Wow, this last month has FLOWN by!!  As far as the house is concerned, you’ll see below that they lack very little on the outside or the inside.  The whole place looks truly amazing, and I am so very excited to become a homeowner for the first time.  The only little bit on the exterior that they lack is to stain the front door, paint the garage door, and touch up the exterior trim.  On the inside, you will see that the counter tops are laid, the cabinets are built, the doors and trim are in, the tile has been laid, and there is paint on the walls—although it appears they are going to have to repaint a lot of it.  They’ve also installed the sprinkler system and laid the sod, as well as put in the flower bedding with the hedges and the trees are also planted.  I also started to notice something else…The other houses in the neighborhood, and what all they have done to their yards and such, then I realized what “keeping up with the Joneses” really meant.  Especially my neighbor directly across the street, they must have fertilized their yard, because even now when everybody else has dead grass, their yard is bright green, and everything looks very nice.  One day, mine will be the same.  But for now, it sure is looking good!!!

 

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So once again, I seem to have gotten busy and neglected posting the new pictures I’ve been taking.  So here’s an update.  Since the insulation got put in, they’ve worked like madmen to get the house bricked and stoned up, and got all the sheetrock hung into place, with the rounded corners.  It looks completely and totally awesome, and I even got to make my attempt at an original design in the last big of wet cement in the backyard.  I think it turned out alright, but I wish I’d have planned ahead and gotten a Bio9 cut out of steel and painted up to be placed in the cement.  Oh well, I can always pour more cement somewhere else later.  We’re all set for a mid April closing date, and I’m looking forward to wrapping up all of the paper work, and moving in!  The collecting my nice Tax Credit from this new, super-sized economic stimulus package.  I still think they should have left the Tax Credit at $15,000, but I’ll definitely take $8,000 that I do not have to repay.  That is certainly a sweet deal!

 

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So I recently met with the community manager of the Vista West, for the pre-sheetrock walkthrough and progress update of the house. He answered all of my questions that I had about the house, the sloping backyard, the woodburning stove issue, and on and on and on. He also pointed out to me some of the innovations that K. Hovnanian is building into every home…such as the Radiant Barrier in the attic, a central water shut-off valve in the laundry room, and also a recessed area in the wall with a vertical connection to the exterior vent for the dryer, so that the dryer can be pushed fully flush with the wall. How cool is that? Just many small things like that, where they may not be necessary, but they sure are nice! We also nailed down more of a solid finish date, sometime in the middle of April. He has decided to work with me, and take extra time and care, and push the date back a month from the mid-March finish date that had been projected earlier. Just another thing I really like about K. Hovnanian. Oh and speaking of, it is their 50th Anniversary, and for a limited time, they are offering a new 50″ plasma TV with every home purchase! See your local K. Hovnanian neighborhood or khov.com for more details!  Mention my name, Chase Thompson, for an extra discount!

 

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Walls and Windows Please

Alright, so to catch up, I’m posting again with more pictures…MANY more pictures!  These pictures were taken on different days, about a couple of weeks apart.  The house is now to the stage where they are waiting on various inspections and permits for other things and what not, so progress has slowed WAY down.  However, the walls are up, exterior siding is on, windows are in, bathtubs are in…The electrical lines, water lines, and air conditioning paths are all set and in place.  It was really funny, a couple weeks ago, it looked like they were framing for a fireplace, then a few days after that, gone.  I plan on putting in a wood burning stove, a Federal Airtight woodburning stove, in the future.  It has been my experience that not only do they heat better during the winter, they are also less of an insulation leak during the summer.  Makes perfect sense to me.  I know also that a woodburning stove can heat the whole house, not just right in front of it.  That’s one part of the winter time at my Oma’s that I’ve always enjoyed…She has a woodburning stove in the den, it heats the whole house.  It appears that they are getting ready to brick the exterior, and put in the optional stone, and we’re off to the races after that!  I’m getting close to being 60 days out.  Exciting, and frightening at the same time…I’m going to own a house!

 

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