Can we just move in now??

We went to the house yesterday and everything was pretty much done, aka, everything was done except some finishing touches on paint and stuff like that.

I'm so ready to move now!! The house looks BEAUTIFUL! We both love it!

Some things we saw for the first time were:

• Painted front door
• Painted columns on porch
• Vinyl in the kitchen
• Carpet everywhere
• Island installed
• Hardware installed on everything
• Appliances
• OUR DECK!!!

It is seriously a home now! There are some minor things they need to touch up. Cabinets were mostly fixed, but there is still a gap between two of the doors on one of the cabinets that's a little too wide for my taste. They also have A LOT of paint touch ups to do. Our PM had blue tape EVERYWHERE.

It's crazy how much different the house looks with all the flooring installed. The bedrooms look and feel like bedrooms now, compared to just feeling like shells before. The kitchen is just amazing and I'm so happy to have all that counter space and storage room! I even started thinking about where I'm going to put all of my stuff! haha!

We'll start from the front - shall we?

 

We saw that our door was painted and we got new hardware for the front door. Pretty exciting but I am not thrilled about the door color. The color of our door was supposed to be "Farmhouse Red" and this color is more of a rusty orangey red. We were expecting a really bright, fun red. I'm not completely convinced that they put the correct color on the door so we're going to check on this. If it is correct and this color is considered "Farm house red," then I will be painting the door. I know this is a TOTAL first world problem and may seem really minor but details are EVERYTHING for me. I guess it's the artist in me? Everything makes a difference and this red is just not doing it for me. Easy enough to fix and wouldn't be too expensive but still a project.

Great Room

Fireplace

Office door (love the french door look on this)

Great Room - taken from Morning room (and a peak at the vinyl)

Everything here is great! I LOVE the slate in the fireplace and it flows really well with our slate colored counters in the kitchen. I can't wait to hang stockings from the mantel for Christmas! I'm also really happy with the upgraded carpet! It's so soft! (We walked around without shoes on so we didn't track mud throughout). I also really love the office door.

Kitchen and Morning Room

Kitchen - straight on shot from Great Room

Kitchen at an angle (Can you tell I love my kitchen??)

Kitchen from Morning Room

Morning Room

 I LOOOOOOVE my kitchen! It is beautiful and I'm so happy we went with white cabinets! They're classic and will stand the test of time! I also really like our counters. Granite was something we figured we could do later if we wanted to, but honestly, I don't think we'll be switching our counters anytime soon. The texture in these counters is actually really nice.

I also don't hate the vinyl flooring. It's not too bad at all. I'm not saying that it will not be replaced by my fabulous laminate wood flooring, but if we have to wait on installing the floor it won't kill me!

I'm loving our appliances! We ended up upgrading our appliances a good amount. Not only did we pay for the stainless upgrade but we paid for several models up than the standard stainless models. We decided to do this after looking up reviews. I think we'll be really happy we did.The microwave is nice and big and I have a gas stove for the first time! I've never cooked on a gas stove before, but I heard it's awesome and I'll never go back to electric, so I'm excited for that! The dishwasher makes a cool little noise when you open it and the layout is nice! Awesome!

The island is beautiful but I have a suspicion that it may not be the correct island because it is HUGE. For some reason I think it may be a gourmet island meant for a Rome because it takes up a good chunk of our kitchen (our kitchen, and house, is narrower than a Rome). I shouldn't complain because the counter space is great, but I just hope we don't find that it's too big and kind of clunky when trying to move around in the kitchen. I may just be crazy .. which is probably the most likely explanation.

The Deck

14' x 22' Trex deck!

We were told we'd have about 6 or 7 stairs ... A bit of an understatement .. haha!

Close up!

For those of you who have followed my blog for awhile, you know this deck was put into action due to some mistakes Ryan Homes made with our lot. We started off splitting the deck 50/50 with Ryan which was already a great deal (this was their way of making up for their mistakes). Over time (due to miscommunication on Ryan Home's part) we not only got switched to Trex (not their contractor brand) but we were pushed up the highest tier of Trex. In the end it probably came to a ratio of 30/70 in our favor, which is awesome!

It came out beautifully! My boyfriend was beyond excited to see this baby! We're so happy with the size and the colors and the material! It's plenty big enough for a grill and some seating with room to spare! Love it! We also checked out the model home's deck to see the material we would have gotten originally. There is no wood grain look to it and you can see skrews in the boards while ours has a nice wood look and is completely clean looking (no screws to be seen!). Very happy!

