Everything is coming together!!! Weekend Lot Visit

I guess the 3rd time is the charm when it comes to back splashes. Let's take a walk down Memory Lane and see just what my poor back splash has been through.

Naked

Wrong!

Ummm....no. Try again.

Yaaaay!

The hardwood floors have been completely finished. Hip hip hooray!!! Now, unfortunately I cannot truly appreciate them because they have the protective paper on them. I can't wait to see them uncovered for the first time.

All covered up

A little peek

Let's see, what else has been done since Wednesday? Well we decided to look more closely at things that needed to be fixed. This way there will be less to be addressed during both our independent inspector's walk through and our next walk through. We noticed a few things but I have a lot of confidence in our awesome construction manager and feel that he is probably aware of everything we point out before we actually point it out. Regardless, we will bring these things to his attention.

Paint needs to be touched up above door

Paint on cabinet chipped

Some sort of residue on front door frame

Moulding with apparent gap

MId-Week Lot Visit

First let me say this...I absolutely LOVE pulling up to my future home. I am still amazed by the transformation and by how much of a difference landscaping makes.

Now, when I entered the house, I looked into the study and the hardwood floors were almost complete in that room!! The installers had prepared the concrete foundation for putting the floors down in the dining room and there was actually flooring down in part of the back hall and kitchen. It looks great so far, but with dusty footprints all over the place, it's hard to love them right now.

Study

Kitchen & breakfast area

Hallway from kitchen to laundry room & guest room

My pantry

The protective paper has been removed from the master bathroom floor so I can really appreciate the floors and I must say I love them!

The incorrect accent tile has been removed from the back splash. The construction manager was there and I will very happy to see him there. I have only heard WONDERFUL things about him and how thorough he is. I have only seen him a handful of times (at pre-construction meeting, at walk through after inspector's report and one random time), but I truly appreciate how willing he is to address things that arise. I really wanted to hug him. :-|

I am looking forward to seeing the hardwood floors on Saturday when I come check on things again. I'm sure they will look great once they are all down. And, one of our soon-to-be neighbors is having a party on Saturday and has asked the sales manager to invite everyone in the neighborhood - those building, those who just moved in, those who they have not had a chance to meet. I'm a social person so I'm dragging the family with me. It should be fun!

Weekly Construction Update

As we get closer to closing, the less there is to do, and therefore, the updates contain less and less to expect. Nevertheless, this is what is coming up:

• Preparation for the hardwood floors will begin this week and the hardwood installation should start Wednesday or Thursday
• Carpet installation should begin next Tuesday
• The accent tile will be addressed once the materials arrive
• The upgraded thermostats, included as part of the National Sales Event, will be installed

Toll Brothers Questions answered

I have been asked several questions about certain issues pertaining to Toll Brothers. I feel that others could potentially benefit from the answers to these questions whether they are purchasing a home from Toll Brothers, or some other builder. The questions were posted in the comments section and I will answer them here, based on my personal experiences.

First question/topic:
Dee, did you negotiate the price of your home or the price of additions? I've heard it's hard to negotiate with TB. Also, how much do additions cost relative to base home price? would you say 15-20% of price is a reasonable expectation? 

Answer:
The day of contract signing the Toll Brothers sales manager made it very clear that Toll Brothers does not negotiate on the price of homes. Period. She said that they do not take any amount off of the sales price after options are added. The base price of my home included 5 bedrooms 4.5 baths with a game room and formal dining room. I chose the following options - media room, interior wet bar, alternate fireplace location and chose an open area where a Butler's pantry can later be placed rather than having a closet in that location. These options totaled 4.1% of the base price. 

There are plenty of other options that could quickly get someone to the 15-20% of the base price. Some of those options include: Additional garage bay ($10,500), covered porch addition ($9,900), Master bath luxury package ($16,900), open beam ceiling for Two-story family/great room ($6,900), Butler pantry ($3,450), etc., etc., etc.

Second question/topic:
Are you saying the title insurance was not included as part of the closing cost in your original GFE and this came as a complete shock? Or was it included and you just assumed TB would cover this? I have a GFE from TB that includes the title insurance charges for settlement services. 

Answer:
Since I am still a little over one month away from closing, I have not yet been given a GFE as we are awaiting the final numbers from the title company. At contract signing the sales manager made it very clear that Toll Brothers does not pay for the title policy. This fact was not hidden, but it was rather shocking that this is their common practice. My realtor was almost flabbergasted when the sales manager made that statement. In almost all cases the seller pays for the title policy. In my case the title insurance is estimated to cost $4,187. Yes, $4,187 on top of down payment and expected closing costs.

