Lanscaping, a driveway, a paint update, and a not so ugly couch!

We are 9 days away from closing!!! Single digits! That said, I had a crazy weekend! I have had so many projects to complete before we move in and they are keeping me busy. I'm also balancing two grad school classes which adds to the insanity!

 

First, I'd like address the whole painting when moving in issue. It looks like the vast majority of communities lets you paint and it will NOT void the drywall warranty. The only stipulation is that after they fix the wall, they paint it back to the original color they painted the wall, and then you are responsible for touching up your custom paint. This is what we thought originally. Unfortunately for us, our PM confirmed that in our community it completely voids our warranty. Is this stupid? Yes. Does it compromise the actual drywall? Ummm, no. Is our PM really correct about this? I don't know, but I have no doubt it would cause a battle to get things fixed if we did paint. Not really worth it, so we're going to stick it out and have boring white walls. Pretty jealous of all of you who are allowed to paint!

 

We also asked about installing our floor. This does NOT void any warranties. I don't know how installing a floor does not void anything while painting a wall does, but whatever ..

 

Anyways, we got our weekly call and were told that our house is pretty much done. All lanscaping is done and our driveway was paved. Of course we went down to check it out. We have no trees in our front yard .. not really sure why since everybody else in our community does. Oh well. Now we can pick whatever tree we want and won't have to worry about moving a tree we're not crazy about. They put about 8 trees in the back (kind of excessive in my opinion). Some type of pine tree and then some ornamental cherries (we think). Of course they were planted like a stepford community perfectly spaced out with no creativity, but they will remain that way until the spring (if our dogs don't run into them and kill them, lol!), so we don't risk them dying. Plus, I honestly can't see us feeling like moving them!

 

This past weekend I stayed at my parents house. We sanded all of the wood for the table so now we just have to put the legs together and then stain and seal everything! My mom was FINALLY not working this weekend so we got to work on that ugly pink velvet couch! I decided to reupholster it in a bright teal fabric. Go big or go home! Is bright teal right for everyone? Nope, but I love it and I think the pop of color will be great in our mostly neutral home!

 

Before

 

 

After

After

Now we just need to cover the cushion and we are finished!! I LOVE it, and I think my mom and I did a great job, especially since we have never done this before!

Happy Columbus Day!

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!

Building a table is hard!

We are only a little over 2 weeks away from closing!! What??!?!?! Where did the time go? Remember that I said I was going to build our kitchen table with my dad? Well, we started this weekend, and guess what .. we severely underestimated the time it would take! Haha! Oh well.

We worked on it all day Saturday and Sunday and got the top completed! This was the hardest part because you have to make sure the wood is all flush and flat, and wood is not perfect (who knew?), so all the boards were a little bowed in places. It took a lot of strength, quick drilling, and teamwork to get these boards straight and flush. I think it turned out pretty nice if you ask me!

We also got all of the wood cut for the legs of the table but haven't assembled it yet. This took a lot of cutting and prep work people!

So next steps include:

• Drilling some holes to prep the pieces
• Assembly of the legs
• Sanding everything (this is probably going to take forever)
• Stain (hopefully only 1 coat)
• Strategically sanding to give it an older look
• Polyurethane
• Attach the top and the bottom
• Done!

We also went by the house quickly this weekend to meet our fence guy. We talked to him and got things situated. We saw that they were installing carpet in the house so we didn't want to go in and get in the way!

Another change we saw is they put in the posts for the front porch (it's no longer being held up by scrawny looking wood).

She is looking pretty sexy if you ask me!

This week's Agenda:

• The deck
• Another round of grading (I think)
• Final touches and adjustments (straightening cabinets, fixing paint here and there, etc).

There's really not much else to do! It's mostly just fixing tiny things and putting final touches on stuff. Lanscaping won't be done until about a week before closing so we won't see that for awhile. So exciting! We are so excited to move, but it's coming down to the wire!

To Do List:

• Call water company
• Call trash company
• Call electric company
• Get cable/internet ready
• Pack
• Get blinds
• Get garage door opener
• Finish reupholstering the ugly couch
• Finish the table
• Finish up my Grad School classes

Ahhh! So much stuff!

Hope everything is going well for everyone else!

Shingles and Tubes

We made our weekly trip to our home this weekend and saw a finished roof! That was pretty much the only new thing on the outside of the house. I can't wait for siding!!

Right

Center

Left

This past week they apprantely did plumbing and HVAC stuff. We got to see our AC unit, our secondary bath's tub, and our master shower's floor! We also saw our HVAC system and a bunch of other rough-ins. Kind of cool to see how they put everything in.

Secondary bath tub

Master shower floor

Fireplace!



HVAC

AC unit - it's a lot bigger than our neighbors - even the Rome's (bigger house than ours) but not sure why.

Wet Bar rough-in in basement

We also wrote some quotes on the beams. I originally got this idea from Pinterest, but I've seen a few other bloggers do it as well! We just wrote some feel good quotes that will give us some good ju-ju. It's also kind of cool to have our own little touch within the bones of the house.

By our future deck - "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" - Oscar Wilde

In the kitchen area - Something for myself and any future girls in our family to remember! "Be a girl with a mind, a woman with attitude, and a lady with class."