Up Next

I guess the next steps are just them cleaning up little mistakes (like paint, the cabinets, etc). I don't think there is much more to do! Craziness!

During out pre-settlement (October 20th) I'll take more pictures of the other rooms too. These were just the highlights.

This weekend I'll be working on the ugly couch with my mom. All fabric is cut out and sewn so now we just have to put the new fabric on the couch bones! I may also work on the table a little bit with my dad too if I have time. If not, we'll finish that next weekend.


I hope everyone is loving their home as much as we're loving ours!

People Planning to Paint - Please Read!

Hi everyone!

I know a lot of people are thinking about painting their homes once they move in, so I wanted to share something that our PM told us in case you aren't aware (since we weren't until yesterday). Apparently, if you paint your walls it voids the warranty on all of the walls that are painted. Our PM said it wouldn't cover ANYTHING that happens to those walls including nail pops and warping. Even if your drywall mysteriously ripped in half it wouldn't be covered.

I know this sounds completely ridiculous, but it's definitely something worth looking into. We even asked a friend of ours who built a Ryan Home in a different community and he said they told him the same thing. It's definitely possible that this is only true in certain communities but I'd just check with your PM directly.

With that said, we will not be painting unless he tells us he was wrong about this for some reason (but he was REALLY confident in his answer). Some of you are aware that we bought paint, and I know some other people bought paint as well, and the good news is, is that unopened paint can last 10-15 years as long as it's stored in normal temperatures (no unifished basement areas, garages, etc where it can freeze and fluctuate a lot in temperature). At least, that's what several Google links told me.


In other news:

My boyfriend headed down to the house yesterday to meet up with our PM. We had seen a few problems here and there so we wanted to address them with him. Here's a list of some of the problems we saw and his reponse:

• Crack in molding above big window (exterior of house)
• He ordered a new piece and it's already on site. They'll replace the broken one
• A big cut in the ceiling of the basement
• Noticed that there was a lump in the floor -  they realized the beam used in the floor has a small bump in it so they had to cut the drywall, cut off that bump, and installed another support beam)
• Vent on outside of house still crooked
• He'll have it fixed - siding crew was supposed to do it but they didn't
• 4 footers for deck (we thought there would be more than that since a friend of ours had 8 for his)
• We only need 4 footers
• I thought we were getting recessed lights on our porch??
• Admitted they missed this on the blueprints. This was already corrected yesterday.
• Drywall looking bad on one wall in the basement
• Because they were cutting and removing beams in the basement ceiling they had to cut the drywall tape on a wall connected to it so it would relieve the pressure. If they didn't do that then the drywall could rip. This will be fixed
• Cabinets - some drawers look pretty crooked
• These will be fixed towards the end - he explained the last two weeks are used for the detailed work so everything is perfect
• Mudroom door - looks like it was installed incorrectly according to the plans of the house.
• It was - he'll fix it

Our PM also let my boyfriend know that the deck we were going to get was out of stock and wouldn't be available in time for the house to be finished. Now they're giving us the highest tier of trex decking which is pretty awesome! So now we're getting the Transcend tier in "Tree House" with white railings. In a perfect world I would like a little dark of a color but I really can't complain. We're getting a really good deal on this deck (For a refresher on price see this Blog post). We're still paying the same price but now we're getting actual Trex (not GeoDeck - see this post), and now we're getting their best tier of decking which not only is better with fading and strength, but it has a nicer grain with more depth! Saaweeet!

Tree house (Source: trex.com)

Our vinyl flooring was also installed (foyer, kitchen, morning room) yesterday. As many of you know, we are planning on replacing the vinyl with these beautiful laminate planks when we move in:

They're a little darker in person

Now we're concerned that these may void some type of warranty (like the paint does with walls). I'm REALLY hoping it doesn't, or it would only void the warranty of the vinyl, in which case, we obviously wouldn't care.

Overall, things are going well! We love our PM and I love that he admits to things that he misses. I have much more respect for someone who says "We missed those recessed lights, but they will be fixed," than someone trying to play it off and make an excuse. Nobody's perfect, so little things like that don't botter us, especially because he gets the job done and gets it done well and fast.
 

Locked in Rates & Electric

Rates Locked!

