Driveway update

Update: It was pouring down rain this morning when I woke up (I didn't have to work today so I slept until about 10:30).  But I was surprised as ever to see one lone man working a Bobcat IN THE RAIN! He was clearing up the area where our sidewalk is supposed to be. A while later, another man joined him and they began framing out our sidewalk and driveway! It eventually stopped raining and now the sun is out full force.  And guess what? Our driveway and our sidewalk are ready to be poured! They just finished framing them about 20 minutes ago.  Now, with the forecast still saying rain until at least Friday, I'm not sure when that will happen but I am happy to at least see that we are making some progress! Thanks for the positive thoughts everyone :)

Frustrations

I am full of frustrations lately, so this is a venting session :)

First off, since it's the point of the blog, I'll start with the house.  We did finally have our "30-day" walkthrough last week, after 2 months of living here.  I couldn't take off of work so Gary was here to handle things.  We really didn't have many problems to address, just a couple of odds and ends that had been noted at the pre-settlement walkthrough but hadn't been attended to yet.  The only big issue that I had involved the bathtubs.  A few weeks ago, I wasn't feeling well and I needed to relax, so I decided to use our bathtub (oversized garden tub) for the first time.  I grabbed a book, some bath bubbles, a candle, and a glass of wine and settled in for a nice long, hot, bath.  Well, it wasn't exactly what I expected. The water slowly drained out of the tub until I was left sitting in just an inch of water.  And this was after only about 30 minutes.  So I then tested out the other bathtub (standard size) and the same thing happened! Well, when Gary mentioned this to the PM and workers at the walkthrough, I guess they misunderstood what he was saying because they said it was fine and didn't do anything to fix it! After I lashed out at Gary, he called the PM back and explained exactly what the problem was, and they're supposedly ordering a part.  But since this happened with BOTH bathtubs, I would advise everyone to check your tubs and make sure they hold water!

The other house thing is the exterior stuff.  Up until less than 2 weeks ago, they hadn't even backfilled the dirt up to our house.  So they decided last Wednesday that they would bring a backhoe over and dump a bunch of debris and rock-filled dirt everywhere, smooth some of it up to the house, and then leave the rest of it in huge mounds all over the yard.  And guess where that dirt still sits? On top of that, that same day they removed all of the small rocks from the driveway and taped the driveway off, telling us that they would be pouring it in the next few days. Now I watch the news and I knew what the forecast looked like..rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain...so I thought they were crazy.  So now we have a muddy, mounded dirt-yard and our driveway is unusable.  But, the kicker is that the neighbors across the street (who moved in a week after us) and the house two doors down (who closed this week) got their driveways poured on Friday! WTF? I just don't understand why our house is being completely neglected.  Of course it was gorgeous yesterday and today, and supposedly it may not rain tomorrow...but the rest of the week calls for rain! I swear if I have to go another week parking in the street and nearly twisting my ankle every time I try to reach the garage, I am going to have a freakout.  At least our neighbors are nice...we met the new couple today and they're pretty young also and have two little kids.  I think our street is going to be pretty fun :)

Gary and I decided to be productive today and we went to Lowe's and bought one set of faux wood blinds.  We wanted to make sure he would be able to put them up before we bought all of them! So we went home and we were so excited to actually hang blinds...we opened the box and none of the hardware that was supposed to be in there was there! Ughhhhh so now we have to take those back tomorrow.  Just a minor thing but frustrating! Also all day today our cell phones have not been working around our house.  When we got about 2 miles away we could get a signal but not here.  Again, frustrating.

As for wedding venting...if I have another bridesmaid-related problem I'm cuttting out the bridesmaids! (just kidding in case any of you are reading this!).  First it was the dresses (previous post).  Yesterday, I went to pick up their shoes from Payless.  They were the dyeables shoes, and they were supposed to be the perfect cream/tan color that I wanted.  Well, in the store they looked great...perfect..then I got them home and in natural lighting they are purple! No mistaking it, they are purple.  I went back to Payless and was told I have to talk to the manager, who isn't in until Tuesday.  I have no idea what I'm going to do if they can't be fixed.

Now finally, good things! Work has been super busy, but luckily we only have 4 days this week and 3 days next week and then school is over! Unfortunately, I have a LOT of paperwork to do before that time..which is why I'm writing a post right now (procastinating!).  My bachelorette party is this Saturday so at least that's something fun to look forward to.  After that, it's more wedding planning and details.  It will be here so soon!

Levin furniture Living Social deal!

Just wanted to quickly pass along this deal on Living Social for those of you who are in the Northeast Ohio area.....$35 for $125! Only 55 hours remaining! I bought one and Gary bought one also...hopefully we will find a coffee table/end tables that we like!

http://livingsocial.com/deals/37121-125-to-spend-on-furniture-and-mattresses?msc_id=90&pid=36930113

Sorry for my absence!

