Week 11- Don't Take These Things for Granite!

This week has been a ton of fun! So many "little" things were put in and they just look absolutely amazing.  I can't believe we close in just a couple of weeks!!! Time has flown!

There are definitely little things that I want addressed with the house to make sure that things are fixed and perfect for when we get in.  We will probably go out to the house on Tuesday or Thursday and I'll make a list to get to our PM just to make sure things are to our liking.  Our PM was on vacation all this week, so we didn't have updates as to WHAT would be done with the house, but we also didn't want to bug him for things that can be addressed this upcoming week.

So let's see what's been done this week:

Our "second paint" was done this week.  I THOUGHT it was done last week {as that's what the timeline says on the Ryan Homes site}, but it hadn't been.  We were actually IN the house with the painters there and saw them painting the walls.

Our driveway and sidewalks have been poured.  This also includes our porch steps.

The biggest and best update this week:  GRANITE! It's been installed and I adore it!  The granite was one of those things that I was really worried about liking or not liking.  I loved it when we chose it, but I finally started having those moments that we had picked the "wrong" thing.  We chose Luna Pearl granite.  When my wheels started turning, I would Google image and Pinterest and try to find images of Luna Pearl with dark cabinets to see what we had picked.  ONE blog post I read said that it was a "dated" granite.  It was a new selection at our Ryan Homes selections meeting when we picked it.  And of course, I only keep the one comment about it being dated in my head and not taking note of any of the other photos I have seen where it looks great.

So, the anticipation of our granite being installed has been driving me bonkers.  Every time we walked into the house I was hoping that we would have our granite.  And when it was FINALLY there, I was thrilled.
It's a lighter granite with darker flecks in it, and it sparkles.
My worry was that it was going to be too light.  But, it's perfect! If we had gone with one of those darker grey granites I think it would have been too dark with the rest of our color scheme {and the stuff that we plan to do in the house when we paint and such}.

And then finally, our appliances were installed!  Stove, microwave and dishwasher.  They look fabulous!  Our dishwasher doesn't seem like it's secured down. It just wobbles when you touch it.  Gotta have that addressed.  We upgraded our appliances to be stainless steel.  Let me tell you! It sure pops with our granite and counter tops!  It all looks so good!  All of the appliances that were put in the house are GE appliances.

And for everyone's favorite part!  Pictures!  Trying to keep them in order, haha! There's a lot of them and lots of new details to show off!

This first set is from our trip out on Saturday.  We had to take our puppy to the vet for his last round of puppy shots and thought that while we were in the area, we should take him in to the house to see what will be his brand new home in a few weeks.  Doing this made the house seem gigantic.  And, it is. But it just made it seem like it when you put our little 13.9 pound sheltie in the house and let him run around.  He is going to have SO much room to run and play with his big brother dog.  I can't wait.

Crosley at the top of the stairs.  He did the stairs like a champ and didn't seem phased that there was no carpet.

Crosley following Jason up the stairs

Garage door opener!  It's installed and it works!!

Your first look at our kitchen with the granite and appliances.  It looks amazing!

Closer view of the stove and microwave

The future home of our gorgeous refrigerator

view of the kitchen with the granite from the morning room

Sink! I love this thing so much {which becomes apparent with how many photos I took of it}

Close up of our Luna Pearl granite on the kitchen island

Stove and microwave, and me in the reflections!

Granite and cabinets <3

I found A LOT of irony in this little sign that was left in the kitchen after our little poop fiasco last week.

The beginnings of a deck! This is looking down from our master bedroom window

They started the deck on Friday, July 8th

Startings of the deck.  It will go the entire length of the back of the house {from the morning room} 

A hole for deck posts.  I had my tape measure with me, as I was measuring some stuff for potential purchases and measured this hole.  It was 3 feet deep.

Electrical stuffs.

Walkway to our front porch!  The second step is small.  I am not quite sure the logistics of that one.

......where the sidewalk ends.

our home with her newly paved driveway!

