Brick Debacle

      So apparently the La Cava brick was not approved by the Fairwood HOA. So we are now getting the Old Marlborough Brick (Which is the light brick that the house in the post below has). All is well since the Old Marlborough Brick is what we originally wanted but they didn't have at the time.

      We are expect to have loan approval by the end of next week and then hopefully we can get on the schedule to get construction started. I have a feeling we will be moving into the house in September.

+RickNadase Proctor +Sheldon Smith I heard today that prices are going up again on Monday! Sounds like the Milan will be offered at $405,000. Not sure how the other models will be impacted. We will be very happy once this loan is approved and construction begins!

Finalization Meeting Completed

Met with our SR today to pick out brick, siding, shutters and finalize all selections to go to permitting. We are getting La Cava Brick which is a very light red brick. It looks almost white from the street. If any bloggers know any other bloggers that have this brick, please let me know! None of the houses in our neighborhood have it as it was just added. There is a very light brick in our neighborhood that I believe looks similar. (See Below)

 
Much like the house in the picture, we also got black Shutters/Door and Almond Garage Door. We were also very happy to see a sold sign on our site now!

Perhaps the biggest surprise today was to see that home prices in our neighborhood have gone up yet again. The home is already selling for $15,000 more than what we purchased it at 4 weeks ago! It would be great to see that trend continue! 

CTI Meeting

Met with CTI today. We already were set on the hardwood floor (Saddle Stain) and the Cabinets (Maple Spice) as well as the granite counter top (Not sure what it is called, it is black with reddish flecks in it).

So we really just needed to select carpet for the following rooms:

• Office
• Dinning Room
• Family Room
• Upstairs (Bedrooms and Hallway)
• Basement

And Vinyl Flooring for:

• Morning Room
• Powder Room
• Upstairs Bathrooms
• Laundry Room

Here are some pictures of our selections...It is crazy to note how the lighting can change the color of things. The hardwood floor and carpet is actually darker than it appears in the picture. The hardwood floor is the same as what they have in the Rome model at Fairwood.

Floor and Carpet selections

Carpet and Vinyl for upstairs and bathrooms

Floor (Kitchen) and Vinyl for Morning Room

+Sheldon Smith +RickNadase Proctor Thoughts on Carpet padding? We upgraded the padding in the basement and family room (rooms we expect to use the most) and left the standard padding in the dinning room, study and entire upstairs. Does anyone have any feedback or thoughts on it? Is there a difference?

Meeting with Guardian

Couldn't help myself....I ended up getting the Klipsch four room AirQast Music streaming system. So we will have a pair of speakers in the ceiling on every floor of the home and a waterproof speaker on the patio. We can stream music from our iphones, ipad or run the TV audio through it. Should be really nice! My wife knew I wouldn't be able to not get them. I am so predictable.

We also decided to get the security system. It's a nice system with Smoke Detector (connected to the monitoring station) that we can arm and disarm from our iPhones. Should save us $5-$8 a month off of our homeowner's insurance and offer some peace of mind.

A little bit about us..

Well now that we've gotten started on this crazy home buying process and are connecting with some of our future new neighbors through their blogs, it seems we should introduce ourselves!

My husband and I met in 2001 at the University of Delaware, where I would eventually get a Bachelors in Psychology (He transferred to Bowie State and earned his Bachelors in Political Science from there) and we've been together ever since. He's a Director of Operations for the two Bowie Chick-Fil-A's (so you can bet we'll be keeping our building crew happy with some free lunch drop offs, haha!) and I work from home for a company that sells and installs windows and doors (replacement and new construction), Quality Window & Door, Inc. I also plan to homeschool our daughters once they've reached that age.

We have two girls; Olivia is 2 1/2 years old and her new sister Charlotte is 2 months old. The whole drive behind wanting this house is to finally have a back yard for them to play in. The house we currently rent has a pool that takes up the entire back yard and my poor olivia just wants to run around outdoors all the live long day, which just can't happen with no grass!

Can't wait to move into our new home!

We also have two small dogs (so our first HOA experience will be getting our fence approved!). Seamus is a rat terrier and Audrey is a pug/beagle mix (don't worry, she doesn't do the very annoying beagle howl). 

Meeting With Loan Officer

Wow...That was a long/intense meeting. I did not realize how thorough that process would be and how much information they would want from us. No major concerns though and we should know about approval within 3-4 weeks.

So it begins...

We just signed a purchase agreement and placed a deposit on a home in the Fairwood community in Bowie, MD. We saw how many people had blogged about their experience and figured it would be a great way to record the progress of the home. We also saw how many bloggers were from our specific community as well and look forward to getting to know them and hear their advice as we go through the process. 

Here is a google map shot of where the home will be built. We chose this home site because of the space we have around us. No homes will be built right across the road from us and our side yard is up against the neighbors backyard and creates a lot of room around the home. 

We meet with the Loan Officer today and hopefully all looks good after today's meeting. Will update again in a week or so to show some of our flooring and cabinet selections.