Progress!

So it has been awhile since I've posted any news... A lot has been going on here even though we have been playing the waiting game but we are excited to say that we have a date for construction to begin! The foundation will begin next weds the 25th!!! The boring wait is over (mostly) and now the fun begins! I've heard that from this point on everything moves very quickly and we are ready for it! So here is a recap of events since I last posted:

NVR. What a drama filled headache. I certainly hoped that even as I read nightmare stories from other bloggers that our NVR experience would be better... not so much. On a friday afternoon (about 3pm) I get a call from our processor with a list of items she needed by the following Monday morning. Did I mention I was leaving town that weekend and also had finals I was cramming to finish? Needless to say we were annoyed, and the information she was requesting caught us off guard. College transcripts were only the first item on the list. I am a full time student using my VA GI Bill benefits which covers my tuition 100% plus basic allowance for housing monthly and a book stipend. NVR didn't understand that the money I receive isn't a loan, I never have to pay it back. It is money the VA pays me to help with the cost of living if I am attending school full time. You have NO IDEA the back and forth we had trying to explain this to them. They even tried telling us that from here on out I could no longer use those payments for bills or any housing related costs until we would close on our new home in a few months since it technically isn't income. That's what those payments are intended for! In the end, they decided to completely drop my bank account off the paperwork so that they wouldn't have to explain it. There are a lot of other details that were involved in that issue but I won't bore anyone with all that. Suffice it to say NVR has been a frustrating experience and they clearly have difficulty working with/understanding military and VA pay. My husband is active duty and nearly everything had to be broken down and explained (more than once). All worked out in the end though. We received our loan approval May 29th! (And we locked in our mortgage rate yesterday when numbers took a surprising dip!)

On a far more exciting and less stressful note, we went on an awesome vacation to Orlando FL for a week (Thank you to the in-laws!!) and came home to some awesome news! We stopped by our SR's office to sign a change order and found out we had to schedule our pre construction meeting since they begin working in just over a week!

Our pre construction meeting with the project manager went great! He's a younger guy but don't let that fool you... hes extremely analytical and his attention to detail and knowledge with even the most off the wall questions we came up with give us a lot of confidence in this part of the process. He really made it clear that he is there to work with us and encouraged us to ask questions and be involved. Between the great relationship we have with him and our sales rep, it more than makes up for the frustrations we had with NVR.