Monday, December 5, 2011

3 days!!

We have 3 days left until settlement Friday! Woohoo! I can't do a count down like others have done because we are looking forward to EVERYTHING...having our own space again, not sharing a room with 2 cats & a dog, unpacking our belongings from storage (they've been there for 10 months!), getting back to a routine...oh I could go on and on.

Our PM emailed over the weekend to ask that our walk through be changed to Friday morning. He assured me that if anything needed to be fixed, he'd be able to get it done before the quality inspection 2-4 weeks after closing. I'm sure he'll come through. He's been awesome so far

We bought the last of the appliances yesterday. They'll be delivered Saturday. We bought a KitchenAid side-by-side stainless steel fridge and a Whirlpool mircowave (with the clean release coating on the inside). The KitchenAid fridge was our #1 pick and the Whirlpool Gold was our #2. We've been watching them for weeks but neither has gone on sale & they were only $100 price difference. We saved 15% with the friends & family special at Sears. It was still a little more than we wanted to pay, but we figure we'll have it for a long time and we got amazing deals on everything else...it kinda evened out

We are very unhappy with our "upgraded" oven. It's so ugly. It's mostly black plastic with stainless accents. It looks super cheap. I'm nervous that my husband will break the plastic knobs the first time he uses them. Hopefully sales rep will be able to do something. I'd even be willing to pay the difference for another oven. It's the only thing that we are really unhappy with...

The last time we were at the house was right after Thanksgiving. Everything was still dirty and covered up with paper or protective wrap. We love the landscaping they did and can't wait to see everything clean & beautiful inside!

Our dog, Decklan, really enjoyed the warm weather! He's very excited about his new digs!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Count down!

We have a little over 2 weeks to go until closing. We can't even contain ourselves.
The outside of the house is done. We are still waiting on a driveway and of course grading/sod. We are SO happy with how it turned out. I think we're going to paint the frame around the small window black. It looks like the odd window out!

Our fireplace was put in over this past weekend. It's still wet in this picture. It dried to a light gray in between the rocks. Can't wait to have a fire going on Christmas! 
Our island is now in the right spot and granite is on! It's so pretty.
This week, they are putting in the flooring

Monday, November 14, 2011

Good deals!

We got out settlement date in the mail this past week - Dec 9th!! It'll be here before we know it! The tile was put in the bathrooms and laundry, the whole house was painted, and our granite was installed. We are so happy with the color!
We STILL don't have siding on the house, but it was delivered over the weekend. We are hoping to see it up this week! Once we have siding, I'll update the pictures :)

We took advantage of some MAJOR pre-holiday sales. Ashley furniture was having a half off sale and the couch/love seat we wanted was already half off. We ended up paying 1500 for a couch, loveseat, and 2 end tables, free delivery, plus a 5 yr warranty that covers pet stains and tears (my dog is allowed on the furniture!). Every single seat reclines and it's super cozy.

Hogan - Mocha 2-Seat Reclining Sofa by Signature Design
We also bought a washer/dryer set. It's a platinum Samsung front loader - originally $1599.00 a piece. After sales and discounts, we got them for $693.00 a piece (pretax). WOW!

samsung washer and dryer

I can't wait to go black Friday shopping!! We are hoping to get just as good of a deal on our fridge and microwave.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

We have doors!

I stopped by the house yesterday after work. We have doors on rooms and closets, trim, window sills, and our cabinets are being put in! It looks beautiful!
The kitchen island is sitting in the morning room. I can't wait to see it all come together!!


My attempt at a picture of the master bath. They put up our mirrors & cabinets before painting. Is this normal??


I was surprised that the railing on the stairs goes all the way up! Love it!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

It's beginning to look like a real house!

I stopped by this weekend and all the drywall had been hung. So cool to see all the rooms!! For those unfamiliar with the Venice model - this is from the kitchen looking into the living room. Morning room w/sliders is to the left.

I was so excited I purchased 6 blinds (on sale at JC Penny's). Faux wood blinds will go in master bedroom & window in stairwell. Cordless cellular will go in office & in master bedroom closet

On schedule for this week:
  • Half brick (should be done today!)
  • Begin inside painting
  • Gas & electric should be hooked up by friday
  • Stone fireplace work begins friday
Almost forgot - we locked in today!! 4.0!! WOW!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Inspection

Our 3rd party inspector caught windows that were wrapped incorrectly on the back of the house. Our PM agreed that they were done incorrectly and that he'd have them fixed. The inspector said everything else looked good and the quality was much better than he usually sees with new builds. He was pretty impressed! The inspector fields questions on a weekly radio show and seems really knowledgeable. Very reasonable price to pay for our peace of mind.

On another note, Guardian placed the wiring panel incorrectly in the basement and an outlet on the wrong stud in the living room. The guy came out last week and spray painted in green where my hub wanted it all to go, but they still got it wrong. Hopefully they can fix it! We haven't heard back from them yet.

We went out to the house Saturday to look at everything in detail without the distraction of the workers and discovered that we were missing our laundry tub upstairs. They didn't accidentally place it in the basement either. It seems they just forgot it. We sent the PM an email before we left the house Saturday. When my hub went for the inspection yesterday, the plumbers were back doing the pipes for the laundry tub. Yay! So glad we caught that!

Friday, October 21, 2011

Garage door already!

We got a garage door, but aren't locked out. The front door still doesn't have a lock.


