Monday visit

I was out of town this past weekend so I did not have my usual weekend visit. I really needed to go anyway because I will not be able to attend the first walk-through tomorrow because I do not want to take a valuable day off. The goal of my visit today is to take a thorough look around and make note of anything I feel needs to be addressed.

My gorgeous hardwood floors were uncovered so I FINALLY got to see them in all their glory. After seeing them all uncovered I am very happy with my flooring choice. It breaks up some of the beige and I think it will look really nice once I add more color. With the floors being uncovered, the house is 99% complete. The only thing left to do is correct things mentioned in the inspection report.

Drum roll please....

Study

Picture taken from front porch

Dining Room 

Great room!

Breakfast area

Kitchen - obviously

Catwalk above great room

View from breakfast area to downstairs guest bedroom

Taken from catwalk

I honestly only found a handful of things, which were minor, that I would like addressed.

• I am still not happy with the touch up paint job done on the cabinet. Some contractor must have scratched the side near the double ovens while putting up tile.
• The floor transition from the foyer to the dining room (marble to hardwood) is a tad uneven.
• More info: Per Toll Brothers, they are the only builders who make sure that different types of flooring are even and therefore require no transitions (sample pictured below). If you look at my pictures above you will not see a perpendicular piece of wood demarcating the transition:



• My picture: 

  

  The wood is raised above the level of the marble a little - all other areas a fine

Weekly Weekend Visit

We visited the lot, as usual, with the expectation that not much would be noticeably different.  The major difference was that the appliances are in!!! They were not mentioned during the weekly construction update so it was a nice surprise. As far as appliances ago, we stuck with the standard double ovens which are convection ovens. I found this information on overstock.com helpful with both explaining the differences between traditional ovens and convection ovens and the benefits convection ovens offer:

1. How is a convection oven different from a traditional oven?
   A traditional oven uses radiant heat to cook food. While this is a time-honored method of cooking, one side of a dish may receive more heat than the other side, causing the food to bake unevenly. A convection oven constantly circulates the hot air inside to provide a consistent temperature on all surfaces of the food, resulting in even cooking.
2. Do convection ovens cook food faster?
   Yes, food cooks faster in a convection oven due to the increased food-surface temperature. The airflow boosts yeast breads to new heights, allows fats to render quickly, seals meats and creates tender, flaky pastries. While each convection oven comes with specific manufacturer's specifications, cooking time is typically shortened by approximately 20 percent.
3. Are special pans necessary?
   Regular pans are fine, but pans with lower sides are desirable because high pan sides may hamper airflow. A flat cookie sheet produces evenly browned cookies in less time than a cookie sheet with sides. When roasting, place the food item on top of a roasting rack, positioned within a shallow roasting pan. The rack allows the hot air to circulate around and under the roast, cooking from all sides.
4. Should conventional recipes be adjusted?
   Because food cooks faster in a convection oven, you should check for doneness approximately three-fourths of the way through a traditional recipe's recommended cooking time. In addition, you may need to lower the temperature of baked goods by 20 to 25 degrees to keep cakes, breads and biscuits from baking before they can rise sufficiently.
5. Can a convection oven cook more than one rack of food evenly?
   This is where the convection oven shines. Unlike a traditional oven where you must remove and switch multiple pizzas to different racks during the cooking process, a convection oven allows you to load every rack with food without compromising the food on any rack. The hot air circulates between racks and heats all food surfaces evenly without the food being rotated.

We upgraded the venthood to one with a more powerful fan just in case something gets a little burned on the stove. lol We upgraded the cooktop and dishwasher as well, but only because we were given a credit of $400 for the National Sales Event.

They have completing the finishing process with the wood on the stair rails and they look really nice.  

The fireplace has been 'trimmed out,' whatever that means. When we were at the house today I could not tell the difference for the life of me. I will have to rely on photographic evidence!

Weird tilt-out sponge tray

Kitchen with appliances

Carpet has been replaced by marble

The 'trimmed out' fireplace - I don't see the difference

Second staircase

My venthood and cooktop - blue tape marking a damaged tile

Weekly Lot Visit, stucco & Neighbors

As usual, the family and I visited the lot but this time we noticed an obvious difference as soon as we turned the corner. The construction crew has started on the stucco process!!  Yaaay!! Now...the inside of the home had not changed very much. The dry wall appears to be completed, but the texture was not applied. During the last weekly construction update we were told that they should start applying the texture on Friday and apparently it was not started. No biggie though.

The house looked like it had a cage applied around the outside surfaces and this is part of the stucco application process. If you read up on stucco you will find that it has its issues and more specifically, several years ago Toll Brothers had issues with water penetration in the Northeastern part of the country. Reading about these issues freaked me out and even though we had already signed the contract I asked for more information about the process from the construction and sales managers. It appears that the process had been changed following the issues and these issues tend not to arise in hotter areas of the country...and Houston is definitely that.

Some of you may be asking, what is stucco? It is very hard to define what stucco is because it has many 'ingredients' (lol) but it primarily includes lime, sand and water. That there is too much information already. Basically, it looks like cement, but I think it increases the 'wow' factor of a home and that's why we went for it.  Its application requires several steps and I took a picture of the board at the sales office showing an overview of the process.

