Moved in, update

Kitchen, bought the pendant lights at Lowes for $14.  I love how the blue really POPS

View from the back of the house.  I can get used to looking at this while sipping coffee in the morning room.

Sweet fridge

Family room fireplace.  I needed to hang something on the walls.  I was going crazy looking at bare white.



Bedroom from the master bath.  It's still a mess in there.

Loft.  I love how its open to the stairs/hall

Looking down at the family room from the stairs

Light fixture I hung int he morning room.  It's not easy installing a light this high.  Note to homeowners: buy a ladder taller than 6 feet.

Living room

That's a whole lot o' boxes for me to put away

Now I see why people disappear from here once they close and move in.  We've been in for a little over a week now and got a lot accomplished, but there is still a ton more to do.  Who would have thought it would be so much work?  Since moving in, got in all the furniture, obviously, and assembled some new furniture.  Purchased new bar stools, a couple tvs and tv stands, ladder shelf, decor, lamps, pendant lights for the kitchen, lights for the morning room and stairs to walk out the sliding glass door from the morning room.  Day number 9 in the house and I still haven't figured out what light switch does what.  Here are some pictures of the house

Closing in 24 hours

The process is almost over.  Had my final walkthrough yesterday and for the most part went well.  There were a few items that needed attention, but nothing major.  It was mostly drywall issues.  Here's a list of items that need attention:

-Master bathroom poor joint compound sanding/finishing
-Master bathroom settling crack at top of the wall along the ceiling
-Master bathroom no caulk where the vinyl floor meets the shower stall
-Master bedroom door stop not installed
-Upstairs hall bathroom false door on vanity not level
-Wall at bottom of stairs has a dent
-Exterior door overhang post needs to be painted
-Touch up paint on spindles where wood stain hit spindles
-Install screen at sliding glass door

Items should be finished up today.  Can't wait to go to the house tomorrow and crack open the campaigne!

Closing Friday?

We are back on track, at least from the building process.  Ryan Homes is on track to be finished Oct 17 (Wednesday) and close on the 19th (Friday).  Now we have a new issue, just found out 2 days ago that NVR will not be ready.  And it's the stupidest excuse....the loan officer quit and the one taking over needs stuff that HAS ALREADY BEEN SENT TO THEM!!!  This is why they need to push closing back to the monday the 22nd, yeah meaning we have to wait until the following weekend to move in.  I'm so freaking annoyed and pissed.  We were supposed to be in 2 weeks ago, becasue Ryan had issues with their drywallers it was pushed back 2 weeks, now because NVR is incompetent we have to go back now to a 3rd week?!  Really?  So, first thing yesterday morning I sent everything they asked for hoping we can rush this and not push back.  I hear nothing, so I ask again "are you all set?"  I hear at 3:45 pm "Oh, yeah I'll look later today what you sent and let you know if I'm all set"  What the F have you been doing all day?  They screw up, then sit on their ass, and the only one that gets hurt from this is me.

Progress and the home stretch

My last post was weeks of frustration of nothing getting done and our closing date slipping by two weeks.  I was getting nervous it was going to slip again.  But, I have to stay they really stepped up last week and made a lot happen.  Here's what got done in the last 7 days:

-All light fixtures installed
-Circuit breaker panel wired
-Power on throughout the house
-Garage drywalled
-Granite countertop installed
-All plumbing fixtures piped up
-Hot water tank installed
-Sanitary piping installed
-Air conditioner and refrigerant piping installed
-Laminate flooring complete throughout
-Carpeting complete throughout
-gas to fireplace complete

Here's what's left:
-shelving
-towel bars
-exterior light post
-mailbox
-appliances
-1/4 round trim around laminate
-touching up paint
-final cleaning

So it seems we are on track for the Oct 17 walkthru and Oct 19 closing.  Less than two weeks to go!  Here are some progress photos:

