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 ;).

Almost there

We stopped by the house today and finally found ourselves locked out! They installed our front door & garage door so we couldn't get in. I was sad we couldn't see the inside, but very excited that we are getting so close to being finished.

Shutter are on, lawn is down & landscaping is done, garage door in, lamp post & mailbox installed, sidewalk & driveway poured. I think we're just waiting on the front door to be painted for the exterior to be complete!

Since we were locked out, this was the best I could get of the floors being installed. Can't wait to see them (which probably won't be until the pre-settlement demonstration meeting on the 21st.)

In other good news, we were pleasantly surprised with the work they did on the backyard. It will never be the large, wooded, private lot I wanted but our PM worked hard and got us as much space as he could (approximately 22' from the morning room to where the fence will be, which doesn't sound like much but it is a vast improvement over the 15' we originally measured!) We really hit the jackpot when it comes to PM and sometimes I forget that!

I can definitely make do with this backyard! The line where the sod ends will be where the fence is placed & outside that will be the 6 cypress pine trees to give us some privacy.

Our Weekly PM update

Good week and getting near the end. The back yard was able to go back a little farther than I had planned. The landscaper will be finishing up the plants, fence and yard at the front right next week.
Inside we will start detailing things out next week. The power should be on Monday. The gas company should run their underground and set the gas meter together next week. Our quality inspection is scheduled next Friday

Walk of Fame

I was under the impression the driveway and patio was the last thing that would be completed, so I thought I had time to mention this to our PM, but I really wanted to get our daughter's handprints in the concrete. My husband just so happened to be emailing back & forth with him about something & he mentioned the concrete had been poured earlier that day. I hurry up and grabbed my daughter from the daycare at the YMCA (where I had been working out) & drove to the house.

Unfortunately the driveway had already dried (seriously, what kind of concrete are they using??), but the back patio was still slightly wet. It was tough getting her hands in it & trying to push them down hard enough to make an impression (especially since she's squirmy as hell), but I got the best I could. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't have anything with me to carve her name or the year in the concrete, but it's better than nothing!

And I promise she does have a pinky finger on her right hand!

Backsplash

We originally chose the kitchen backsplash upgrade. When we went to select our flooring & tile, we hated the options available. Even if we upgraded to the highest level we could, we still didn't like what we had to pick from (and the cost was ridiculous, like $1500 IIRC, and I knew we could pay half that for something we really liked). So when we met with our PM, he said he could tell the counter installers to not install the granite "lip" & recommend someone to install our own backsplash after we closed.

Well now that our granite is down, we found two that we liked and went to compare it next to the counter. And of course, my indecisiveness is kicking in (it also didn't help that the majority of the counter was covered & I couldn't get a picture of the counter, tile, and cabinets together)!

Both tiles

Option 1- cream, light tan, seafoam glass with cream stone

Option 1 closer up

Option 2 (and my red shoe)- Light tan & brown glass with cream, light tan, and brown stone

Option 2 closer up

How honest is your SR?

Warning: RANT below

You may remember in the beginning of my posts the issues we had with our lot. If not, I'll give you the cliffnotes: we toured the model, fell in love, met with the SR to start the process and pick a lot. We told him we weren't interested in an interior (IE back up to another house's backyard) lot. He showed us a map, with other lots that weren't yet available but they would be released soon and they were large (twice the size of the interior lots), private and backed up to woods. We were immediately interested, since we knew we would be asking for a delayed delivery anyway, we didn't need a lot that was available to build on right then. Our SR went to the developer, who refused to give us the lot, then told us the developer said he (the developer) had no immediate plans to build on the lots, he wasn't going to be releasing them for probably a year, yada yada yada. We ended up picking an interior lot (since it was our only option if we wanted to move forward) but I (obviously) am still salty about it.

Fast forward, we were visiting the house last week and I drive past the lot we wanted. Not only did it have a Bonterra (the other builder in our section of the development) posted, it had a SOLD sticker on it. Yup, that's right, six weeks after we break ground and the prime, private wooded lots had not only been released, they had already all been sold! To say I was furious was an understatement. My husband immediately emailed our SR to find out what the deal was, since we were told that RH & the developer had a deal that RH got priority to buy the lots. The response we got was that there is a dispute now going on between RH & the developer, each accusing the other of not holding their end of the bargain. The developer is saying RH was in default of their contract because they did not sell as many lots as they agreed, RH is saying the developer breached. Either way, I am angry.

I believe our SR flat out lied from the beginning. I believe he knew that the developer wasn't happy with them about not moving the lots they (RH) already had & as a result, that he knew that the developer was going to give Bonterra those premium lots instead. But of course, he didn't want to tell us that because he didn't want to lose a sale if we decided to go with Bonterra instead. I know in most buying situations sales people stretch the truth and that there are always issues of buyers remorse and questions of "what if," but this is a HUGE (possibly lifelong) purchase and I feel like we were essentially tricked into it.

Yes, I know that I will love my house but will I ever not be angry at how much better it could have been? Or envious of our poor, unsuspecting neighbors building on "my" dream lot?

Three more weeks

Til closing!

We stopped by for our weekly visit & are so excited to see the progress & watch all of the details come together!

Siding was finished, pillars installed, stone complete, trim painted & lights hung this week! (Now we just need our shutters & front door.)

Living room, dining room panoramic (view from the mudroom)

Cabinets & counter tops are in (we plan to have our own backsplash installed, so we asked them to not install the granite "lip").

Panoramic of the kitchen, morning room, & family room

Closeup of our Santa Cecelia

Our master bath is coming together & I can't wait to use that tub! (Not sure what those black cords are?)

Panoramic of the master bath (so hard to get a picture of such a tight space!)

View from the back, and you can see our teeny tiny backyard :(

Another view of the front. I am so in love with the porch, stone & pillars!

Closeup of one of the two coach lights on the garage

Closeup of the stone