We finally locked in our rates at 4%. Not too shabby! We got scared that the rates would go up since the treasuries have gone up. Plus, it's been hovering around 4% so we doubted it would go down in the next 20 days.

Electrical galore!

We decided to head down the house yesterday to check in on things. We got there before 6 (they normally stay past 6) and no one was there. We saw lights and they had power! Definitely an important step to building a house, right? Power is good.

We also had a Mailbox and house numbers! How weird is it that something like a mailbox is beyond exciting when building a house?

We also had some light fixtures installed out the outside of the house (You can see one of them to the left to the garage) and I really like the iron look! There were also a bunch of light fixtures in the house. I think just about all of them have been installed.

They also graded our front and back yard and our sidewalk, walkway, and porch are all cured and solid!

Another nice surprise that we saw was that they poured the footers for our deck! My bf is beyond excited for that deck! It was nice to see where the footers were poured so we can kind of picture how big the deck will be.

Lights!

Deck footers!

They also left the door open so I was able to go in and check out the master bath with lights on. Here's a better picture of the tile (not in the dark). I'm pretty happy with it, although I still kind of wish we could have had a slate gray shower. Oh well.

Master Shower

Now, we're on the look out for blinds and a garage door opener. They actually installed a garage door opener and we were SO excited and thought maybe it was just a really nice gesture for being good clients to our PM buuuut they took it out! We were pretty bummed ... so now we're looking for one again. There are some fancy garage door openers out there!

Anyways, we're counting down the days until closing! So excited! I cannot wait!
 

House Bones!

We went by the house on Friday evening after work to see the progress and they have most of the first floor already framed! Pretty exciting! They said they'll be working on framing for the next week to week and a half.

It's funny how small it looks right now. I know it's not small, but I was looking at the area that is going to be our Great Room and I was thinking "Crap ... Am I going to be able to fit all of my furniture in here???" I guess we'll see!

We were going to talk to our PM again about the deck and the Trex situation on Friay, but when my bf called him he was at a company picnic and he could hear his little girls trying to get him to come play with them. You don't mess with a dad and his daughters so he just told him he'd talk to him on Monday. Hopefully, it gets resolved soon because I'm tired of talking about it and thinking about it.

Helpful information for those getting a GeoDeck with Ryan:
We called the actual decking company on Friday and it looks like they're a really small company. So small that an actual person answers the phone when you call. They were helpful and very nice. We were told that Ryan used their second highest Tier of decking material. We told them we were having a hard time finding enough information about them to compare them to their competitors. She explained that they don't spend much on marketing so they can keep their costs down and focus on quality and costomer service. The main difference with their decking is that it is hollow composite material. Their competitors products are basically lumper covered in composite material (this is how she desribed it). GeoDeck materials are hollow so it cuts costs and they don't have to use any type of woof filler that often causes problems (this is what caused problems for Trex in their lawsuit a few years ago). She admitted that Trex is a stronger deck than GeoDeck, but it's strong enough to easily hold people because it's built and designed to disperse weight so it's evenly distributed across the deck. However, if you were to drop a dumbell off of your roof on to a GeoDeck (or a tree fell on your deck) it would go right through, while a Trex deck would stay put. In the end, we're okay with their product. Oh, and she said their product NEVER fades unlike competitors. She attributed this to the fact that they are hollow and completely composite. Our problem now is that Ryan Homes thinks they can get away quoting a more expensive product than they're actually giving you.

Interest Rate News:
My boyfriend was sent the "Cost Analysis Worksheet" from our rep at NVR. Interest rates are at 3.75% right now! We can't lock in our rate until 2 months away from Settlement (I think) so I hope they continue to stay that low! That would be awesome!!

In other news, I bought a few things over the last few weeks for the home. I got curtains for our bedroom, the great room, and the morning room (HomeGoods - If you've never been to one, find one, and go). I also got the fabric for the couch I'm reupholstering. I went to an art show this weekend too and got this super cute metal frog for the garden. Kind of a frivolous purchase but he was so cute and pretty cheap ($25) so I couldn't resist! Plus, he's handmade by the artist I met there and one of a kind!

Bedroom Curtains - I'm adding blackout material to these too

My frog for the garden! Love it!


