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!!!

NVR is at it again.....

To say that I can't wait to be "done" with NVR is an understatement.  I seriously hope our loan is bought out the hours after we sign our closing papers.

Let me tell you what's happened now:
Hubby calls earlier this week to talk to our loan officer about purchasing a refrigerator.  We really wanted to take advantage of the sales that were happening because of the Fourth of July.
Our loan officer said that it wouldn't be a problem as we had all of our "assets" for closing.

But. There's a catch.

They've pulled our credit again. Apparently my credit had gone down several points and was now below a number that meant we would have to PAY to lower the points on our loan and keep the rate at what we locked at.

What. The. Hell.

We rate locked in the beginning of June.  Doesn't this mean that it can't change?! It's locked.  That percentage is what we will be paying for our loan and that's that.

Apparently not.

Our loan officer said that we now have to come up with $1300+ in order to keep our rate at the points it was bought down at.  We have to do this so that the loan wouldn't have to go back through underwriting.

So now I'm panicking a bit. We have the money we need for closing and have also saved money to get a fridge before we even close, and now you're telling us that the money we've saved we have to PAY to you for something that's locked and in my eyes can't be changed!?!?!

We ask what's changed on our credit report that would make this happen.  Our loan officer "isn't sure" what caused my credit to drop, and said it "could be anything".  So you're telling me that he can't figure out why.  I asked hubby to get a copy of our credit report that they had pulled sent over to us because I was going to figure it out.

The other thing that bugs me: If we were teetering on a number that was going to potentially make something like this happen, why would you not inform us?  Make us aware so that we can work on that credit to make sure it goes UP and not down.  I would have very well paid more on the credit card every month to pay down the balance instead of saving extra money.  But, when we are told that paying off balances won't help with rates and whatnot, I am going to save my money and pay my credit card as I normally would.

Well, later on in the day, our loan officer gets back with hubby and tells us that NVR is just going to "eat" the cost of all this hooplah that's come up.  It's a weird situation and they want to make sure things aren't delayed and that everything goes smoothly and that we close on time.

I'm shocked.  They're actually doing something to help us.  So thank goodness for that.  And- Thank You NVR!  Because of that, we are back on track, we {obviously} bought our refrigerator and we are more than ready for these next 15 days to fly by so we can close on our house.

But that's not all. Our loan processor has me all sorts of frustrated too.  We get an email from her with a credit inquiry paper we need to sign, showing us when they've pulled our credit.  She leaves information out of one part of it that we have to sign, so I have to ask her to fix that.

And then she mentions that they're going to need one more pay stub from me because they need a certain amount within closing.  Well, we knew that.  But I can't very well give you a pay stub that hasn't even been given to me yet!

I know, I know. This seems silly.  But it's silly on both ends and seems common sense.  We've been given them document after document.  We had stopped giving paystubs because we were told we didn't have to until 30 days to closing.  Then, we were told they needed MORE paystubs because our loan had been open longer than 120 days or some crap like that.  Well-- it's THEIR fault our fricken loan has been open so long. But, we obliged and I caught them up on paystubs.  And I damn well had every intention of getting that last one to them.  Once I get it.

Sigh.

Like I said, I seriously can't wait to be done with NVR.  They're lucky I am over the moon excited to be getting into our home.

Meet RF28JBEDBSR... Our NEW Refrigerator!!!

That's right! We have ourselves a gorgeous shiny new refrigerator.
Well, almost.  It's paid for and just anxiously awaiting it's space in the Best Buy warehouse to come to it's new home-- once we close on the house!

Check her out:

I've gotta tell y'all- I never knew refrigerator shopping was going to be so stinkin' difficult!  If you remember, we've already had a bit of a "decision" made over what fridge we thought we wanted.  Check out that post here.
After lots of advise and comments on blogs and Facebook posts and Instagram posts, we decided we were going to look at a French Door fridge.  We were still hoping to stick with the Food Showcase style from Samsung because it's just such a neat feature.

