Updates!!

Wow, it's been a while since we last posted so figured we should put out an update to anyone still interested in what is going on!

So first thing we'll cover is issues, which aren't too terrible to date:

1. Fireplace Warranty Recall - The control unit to the fireplace we have was part of a big recall, the issue being fairly serious. Sometimes when you start the fireplace, it will not light, meaning gas is still running with nothing to burn it. This obviously can be big if you don't realize it and let it fill up the room. The good thing about this was that both the fireplace manufacturer and Ryan Homes sent us correspondence with detailed information on the issue and how to determine if we were part of the recall. We are now just waiting on the outside company to perform the swap and have the fireplace currently off.
2. Flooring Issue - This one is more of a bad install. We have been having a couple areas that are starting to feel like they are floating and one of the transition strips has come undone. Turns out that the planks for the laminate were not cut evenly and the transition strips were forced in place and over time they popped out. This caused a tripping hazard. We are playing phone tag with the company to come look at the floating issue and repair the the transition strip.

Now for what we have done so far!! (Sorry no pictures, but we will try and get some together this weekend when we have good light)

1. Cleared Lot - We finished clearing out our lot completely and got it graded. We didn't get it fine toothed so we spent a couple hours out cutting up smaller roots and laying seed and straw (this DIY method saved about 400$).
2. Fence - This one is more of a in progress. We have a company called T-MAC Construction Services coming out to install our fence around the entire backyard. The dogs are going to love this (as will I, because they can wear themselves out off leash with no worries). This company is the same company that does decks for Ryan Homes and they have a A+ on BBB. I am looking forward to seeing their work as they will be doing our deck in the spring as well.
3. Dog - Not house related, but we have a new addition to our family!!! We rescued a Boxer from our local Animal Shelter. I will post pics of her as well, her name is Maggie. The fence is going to be a big deal for her as she is only about a year and a half and high energy.

I feel like there is more, but I am totally blanking currently... We will take pictures and upload them soon!!

Busy Busy Busy!

Wow! It has been a busy month and a half! Moving went well and we couldn't  be happier in our new home! It is so nice to get out of our apartment and have more space! Since we have moved we have purchased new furniture, put up some blinds, cleared the rest of our lot, and unpacked all of or stuff. Of course since we lived in an apartment we had to purchase things such as a lawn mower, a grill, chain saw, and some more miscellaneous yard equipment that we didn't have. We had a nice little shopping spree.

A few weeks ago we had our 30 day meeting. There were a few things we noticed such a big hole in our dry wall in the corner of the linen closet up stairs. Someone did not do a good job putting up the shelves. Tisk tisk tisk. The door handles in the garage needs to be swapped out still.... and I have yet to see our new microwave door. It had a dent in it when we did our final walk though. Our PM said a new one was shipped to us, but no microwave door! Also one spot in the kitchen the laminate is kinda bent up a little like a bubble. Not crazy noticeable but just enough that I noticed, so we need to get that looked at and get that fixed. Slow going on getting everything fixed but I am confident we will get it all done.

Last weekend we coordinated with our neighbor to have a guy come in and clear the rest of our lots. We also got the trees in the middle of the two lots taken out. It was a good thing because they must have cut the roots of some of the trees between our lots when they were grading and some were starting to die... We are planning on putting up some Dogwood trees or Crape Myrtles between since we have a huge space between our houses. We also took out that maple tree they put in the front yard and replaced it with a nice Dogwood a few weeks ago. I like Dogwoods better then a massive maple in my front yard. We put the tree in the back yard instead.

We haven't been able to take pictures yet but now that things have slowed down a little we will get time post pictures :)

Closed!!!!

After some last minute scrambling to get verbal verfication of employment we finally closed on our house! It was getting down to the wire and we were kind of freaking out that we might not close because they decided to wait untill the last possble minute to get this. But that's all in the past now. Closing part went fairly quickly. It took just a little over an hour and we couldn't be happier with the house!

