Basement Bathroom & 10 Month Review

Today is our  10 month review.  We had sent a small list of things to our PM of our items.  I thought it was a relatively small list.

1) Various nail pops & cracked drywall - expected
2) Some cracked caulking around the sinks and master shower - expected
3) Venting problem with microwave.  This winter our microwave has been exceptionally cold.  Like 36 degrees cold this morning.  That's refrigerator cold. The PM pointed out that the vent is on the west side of the house - since the wind blows from that direction we are fighting a losing battle. I get it.  They did do something to the damper so that hopefully its a little better.
4) Cold air coming from fireplace.  I understand this is going to happen as well. They took a quick look at it and taped some spots where cold air was  coming in, so it should be better.
5) Driveway cracks.  They'll fix this when it warms up (it's -3 degrees here today). It sounds like they should be able to just replace sections of it rather than the whole driveway, which is preferable.  We'll see how that goes.  That's really the only major thing.  

Overall I've been really pleased.  Our PM has been great.  A few weeks ago we had my son's 10th birthday party, a sleepover.  Have Mercy.  The kids were playing ping pong in the unfinished part of the basement.  Someone got a bit wild and pulled some of the insulation off the wall.  It's held on by these nailed washer things.  My husband wasn't able to find them at the hardware store.  I asked the PM where we could buy them and he brought us half a dozen. Perfect. They probably cost Ryan homes, like .10 each,  so it was nice.

The PM was also impressed with our basement bathroom.  We finished it up right before the wild sleepover so the boys sleeping in the basement would have a bathroom to use.  My  husband did it all himself and I'm so proud of him.  It turned out great.  The PM even joked about Bob becoming a professional drywaller.  Bob emphatically replied 'No!'

I'm not sure what we spent on the bathroom, my husband says he has the receipts and plans on figuring that out.  We tried to choose cost effective options.  The tile was purchased at Lowe's for $5/square.  If you've looked at tile that's a great price.  I think  the vanity was less than $120.  We had replaced the bath fixtures in the master bathroom - we didn't like the way the installed ones sat in the granite.  Husband kept bumping his hands on the back of the sink, so we purchased two that had a longer neck for his big hands.  So, we  were able to repurpose one of those.  The other one was given to my sister in law who had a leaky faucet in her bathroom.  The towel rack, tp holder, and cup were purchased on clearance for $10 for the set from KMart.  I can't remember where the wood finish tile was purchased from.  My dad is a retired electrician, so he did all the wiring for us and had a fan for us to use. My husband did the plumbing - our neighbor had previously done their basement bathroom so he had all the necessary PEX tools for us to borrow; so that cost us a 12 pack of beer.  :)

Lucky 13 - Numbers 11, 12, 13

Tomorrow is the big day!  We close at 11 am local time tomorrow.  I've already got my van loaded with some things to take over to the house tomorrow. My head is spinning with how much stuff still needs to be done, but I'm confident everything will go just fine.  I got behind on my Lucky 13, so I'm going to finish it off today.  

Upstairs laundry - No more lugging laundry down a flight and a half of stairs. Woot woot! No doubt I look forward to this!

Basement - My husband finally has his man cave. Plus there is room to send the kids down there to play also.  There will also be storage space, so I don't have to put holiday decorations, camping gear, etc, in the attic. This will make everything so much easier to access. 

Neighborhood pool - my kids are really looking forward to this.  Another thing having an HOA affords us.  It is a short drive or bike ride from the house and I know we'll be spending some time there this summer.  The neighborhood seems to have a lot of kids in it, which will also be nice for my children. 

That's it!  I hope I make some time to unwind and update the blog this week. I haven't taken good pictures of the house since everything has been completely done, so I'll try to do that before we start moving everything in tomorrow.  Wish us luck please!

Lucky 13, Part 9

I'm still in a flurry of packing but wanted to take a minute to rest and share the next thing I'm looking forward to.

Fifth Bedroom 

Five bedrooms seems excessive for a family of 4, but its kind of our bonus area.   Plus, that room will be my room. It will be a designated craft room/art studio and I can't wait.  I'll be able to have a place for scrapbooking that won't have to be picked up every day, allowing me to do a little at a time if necessary.  Plus, this means I'll really be able to stay out of hubby's office. This will also be another option for guests to stay. 

