This morning we had our pre-drywall meeting. Not much has changed at the house besides a little insulation in some walls. The brick and stone have also arrived. The shelf for the water heater has been moved to the right side of the garage. I took pictures of the brick but didn’t see the stone until we were leaving and didn’t get a picture.
We drove out to the house again today. We now have a roof! Woo Hoo! The HVAC is up in the attic, and the electric wires are throughout the home. The shelf for the water heater still hasn’t been moved to the right side of the garage. Ricky did find a few other things he will point out to the builder. Our inspector will be going out on the 21st and we have our pre-drywall inspection on the 24th. Not much more to update right now.
Ricky and I drove out to the house today. Boy, what a change from the last time we were there! All the interior walls are framed up. There were tubs in the two spare bathrooms, all the windows were in, and the roof was decked. It’s really starting to take shape. Of course, Ricky found a bunch of issues. One thing was the shelf for the water heater was on the opposite side of where the plumbing was. We did stop by the office and talk to Kristi and she said anything we found wrong would be corrected and that Zach hadn’t done his walk-through yet to tell them what was wrong. Stull Inspections will be going for another inspection on February 21. We’ll be there again on the 24th to do a walk-through with Zach and make sure everything looks good before they put the drywall up. Here are some new photos.
Things are moving quickly with the house, and it’s been really exciting to watch. Last week, they finished the framing, and we were honestly surprised at how fast it’s coming together. We haven’t had a chance to visit the site ourselves yet, but DW posted some pictures on our web page, and Lori and Aaron drove over on Sunday to take a few more. It’s amazing how quickly everything is going up!
We’re planning to head over tomorrow to check things out in person, and Ricky will be spraying the termite prevention solution while we’re there. Kristi and Zach called with an update yesterday, and they mentioned the interior walls are now up, and the windows are in place. Zach also said they’re decking the roof today and will be putting on shingles Monday. The HVAC system and utilities are expected to be finished next week as well.
It’s all coming together so fast, and we’re both excited and a little amazed at how much has happened already!
We hired Stull Inspections to do 3rd party inspections during the building process. They went out on January 23rd to do the first inspection before the slab is poured. They did find a few issues that needed to be taken care of before the pouring.
All tendons within three inches to supply or DWV piping should be relocated or the pipes should
be protected with a method approved by the engineer.
The vapor barrier has some defects that should be repaired. All rips, tears, holes and seams
should be repaired with an approved tape. Permeation of water vapor through concrete slabs can
cause failure of moisture-sensitive adhesives and may cause delamination, distortion or
discoloration of flooring products. Fill dirt is needed in multiple area before pouring the concrete
Hopefully, these things will get corrected today and the slab can be poured.
Lori went out to the neighborhood the other day and took some pictures for us. It looks like the foundation is ready to poured. I messaged Zach and he said it would’ve been Monday, but this arctic blast that is coming in will delay it until next week. Not the update we were looking for but glad they won’t be pouring in the freezing weather. He said he is planning on Friday or Monday of next week.
Today was one for the books. It hasn’t snowed in our area for several years and the weather forecast was a BLIZZARD warning, lol. This is unheard of in Southeast Texas. However, some areas reached as much as 6 inches of snow. Unbelievable! At our house, we didn’t have quite that much. I wasn’t there to see it in person. I had to be at work. The city was officially closed Tuesday(today) and Wednesday and I was on call both days, lucky me. They up staffed for fear of what would happen in town with all the people bound and determined to be out in this mess. I had packed my bag before coming to work on Monday, so I’ve been staying here since I came to work Monday morning. The first night I abided by the rules and slept on the provided cot, barely wide enough for my fat ass. When I got up Tuesday morning my right hip was hurting something awful. Ricky was kind enough to brave the roads and bring me my air mattress for Tuesday night. This morning it’s not quite as bad, but still in pain. Guess I will have to make an appointment to see the Dr. soon. There weren’t any more calls than normal all day so I really wasn’t needed. However, I want to make as much overtime as possible before I retire in March, so it wasn’t too bad. This morning the temperature was 13 when I got up, which is crazy! Greg Bostwick said in the China are they set a new record of only 8 degrees. 2025 has had a crazy start, it can only go up from here. It was nice seeing all the photos on facebook of everyone enjoying the snow. Looked so pretty, but the mess afterwards isn’t pretty. I’m back at work now and hoping for an uneventful day. I wonder how much snow fell at our new homesite in Magnolia. I don’t think that area had as much as here. Hopefully they get back to work on the house soon. First picture is from Traci’s house early in the day and second is Sara throwing a snowball at Ryan.
Ricky and I drove over to see if there was any progress on the homesite Saturday morning. The fame of the house with plumbing sticking up was there! This is so exciting. The house appears much smaller than we know it is. All the tensioning rods were off to the side and not installed yet. We’re expecting an arctic blast on the 19th which will delay the pouring of the foundation. I don’t know if the 5-6 month estimation allows for any weather days, but if it doesn’t it’s looking like the house probably won’t be ready until May or June. That’s kind of a bummer but we want everything to be done properly so it’ll be okay if it’s later.
I emailed Kristi letting her know we would like to have 3rd party inspections during the build process. She’s been out of the office and finally responded on January 9th. She advised the inspections wouldn’t be a problem and that our foundation was scheduled to be poured on January 20th, weather permitting! This is so unreal, lol. We will try to make a trip over there one day this week. Ricky says they should have some framing and plumbing stuff in place before pouring the slab so we should finally be able to SEE some progress.
December 18, 2024
We drove to Magnolia today and the fog was horrendous. We drove to our new street and there were already 8 houses that had been started. We were there just two weeks ago and there was only 1 started at that time. These people move very fast.
We had our pre-construction meeting with the project manager, Zach Chilton, and Kristi Wells. Zach was a really nice, energetic guy. He listened to anything we brought up and answered all our questions. We decided against putting the LVP in the master bedroom for now. We added an outlet outside that will be controlled by a switch inside for Christmas lights, a flood light on the back corner of the house that will be able to point to the back yard and the side of the house where the generator will be, 3-drawer cabinets on both sides of the stove, blocking for hanging the tv in the living room, and blinds throughout the house. I decided we really need the blinds to be done by them because it will be a while before we hang curtains. We finished the meeting with paying 25% of all the options we put on the house. They can now start on building the house. This all seems so unreal, lol. I’m so excited to get the ball rolling!