Oh, and remember that Ethan Allen piece I posted a few weeks ago? Well it was really badly scratched and I kept hearing about this natural way of fixing scratches with Vinegar and Oil (3/4 oil, 1/4 vinegar combo). I was pretty skeptical but figured I'd try it because I know it wouldn't damage the piece at all. It works INCREDIBLY well. It was seriously amazing! I used it on my mom's desk that used to be my grandfather's (really scratched up over the years) and the diffence is like night and day. So, if you like to re-do furniture like me, or have an old piece that's kinda scratched up, try this! All you do is rub it in (don't have to use a ton of it) and then let it soak into the wood. I let mine soak into the wood for about 6 hours and then rubbed off most of the excess (I put a ton on it at first) and then just let it sit for awhile. I used Apple Cider Vinegar and Olive Oil but you can use whatever you have on hand (Canola oil and regular white vinegar is cheapest). You see the effects immediately though. It's magic. I don't know how it works, but it does. I'll try and post before and after pictures next week. The pieces are at my parent's house so I'll take pics next weekend when I'm there trying to tackle that ugly couch.

And here are pictures of our beautiful first floor all framed up!

Left

Center

Right

Back

Left side - Foyer, Bathroom, Dining Room / Right - Kitchen/Morning Room & Great Room

Left - Great Room / Right - Office

Basement!

Doors and windows! We're one of the only one's who have the little windows on the side of the door which I like! I need an easy way to look outside to make sure it's really the pizza guy at my door and not some creeper!

Side Note: When looking around we found some "Cerveza" cans on the ground. I'm really hoping they're waiting to drink a beer or two at the end of their day and I don't have a bunch of tipsy people working on our house! Kind of weird to find beer cans hanging around your house that's under construction. Thankfully we only saw 1 or 2 cans but still odd, and a little bit concerning. If you're gonna drink on the job at least get rid of the evidence! Rookies.

 

Pre-Construction Meeting ... FINALLY

Warning: This is a long post! The list of questions looks a bit excessive but I thought it may be helpful information for future home builders!

We finally had our pre-construction meeting yesterday! After we got delayed for a month it felt like it would never come! It was pretty good. We kind of knew what to expect just from reading a ton of blogs about the experience.

First thing we did when we got there was drive around the development. When we first bought our lot there was only a line of twin houses built a few years ago by another builder (Ryan Homes bought the rest of the land from them), but there were NO Ryan Homes houses yet. Last time we were there, about a month ago, the model had most of its siding and then there were a few foundations poured, but that's about it. Yesterday, there were like 5 houses! They aren't all done but they are all at least framed. They put these homes up so quick, it's crazy!

Then we went inside and met our project manager for the first time. His last name is Roof .. Really? How do you not become a home builder with the last name Roof? Anyways .. he seems like a nice guy, and most importantly, he seems like he really takes pride in his job. He also has a sense of humor which is very much appreciated by us! I don't know how to talk to people who don't have a sense of humor! He's also a dog person like we are so he understands our concerns about putting a fence up ASAP.

Here are some things we discussed:

• We started off with basic introductions and then we went over our options. He confirmed we're getting the Palermo, Elevation E, all siding, and then confirmed all of our options. We just had to let him know if we were good to go. Everything was correct so we signed and then moved on. I'm hoping we didn't miss anything!
• He talked about when/how he will update us. He'll start off by calling us every Friday (maybe Monday if he doesn't have time on Friday) and let us know what was accomplished that week and what to expect the upcoming week. He personally prefers talking on the phone because he said its more personal, and he wants to get to know us a little bit. After the first few weeks he's fine with contacting us strictly through email if we prefer that.
• We had a whole conversation on when we are allowed to visit. He said he only wants us to go inside the house when he is there too, because it can be dangerous ... buuuut his work hours are basically my work hours so I may have to break those rules a little bit .. maybe. I honestly think they say that to avoid liability if you do get hurt and because they would rather you not snoop around and tell them what's wrong all the time. He explained that he normally notices something that is wrong early on but it doesn't mean it will get fixed straight away (but it WILL get fixed because he doesn't tolerate sloppy work).
• Timelines: He should be able to break ground this week sometime. He is just waiting for the approval to get started. He said once he gets the approval he normally starts the building process that day. He'll call us the day they break ground or the day after. From that point it should only take about 100-110 days until close which would put us closing around the last week in October.
• Questions - We compiled a list of questions and sent them to him ahead of time in case he needed to do some research. He had them all printed out and ready to go so we just went down the list one by one. I'll post the list at the end of this post.

