Never again

No matter how alluring Sears' layaway is (especially since we had to watch our credit spending with all of the credit reports NVR was pulling), I will never buy another thing from their store. We had issues with them delivering our fridge & today was just the icing on the cake.

Rob received a call that our TV was ready to be picked up, he goes up there this afternoon to get it, waits 30 minutes only to be told they gave our TV to someone else and that the best the could offer was a Sharp 60" or we could wait until the next batch of Samsungs come in, but he doesn't know when that will be and doesn't even know the new model information for those new TVs. Lovely. So they have the money we paid for our TV, but now they either want us to take a lesser quality product (even though he tried to convince my husband that Sharp is better than Samsung. Bullshit.), or we wait until who knows when to get our TV. Oh, but they gave us two $5 giftcards (that can't even be used in the same transaction) to make up for their $1100 mistake? Worst customer service ever.

Ugh

The more time I spend in the new house, the more irritated I find myself becoming. Maybe I am expecting perfection since this is such a large purchase, but the lack of care they finished the house with is infuriating. Paint where there shouldn't be paint (both on the inside of the house and on the outside), no paint where there should be, dust and other "boogers" that have been painted over, most of the door frames have dents where wood missing & it's been painted over, scratches and the stain already worn off cabinet doors. Do the people doing this finishing work think we're not going to notice, or do they just not care b/c they know it's not going to be them fixing it up? My PM was already out once yesterday, a touchup guy started the work & has to come back tomorrow to finish, but I've already found 200 more things for him to fix! I feel like every time I turn around I am finding more crap, at this point I should just tell them what doesn't need to be touched up.

How picky are you?

Move in went as smoothly as it could have (movers worked from 3:30-10:30 p.m. & yet we still have loads of random crap to still move over from the old house). But I digress. Now that we're living in the house, we're seeing lots of things that aren't up to snuff. They're all mostly little (paint on the tile floor, paint on the wood floor, paint on the shower surround, missed spots of paint, nails visible on the cabinet trim), so I'm curious how picky we're supposed to be when it comes to asking for things to be repaired?

Closed

She's all ours (in 30 years)!

Closing went smoothly (and considering all of the hassle NVR had put us through in the last 4 months, I was skeptical of how it would go).

I took over our first load of boxes while Anneliese napped and we'll spend the evening packing up more boxes since trying to do it while she is awake is pointless. The fridge is supposed to be delivered & hooked up tomorrow between 1-3 and the movers will be here from 3-5.

I'd like to say we'll be all moved in this weekend, but I somehow doubt that. We do have to be out of our rental house on the 28th, with it cleaned and carpets washed, since the new tenants will be moving in March 1 (no pressure or anything!).

Pre-settlement demonstration {in pictures}

Aside from the range swap out & them forgetting about all of the bedroom blinds, we only had some minor paint issues to clear up. Overall I am very, very pleased with our PM (which was a pleasant surprise considering the SR made the beginning of the process miserable to the point of considering pulling the plug completely), the house looks fantastic and we can't wait to move in and get settled!

Love that front porch!

Front Hallway

Panoramic of the front of the house (Living room to the immediate left, dining room to the left of that, kitchen straight ahead).

Living Room

Dining Room

Panoramic from the staircase (Dining room straight head, living room the left of that. Powder room to the right and kitchen [where my PM is standing].)

Panoramic from the Dining room (stairace & "mudroom" straight ahead, living room & front door to the right)

Powder room

Still need the fridge, pendant lights, & tile backsplash

Morning room

Family Room

Office

Staircase

Stairs (from the second floor)

Panoramic of the second floor from the staircase (Loft to the left [attic stairs are down], second bedroom [future nursery] straight head & master to the right)

 

Master (from the doorway)

And from the bathroom doorway (you can see all of my blue tape on the baseboard)

Master bath

Jetted Tub & Shower

Jetted tub, can't wait to jump in there!

Shower. Glad to have a place to sit down & shave my legs now!

Hall bath. Disappointed that not paying for a double bowl also meant a single cabinet. We are planning to upgrade, since it looks silly with all that empty space between the sink & toilet. Plus it means the toilet paper holder is quite a reach from the toilet!

Bedroom #2, future nursery

Bedroom #3, Anneliese's bedroom

Panoramic of the other half of the second floor (bedroom #4 to the left, loft straight ahead, bedroom #3 to the right).

Bedroom #4, guest suite

Bedroom #4

Bedroom #4's full bath

Backyard. It doesn't look like much, but it's a huge improvement over what we originally had!

Panoramic of the backyard

Not sure how I feel about this

I went to the pre-settlement demonstration meeting today. Alone, since my husband was out of town for work, & it was a total brain overload. If there was ever a meeting that I wish I didn't have to be "responsible" for remembering all of this stuff, it was this one!

One of the things that came up was our range. I was just notified at the meeting that the range that we special requested was not manufactured and they substituted it for (a higher valued) version. This shouldn't be a problem, but I spent a lot of time researching & selecting our appliances and I'm a little upset that they swapped it for something else without even mentioning it before it was installed. While I shouldn't be complaining since the "upgraded" range cost more, it gets less favorable reviews. Hmph.

You know I love a good deal

After much researching, which you probably already noticed I tend to go overboard when making a big purchase, I found our dream washer & dryer: the Samsung WF457ARGSGR & DV457EVGSGR (are you noticing a trend that we're going to be a house full of Samsung appliances?).

Seriously, have you ever seen a prettier washer??

And I can control them from my iPhone!

Then came the deal hunt. I read there may be some deals going on this upcoming weekend due to Presidents' Day so I thought it would be a great time to buy them, but I will be in Mexico and my poor husband would have to drag the toddler out in hopes of finding a good deal.

Thankfully I just so happen to be searching prices today and saw that Home Depot had them on sale for $1298 plus an additional $150 off each machine, free shipping, AND I scored 3% cash back through ebates! The only downside is the earliest delivery date is March 11, so we will be stuck washing our clothes in the river for two weeks ;).