Final Walk Through

Yesterday was a whirlwind of a day.  We had our final walk through on the new home and the inspection on our current home.  I thought I was going to have to reschedule the inspection.  We've had company in town for the Easter holidays and unfortunately we all came down with food poisoning. Ugh.  It was awful.  I didn't think I was going to get my house cleaned up in time, but by the grace of God we did.  To top it off, the inspector got to my house an hour early.  I was not prepared for that.  Fortunately, he was very kind and started on the outside, otherwise I would have had to turn him away.  

Our final walk through was successful.  We taped up the walls some more with drywall and paint touch ups.  We weren't able to test the fireplace as it wasn't quite working yet, but the PM sent us an email later saying it had been fixed.  It seems as though the kitchen vent may not be completely venting outside, so he has to look into that as well.  There were a few hard spots under the carpet.  I wonder if the carpet guy didn't fully clean the full before placing the pad and carpet down.  The PM thinks it may just be nails coming up.  The correct carpet is set to be installed today, so we marked the spots I thought were bad and hopefully they'll get them taken care of when they have the carpet pulled up.  

We are four days from closing. I am in full packing mode, and I plan to have as much as I can packed by the end of the weekend.  We'll be switching to paper plates pretty soon!  It's all a bit overwhelming, but it's coming along.  

Lucky 13, Part 8

Lucky 13, Part 8 

Separate Master Bath 

Our current house has two full baths.  The bathroom downstairs has a standing shower only, which we never use.  We share a bathroom upstairs with the kids. In the new home we will have two upstairs baths and 4 sinks between them! We can shower in the morning without worrying about waking the kids and more than one person can brush their teeth at the same time. Our family had a case of food poisoning/stomach flu earlier this week.  I was really wishing we had the extra bathroom space now. Plus, we have a separate guest bath, so my guests won't have to use my kids bathroom. Which, I've already decided, they will have to clean themselves. (The kids, not the guests!)

Above are my current bathrooms.  What an upgrade we'll be getting!

Lucky 13, Part 7

As I think I mentioned, we have family in for the Easter holiday.  I try to sneak in packing a box now and then.  Today I packed up some things from my son's rooms and it reminded me of my number 7 thing I'm looking forward to in my new house.

Larger kids rooms

Our boys bedrooms are pretty small right now, so even with the bare essential furniture, there's not a lot of room for toys.  They'll be able to play in their rooms. We have a bunk bed at my dad's house that we'll be moving to the new house.  If we have a lot of company, like this weekend, one child can sleep in the same room as the other child and the company can sleep in the other room. 

Above are the boys rooms now.  They will also be getting some new bedding for the new house which they are excited about.  

One week until closing!

My Lucky 13, Part 6

I went by the house today and was delighted to see the door was painted black and the shutters are up.  The concrete looks beautiful (well, as beautiful as concrete does.) I didn't go in the house as the cleaning crew was mopping the kitchen.  The energy star test was taking place at the front door.  I did talk to the PM and everything seems to be going along great. He wants us to walk through the house this weekend; kind of a pre walk through of our official walk through on Wednesday.  That way we can get him the list of anything we see that needs to be done and he can actually have it done by Wednesday. From other blogs I've read, this is not a normal thing, but I'm very happy for the request. I know that the PM is really trying to make sure that everything is just the way we want before closing. I've really been impressed with the way that he handles that sort of thing. Our plan is to walk through either tonight or Sunday, after the kids find their Easter eggs.  Which brings me to the next thing I'm looking forward to in the new house.

A Guest Room

We have family coming in from out of state.  It's been a while since I've seen them and I'm so glad that they are staying with us.  I *wish* our new house was done and closed on before they arrive though.  One person will be staying in my sons room while he bunks up on the floor in my other sons room. Another will be staying with her child on the couch in our living room. It will be a little cramped.  I'm am so grateful that we have an offer on our current house, so I don't have to be ready to show the house why they are here. 
Anyway, I'm excited to have an actual guest room. I want to have a private, cozy space for out of town guests which we have several times a year. I have a whole board on Pinterest for guest room ideas.  I can't wait.

Here's what the house looks like with the shutters.  So pretty! I couldn't get a real good angle; there were so many people working on the house I had to try and stay out of their way.