Even worse than the fact that Toll Brothers does not cover the title policy is the fact that despite paying for the policy myself, I have no choice when it comes to the Title company or the location of closing. Now, by law, builders are not allowed to dictate which Title company is used for closing and the paying party (buyer vs seller) is negotiable. Toll Brothers gets around this by place including in Section 5 of the contract which states "If buyer fails to select a title company within thirty (30) days of the date of Buyer's execution of this Agreement, or if Buyer's title company is unwilling to ensure title as good and marketable, then, in order to facilitate the preparation of closing documents, Seller is authorized to obtain title insurance for Buyer at Buyer's expense at prevailing rates in the amount of the purchase price."

This was not explained well during signing of the contract, but regardless I agreed to it by signing the contract. And with Toll Brothers, it's take it or leave it. However, I think it is safe to say that most people building homes with estimated construction times of 6-8 months do NOT  immediately leave the sales office and start Google-ing title companies. Yes, Toll Brothers is slick and love to dictate things.

Since Toll Brothers will be so kind to obtain title insurance for me at my expense, OF COURSE THEY CHOSE THEIR OWN TITLE COMPANY!!!

Whoop Whoop! Weekly Weekend Visit

This weekend's visit was the most exciting BY FAR!!! As soon as we turned the corner I felt like a kid on Christmas. Why? The landscaping is completely done and my future home finally looks like a real house! This is the most dramatic and obviously noticeable change since the framing stage. It's still hard for me to contain my excitement.

The landscape package is a standard one and is described as landscaping typical of the master planned community and neighborhood.  Given that the neighborhood has a somewhat Tuscan feel, there are spiral evergreens, but color will be provided with knock out roses and crepe myrtle trees in the front. As part of the National Sales Event we were given an extra live oak tree which was planted in the back yard.

I can now get an overall feel for the size of the backyard since the grass is there and I am totally fine with it.  It's perfect for us.

The type of sod that is provided here in Riverstone is Bermuda grass which is the most popular type of grass in tropical and sub-tropical regions. Here are some positives about Bermuda grass from a website dedicated to information about Bermuda grass:

• Easy to start from seed. Full sun (warm season) grass. Tolerates heat well. Fast establishment time.

• High disease and insect resistance (except nematodes).

• Survives in a variety of soils from sandy to clays.

• Grows well on infertile, dry soils - Good drought resistant qualities.

• Withstands close grazing and traffic wear - Can be mowed low.

• Aggressive growth chokes out weeds.

• With proper care & fertilizer, creates a good green lawn.

• Responds well to nitrogen applications - creating darker green colors.

The view that made we swoon

Better view of front landscaping - tree on left is a crepe myrtle

View of backyard - size not that atypical for area

Also contributing to the excitement is that my front doors are in!! Also as part of the National Sales Event we were given a free door upgrade. If money were not a concern then I would have chose iron and glass doors because they are very Mediterranean and allow a lot of natural light in the entrance of the home. However, we chose solid wood doors stained the color of our choice - we chose the same color as the stair rail and trim stain. They are gorgeous!

View of doors from inside

Unfortunately, the construction manager must not have gotten to the workers soon enough after me mentioning that the back splash was incorrect because since Wednesday it grouted.  I am quite sure that will make it very difficult to remove only the accent tile portion but that is not my problem. I just want my correct back splash in so I can get the overall feel of the kitchen finally.

Yup, still wrong, but the subway tiles look great

The walls of the media room were painted the color we had chose at the design center. The National Sales Event allowed us to choose a different paint color for one room. We chose to the use the color for the media room. Most builders will include a different paint color for the media room because they are often painted a darker color. We paid for 2 pairs of electrical wiring to be installed in the media room for sconces. Today we actually have sconces and it looks great. For the first time, I think I saw my husband get a little happy :-)

In the master bath, the crappy shower door is in place. I refer to them as crappy because the thing shakes when you close the shower door. I can tell I will have to replace it with something sturdier down the road. Other than that, the bathroom looks great. I love the counter tops and the flooring together and I love having so much storage in the bathroom.

Issues

While we were walking from the foyer to the master bathroom we realized that flooring was not there and that could only mean one of two things. Either 1) they planned on putting carpet there or 2) they planned on putting hardwood there. Regardless of their plans, it would look absolutely ridiculous. The foyer has direct contact with the flooring in the dining room (hardwood), powder room (marble), great room (hardwood) and the hall to the master (??). My husband and I recall being in the design center and  choosing to continue the marble for the area from the foyer to the master bedroom, even though it would cost  us more. Well, there must have been a miscommunication because marble tile was not put down there and I am surprised that we just realized it.We are going to get marble tile there. Watch us.

Old picture showing hall to master and its relationship to foyer 

View of the actual entrance to the hall

My husband was a great sport and we went back to the house after it was dark so I could see it with the exterior lights on.

I think I'm in love

Closing information!!!!