So after we took our little Crosley out there, I knew we had to make another trip.  I wanted to take Cody out there.  I wanted him to see everything.  He HAD been out to the site of the home before it was ever even built, the day after we lost his brother.  It was a bittersweet day that day and I have a photo that I will be cherishing forever of Cody running around on our lot.  And today?  Today made me feel the same way.  I miss our little Chase so much and can't believe that he won't be here to enjoy this gorgeous new home.  But, the memories we are going to make with these two boys are going to be amazing.

This photo is from the day after we lost Chase.  Cody is running on our lot before it was even a hole.  I'm going to have this photo framed in the new house, I love it so much.  And, it means the world to me.

Anyways.  We went back out to the house today {Sunday} and were surprised to see new things!  They had finished our deck! AND! When we went into the house, they had uncovered the hardwood floors so we could see them in all their glory.  And our boys had a ton of fun!  Cody stayed next to me most of the time, but still explored the entire house.  Both him and Crosley were all smiles!

Kitchen views with our hardwood

Hardwood, Luna Pearl granite, Maple Espresso cabinets and stainless steel appliances 

Stove

Microwave

Dishwasher {and hardwood floors}

Kitchen sink and faucet

morning room hardwood floors <3

Hardwood floors and our entire kitchen.  It's GORGEOUS

Foyer looking to the front door with the hardwood revealed

Foyer hardwood with the stairway, and Jason and Crosley

dining room

finished deck! It's amazing!

Finished Deck

Deck stairs

Jason telling Cody to come down the stairs

another deck view

The deck covers the length of the back of the house to the morning room, and then the stairs go down in front of the morning room.

Crosley checking out his back yard

Crosley standing at the walk out, under the deck!

at the walkout, under the deck

All smiles from our Cody. I think he's really going to love it here.

We were wrapping things up to leave, and Crosley wanted to go back upstairs.  I don't think any of us really wanted to leave.

Cody sitting on the front porch

Our boys <3  This photo gave me all the feels.   I love these two so much.

Look at this gorgeous house.  OUR house.  It won't be long now and we will permanently be here <3

Visiting the house today, with the boys, it really felt like home.  I feel like with each thing that gets done, it feels more and more like a house, and more and more like ours as we see everything come together.  But today, with our two sweet boys in the house with us?  It felt like home.  And I can't wait for the memories we are going to make here.


And, if you've made it through all of the photos and blog today, you get a video!

I shot about 8 minutes worth of video going through the entire house showing off everything that's been done.  The dogs were in the house while I did the video.

Enjoy it :-)  And let's hope this countdown for the next two weeks goes by fast!!!

Week 10-- Interior Touches

So reflecting between the progress of last week, and this week... this week was a super slow week as far as progress for our house goes.

Biggest thing we noticed that has been done: ELECTRICITY!!!!!!
I THINK they have done the "second paint", although seeing all the spots on the inside that need touch ups, I kind of hope they haven't done a second paint yet because there are a helluva lot of touch ups that need to be done {read: entire walls}.

So, all of our light fixtures have been put in, outlets have covers, we have light switches, recessed lighting, thermostat, a working garage door and even a doorbell!

As far as painting goes that's really noticeable, our trim outside has been painted the almond color to match the rest of our house.  This includes porch columns, trim around the garage, and our outside doors in the back (morning room and walk out basement door).

 They also painted our front door, "Raisin".  Now, I was upset when we first had our selections meeting, because I really, really, really, REALLY wanted a red door.  And, Ryan Homes has certain color palettes and such that you must adhere to when you choose your siding, stone, etc.  We ended up picking a "Dark Berry" shutter, so the "Raisin" door made sense.  And you guys, I adore it.  It's pretty.  It looks great with our siding and trim and our stone.  The "Autumn Buckeye Ledgestone" that we chose has some hints of purples in it, and it just goes great all together.  So, I probably won't ever paint our door red.  Especially because our shutters are a shade of purple.  And I can see it being a huge pain to have to paint the shutters just so I can have a red door, haha!!

Other trim has also been done inside the house, and finished up.  Door frames, baseboards... The vanities now have their mirrors above them in the bathrooms {minus the half bath in the family entry. That mirror isn't there yet}.  Toilets have been installed as well.