My Lucky 13, Part 5

Our PM called me today to give me the last bit of run down on the schedule for the next 11 days.  That's right.  We close on our house in 11 days! Things are coming nicely and I have no doubt that everything will be done by closing. At the end of our conversation he offered me a very sincere apology about the stress we've had here at the end with several things being ordered incorrectly. He really wants to make sure we have a good experience. I was honest with him and told him that while we kind of scratch our heads and wonder how so many (big) things could be ordered wrong, we are very pleased with the way he has handled everything. Everything has been corrected without negotiation and as quickly as possible.  I did ask him what Rite Rug was going to do with the wrong carpet after they take it out of the house.  I told him that if they were just going to throw it away, I'd really like them to leave us a large remnant.  This will allow us to finish the other section of the basement at some point in the future.  He checked with them and they have agreed to leave us enough for that part of the basement.  I'm glad we can put some of the waste to use. He said that if there's anything else we would like him to do before closing, that he would work on getting it done.  He specifically mentioned garage door openers.  We've already purchased some, and after talking to my husband, it would be really nice to have them installed before we move in. So, we're going to take him up on the offer to have his crew install our garage door openers for us.  I really appreciate how he's trying to go above and beyond to make us happy. While we're on the subject, that brings me to item number 5 that I'm really looking forward to in the new house. 

Three Car Garage

We make it a habit to park both of our cars in the garage.  Once we started accumulating more kids things, like bikes, we built a mini barn at our current house.  I don't think we are allowed to have one in the new house.  And, realistically, the kids never take their toys all the way to the mini barn and instead just leave them in the garage.  We'll have space for two cars plus the kids bikes! If my husband has any garage projects it will also allow for extra space for that kind of thing.  

My Lucky 13, Part 4

Twelve days left until closing!  Time for one of the things I look forward to in the new house.

Dining room 

I know a lot of people that don't use their dining room, but I think we will. I can't wait to get our large dining table that everyone can sit at easily when we host for the holidays or when we have friends over for cards. I have an older set of family china that has been in my attic since it was given to me.  I haven't decided if we'll use it yet, but at least I'll have a place to put it - in the buffet in the dining room.  I will also be putting my husband's family silver in there.  

Above is a picture of our current dining area, which is in the kitchen.  It's nice because it's all together and open, but it's just not big enough for when we host.

Here is an example of a dining room from Ryan's website.  I think we'll orient the table in the opposite direction, but you get the idea.  We'll also have stools at the island, so I imagine the kids will eat their breakfast there. Below are the pictures of the dining room set that we ordered, which I'm pretty excited about.

In other news, our driveway and porch are being poured today.  The granite has been confirmed for tomorrow. 

My Lucky 13, part 3

Another day to post a positive thing about the new house.  Another thing that I am really looking forward to is:  

Mud room

If I had my druthers the mudroom would be slightly larger, but I'm not about to get picky since the house is so large as it is. In our current house, the kitchen is the first room off of the garage and it is the door we use most often.  There is no place to put anything when you walk in that way.  We walk through the kitchen into the front room where a small coat closet for us and our guests.  Right now my kids have trouble hanging their coats so the end up in a chair in our front room.  There's no place for shoes, so they go on the stairs. In the new house, our coats will go in the closet in the mudroom. We'll build some sort of coat storage hooks for guests in our entryway. A mudroom will keep the house much cleaner. I'm thinking of putting up hooks instead of hangers for coats. I find that the hooks always get used first in my current coat closet, so it only makes sense to have more.  

My Lucky 13, part 2

Today I began going through the desk to purge some papers that we don't need anymore.  For a while today our front room was COVERED in papers. Actually it still is a little bit but I'm working on it.  This brings me to #2 on my list:

Office for my husband 

Right now our office is our front room. There is no privacy an fits hard for him to work from home. Since he owns his own business this is an important space for him. This room also seems to be a catch all for everything.  In the current house it's the first room you see and always cluttered.  That shouldn't happen anymore!

This room actually used to have a fourth bookshelf and all of them were filled to the brim.  I removed a bookshelf and a lot of the items on them for staging purposes.  The room is never, ever this clean. Well, it has been since we've been on the market, but it's a chore.  My least favorite room in the house, I think.  See that blue chair?  All winter coats collect on it.  Not for long!

Offer Accepted!