We moved the important stuff like cats, dog, bed, clothes and a few important stuff. We had margaritas and pizza on our amazing front porch! Tomorrow we will move all the rest and the fridge gets delivered too! 

We found out that our Chevy Silverado 2500HD just barely fits in the garage. Haha.

I'll post some more pics and updates later after we move and unpack.

Slightly Agravated

At 4:15 Friday afternoon we got an email from our loan officer saying that we needed to get verbal verification from our employer. Um what? We close Monday morning.

Trying to get any information from an organization on a Friday afternoon, after 4 PM, is going to be almost impossible. My husbands HR department had already left for the day and my HR department had already left for the day. Fortunately, I was able to get a hold of my direct supervisor to have him call our LO to verify my employment but since noone from my Husbands office was in we're potentially brickwalled from closing on Monday because of a verbal verification.

The crazy thing is my husband's company is under the same contract that my company owns, so they have proof that he does work for the contract. This was brought up but was dismissed. My husband had emailed and called them a couple times on Thursday (when we finally got our final loan approval) verifying that we were clear to close. So to say we were upset when this last minute silliness came up is an understatement. Oh and we just sent them our last pay stubs recently as well.

Has anyone else had this happen? Is verbal verification of employment the norm for purchasing a house? This is our fist house so we wouldn't know. But hopefully all goes well and we get this craziness behind us and close on Monday.

Final walk through, check!

We just had our final walk though today!! The house looks beautiful! It has been tested and inspected and we are all set!! A few small things like a ding in our lamp post (which we noticed last week in our meeting with our PM) and a small ding on the microwave door, but that's no big deal, a new lamp post should be here very soon and will get replaced tomorrow. The microwave door will get replaced instead of taking the whole thing out. We also have some leftovers of our flooring that we get to keep in case we want to replace or fix something, which I was happy about.

We also got a call while we were walking through the house and we got our final approval for the loan!!!!!!!! FINALLY!!!!! We are all set for closing on Monday!!!! I am super excited!!!! Now we can finish packing this weekend and come Monday we will be home owners!!!  Super excited!!!!

Getting closer!

Drove by the house today and we now have front porch railings and our door is painted! Woohoo!

Meanwhile on the mortgage side of the house we still haven't received our final approval and we're only 5 business days away from closing. Our final approval was submitted end of July and had a two week underwriting turnaround and then... their systems went down for a week. And now underwriting is trying to determine how my (Tommy) GI Bill benefits play into the loan that's holding them up. Also I had deposited a small 2k cash deposit before we officially started the process with Ryan Homes (and sent in earnest money deposit) back in the beginning of March. Well that cash was the result of me selling my car and I just held onto the cash for a while before depositing it. Now this deposit is an object of scrutiny and we're waiting on final word on that as well. Hopefully we will get final approval early next week, this anticipation and down to the wire process is stressing us out. Big time.

Sod and lots of blue tape

We had a meeting with our PM today and the house looks BEAUTIFUL!! The other day hubby and I were worried because it seemed like there was so much to do in less then two weeks but now we are almost done. We got our sod and finally our columns! They had to actually make them because people fail at getting the right order. Our PM was kinda frustrated with the company they order from because the three times he tried to order it they failed! But the columns they made look beautiful!!! :) Although he now has to put a rush order on the railings to get them in before our final walk though. Also we have lots of blue tape on the walls and the touch ups begin. We are supposed to get our stove, washing machine and dryer tomorrow.

We have finally started the packing process. There will be no more moving after this. We have a lot of stuff for one little apartment. Almost exactly a year ago we were packing and moving to the area into our little apartment. I'm ready to get the moving process over and be in my new house!

Reason number 862 why I love my house! :)

Oopsie!

 One of the front porch windows got broken. We were doing so good about not having a broken window. I may have jinxed it when I was talking to a co-worker last week about not having broken windows. Oh well.