Board showing the stucco process

Example of stucco (only on front facade front of home)

As we were getting back in the car we met another neighbor who was very friendly and had also built a home with Toll Brothers. He built the same floor plan that I am building but with a different elevation. I asked how he felt about Toll Brothers as a builder and he said that overall things were fine. He said that my construction manager is very good because others that oversee the construction manager are not as good. He said that he had some issues with the sales manager but the construction process went well. He has been in his home for almost one year and therefore is approaching the ominous 1-year mark after which Toll Brothers will not address issues other than those that are structural or pertaining to the roof. He did say that he had a few issues but that Toll Brothers addressed them with no questions asked. He loves the neighborhood, he loves the neighbors and he loves the schools. That's good news to hear and makes me more excited!!

Without further ado, here are the pictures from today's visit...

View from street

Garage

Me spraying bug spray in the study - those who know me aren't surprised

Media room

Dining room

Kitchen and Breakfast area

Close up of the 'lath' metal on the house

Weekly Lot Visit

Today was one of the most exciting lot visits because we finally have drywall!!! It was so nice seeing the rooms for the first time...it really looks like a house now.

When we arrived, there were at least 10 people in the house taping the drywall joints and mudding over them. They were not playing around! We did not venture into certain areas of the house which were 'heavily populated' because there was so much going on but we did manage to get pictures of most of the rooms.

View from street

View from front door to great room

View from great room to front door

Study

Dining room

Downstairs guest bedroom

Hallway from guest bedroom to kitchen and breakfast room

Hall to master bedroom (storage on left)

View of master bedroom after turning corner

Master bedroom with child lol

Entrance to master bathroom and closet

Great room

High ceilings in great room

Kitchen and breakfast room

View back towards hall to master bedroom from breakfast room

Pantry (left)

Secondary staircase

Storage space under secondary stair case

Game room upstairs - this was as close as we could get

 So, after the drywall has been installed and screwed into the studs as individual sheets, the joints have to have tape applied over them and then 'mud' to join the sheets for a lack of better terms.

There was a giant pile of sand in the front yard and a palette of 'scratch and brown coat' which are both used in stucco application. Though the construction manager did not mention beginning the stucco application process next week, it must be on the horizon. So perhaps they will be applying texture to the drywall and starting the stucco at the same time.

Weekly Construction Update

As usual, the sales manager and construction manager gave us a call to update us on what will occur over the next week. They couldn't get us on the phone but they left a message. So...

• Inspection reports - all corrected
• Insulation went in fine and the construction manager checked it
• Sheetrock installer should be showing up tomorrow
• If sheetrock starts tomorrow then we are looking at texture being applied to walls next Wednesday  :-)

Most homes here in the Houston area have texture applied to the walls, including my current home. The first time I came across the texture I was wondering to myself, "What in the World is this stuff on the walls?" Turns out that texture helps to cut down on stains being picked up as well as hides imperfections in the dry wall. If you have never seen texture on a wall, here it is:

To those of you who are not familiar with drywall texture it probably looks weird, but I guess I've gotten used to it.

Weekly Construction Update

Here's the update given to us today...

• Inspections: Tomorrow both the inspector for the City of Sugar Land & an independent inspector that Toll Brothers uses will conduct the Phase II inspection
• Phase II inspections are completed prior to insulation and drywall being started
• More inspections: OUR independent contractor will complete his own inspection and provide Toll Brothers with a report of any deficiencies or violations by this Friday
• Next week: Toll Brothers contractors will address any issues found during inspections then begin installing insulation and drywall

Until next time...

Weekly Lot Visit & Energy Ratings for Windows

Hey all!!  Instead of posting pictures of changes that are barely detectable with the human eye, I figured that in addition to updated pictures of the house, I would share information that I learn about the building process. I'm always down for a little edumacation. lol

HVAC may or may not be completed at this point. I'm no HVAC expert so unless the construction manager says so, I'm never certain that something has been completed. Electrical wiring has been started and we could see the outlets for our ceiling fixtures, wall sconces, etc.  The remaining windows have also been installed.

View from the street

View of attic from first floor

Master closet from the master bath

Master bedroom

Pantry

Husband walking through the dining room

My favorite - the laundry room!

Interpreting Energy Labels on new windows

As previously stated, Toll Brothers does not provide very much information regarding the energy efficiency of their homes. However, we live in Houston where temperatures reach above 100 degrees in the summer, so I'm very much interested! Guess I have to edumacate myself!

New windows are required to have a label, referred to as an NFRC label. NFRC stands for National Fenestration Rating Council. NFRC labels can be a valuable tool and their website likens their label to the miles-per-gallon sticker on a new car. NFRC testing protocols involve testing the entire window and involves independent testing so you can trust the information.  Below is a picture of the NFRC label taken from my home being built.

SAMPLE window label from nfrc.org

• U-Factor: ranges between 0.15 - 1.2; measures how well the window prevents heat from escaping a home. The lower the U-Factor, the better the product is at keeping heat inside the home - obviously less important where I live.
• Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC): ranges between 0 and 1; measures how much heat from the sun is blocked. The lower the SHGC, the more a product is blocking heat gain from the sun.
• Visible Transmittance: ranges between 0 and 1; measures how much light comes through a window. The higher the VT, the higher the potential for 'daylighting.'

Now, after interpreting the information on the windows for my new home, it appears that these are good windows. They will do a good job at keeping out heat from the sun and will not transmit a lot of sunlight. Are there probably better windows out there? Of course! Will these windows help keep my energy bills manageable? I sure hope so!