Late last night we got another counter offer on our current house that we accepted!  If everything goes smoothly, we should have dual occupancy for about 3 weeks.  I'm relieved that we have some overlap; that allows us to remove everything from our current house at a good pace and gives me enough time to clean up for the new people. I plan on having my son ride the bus to the current house at least until we close, so I'll be at the house almost every day and I can do a little bit at a time. Of course, it's also a relief not to have two mortgages for any longer than necessary. 

We registered my younger son for kindergarten at the new school district last night, so we went to the house and the hardwood floors are going in.  The master bath tile still isn't in, but hopefully it will go in soon.  

Lights, Camera, Action!

My husband hadn't been to the house in a couple of weeks, so we went to check it out again on Saturday.  We don't live very far, so it's easy for us to go whenever we want. We were able to meet the entire family that lives next door so that was awesome.  Our boys are 9 and 5.  Their boys are 9, 5 and 3; it's perfect.  They seem so nice and I can't wait to move in and meet the rest of the neighbors, there are a lot of kids in the neighborhood and I hope that my sons make some good friends this summer.  

The new development for Friday was that they light fixtures are up and working. Yay!  So, it's much easier to see in the master bathroom and closets. 

Breakfast nook light

Guest bathroom light

Dining room light

As you can probably see from the pictures, they have started to tape the walls for the imperfections that need to be fixed. There are a few places that the trim is shimmed because of bowing in the walls.  I'm not concerned about it at this point, I'm sure they'll make it right.  

This morning I have spent about 3 hours on the phone setting up various utilities to be switched to our name after we close.  So far I've set up Gas, Electric, Cable & Internet.  I've also set our mail to begin forwarding that week.  I still have to send an application over to the water company and contact the city for our trash and sewer.  They don't seem to want to answer the phones today.  I am itching to start packing, but we have another open house set up on our current home for next Sunday, so I know I need to keep the house as pretty as possible until then.  After that, all bets are off, then I really start packing stuff up!!! My husband left a message with the mortgage guys today to lock in our mortgage rate. We close three weeks from today!

Cabinets are in!

I went by the house this week and I actually squealed when I saw the kitchen cabinets were in. 

Full picture of the kitchen

Kitchen

Wall that the fridge goes on

Banisters in, need to be stained

Guest bathroom vanity

Master bath vanity

Master shower

You can see in the master shower where there are some missing tiles. We go to Rite Rug tomorrow to look at the tile again. I asked the PM is we had to chose a 1" tall tile. He seemed confused by the question. I was afraid that since the original design was for that size tile we would have to stay with it. He said it would've be a problem. 

Bathroom Tile on Backorder

Yesterday I received an email that the accent tile we chose for the master bathroom is on backorder and won't be available until the end of April.  They sent an email with what is supposed to be the same tile but upgraded because it's diamond shaped instead of rectangle.  

Above is the tile we chose.  

This is the tile they say is the same.  I'm sorry, but I don't think it is the same. I think this one is blue and green, whereas the one we chose is red.  Sigh.

So, I've made a call to the sales rep.  I think we need to go look at the tile to figure out what to do.  I definitely don't want another situation like we had with the brick.  

In other news, the house is completely primed and the cabinets have been delivered.  They were supposed to install some of the flooring Friday but I haven't been inside to see that yet.  Here's a few pictures from this week.  

Picture of the brick after they started taking it down.

Brick we ordered (left) and the brick they put on (right) Not very close.  

Cabinets delivered!

Cabinets and doors!

Kitchen, looking towards the Pantry.

Master bath, the shower is on the left, closet straight ahead. 

Upstairs hallway, looking towards the kids rooms, with a big closet between.  

Younger son's room.

My craft/studio

Hallway looking towards the Master bedroom. 

Pre Drywall Walkthrough

On Friday we had our Pre Drywall meeting walk through.  The PM lead us through the house explaining various things such as light switches, where things were located, how the plumbing was ran, what they do for the energy star rating, etc.  We were pleasantly surprised that almost all the insulation has been put in.  It was extremely windy and so some of the insulation and attic vent things were actually being blown out by the wind.  

Here is the Porch.

This is the back of the mudroom closet looking towards the kitchen.

This is the wall the Fridge will go on.  You can see what the wind has done to the insulation.

The stove wall; that is the vent for the microwave.