"You don't love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear." -Oscar Wilde

Man Cave - "The problem isn't the problem; the problem is your attitude about the problem." -Captain Jack Sparrow

By fireplace switch - "Happiness can be found in even the darkest of times, if one only remember to turn on the light." - Albus Dumbledore (I'll be Harry Potter nerd forever!)

DECKING
A quick conclusion on the decking situation. As many of you know, we were told we were getting a Trex® deck (in writing) and then found out that it was actually a GeoDeck material deck. We let them know that this isn't okay since they told us we were getting a name brand, more expensive deck than we really were. We gave them an option of giving us a Trex deck or making it up to us by giving us some free additions like pendant lighting, etc.

In the end they decided it was best to give us Trex®. They explained to us that customer service is very important to them and giving us little extra things, such as lighting, wouldn't resolve the problem. We are now getting Trex's Enhance decking. There are three levels of Trex (Select- good, Enhance - Better, Transcend- Best), so it's very nice they're giving us the middle of the line decking. It comes with a nice warrantly against wearing and fading. In the end, we're pleased with the way they handled it. Would we have gotten anything if we hadn't asked? Probably not, but I can't really fault them for that. You HAVE to ask if you want something. This also proves that it's very important to get everything in writing!

SHOPPING
We also did a little shopping yesterday. We didn't get any big appliances, because we're waiting to get those, but we got little things like curtain rods, storage containers, hand towels, etc. I saw that some of you got some awesome deals on appliances which is awesome! TIP: If you need curtain rods, and don't want to pay an arm and a leg for them, try Home Goods, TJ Maxx, or Marshalls. We got a 120" rod for $30 (covers all three morning room windows) and smaller ones (32-46") for $15 each. Not too bad. Originally, I was going to make our curtain rods from some pipes but this saved me a lot of time!

DIY
For awhile, I've been trying to think of what to put over our couch on the wall. I looked at Art shows and checked places like Marshalls/Home Goods countless times. I couldn't find anything I really liked. We finally toured the model in our community, since it just got fully finished a couple weeks ago, and I saw this really cool tree picture on the wall. It was simple and very pretty. I got inspired and decided to make my own version! We went to Michaels, and I got my canvas for 40% off, grabbed some paint and went to work! I'm very pleased with out it turned out!

Painting - It's pretty big (30" x 40")

 

I hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend!!

We have a house! (Pictures Galore)

This past Friday we made our weekly drive to check things out and things are looking beautiful!!

The house is pretty much completely framed! On our way there our PM left us a voicemail letting us know they'd be finishing up framing over the weekend and this week they'll start the mechanical stuff (plumbing, heating, etc). Pretty exciting!!

It is SO nice to see our elevation in person. We couldn't even find pictures of our elevation (Palermo Elevation E), other than the computer generated images on Ryan Home's website. I LOVE it. We have a gorgeous second floor window on the front of the home, a nice big window over the garage, and longer windows in the front. I also love that we have three peaks. I think it gives the home a lot of visual interest. I really had to fight to convince my boyfriend to upgrade to this Elevation so I'm so glad it was worth it, and we both love it! It's a pretty sexy house, if I do say so myself!

Right

Center

Left

Back

Good view of the yard! (Silk fence is pretty accurate of how our yard will look)

We wen't inside and walked around which was so cool! It's awesome to really see where you're going to put your couch and where you'll be cooking dinner. We also realized that that HUGE window in the front is actually in a bedroom (not the master, unfortunately) so one of our future children will be VERY lucky. For now though, we have no idea what to do with the room. Maybe a guest room? Curtains for that window will be a bitch though ...

Standing in kitchen looking at part of great room and the office

Fireplace! Can't wait!

Looking into the kitchen and morning room

Looking from the morning room into the Dining room

Dining room - Loving these long windows! (Came with our elevation)

Stairs!

Looking down the hall into the Master

Fancy window in guest room - Would love to build a cushioned bench under that window for reading

Basement (under the morning room) with our Egress window (Love that it doesn't have to be cased in)

More Basement

We also found out the tree we'll probably be getting is a Weeping Cherry tree. I creeped and took a picture of our neighbors and showed my mom. She's crazy about gardening and plants so she identified it immediately. I googled pictures of them and they're really pretty! This is what it looks like now .. just a baby.

Other than that we bought a new ceiling fan for the great room ...

Lowes.com

I also got a cheap black doormat (from Home Goods for like $9) and painted it! It turned out really cute! I love it!

Also, I'm living at my parents house for the next week. The girl who was dog sitting our puppy went back to school so my dad is going to watch Bear while I'm at work for the week. After work I'll just go there and take over. This has given me time to do some of the projects like that couch!

We started taking the fabric off yesterday! Yikes! It's pretty daunting! Soooo many staples that you have to take out! It's ridiculous how many staples are in this sucker! We got a large amount of the fabric off but still have a little more to go.

I have a little bit more accomplished now than the picture shows. It's taking forever!

Bear helped - AKA he used the couch as a cave and played while we worked

We also should hearing back from our SR about them compensating us for the deck mistake. She said she'd have an answer to us by today but haven't heard anything yet. We requested that they A) Use Trex materials like they said or B)compensate us for the price difference by throwing in recessed lighting above the fireplace and throwing in some pendant lighting rough-ins above the island. It was being reviewed by management over the last week. I'll be sure to update with their offer.