to be building two new houses, or at least that is what Rob is saying. Also, apparently Rick left Lighthouse, and they now have a firm that drafts plans for them.

Update, Walk-thru

Well, the house is pretty much complete. Steve called today and asked if we could do the walk-thru on Monday at 5pm. YEAH. He thinks we will be able to get to closing on the 19th, as long as the bank is ok to not have the certificate of occupancy, since they need to do a final survey...

Structured Wiring plan

This was what I put together in October and pretty much what we went with. Didn't do the speaker in the entry way, as it is pretty open to the great room. We also don't have speakers in the master, but we did run wires in the wall.

- Circles are ceiling speaker placement, just have to run 14/2 CL2 to the box over the woodbox. Was thinking it might be nice to run the external speakers to a volume control first though. Probably need about 380 feet for the main floor.
- Boxes are the wall plates for "stuff", at this point I just want to run conduit to the basement and wire it later when I figure out what I want where. There are 6 boxes, one external one (I can run the two over the fireplace on the inside wall), so 3 low voltage brackets, a large indented bracket behind the flat panel (saw one at menards today), a 2 gang box (or larger) over the firebox, and call it 60 feet of 3/4 inch conduit (just to drop it to the basement).

- Circle is again a ceiling speaker, run that wire to the boxes over the woodbox on the first floor again 14/2 CL2 call it 60 feet.
- Triangles in the bedroom are wall speaker locations. I am thinking of just leaving the speaker wire running the length of the wall top to bottom, until we get what we want there figured out. That way we can open the wall and grab the wire, for in wall speakers, or attached to brackets on the wall. Run the 14/2 CL2 to the double box in that room, about 180 feet.
- Boxes run up to the attic, 10 boxes about 10 feet of 3/4 inch conduit per box for 100 feet.
- Blue box is a structured wiring panel, which has 2 2 inch knockouts on the top and bottom, and I think only 2 2 inch knockout on the bottom. I think there will be more wires coming into the top so we will put that up. And run that up to the attic as well. So 20 feet of 2 inch conduit and 20 feet of 3/4 inch conduit.
- Also have to run 2 inch conduit down to the basement from the blue box. Call that 60 feet of 2 inch conduit.

Pictures, pictures, pictures!

Their reply...

This is promising:

Chris,
We want to make you happy and will make every effort to accommodate your situation and will let you know in a week where we are at.
Thanks, Steve

My Reply

Here is the email I sent in reply to the last one:

It is true that there is no formal agreement about a closing date, however I would ask that Lighthouse consider how flexible we have been with everything so far and take that into consideration.

First we had an agreement for the purchase price to go no higher then 340k, Jen and I agreed to append the agreement and pay more then we had a contractual agreement to pay.

Second we had a tentative closing date of December 17^th, it will be over two months late at closing at a cost to us of over $5,000. We have not mentioned that and accepted that as part of the way construction goes.

We are asking that the closing date be moved up to accommodate an agreement that we made in good faith with Stacee, with the assumption that we had plenty of padding in there for delays. We can’t make you close on the 18^th, but we would appreciate it.

Also, we never asked for a wet bar, we asked for a drain under the stair, of which Steve is very aware as he brought it up at the meeting on December 22^nd.

Also, we understand that you will not bring potential customers through our house until our lease goes into effect, that would include moving model furnishings as well.

Problems...

Not so much problems as inconveniences. Lighthouse wants to do the final walk-thru on the 18th, and closing on the 23rd. However, our financing agreement with the bank (4.875%), ends on the 23rd. Apparently it takes a couple days to go through, and there are fines for each day late. So I sent LH this email:

After talking with Steve and Stacee this week, Jen and I would like to propose closing on the 18^th of February. Steve you indicated that you would like to do the walk thru on the 18^th, so we don’t see any reason why we couldn’t do that in the morning and closing in the afternoon.

This is actually a necessity, because the lock on our rate expires on the 23^rd, and Stacee indicated that the paperwork for that takes a couple of days. There is a daily fee for being late, and we would not want Lighthouse to have to pay that, since you indicated that you would be finished in early February at the meeting in December.

To which I received this:

Chris & Stacee,
Lighthouse Custom Homes made no written agreement to any closing date. Our projected closing date will be February 23rd. Enclosed is an invoice from Five Star Plumbing for $125.00 for a wet bar that was requested by homeowner that was not previously disclosed to Lighthouse. This was done outside of the scope of the contract and will be billed under the guidelines of the contract with regards to change order.

After receiving this I was pretty upset, so I had a long email reply that was a bit critical. However, they resent the email with this added:

We will help with what we can and will try to move up the closing date but we cannot guarantee that we will be ready on the 18th. We do not have a certificate of occupancy and still have numerous inspections to complete. Thus the reason for our 23rd statement.

So after receiving that I moderated the email, but I still don't think they are going to like it...

Update

Well as of last night, I think the painters are about done, their equipment was still there, but the final plumbing and electrical was getting done, so I doubt they would spray too much more paint around. Everything looks much better now that the painters have cleaned up.