My husband being helpful, putting the arch up.

Living room wall.  Need to be careful not to puncture those water lines!

Living Room wall looking into husbands office.  The TV will be on this wall.  Again; water lines.

Master Bedroom.  The bed will go between the windows.

Master Bath sinks.

Master bathroom looking into master closet.  Extra outlet put in for my towel warmer that will go outside the shower.  So excited!

This will be my oldest son's room.  It shares the wall with the boys bathroom, you can look through to the master, but not for long!

This will be my younger son's room.  It shares a wall with the laundry room.  You can look through to my studio, again, not for long!

Here is the panel and water heater in the basement.  

The PM had already fixed the closet issues.  He had originally planned on using the door from the laundry closet in the guest linen closet but it didn't size right, so he ordered a new door for that.  I think he said it was 18 or 20" so it will be a small door.  I don't mind the size, I just want to be able to have a place to store guest towels, a first aid kit and extra toilet paper.  It should do the job!  The nice thing is, he will leave us the extra door. With any luck it will work for the future basement bathroom. Speaking of the basement bathroom.  Really, the only thing that we found on the walk through involved the bathroom.  There is an outlet at the bottom of the stairs going into the basement.  It is also on the wall that the door to the future bathroom will go. They hung the outlet on the side of the stud where the door will go according to the plans.  Its an easy fix before the drywall goes out.  They simply have to remove the staples that hold the wires and stuff in place and move it to the other side of the stud.  They had also continued the 2x4 along the floor where there will be a door going into another section of the basement. Basically, I don't think the door would fit with a 2x4 on the ground and it would be a serious tripping hazard for my clumsy self.  They were aware of that and it was on their punch list.  

Today the city inspector will be in for the inspection.  The energy star inspector will also be in today.  They make sure that the house can qualify for the energy star rating.  If the house passes both of these inspections, drywall will start tomorrow.  Once drywall starts to go up, the PM will prepare a letter that goes to the mortgage company advising our completion date.  With that, we should know our closing date by the middle of the week!  We've only had a couple of showings on our current house, so we hope that once the weather starts to stay consistently nice that will start to move along a bit better.  

We are really pleased with the way things have gone with Ryan homes so far. We are getting really excited for the house to be complete and move in!

Windows! Doors! A Porch!

I am so thrilled how quickly things are moving along right now.  I've felt the need to drive by the house at least once a day so I can keep track of what's going on.  On Monday the crew was out wrapping the house.  Since Ryan is an Energy Star Builder, one of the things that they do is wrap the house in a silver material.  

Big 'ol roll of wrap. 

Today when I drove by they already had the windows and doors installed.  Oh! And I have a porch!  Boo-ya!  

It looks so pretty!  Although, it wasn't until I started writing this that I realized...  There's a window that is on the backside of the garage, facing the porch.  It's not supposed to be there. We asked them to delete and brick over that spot.  The reason being, it may be the only spot Bob has to put a work bench in the garage.  Looks like I'll be calling or emailing the PM about that. I imagine that's an easy fix though.  

We are supposed to have a high around 50 on Friday.  I think the next step might be shingling.  

Today my friend and Realtor is coming over for dinner so that we can get our house on the market.  I've got everything clean, now it's just a matter of keeping it that way. How do you do that with 2 kids???  Yikes.  

Roofed!

On Saturday we celebrated my son's 9th and 5th birthday together. We had friends and family in from out of town. The weather was nice and so after the party we decided to drive by the house.  Saturday was a lovely day, about 50 degrees.  However, we were forecasted to get snow starting Saturday night with 6"+.  With that in mind, my husband had called the PM on Friday to find out what they would do if it snowed, like, inside the house.  He advised us that they would probably shovel it out as there was no way they would have the roof done before the weekend.  Imagine our surprise when we drove by to see this:

Holy Smokes!  That's our house!  With a roof! I spoke to one of the crew and told him, how excited we were to see the roof today, and thanked him for the hard work they have put in on our house.  I know that this winter has slowed them down, and I know that's not their fault.  I probably sound like a broken record but it's so exciting to see how much they've accomplished.  We were a bit concerned about what the snow would do to the inside plywood and with what they got done on Saturday that concern has gone away.  

We were waiting until after this weekend, because of the birthday parties, but now it really feels like we need to get going on putting our current house on the market.