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!

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

Right

Center

Left

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!

The Waiting Game

I haven't blogged since I made the announcement of our final decision, so I figured I'd give a quick update.

As we anticipated, our start date got pushed back. It definitely is annoying that this happened, but we figured they would have to push it back after that debacle we faced. Our original start date was going to be June 26th. It would have been awesome to start this building process in only 3 days, buuut oh well. I'm hoping they can maybe start a little sooner with everything since we decided to build the same home model, but I'm not holding my breathe.

New Time-Line
Pre-construction Meeting - July 14th
Start Date - July 17th
Picking up our Puppy! - July 19th
Anticipated Close Date - Late October/Early November

In other news ...

We changed out exterior colors when we changed lots. Once we moved lots it opened up a lot of color options for us for the exterior of our home. Originally, we were going to do Pebble Clay siding and shake with black shutters and a firey brown door. Now, we are going to do Sandy Tan siding, Pebble Clay shake, black shutters, and a cottage red door! Pretty excited about the two-toned siding and a bright red door! I'll try and post pictures at some point of the colors.

Overall, we're feeling much calmer and more positive about everything. We ended up getting more bang for our buck by switching lots, I got to pick any color I wanted for the exterior, we have a bigger lot, the shape of our lot makes our back yard the biggest part (which is awesome for our dogs), and we're getting a deck.

Now I'm just entertaining myself by thinking of DIY projects I can do for the house. I have already lined up quite a few, including building our kitchen table, painting some pictures, transforming an old metal trashcan into a stylish dog food container, and possibly reupholstering a chair. I also have been gradually picking up some stuff for the house. I got a really nice crate from Home Goods that we can put in the living room to hold blankets, and I got these awesome bowls from Anthropologie for only $1.95 each!

I also got this adorable bottle opener that looks like a Seal from Anthropologie for $5.95. Love him!

 

It's the little things in life ... 

 

 

 

FINAL Selections Meeting!

We had our final selections meeting today! This is it, no more changes allowed! The only two things we got an extension on is with Guardian selections and Creative Floors selections.

We know what we're getting with Guardian but when we called the guy back to finalize the paperwork with him he was randomly "out of town." Kind of annoying since he never told us this and he knew our final selections were due today. Since this was his fault we get a few more days so he can get his stuff together and send it in. The other change is that we saw that the soap dish in the tiled showers are white and look really out of place. We wanted to see if we could get something different (we saw on some blogs that some people got a shelf for an upgrade instead of that ugly soap dish). We tried calling them all week and they never responded so that is why we got an extension for that.

Other than that all choices have been made! Woo hoo!

EXTERIOR

Elevation E

Colors - Pebble Clay Siding/Shake, Black Shutters, Fiery brown door

(This is not a Palermo)

BASEMENT

Finished

Powder Room

Recessed Lighting

KITCHEN

Gourmet Island

Recessed Lighting

Ice maker Rough-in

Morning Room

Rushmore Maple Linen Cabinets - Standard Carpet (darkest color) - Vinyl

Linen Cabinets with Slate formica countertop

Stainless Appliance Upgrade - Premier II (Much better rating than the standard or first upgrade)

GREAT ROOM

Fireplace - Slate

MASTER BATH

Double Vanity

White Cabinets - Tile shower/floors (Upgrade C)

SECONDARY BATH

White Cabinets - Tile Floors

EXTRA OUTLETS

2- Unfinished sections of basement

1- High on wall in Great Room for TV

1- Extra outlet on kitchen island

1- End of staircase

1- Extra in garage

OTHER

Ceiling Fan rough-ins (7)

Carpet Pad - A

Carpet - Standard (darkest color they offered)

We feel good about all of our choices. We also found out that our loan was definitely approved!! 

Next Steps:

1) Hire our own home inspector

2) Pre-Construction Meeting - June 20th

3) Building starts!! - June 26th