PRE-DRYWALL INSPECTION!

WARNING THIS IS A LONG POST...

Our pre-drywall inspection was yesterday.  My parents came up from VA and my dad asked all sorts of great questions that he would only know from being in the business and building.  We learned a lot.  It was like 40 degrees so my mom couldn't take it anymore and ran to the car to keep warm, lol.  Funny, it was 70 degrees a week ago.  All of our electrical and Guardian orders were in place and we got to see the basement for the first time.  The basement was the warmest place in the house, lol.  I will confirm this with our PM during our Monday "meeting," but if I remember correctly the Energy Star test is Tuesday and they will start insulating and drywalling next week.  He also confirmed our presettlement date of May 4th with closing May 6th.  Now we just have to nail down a home inspector.  Believe it or not, we didn't take any pictures.  The house looked the same to us, with the exception that the brick to grade is complete. 

After the inspection we did what we thought was window shopping and ended up buying a treadmill. 

It's a Livestrong LS8.0T.  We got it from Dick's Sporting Goods.  It retails for $1499, but the store we went to had them on sale for $649.  However, to make it even better they had one that was open box that was just returned a couple days ago.  So they sold it to us for half off.  It also had every single part that comes with it and it works fine, Daniel ran on it.  I was concerned with the size of the track since Daniel is 6'5" and the track is 55", but he ran on it at a little higher than his normal top speed and was fine.  Although we haven't heard of this brand before, we're new to the treadmill world, we did some checking online and everyone said that they're great machines and are underpriced for their value.  However, marketing sucks so no one really knows about them.  Also with each purchase of Livestrong products, contributions are made to Lance Armstrong's cancer foundation.  Sweet.  Just wanted to give some details just in case you were looking for a treadmill yourself. 

We also went to Costco to look at TVs.  Turns out they will mount them for you at a MUCH more reasonable price than Best Buy.  Best Buy charges you $250 per TV to mount, Costco charges $90 per TV.  Costco will mount the TV as long as you buy the TV from them, you can have your own mount.  I can't remember, but I think you need to buy everything from Best Buy too.  I don't know if Sam's is comparable to Costco, but its worth asking.  Costco is definitely an option for us. 

Lastly furniture shopping.  We finally found a bedroom set that we liked, but it was discontinued and they only had what was in the store.  Sold out throughout the company.  So we're still searching for that.  I think we settled on our dining room table. 




We wouldn't get the cloth covered arm chairs.  Daniel says they remind him of Chairy from Pee-Wee Herman, lol




Once we get our "must purchase" items in the house, I will be coming back for this.  This will be perfect for the morning room.  These chairs are super comfy too. 

 Last thing is a little hiccup.  When we met with our Guardian rep he asked if we would be getting Direct TV with the DVR because we will need the double coax (India also mentioned this on her blog too).  We said we're looking at Direct TV, but we've never used a DVR and don't plan on using it in the future.  I started calling Direct TV because we can take advantage of deals directly through Direct TV, Costco, my job, or AAA.  During this time we found out in order to have the HD DVR receiver, you need to have the double coax even if you didn't plan on using the DVR.  If we don't get the HD DVR, because that's the special, we only get one free upgrade, meaning the regular HD box, and have to pay for the other boxes.  So Daniel meet with our Guardian rep while he was chalking the locations of everything and our rep said he'll see what he can do.  We later found out that he couldn't add it and he didn't think that Ryan would let us do a change order so late in the game.  I immediately contacted our Rep.  She was out of the office until Thursday, but emailed me Wednesday saying she got my email and she's on it when she returns.  I totally forgot to follow up with her Thursday.  When I spoke with our PM to confirm our pre-drywall he brought it up and said it's not going to be a problem.  All we're waiting on is the forms from Guardian to come in and we'll sign them for the change order.  What a relief because I did not what to see how much Direct TV would have charged us if they had to do something.  Thumbs up to Ryan Homes.

PS
Does anyone know what happened to Sienna, Thanks Ryan's blog?  He didn't give us an update on his meeting and now the link doesn't work.