House Rebalanced, Bonus Room Fix Attempt 2 Inbound

So a bit of informational backstory as to all of the different parties involved in our Bonus Room cold issue.  Ryan Homes is the builder.  They had an engineer design the HVAC system based on the design of the house, which as part of that design has certain expected CFM values per vent to make it work as designed.  This is then installed by the HVAC subcontractor upon build (Sobieski in our instance), and verified by a third party Energy Star inspection company (PEG Environmental).  As part of our service request, since this is a continuing issue Ryan wanted to bring out PEG to inspect everything again before having the HVAC contractor try some more dark magic to fix the problem.

Fast forward to yesterday when the fine folks at PEG Environmental (actually an independent subcontractor hired by them, who in turn was hired by Ryan) came out and did a re-balancing of our vents in the house.  Most of them checked out AOK and some had a few tweaks.  I then showed my wonderful makeshift two sensor thermometer in the Bonus room reading 6 degrees colder than the thermostat at about 4-5ft and a whopping 14 degrees colder at the floor.  The PEG guy had an idea about why it was cold, and set up a blower test. 

The blower test actually creates a negative air pressure inside of your house, which makes it easy to feel where the drafts are entering your home.  Thankfully he offered to do this, because it showed that the cold air was blowing in along the bottom of the walls under the baseboard.  Since those walls are kneewalls, and there is space behind them to allow the airflow for the roof to work correctly this makes sense.  The kneewalls itself were insulated but there was no sealant for the interface between the kneewall and the floor.  The HVAC system was fighting a losing battle between the hot air it was pushing into the room from the top vs. the cold air drafting in from three sides on the floor. 

The gentleman then reported back to my service rep at Ryan what he found, and they're going to try and foam seal along that frame, which involves pulling up the carpet and removing the baseboard to get in there.  Hopefully this will alleviate the problem, and I'll be sure to add another follow up when its completed.

Bonus Room Update

After having RH adjust vents all over the place, not good:

Thermostat downstairs (we only have 1 with the 1 zone system), was set to 73 degrees.  I really want to see their Energy Star certification testing documents, I'm getting the impression that it was rubber-stamped and they didn't actually test anything.

Time to submit another ticket...

Morning Room Ceiling Fan

 I promised a separate post for the morning room ceiling fan install, so here it goes.  We had the ceiling fan prewire done in this room (highly recommended, only marginally more expensive than standard light rough-in) since it would have been a royal PITA to do it after the fact.  In the first picture you can see what a ceiling fan rough-in looks like.  Note the can isn't open in the middle, as it's around a beam in the center.  All of our ceiling fan rough-ins are like this, I'm presuming to use the beam as additional structural integrity for the forces of the fan.

 The ceiling in the Victoria Falls is great however we wanted the fan (that will be over a table) closer to the ceiling height of the kitchen for lighting purposes.  We used a 36" drop pole to make this happen, it's perfectly in line with the ceiling in the kitchen, so it's high enough to not do anything stupid with your hands in the blade (not that you would!) but low enough to make the light adequate for the table.  The fan install is a bit hard to do by yourself for one reason:  trying to hang the fan and drop pole by yourself with the Hunter kit is awkward on a ladder due to the fact you have to "hook" the drop plate onto the mounting bracket by tilting the whole assembly sideways.  It's much easier if you have an extra set of hands hold the base up on the side while you hook this into place.

 If I didn't have to stop for that extra assistance, the fan install would have taken me less than an hour.  So far everything has been great with the fan, and I'd buy a Hunter fan again.

Week 13: Closed. And We Survived.

Well we made it to the other side.  I think.  We closed on the 14th (pretty schedule accurate, only a day off the original target date!), moved a bunch of things over that weekend and now we're the proud owners of two homes!

I've been tackling a bunch of items that need to get done right away (blinds (deserves its own post), morning room ceiling fan and office light (again, own post), sealing tile, and unpacking.  As for moving, did you know you can rent a 26 foot Penske Truck on your regular ol' drivers license?  I had to ask three times to make sure, and yes you can!  Now I know whenever I see one on the highway to give plenty of space, because it's probably a first time driver like myself!

We got our appliances all delivered and hooked up, Verizon came in and hooked up our FIOS Triple Play.  Not sure why they gave us a lower DVR with our multi-room DVR package so I need to give them a call to see if I can get that fixed.

