Doors and Windows and Wires Oh My!

My husband has to be out of town for about a week and a half so we made sure to take one more drive by the build site right before he left. The house now has windows, doors, stairs and all the exterior wrapping. Here are some pics! They are from Tuesday, May 19th which was Day 21 of building.

Top window is a bedroom window, bottom window is to the dining room and back window is morning room

Two bottom windows are living room, to top middle are loft and each side window is a bedroom

The doors all start off white then are painted the chosen color

Today, on Day 23 of building I met with a rep from Protection by Design to review all of our wiring choices. We met at the house, and did a walk through to make sure they knew exactly where we wanted our wiring placed. It was fun to walk through the inside of the house now that it's all framed. Today they were installing the HVAC system and it was a buzz of activity. Here is what we currently have as our wiring choices. It's changed very minimally from our initial diagram (http://buildfromafar.blogspot.com/2015/03/wiring.html), but we did move a few things around. Also we have a few days to mull it all over and make sure we are happy with it before they begin installation. 

First Floor Wiring

Second Floor Wiring

The SR from Protection by Design told us that they also throw in a network cable as well as a video cable in the attic. This way if we were to decide we wanted something additional in the future we have those wires installed. He said it is also a good backup to have in case a wire gets cut somewhere along the way. That sounded good to us, we are all for adding things that will help out in the future. Ryan homes installs smoke detectors to code, and Protection by Design will install a smoke detector as well (usually right along side Ryan's) that will be connected to the monitoring system (if you sign up for monitoring), meaning it will contact the emergency services. So we will take the next day or two to make sure we are 100% confident in our placement choices and then contact the rep if we need to move a location of a wire. 

We really tried to think about our future in the home, as well as potential future owners and what would be desirable. That's why we have a cable outlet in each bedroom. We thought about where we planned to put the beds and chose a spot on the opposite wall for the outlets. This is the same reason we wanted two cable outlets in the Master Bedroom. One where we feel it will be opposite the bed, and one in the sitting area where you can put some chairs or a love seat (we saw this in a few models). Same can be said for why we have two cable outlets in the family room, one on each opposite wall. We plan to put our television against the back wall (and the surround sound will be oriented that way) however we felt it smart to add a cable outlet to the opposite wall as well in the event we change our minds about the TV placement or if future owners choose a different wall.  It's so easy to add at this stage of the game and much more difficult/expensive down the road, so why not make sure we have plenty of options.

Lastly, it's looking like we will be ready for the pre-drywall inspection next week. The PM will do his own inspection, however we have decided to bring in an outside inspector as well. This was recommended by our realtor and after looking into it we feel it's a smart decision. It's a very good way to catch things that won't be seen once the drywall is in place, but could cause problems in the house down the road. We have decided to use Quality Home Inspections (http://www.qualityhomeinspections-va.com), and have the inspection scheduled for next Friday, May 29th which will be Day 31 of building.