Siding!!

Our siding was finished this weekend! WooHoo!!! I was so excited! We were originally going to go down on Sunday, but we couldn't wait that long, so we went down after work on Friday and just made it before the sun went down. We LOVE it! We personally think our home is the most beautiful on the street (we are a little bias I guess ... haha!).

Just a recap:

Siding: Sandy Tan
Shake/Accent siding: Pebble Clay
Shutters- Black
Door - Will be painted a bright red

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Close up!

Our PM updated us on Friday to let us know that the siding was done and to give us some updates on what will be happening this week.

Updates:

• He wants to wait a couple extra days for drywall to dry (In a previous post I said our PM told us it would take 2 weeks .. apparently my boyfriend meant to say days (not weeks) when he texted me! haha! I thought 2 weeks was a little abnormal ...)
• Trim will be added this week
• Walls will be painted
• Cabinets and counters will be installed
• Flooring should be installed (since it goes under our cabinets)
• He also wants to try and do sidewalks, the driveway, grading of the yard, and plumbing stuff

AKA .. They're doing a TON of stuff this week!

He also let us know that we already have electric set up! He was pretty excited about that because it sounds like that's normally a headache.



Trim - Found these in the garage

Kitchen counters

We also measured the two dining room windows and the powder room window for some blinds.


Other than that, we hit up the Sherwin Williams 40% off paint sale and bought about 20 gallons of paint and a bunch of painting accessories (we needed everything because we've never painted a home before since we've been in apartment!). It wasn't a pretty price tag but it was much prettier after getting 40% off (Paint was 40% off and supplies were 30% off)! Today is the last day if you're interested in the sale!

We also looked at some Refridgerators and washers and dryers.
We're in between a high-end GE (The sales guy at Best Buy said GE is one of those brands that isn't that good in the lower end models but their higher end models are really nice) and a Samsung for a fridge, and we're in between LG and Samsung for washer/dryer (I think we're leaning towards the Samsung on this one though).

Hope everyone else had a nice weekend!

Pre-Drywall Meeting

This past Friday we had our pre-drywall meeting! Everything is moving so fast! It's crazy! We're only 6 weeks away from our expected close date!

The fact that we're only 6 weeks away from our new home is:

a) Exciting!! - I cannot wait to get out of our apartment! The smallness of our apartment just makes everything cramped, cluttered, and messy. I was cooking this past weekend and I was getting so frustrated with having no room, but then I got even MORE excited for our new home and new kitchen with counter space and cabinet space and storage and I could go on and on!

b) Nervous! - You know how much stuff we still have to do? A lot. I'm supposed to be whipping up a kitchen table from scratch, and I haven't even bought the wood yet. Oh, and that couch? Still stripped down to the bare bones sitting in my parent's living room! Oh, and have a mentioned that I work full time and I'm also in graduate school? Oh, and I'm taking two accelerated courses versus my usual course load of only one course! I'm going to be a lunatic!

We've been trying to get prepared though. We've started packing a little bit here and there. It's a little difficult, because you don't want to pack up stuff you'll need in the next 6 weeks. I didn't think I would need my vegetable peeler, so I packed it. Guess what? I've needed it twice!
We also looked into cable providers. If you have a really new development, I highly recommend looking into this ahead of time. The only provider we have is Verizon Fios and then a local small cable provider. We'll actually need them to come and dig a line in our yard for the hook-up so I'm going to schedule that ahead of time. Our PM said it's probably best to do it ASAP after closing before the sod is established so you can just lift up the sod instead of them having to dig up the yard.
I also got some folders and dividers and I'm going to try and organize all of our paperwork. I want to have all of our medical stuff, house stuff, and pet stuff organized so important stuff doesn't go missing during the move.

Meeting Details

We had our meeting at around 1:30PM on Friday. My boyfriend got there around 1:00 and so did the Guardian rep so they went through early before I got there. One tip I have is to make sure you know where you want all your cable, data, speaker hookups. For example, if you're having cable hookups for TVs in bedrooms think about where you're going to put the bed so you know where you might want the TV. Once I got there I corrected some of the places my boyfriend put the hookups! Lol! He just kind of plopped them on random walls.