Frustrated with no progress and delay after delay

Well I haven't been posting much since there isn't much to talk about.  That and I'm so annoyed with the whole process I just don't want to revisit it by blogging.  Well, way back when we wanted to close the beginning of October for various reasons.  Ryan Homes said "sure, ok we can do that."  So they held off starting our home until early July.  Well, July they break ground, going on and on about the 70-90 day process.  Our PM said over and over how there would be NO issues with finishing the first week of October, and it would most likely be the last week of September.  Things were moving along great until the drywall came.  The drywall sat, and sat, and sat some more.  Finally, the PM said "Ok, we had an issue with our drywall crew, but we have another crew coming and they will have the entire house hung in a day, I promise."  That day came, no progress.  A couple days later drywall started.  Whole house in a single day sounded quite aggressive, and turned out to be unrealistic.  They hung the second floor ceiling and a couple walls upstairs only.  Eventually, they finally hung all the drywall.  Took them almost two weeks do tape, mud, sand all the joints 3 coats.  And they still hadn't touched the garage.  PM calls, apologizing for the delays, they were new drywall guys, now it's looking more like the second week of October.  Painters were supposed to come over the weekend to start priming.  Nope, they didn't show over the weekend.  No paint Monday, or Tuesday.  Get another call from the PM, saying the painters came, saw issues and needed the drywall crew to come back and correct some items.  Ok, delaying again.  Well painters did come.  Since then, there hasn't been much progress at all.  Was told flooring was to start mid last week and granite was coming.  Well, as of Sunday night, no flooring, no granite, and all the walls were marked up with more corrective action for the drywaller and the painter.  Now, we get a letter saying closing October 22, which by the lack of progress, its still a bit ambitious.  I called my PM talking about how we keep getting delayed and delayed because of issues with his subcontractors and he needs to do something to make up this schedule a bit so we can at least close on the Friday before, October 19.  He promised ot make it happen, but since that promise the only work done was painting the trim work and staining the railing, which was the sloppiest staining job I ever seen in my life.  There was absolutely no care taken.  So, to even hit the October 19 closing date, everything has to be completed by October 17 for the final walkthrough, yes two weeks from tomorrow.  In that time the following is what needs to be completed:
-laminate flooring
-vinyl flooring
-carpeting
-fixing drywall issues
-fixing painting issues
-hang doors
-install granite countertops
-finish joint compound in garage
-install light fixtures
-install toilets
-install pedestal sink in powder room
-pipe up bathroom and kitchen sinks
-install sink fixtures
-install hot water heater
-pipe gas to hot water heater
-install all receptacles and switches
-run all wiring to the electrical circuit breaker panel
-hang shelving in closets
-install smoke detectors
-install all exterior lights
-final coat on railing
-install dishwasher
-install stove
-install microwave
-install garbage disposal
-final cleaning

There's no way all of this can get done in 11 business days, even if they are aggressive.  By the show of progress in the past month, it's looking more like late November.  So now, that October 19 date isn't looking at all like it can happen.  I'm in limbo with what schools to send my kids to, when to turn on utilities, when to start homeowners insurance, when to hire movers...all of which they need advanced notice, but I have no idea when it will be.  I can't live in my in-laws house much longer.  I just want my own home again, with my own freedom, my own space, doing what I want to do when I want to.  I'm tired of the false promises, I'm tired of the lack of progress.  I'm tired of the generic excuses.  Houses that started a month after me have caught up to me and are going to passing me soon.

First home purchase...many more to go

Made our first home purchase over the Labor Day weekend...refrigerator.  Just couldn't pass up the deals this weekend and let it slip away.  Got this Samsung refrigerator for $1,100 off regular price!  Went to Best Buy because they had the best deal, but they were out of black.  So went to the other side of the shopping plaza to Lowes, asked them to match the price and they did!  They're going to hold off shipping until we know the closing date, but we got the awesome price.

Drywall, granite and kitchen cabinets

Another visit to the house revealed drywall is hung upstairs and a big shipment of kitchen cabinets has arrived!  Photos below are from Monday evening.  Tuesday we had our granite meeting with the countertop people.  I wasn't sure what to expect.  I guess I thought they'd have a few slabs from different sources and we could pick which shade of Uba Tuba they had.  They seemed to be a smaller outfit.  They only had 2 slabs of Uba Tuba, both from the same source so they looked identical.  Turns out they both have my name on it.  The sales rep there went over what the seams would look like, talked about pitting and fissures that naturally occur in stone and showed what the reveal would look like where the under mount sink is. 

They didn't drywall the loft as of Monday evening.  You're looking at the backside of the kids' bathroom and our closet.

Our room looking towards the door into the closet.

Boxes and boxes of kitchen cabinets...Andover Maple Spice

This little piece of granite.  Not sure where it goes.  The main slabs were at the shop not yet cut as of Tuesday night.