Highlights

1. We're getting sod in the front AND back yard
2. We are now getting a double vanity in the secondary bath too! (they allowed a last minute change)
3. The door to our office is one of the doors with windows (not a solid door like we all thought)
4. Deck (trex materials) is brown with white railings. Stairs will be center facing the back yard.Our PM also described our deck as a HUGE deck! Love it!
5. We have plenty of room from the side of our house to our property line to add a double gate to our fence.
6. Our egress window is basically just a big walkout window (will not include a well/won't be covered) because our property is sloped enough that it could almost be considered a walk out. This will bring in a lot of natural light into our basement! 

Here is a list of our questions and their answers - this is a list we compiled from looking at MANY blogs

General

• What is the best way to reach you?
• Phone and email
• Can we visit the site whenever want?
• We need to visit when he is there
• How many inspections are there?
• About 12-13 inspections - This includes the big three (Foundation, Pre-drywall, and Final inspection) as well as the many inspections our county requires (he said he failed inspections once because he provided someone with 12 shrubs vs the required 13)
• What do we have to do if we want our own inspector?
• Just let him know that we have one coming around - he didn't seem to mind us wanting our own inspector
• Will you provide us with weekly updates? How?
• Yes - By phone at first and then in whatever way we want (email, phone, text, etc)
• Are you going on vacation at all during our build?
• Yes - He's not sure when but he will give us a heads up and give us a contact while he is gone

Outside

• Driveway - Width/Length — Can we make it wider?
• Width is 18 ft and length is about 31 ft. We can make it wider on our own. He recommended we do this through the same person they use since they lay our garage in two phases (Put in driveway and then let it settle for a few months and then come back to put on top coat). He said by using the same guy we'll avoid getting charged extra for a top coat on the addition.
• Lawn - Sodded/Seeded?
• Sodded in the Front AND back yard
• Outside Lighting - What's included? Where?
• Two lights on either side of garage, two recessed lights on porch, one light by sliding glass door from morning room
• Hose bibs - How many? Where? Can we choose the location?
• Two are included — One on either side of the house (1 towards the back on the garage side and the other towards the front of the opposite side) — No, we cannot choose where these go
• Outlets? How many? Where?
• This is done by code - There has to be an outlet every 6 feet
• Landscaping - What's included? Can we choose? Can we opt out?
• We get a very beginner package of some shrubs and mulch in the front yard. We cannot choose and we cannot opt out.
• House positition on lot - Direction of home
• Southwest
• Yard size
• Front Yard - about 31 ft to curb and about 80 ft wide
• Back yard - About 50 ft deep and 90 ft wide
• Distance from neighbors
• About 20 ft
• Distance from side of house to property line (need to know because we want a gate for our fence)
• 10 ft
• Fencing - Can we have a privacy fence
• Yes - We had this confirmed by our Sales Rep
• Will there be sidewalks? Will you be putting them in or is that up to the community?
• Yes - PM will put in sidewalk in front of our house but the rest of the community sidewalks are up to the community
• Deck - Can we see the plans for the deck? What are the colors of our deck? Can we pick stair location on the deck?
• Yes - We looked at a rough sketch of deck dimensions. It will go around the fireplace bump out. It will be brown with white rails. We were allowed to pick the stair location - We chose the center going out to our backyard

Garage

• Is the garage sheet-rocked?
• Yes (but not insulated)
• In there a rough-in for the garage door opener?
• Yes
• How many outlets in garage?
• One on the wall / One on the ceiling
• Is garage at a pitch (so water will easily flow away from the house)
• Yes

Construction

• Extra support in high traffic areas?
• Yes & No - This is taken into consideration when engineers design house but they do not put extra support on top of that
• Where is the Attic access?
• In laundry room
• Can you not install the quarter round so we can install it when we put in our laminate flooring after closing
• No - The only reason is because they would not pass inspection if they did not install quarter round

Cosmetic

• Flooring Breaks- Where are they? (We were only concerned about where our Great Room carpet started)
• Lines up with hallway (matched PDF) 
• Location of egress window - Can we move it so it is not under our deck/in the way of where we want to put our wet bar rough-in
• Yes! - We moved it to the side of our morning room compared to being in the middle of the morning room. He also confirmed that our egress window will just be a walk out window because of how our property is sloped (it's almost a walk-out lot but not quite)
• Are windows standard sized?
• No - We can measure once drywall is up
• What color paint is being used for the house?
• Two-toned paint - an off-white color
• If you have extra paint can you leave it so we can do touch-ups where we see fit?
• They won't leave cans but the paint manufacturer can send a free touch up kit with the paint used