Little joke to make light of a not-so-great situation:

When we visited the house yesterday, we were turning on all of our lights and checking everything out.  Well.  Let's just say we had a not-so-pleasant surprise in our hall bathroom {the one with the vinyl that we don't like}.  Yeah.  That's right. Someone POOPED in our toilet.  POOPED! The toilets are installed but don't work yet.  POOPED! It smells sooooo gross in there.

How.Freaking.Disgusting.

The joke part:  Hubby really wanted me to title this post "We got free shit".  While it's catchy, I decided against it, haha!

So this may be disgusting, but I took a photo of the yuckiness that was in our toilet.  And I sent it to our PM and SR and asked HOW that was acceptable.  I told them that I understood nothing could be done about it, but how unprofessional, disrespectful and just disgusting.

Well, our PM emailed us back this morning and apologized and is having a new toilet installed in the hall bathroom.

Side note on that:  our PM is on vacation.  We knew this was coming, so I was surprised that he answered our email.  Now, I am a little upset because we have been getting weekly updates with what's been done on the house and what to expect next on the house.  He never gave us the heads up that this was the week he was on vacation.  I really would have liked to have known that.  We had asked during our pre-construction meeting just for our knowledge to see if he was planning on taking any vacation during our build.

So we haven't gotten a weekly update and he never actually told us that he was on vacation.  Until the poop email.  He let us know the contact info for our second PM if we had any issues while he was out.  I also think that he might have stopped giving us updates just because he knows we go out to the house so much. Plus, this past week, he had been in contact a few times to try to resolve this whole vinyl issue.

So we get a new toilet and the poop one will be gone.  I'm a little concerned with HOW a poop-filled toilet gets taken out of one's home.  Sigh.  Trying to not worry about it and just hope that the next time we go out to the house everything is better.

We spent the evening out at the house last night, and our neighborhood had a 4th of July "party".  They shot off about 30 minutes worth of awesome fireworks and the entire neighborhood gathered to watch.  I love seeing how friendly everyone is and can't wait to be part of the "gang".

And now for photos! And no worries-- I deleted the yuck photo that I sent our PM of the surprise we had in the toilet.

Water Closet in the Master Bath.  We double checked all of our toilets. (haha)

Master Bath <3 Faucets and Shower heads have been installed.

Master Bath vanity.  Faucets are in, mirror is up and light fixture is installed.

Another angle of the master bath vanity <3

Standing in the doorway of the master bath into the loft.

Standing in the loft looking towards the laundry and hall bath

Holding my breath as I take this photo.  Hall bathroom.  Vinyl under it's lighting (sigh)

Laundry room!  Vinyl peeking out, pan has been installed for the washer.

Morning room view

Another morning room view

Kitchen view with lights on.  The recessed lighting is a bit frustrating because it takes a few seconds to warm up, but once it does they look great!

Find the floorplans!  They were actually kind of "neat" this time.

Damage to the wall by the family entry.  Trying to keep my eye out for all of these kind of things to MAKE SURE they're fixed by closing.

Standing at the walk out looking up.  Outside light fixtures have been installed too, and you can see our doors have been painted almond here!

Basement view.  Recessed lighting is on :-)

Half bath in the family entry.  Sink is installed, but mirror hasn't been yet.

Different focus photo so you can see what the light fixtures look like.

Looking down the foyer!  Look at all the lights <3

Light fixture in the dining room

view of the dining room standing near the front door.

DOORBELL!!!! 

It was close to twilight when we were out at the house, but here's the front door.  Can't wait to get a sunshine picture of this!

thermostat!

Front porch beers before fireworks!  It was our first beer on our front porch <3

watching some random fireworks from our porch

history for our home

our view from the spot in our neighborhood where they shot off the fireworks!

progress view.  You can see all the almond trim now, and it looks great!

I have NO idea what's up next for the house.  I really really hope it's granite.

We have started packing up lots of our stuff to try and get it ready, and making game plans for getting ready to move.  We even got our movers hired for the day after we close!!

I also think we've decided on a fridge!  It's a bit different than what we were originally thinking, but I am excited!  I'll probably post about this later in the week. haha!

Hope everyone had a great Fourth of July!