Footers Down / Block Delivered

Stupid me.  All I've wanted to do is update this blog when nothing was going on and now that everything is happening, I don't post.  Smooth.

So, on Wednesday, day two, a crew came to low the forms of the footers, and then then the cement was poured later in the day.  It has been so cold, wet and muddy on our property, that everything is a collasal mess, but we are still trucking along.  The crew that did the footers was Amish (in case that matters to anyone) and everything seemed to go well, so we'll see what happens!

Thursday, the block was delivered.

Friday, the company doing the electric came and put up a post for temporary electric that will be hooked up by our power company.  My dad and I spent the day putting more reclaimed asphalt on the driveway since it was getting really muddy and dug in.  Hopefully this helps the trucks and keep the road clean.

Dig Day

IT'S FINALLY HERE!

Wow, I can't believe we are actually digging and getting into this.  Unless anything major happens, I'm probably just going to be posting photos for your enjoyment/reference.

We were supposed to start yesterday (Monday), but because of the freak snow storm, we were delayed one day.  This is the shot the day before Monday

The first dig!

The 50ft runoff pipe going down the hill.

Loan Closed, Digging to Commence

Wow, I can't believe it's actually happening.

We went to the closing company yesterday to close on the loan.  We still had a lot of discrepencies with our payments, but we got it all sorted it.  The bank still screwed us by taking forever on processing the loan, so now our interest rate is slightly higher than what it should be and we had to pay about $1,000 more for closing costs than we should have.  My dad was super mad, but we just wanted to move on and get this thing started.  The man we worked with at the closing company was wonderful and explained everything in detail, so thankfully not everyone we've worked with is an idiot.

I immediately e-mailed Wayne Homes on the drive home and got a response before the drive was done that Jace, our contractor, set everything up for digging and we will be digging on Monday and putting the footers in on Tuesday and Wednesday!!

I can't believe it's finally happening and Becky and I are so excited.  Wayne Homes has been on point with everything and I expect nothing less as the actually building starts.

Massive amounts of pictures to come.

Possibly Closing and Digging This Week (AKA I Hate Banks)

Seriously, they're the worst.

We got a call from the closing company last Friday that we could close on the loan this coming Thursday (tomorrow), so we scheduled that and then contacted Wayne Homes, who said we could start digging as early as the next day.  Awesome!

Not.

Our unbelievably awful bank, Citizen's Bank, called us on Monday, saying that our closing cost fees are higher than what we last signed off on and that our interest rate would be higher than what we last SIGNED OFF ON.  These people are literally unbelievable.  My dad called the guy we've been dealing with at Citizen's to complain.  Let's call this guy, oh I don't know, Frank, since that's his real name and has been God awful to work with since the very first time we met him.  He told us that we didn't meet the deadline for the interest rate to be at it's lowest (3.75%) and that is why it was raised to 3.875%.  Let's keep in mind that we applied for the loan on October 15th and have signed and sent back all paper we got the day after we received it.  Us being late, which we actually aren't because the rate is locked in until the middle of April, is completely the responsibility of the bank dragging their feet to process the whole thing.

Every single document the bank has sent us had different fees, rate calculations and estimations.  There was zero consistency.  These are supposed to be the money/math experts and yet, everything the sent us was screwed up and incorrect.

My dad is speaking with them today, but basically they have us bound and gagged over a table and there's not much we can do about it.  I'm not sure if we will end up closing tomorrow, but I hope so as it's been over four months since we applied for the freaking loan.  Our house will be built in less time than this has taken.

Bottom line- don't deal with Citizen's Bank and if you don't feel comfortable with the people you are dealing with, find someone else.