Looking into the house from front door

Formal living and dining room

Formal living/dining room and random transition strip. lol

Looking into the front door

Family room

Looking form the kitchen to the formal living/dining room

Pantry and blue tape!

1st floor powder room

"Mudroom" as RH calls it

Our landscaping tree!

We bought a fridge!

Last night we went out and bought a fridge! We herd from a lot of people about Sears scratch and dent selection and how you can get appliances for cheap just because of one scratch or dent. So we made our way up there to have a look. It's a huge warehouse full of appliances (tons of fridges) work out equipment, mattresses, grills, outdoor supplies and more.

We were going to buy a new side by side GE, because it was in our budget and we wanted the fridge to match the other appliances we were getting through RH. But after looking at the hundreds of fridges at the Sears Outlet Store we found several french door fridges that were in our price range that had very minimal scratches on the side where you wouldn't even see it. We finally decided on a Samsung 29 cu. ft french door fridge that was also energy star qualified! We loved it because it has an extra drawer where you can adjust the temperature and we can put our wine bottles there! Since hubby and I love wine that was a big selling feature for us. It was originally a $3,200 fridge but we only paid $1,700! Score!!! And we still got a 3 year warranty on it as well! The warranty is full blown, if it breaks and can't be fixed we get a brand new replacement, and they come service it once a year.

Here's the picture of our fridge:

Here's the inside:

Carpet is down!

Carpet is now installed! Woohoo! Just need to put the transition strips from where the carpet ends and the laminate begins. We need a few small things like door handles on the inside doors. Oh and the rest of the appliances might help. haha. But now for the pictures :)

Looking into the house from the front door

Living room and dining room

First floor bathroom

Looking into the family room from the kitchen

In love with it!

Pantry

Morning room

Hubby's head :)

Loft

Laundry room

1 of 3 spare bedrooms

2 of 3 spare bedrooms

Just waiting on the columns and railings

Loads of Pictures!!

The house is coming along great! We are so happy with it. Our neighbors closed on their house and their landscaping looks great! I'm excited for ours to get here. We have already seen the blue tape show up for the things that they need to fix. The laminate is in and the carpet should be in the beginning of next week. We also have power which is what the PM has been waiting for to continue forward! The columns should be in soon, they keep sending the wrong columns. They sent the wrong ones twice now and not just a little off, they sent 5ft tall columns and our porch is 9 ft. haha. Our PM was shaking his head when he told us. But third times the charm right? Just 24 days left!! Down hill slide!

Although on another note, NVR is starting to slightly get on my nerves. In our first initial meeting we brought everything we needed and gave them both copy 1 and 4 of my husband's DD214 since we were using the VA home loan. Well since then they have requested documents we have already provided a few times. They sent us an email saying the VA needed Copy 4 of DD214 (was provided at initital meeting) and then about a week ago they needed another bank statement from April (turned in about a month back) and then a few days ago requested explanation of a deposit back in March. Really? We have sent it to them numerous times. Why do you need it again? Oh and they wanted by COB that day. They told us our documents were ready to have been sent to underwriting and then they ask for some more documents weeks later? Come on. Get everything you need the first time. Jeez. It would be nice to just have one lengthy list, send it all in and then have nothing on our end holding us back. Other then that everything has been fine. 

Now for the pictures! These are the ones I took  them with my phone since I didn't have my camera with me so bear with the quality.

Master Bath

Second floor hall closet

Look at those railings!

The shower door has magnets!

railings and light fixture

A little blurry

Pantry!

Railings look much better!

The laminate goes in the kitchen & morning room

Close up of some left over of our flooring

Can't wait to take the covers off!

We have a driveway!

Now for the kitchen with the granite counter tops!! Now these were taken before the flooring went in. Hopefully next week we can take the cover off and carpet is going in next Monday or Tuesday and we will be able to see it all!

Dusty granite

Close up!

Love this sink!