Kitchen

• Size of spot for fridge
• 30" wide x 6 ft tall - This is an estimate! If the fridge we see is very close to those measurements then we should wait to buy it (ex. 28in-30in wide) but if it's a decent amount smaller than 30" we should be good.
• Will cabinets be flush with fridge or other cabinets? Can we make it flush with fridge?
• They will be flush with other cabinets - No we cannot bump them out
• Backsplash - Can we forego the 4 inch backsplash extended from the counter?
• No - This would have needed to be a custom request (not sure why ... ) but its easy to take off (it's glued to the wall).
• Do you provide fire extinguishers?
• No
• How many smoke detectors? Where?
• Smoke detectors in each bedroom, each hallway, and one in the basement. There is also a CO2 detector upstairs by the master bedroom
• Can we choose placement of recessed lights in the packages we bought?
• No - Only time we can choose locations is if you choose to buy extra recessed lights

Office

• Is the door to the office a solid door or a door with windows like we saw in the model
• To everyone's surprise its the window door! Yay!!

Bathroom

• Single bowl vanity in the secondary bath - How big is this vanity? We were under the impression that it was a large vanity but just had one bowl.
• Single bowl vanity is only a 30" vanity. We talked about this and showed them our PDF that showed a solid line for the vanity (only showed a dotted line for the bowl and said "optional bowl"). Because of the confusion they let us change this option last minute so we're now getting a double bowl vanity in the secondary bath too!
• Are we getting two exhaust fans in our master bath?
• Yes

Plumbing

• Is there a water softener included? Can we get one? Do we need one?
• No, no, and no
• Water heater blanket included? 
• No - he said we don't need an external one though because the water heaters they use are very energy efficient
• Sump pump?
• We have one and it's located in the same room as the hot water heater

We Have Chosen

Over the last couple of weeks we have gone over every option. Back and forth, back and forth. "Let's just move lots .. Wait .. Let's get a different model .. Wait .. Maybe we should look somewhere else .. No.. I like this community..." We repeated this train of thought about a thousand times.

Final Verdict : We're changing lots!

There are several things that led us to this decision.

1) We really do love the Palermo. We love our elevation, we were able to get the exact colors we liked at this new lot, the finished basement is HUGE with the morning room area finished, we like that there is line of site to both the great room and the dining room from the kitchen, and we love the big shower we can get with two shower heads.

2) We really are getting a good deal by moving to this lot. It may not be as pretty, but it is bigger. We have 2 dogs and we want a deck (which we are now building) so a bigger yard is nice. The lot is also layed out so it get's wider towards the back while our old lot got narrower towards the back. This also helps with increasing the back yard. This big lot usually has a premium ($2500) but they knocked that off because of the inconvenience. We also are saving money by not paying the much higher premium at our previous lot ($7500). So overall, the house will start off at $7500 less than what we were going to pay.

3) Saved money on the lot means we can get some other upgrades we had to take off our list early on. One of these is an upgraded carpet on the first floor. We're also getting ceramic in our first floor powder room now. We may also add on a couple more outlets or some crown molding on the cabinets.

4)We are now getting a composite material deck (14 ft x 22 ft). Ryan agreed to pay for half and we will pay for the other half. We asked some friends what they paid for their deck and the price per square foot was pretty competitive ($40/sq. ft - our friend payed $36/sq. ft for a wood deck). A deck will be awesome because a) we'll have somewhere extra to entertain or have a drink/dinner on nice days and b) we have direct access into our backyard for our dogs.

5) If we got the Milan on our previous lot it would end up costing more than we would like to spend. This was a big one, and really helped us make the final decision.

Overall, we feel good with the decision. I am a little sad we aren't getting as pretty of a lot, but we'll just plant some pine trees in the back of our property so we can't see the guy's yard behind us all year. Plus, it's not like his yard is directly behind us like we would have had on the other side of the street.

Here are some new upgrades we're doing.

Carpet (Upgrade C)

Ceramic Tile - Upgrade B - Mushroom

And, as promised, here is an updated picture of our puppy at 2 weeks old (we'll be picking him up in about 6 weeks).