We decided to get a 3rd party inspection for the pre-drywall only. The inspector only charged $185 and for my peace of mind, it's worth it. My hub is meeting him & our PM on Monday and will have a list of concerns so he can double check...mainly the huge knots in a few of the wood pieces and the large gaps between the outside panels. We're heading there tomorrow morning to look at everything in detail to see if we need to add anything else to the list.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Pre-dry wall meeting

Today is our predry wall meeting. We'll also be meeting with guardian today and going over the placement of everything. I can't believe how fast our house has gone up! They worked on it all through the weekend...even Sunday! I brought the workers cinnamon rolls on Saturday but they didn't even stop for a break while I was there.

These are from Saturday 10/15. I peaked in the windows but since the roof wasn't on, I followed the rules about staying out of the house. I'm dying to get inside and walk around!



This picture is from Sunday. Doors, windows, garage trim, and shingles are all on. It looks like a real house!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Let the framing begin! And fireplace issues

Framing started yesterday and we are beyond excited!!

These pictures were taken at around 3pm


The next picture was taken at 7pm! Crazy how much got done in just a few hours!



We were given the bad news that we have to change our stone selection for the fireplace. It's between Aspen, Bucks Cnty, and San Francisco. We cannot make up our minds! Any suggestions? It's so tough to tell what it will look like on a fireplace. Sure wish Ryan Homes would have pictures of completed fireplaces with each stone.




Monday, September 26, 2011

Late Upgrade!

After I found out what the cabinet crown molding was, I really regretted not adding that to our upgrades. It really adds a little something to the look of the kitchen and it's really inexpensive. We asked the sale rep if this could be added and he told us our timeframe for changing options was long past. I didn't want to push the issue and instead looked into adding it later. My hub is quite the handy man so I wasn't really worried. Last week we got a surprise call from our sales rep who added the molding!! No charge! Woohoo! We have been so happy with our Ryan Homes experience so far!

I think they were supposed to pour the foundation today, but we haven't been by the lot yet. This is what it looked like Thursday. It rained Friday so nothing else was done.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Dig day today!



I'm so excited! My husband just texted me this picture. Looks like it's all mapped out! You can see where our drive will be and everything!
I was kind of expecting big trucks or something, but I guess I'll find out tomorrow whether they actually dug or not

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

One more week!!

One more week until they break ground! A little over a week until I'm back to only working one full time job (I work 2 full time jobs in summer)! And just two more weeks until my mother's last chemo treatment!!
We are so excited for some progress on the house and a lot less stress in our lives! Woohoo!!

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Blogging

Why can I comment on some pages but not others? There's a button to "follow" on most blogs, but some of them don't have it. I wanted to comment on the Oh hello venice blog, but I can't. What am I missing??

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Detailed Selections - Pre Construction

We had our pre-construction meeting yesterday. We think we're going to love our PM! We asked if he could "accidentally" paint our front door black instead of the red and he told us he thinks he can make it happen! Woohoo!
We are on schedule to close around the last week of November/first week of December. Seems like forever from now, but I know it'll fly by

Here's a list of our selections:
*Venice Elevation B with partial brick
*walk out basement with glass slider
*morning room with the extra windows, gormet island
*stone FP with blower (we wanted brick but it wasn't an option!)
*service door in garage
*unfinished basement with 3 piece rough in
*owners bathroom w/soaking tub (alternate layout)
*extra outlet & cable wiring in bathroom (my hub is very excited about taking a bath while watching a movie!)
*extra outlet in kitchen island (thanks to the bloggers for this suggestion!)
*laundry room tub
*recessed lights in kitchen, family room, over FP, and master bedroom
*ceiling fans in each bedroom and morning room
*speaker wiring in kitchen and front room (we'll use it as an office)
*we got an upgraded panel of some sort that my hub wanted for wires
*laminate everywhere downstairs except for family room
*we upgraded the carpet padding and carpet upstairs and in family room (it's a light color)

Our color selections:
Siding: Dover White with black trim
Granite counters: Golden Garnet
Kitchen cabinets: Sq. Maple Cognac
Master bath: Mushroom  tiles (i think) with Maple Spice cabinets - we kept the white top
Spare: white cabinets, white top
Brick: Millwood
Stone FP: Old country smokey mountain

Friday, August 26, 2011

Our choices

Here's a bunch of pictures from my phone. Hopefully you get a good idea of all the selections we picked.


 Brick Color is Millbrook I think


 Fireplace Stone

 My hub the day we signed our contract agreement

 Laminate floor color with kitchen cabinet and granite

 Our lot is 165

Master bath tile

 Master bath tiles with cabinet color


 This was taken from my iphone. I had to search everywhere for a sample of a venice with a partial stone. We actually got brick, but i couldn't find a sample. This is pretty close to our siding/trim...just picture the brick instead of stone. And our plan is reversed...so garage will be on the other side. Ryan didn't have a real picture of these options and the computer generated one they gave us just looked silly. I'm glad I found this online!


Our siding choices...we are hoping to convince them to paint the door black instead of red...we'll see!

Spare bathroom colors

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Pre Construction Meeting

I'm so excited to join the "e-neighborhood!" I have really loved reading all of your blogs for the past few weeks. This is my first attempt at a blog, so hopefully this will be just as fun to write as everyone else's have been to read! Tips on blogging are appreciated!
We have a pre-construction meeting on Monday. I can barely stand the excitement!!
I need to post pictures of our selections. Hopefully I'll get to that this weekend

Friday, August 12, 2011

It's official!

On August 3rd we got good news! We are officially pre-approved by NVR mortgage!

My husband and I each bought a house before we got married. We have rented his for a few years, but just recently started renting mine out. We were so worried we wouldn't be approved!

Now the fun begins...