Off to stores we went.
Home Depot.
Lowe's.
Menards.
HHGregg.
Best Buy.

I did internet research.  Lots of it.  Read the bad reviews. The good reviews.  Specs.  I made sure that everything would fit in our space {not sure if it's the same for all Milans, I kinda think it SHOULD be... but the measurements for the fridge "hole" are:  71 tall, 37 wide {this accounts for the granite being installed too} and 24 deep. All in inches}.

We debated counter-depth refrigerators.

We FINALLY found a Home Depot that had a counter-depth french door version of the Samsung Food Showcase.  They also had the regular Food Showcase French Door version as well.  So we walked back and forth and debated some more.  Looked at size and depth.  I even asked for some help from fellow bloggers and Instagrammers to show us their refrigerators in their Milans {Hi Meg :-)!!}  to see how much the fridge actually sticks out with a typical "regular" fridge.

We think we made a decision.  The french door option was a better choice over the side-by-side.  We also decided that we would get the "regular" one and not the counter depth one as we like the idea of having more room in the fridge.

So we then did research on warranties.  Which store had the best one?   My dad had opinions of Lowe's being the best.  Hubby prefers Home Depot.  Extended warranties were pretty identical for each one.  So it really came down to preference.

We knew we would buy a fridge by the end of the weekend.  Fourth of July sales have been really good for these particular refrigerators and we would be saving a great deal of money.  We even got in touch with our loan officer at NVR to make sure it would be okay for us to spend the cash on a new fridge.  That became a whole new battle, but the answer was yes.  I'll update y'all on that later.  It deserves it's own blog post.

And then we get an email from Best Buy.  They've sent us a coupon for 10% off one item.

Well then.  10% on nearly $2,000 saves us $200!  That's pretty much the price of an extended warranty!

So we educate ourselves on Best Buy's Geek Squad warranty information.
While doing that, I take note of another fridge.
I mention it to hubby and we start to deliberate.  Again.

This lead us to going all over Cincinnati trying to find at least 2 of these refrigerators we have been debating this whole time and compare them with this new one we are looking at.

We finally found one.  The same Home Depot we compared them at the first time.

And we made our decision.  Samsung Food Showcase RF28JBEDBSR is OUR refrigerator.

She's stainless steel.
She had french doors.
She has a food showcase door that you can open up just to get items out of the door.
She has a flex drawer that you can make different temperatures for whatever you put in that drawer.
She has her freezer drawer too.  So that's TWO drawers.
She's 27.8 cubic feet.  Non-counter depth.

You can check her out here if you want.

With the Fourth of July savings, this particular fridge was $1505 off.
Then we saved nearly $300 more with that 10% off savings {it even took money off of the warranty!}

I snapped some photos of the fridge when we were at Home Depot.  This is the black stainless steel version, so the color will be different but you get the idea ;-)

Food Showcase door.  One of the shelves is a drawer that you can pull out

Food Showcase door and pull out drawer

Food Showcase Door

Freezer Drawer.  Has the big fridge and the little drawer that rolls out on top of it.

Freezer Drawer

Flex drawer!  You can adjust the temperature on this drawer

Front of the fridge.  This one is the black stainless steel, and ours will be regular stainless steel.

We are so super excited!  Glad this is checked off our list and we are thrilled with what we picked!

Through our reviews, the only "bad" thing we really saw with any of these Samsung refrigerators is the customer service.
We kinda by-passed that by going with Best Buy.  The DAY our fridge is delivered, Geek Squad kicks in.  So we don't have to deal with Samsung.  YAY!
Kinda hoping we don't have to deal with warranty issues or any issues with the fridge... but you just never know!

Can't wait to update y'all on the house stuff from this week! There are some fun things!  We are heading out tomorrow to GoPro the progress.

But til then-- yay for refrigerators!