Once that was done we went through the house with our PM. It wasn't as thorough as I thought it would be. It was more just a time for us to ask him about stuff or tell him about anything we saw. I think he normally walks through with people more carefully, but since we had our own inspector coming it wasn't really necessary to make us walk through everything twice. We noticed a few things like the second fan in our master bath wasn't installed, but he already knew about it. It was sitting downstairs in the garage waiting to be installed. We couldn't think of much else so then we just waited for the home inspector to come by and he told us to just give him a call once that was over.

Our inspector showed up a little bit later. He was a really nice guy. We started in the basement and worked our way up. He looked over everything very carefully and very slowly which was good! I'm glad he took his time. Overall, he noticed a few things but everything looks pretty good! Once we were done our PM came over right away and we showed him some stuff that we found. Here are some things he noticed and our PM's response:

• Wonky looking wall in the basement. This isn't a structural wall but would definitely affect how good the wall looks cosmetically once drywalled
• PM will definitely have this fixed
• "Sleeve" on gas lines should be longer
• He'll check in on the code and ask the plumbing guy to look at it and confirm
• Flex duct seemed to be too long (14 ft)
• Code recently changed in our county to allow flex duct longer than 14 ft
• Missing nail plates (these are metal barriers they put on the wall where beams are close and there is wiring - this helps prevent someone from accidentally puncturing any of the wiring or gas lines when putting up drywall)
• He'll have them installed no problem
• Recommended we get more insulation downstairs near the HVAC system in foyer - apparently it gets really loud in Ryan Homes, which I have heard about before.
• Apparently, they started putting insulation inside of these ducts a few years ago to help with the noise. He said he'd ask if we can have more put in.
• Gap in lumber making up the peak over our garage
• He'll have that fixed
• Uneven roof on the side of the house
• He said this was fine because everything is tight from the inside.
• Crooked vents (dryer vent on the outside of the house was crooked)
• These will be fixed
• Return and supply of HVAC system too close upstairs. Right next to each other - doesn't make sense
• He's not sure why this happened. He said he'd look at the blue print to see if they were installed in the right spot. If they were, then he'll ask why it's like this on the blue print, because it doesn't really make sense.

Overall, everything went really well! We even have a garage door installed! Yesterday, after my boyfriend and his cousin were done "celebrating" an Eagle's victory, I picked them up and we went to look at the house. They had all of the cable and data wires hooked up already. The only issue we saw is that they put the rough in's for the rear surround sound speakers too far up. We want them behind us when we're watching tv, and right now they're positioned above where the couch will be vs behind the couch. Technically, we're not supposed to go into the house so we shouldn't know this yet, but I feel like we should say something about it before the drywall goes up.

Front - Garage door, window trim decor, and wrapping added

Right

This week they'll be putting in drywall and our PM said our siding should be up by the end of this week! Sooo excited! Oh, I also asked him about sod care and if he had any tips and he said he gives us a whole manual on house stuff, including a section on sod, so we should be all set! He's been really great with everything. We definitely had a few hiccups during the entire process but our PM has been wonderful.

 

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!!

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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 Dates!

Pre-Drywall - September 5

We scheduled our pre-drywall meeting for next week! Things are moving so fast!

1:30 - Walk through with our PM & our Guardian Rep to look things over and pick final locations for all of our extra outlets and wiring

2:30 - Walk through with our home inspector (We opted to hire one on our own too)

2:45/3:00 - Go over what inspector saw with our PM

Any tips on things we should look for??


Settlement - October 22

Our PM let us know we are on schedule to settle on October 22! A little bit earlier than we thought it would be, although we had a feeling it would be that way since they've had incredible weather so far. This is a perfect moving time! Not too hot, not too cold. Also, it will be pretty easy for us to take time off from work around that time.



Two other quick updates:

Trex debacle - Our SR reached out to us today. She let us know they didn't forget about us and she's still waiting on an answer from her management team.

Update: They are building us a Trex deck. Still no word on what level of Trex they'll be using so hopefully it's not the cheapest possible deck they could get us. We were really surprised by this! We really thought they'd just give us some extra lighting! I would think that would have been cheaper, but I guess it's illegal to spout off brand names and then provide something different. Who knows. Not gonna lie .. I would have preferred some pendant lighting, but I guess it's nice that they're actually sticking to their word!

The ugly couch - I am still taking off fabric. The amount of staples in furniture is obscene. I'm having nightmares about removing staples! I'm almost done though. Once the ugly fabric is off we can use it as a pattern to cut the new fabric and start getting ready to make the couch beautiful!




 

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!

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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.

 

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!

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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.