As for the finished product, some things are great, and some need some work.  You can tell which subcontractors take pride in their work and others just get it done to get it done.  Nothing that can't be resolved in the 30 day and 10 month appointments, but definitely some head shakers in there.

The big issue is the bonus bedroom.  It's cold.  I mean COLD.  For those of you with Victoria Falls builds w/ the bonus room this is a heads up, make sure there's a conversation between you and your PM.  We're doing some normal fixes with the HVAC / PM now that we're in there to see if that helps, but variances of over 10 degrees between that and the rest of the house doesn't cut it (and should have failed the Energy Star certification).

As for our backyard, it's been a treasure trove of wildlife. Two separate sightings of deer (group of 5 and a group of 3), birds, and a fox.

I plan on posting all of these "post-closing" items for reference as well as some extra upcoming things in store.

Week 12: The Penultimate Week

Well  the home stretch is here.  Week 12 was the week to finish everything up.  Appliances, the deck, time for HVAC inspections, Energy Star inspection, etc.  and that was including some staff off for hunting season.  The one thing that our PM has made sure of was that everything was on schedule.  The entire time our closing date has only fluctuated by 1 day in either direction.  Impressive!   As for the neighborhood, they sold a few lots across the street, and now only have 3 lots left.  The one I'm not sure you could even fit a house on it, but there must be one specific layout that thy can squeeze on there.

As for the movers, we're going the Penske route and hiring loading / unloading help for the pieces that I have no idea how to get down and into the truck.  Definitely better than straight movers, but I'm not sure that the moving truck will be able to back into the driveway where we live now.  I'm sure with some creative angles we'll make it work.

Next week is closing (December 14th).  The only thing the PM has on the schedule is our pre-settlement demonstration and some final inspections and touch up work.  Then settlement on Friday.  NVR asked for our latest paystubs so I think that's the last from them.  I'll leave everyone with an outside shot with the sod in place.  Next post the house will be ours, and I'll try my best to fill up my allotted storage! ; )



Week 11: On the Turn for Home...

Week 11 is another week where we couldn't get out to the job site.  Trying to handle life's logistical challenges is making visiting our future home difficult, but we're in the home stretch so hopefully things will start to sort themselves out.  Inside we had the stone fireplace completed, the finish electrical complete and the finish plumbing work started.  As for the outside, the deck construction began (finally!).  Since it was also the opening of deer hunting season, some natural staffing delays were to be expected, but it was figured into our project plan anyway. 

We're trying to figure out how we're moving our belongings to the new home as it's not a "local move", however the furniture only quotes we've received so far seem pretty pricey.  If it wasn't for a few large items on the second floor I would attempt it myself entirely, but unfortunately I'm not sure of another way to get those items moved.

We're also into the final re-checks for our finances with NVR, and have begun to set up the transfer of ownership in utilities into our name.  December 14th is coming up fast!

Locked In and Appliance Time Part 1

Well we finally locked in our rate.  In our area for some reason their rate options never actually had one where we had 0 points.  Either we got a 1/2 point credit to take the higher of the two rates, or pay a 1/2 point for the lower rate.  In our instance the break even point was about 7 years between the two options.  If we stay more than 7 years paying the 1/2 point would be more economical but if we stay / not refi less than 7 years, taking the 1/2 point credit is the way to go.  All in all with the rates so low over 30 years it ends up being less than 2% of the principal, so we took the 1/2 point credit.  I'm not one for paying for points in general, so that also affected our outcome.  I just wanted to get those details out there for anyone else about ready to hit the lock-in phase.

As for appliances, we ended up buying our washer / dryer on a Cyber Monday deal at Home Depot.  We got a LG Steam washer and dryer for about 25% off each, and scheduled delivery right on the web for the Monday after closing.  As for the refrigerator after looking at all of the options out there, we settled on a new Whirlpool french door refrigerator that was on sale, but for only 14% off or so at Lowes.  Since the sale wasn't the best we decided to hold off until the moving coupon I signed up for shows up in my inbox.  That leads me into my quick tip:

There are moving coupons you can pick up at your local post office to help you get settled into your new neighborhood.  Just stop in and pick one up.  These deals include coupons for Lowes and Home Depot.  These retailers also have an e-sign up for basically these same coupons (Lowes has 10% off!).  Just do a google search for the retailer and moving coupon and it should be at the top of the results.

My next post I plan on talking about movers / moving options.  Needless to say so far I'm surprised at what's been cheaper than other options, but I have more research to do.