Though it seems like we just began this homebuilding process yesterday, we are only a little over one month from going to closing. We have started all the business-handling processes including locking in our rate for our loan and scheduling the closing date.

As a reminder - Toll Brothers DOES NOT pay for the title insurance. I was reassured by the sales manager that this is common practice by Toll Brothers across the country, not just in Houston. When my Realtor heard this for the first time at signing of the contract she was shocked and had never heard of a seller not paying for the title policy. Likewise, the Toll Brothers sales manager had never worked with a builder who did not pay for this. Needless to say, it will cost us +$4,900 in addition to expected closing costs and downpayment.

Prior to closing on our new home we will have a final walk through the week before. The purpose of this final walk through will be to make sure that everything is done to our satisfaction. We have been advised to have our private inspector conduct his inspection the week or so before so that we can have the inspection report during the final walk through and make sure that all items in the report have been addressed.

The closing is supposed to take place at the Design Center which is far away. It is approximately 45 minutes from where I currently live. My financial advisor told me that since Toll Brothers does not pay for the title policy, then we should be able to choose the title company and the location of closing. I will certainly be looking into this.

Mid-week Lot Visit

When I arrived to the house today the sprinkler guys were installing the sprinkler system in the front, side and back yards!!  That was a surprise since it was not mentioned in the weekly construction update telephone call.

Now, the biggest shock, and disappointment, was the kitchen back splash accent tile being absolutely WRONG!!!  I have no idea where in the world the tile guys could have gotten that tile. It looks completely out of place. My kitchen is very neutral - almost too neutral and the accent tile they put up is black, stainless steel and some weird white stone!!! Someone should have been suspicious about whether this was the right accent tile. You be the judge.

Ridiculous right? That's what I thought

It even looks out of place from afar

The stain is done on the staircase railing and trim. It looks great and I cannot wait to see it after the hardwood floors are in.

Catwalk

We also have garage door openers and just as I was leaving I noticed that we have gutters and downspouts. They are very close the color of the trim. Surprisingly we do not have gutters on our current home so this is exciting for me! Believe it or not, not all new homes here in Texas have gutters. Some of have absolutely none, like my current home. Some may have a few strategically placed. Some have full gutters. I'm happy to be joining the full gutter club.

Weekly Construction Update

Here's the update for this week:

• Interior paint will be completed this week
• They will be doing a second coat of paint on all walls and trim
• The backsplash will be done today - I guess the tile finally came in (took 2 weeks)
• The front door will be in Thursday or Friday - so excited

Weekly Weekend Visit

In our usual fashion, we went by the house to take a look at the changes that magically happen over a few days. Some differences are subtle and some are immediately noticeable.

Well, as soon as we entered the house we noticed that our front staircase trim had been stained and that the workers were in the process of staining the second staircase.  The stain was chosen at the design center and ultimately it should match the stain of our hardwood floors. The stairs themselves will have carpet, except for the first step which is stained.

Second staircase

We now have mirrors in all the bathrooms. Yes, the pitiful, sad, frame-less mirrors that are standard with Toll Brothers.

Powder room

The multimedia guy had also started installing the CAT-5 outlets. The audio speakers, however, have not been installed. We will only have 4 for now - 2 in the great room and 2 on the back patio.

The shower door was installed in the downstairs guest suite and it looks really nice. The tile shelves has yet to be fixed, but I am happy with our color scheme for the bathroom.

I have been unable to figure out the purpose of it, but caulking was placed in all the corners. I assume that it will prevent cracks from forming at the house settles, but that truly is just a wild guess.

They started the repair of the leak above the shower in the master bathroom. New drywall has been placed over where the old drywall was removed. It's amazing how they patch drywall.

The Lights are on, but nobody's home

 It was really exciting to pull up to the house and see that the electricity had been turned on! For some odd reason I am obsessed with my down lights so seeing them illuminated, despite the fact that it was sunny, was awesome.

This midweek visit was important because there was an 'issue' that I really wanted to make sure was handled properly. I have mentioned the master bath and a possible water/fungus issue and my concerns were legitimate.  When I went into the master bath, this is what I saw...

Just as I thought. They had to remove the drywall.

Close up from below

Obviously water was leaking from somewhere above the master bedroom which is surprising because the 'growth' was there before the plumber came. 

Meanwhile I found this in the Jack & Jill bathroom upstairs...

Area above vanity with the insulation removed presumably to find the leak

This situation is a mess and I will be in contact with the construction manager and making daily visits, if necessary, so that I know exactly what the issue is and what is being done to fix it. I am glad it happened when it did so they can make repairs before I move in but it makes me worry a bit. And, they better put the insulation back in its proper place. I do not want any hot spots as a result of insulation not being replaced properly.

On a happier note, here are pictures of the house with lights on!

Front lights and down lights on

Foyer lights

Back stair case chandelier