Wow I have been absent for awhile! I have been extremely busy with wedding stuff....writing 80 thank you notes for the bridal shower, getting addresses, addressing and mailing invitations, booking the honeymoon, finalizing song lists, alterations appointments, shoe shopping....it never ends! I have a few things to write about:

Bridal Shower

My shower was amazing! So many generous people...not a single hitch! Instead of writing a novel about it, I'll just share with pictures...

Opening gifts

Bridesmaids: Erin, Christina, Amanda, ME, Stephanie (sister-Maid of Honor), Kristina (sister), and Amy 

My ribbon bouquet! Nice work Amanda and Christina!

The only thing in this room pre-shower was the chair in the corner

Part of the gift from my sisters...a breakfast tray :) 

We are still trying to get organized from the shower.  The kitchen seems much smaller now than it used to! 

Dress Fittings

What a bunch of drama.  Everything is fine with my dress, in fact I had my first fitting last week and it doesn't even need to be hemmed! It fits perfectly and I am soooo happy with it! The drama has been with my bridesmaids dresses...they are huge! So when we met with the alterations lady at the salon, she was a complete bitch and was basically telling me that they couldn't be altered the way I wanted them.  I wasn't asking her to recreate the dress, I was simply asking for them to look how they're supposed to look! Anyway...long story short I could only put up with her attitude for about 30 minutes...and then I had a breakdown.  Yep I had a bridezilla moment and yelled and cried in the middle of the salon :) At the time we left, there was no resolution and the woman was still being a bitch.  Tomorrow we have an appointment with another alterations woman from the salon and she thinks she has a solution that will please me. But if not, we are just going to have them altered elsewhere. 

The house

I realized that I never posted any pics of the furniture.  Nothing else has changed inside the house at all....still white walls and no blinds :) I think our neighbors are enjoying seeing what we are watching on tv and watching me kick butt at rock band!

We still haven't found coffee table/end tables that we like, so the ottoman just kinda moves around between the two pieces

View from the kitchen

We still haven't met with our PM for our "30 day" walkthrough.  It's now been 2 months since we've closed. I talked to our neighbor yesterday and he hasn't had his meeting yet either.  We don't have any urgent issues, but still....it seems like we should have met already!

The wedding is now less than 6 weeks away and boy is the to-do list getting large! I have appointments tomorrow, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday....and appointments next week...too much to do! I just can't wait until June 2nd when school is over for the summer and I can finally have some time to get things done!

I felt like I should write a post..

Oh American Idol, you just broke my heart :(  I love Paul McDonald!

Sorry...as I clicked "write new post", the results were being read on my tv.

Anyway....sorry for my absence as of late. I have been soooooooo busy! My bridal shower is on Saturday and I have been doing so many final details for that.  And I have been managing to not check my registries at all to see what people have been buying me!

I have no new pictures...I'm sorry! But our couch/ottoman/chair are amazing! They got delivered on Saturday morning...way too early! Why have all of our deliveries been at the earliest part of the delivery window? Seriously if you tell me 8:15-11:15, you don't need to show up at 8:15 on the dot! Anyway, so on Saturday night, we went to a bonfire at a friend's house, and I had a little (lot) to drink.  When we got home, we started watching tv and I fell immediately asleep on the couch, and apparently refused to get up! So the first night the couch was in our house, it got slept on :) It was soooo comfy!

I promise I will get some pictures of it this weekend! We are still trying to figure out the layout and how we want the room to look.  And surprise surprise, we still don't have any blinds!

On another note, I added two new blogs tonight.....geeeez these blogs are EXPLODING! It's getting really hard to keep caught up if I don't check it every day! I am going to fall severely behind this weekend, so I apologize in advance for not commenting on anyone's posts!

Spring Break

I've been on spring break this week.  I would love to tell you that I have accomplished a ton of things at the  house, including blinds, painting, other decorating...etc.  But, I haven't.  I have been staying up late, sleeping in, and handling stuff for the wedding. I did buy all of the votives and floating candles for our wedding, as well as the program paper for the ceremony..Michael's has some pretty good coupons on their website right now if anyone is interested.  I used the 30% off entire candle purchase as well as 40% off wedding items.  www.michaels.com

Just a note about our washer/dryer: The frontloading model that we got (Samsung) is completely perfect for the second floor laundry.  It has a "Vibration Reduction" technology and it really is quiet...no problems with the house vibrating yet.

I have been working on the slideshow for our wedding all week.  We are going to have pictures of Gary growing up/with family, then pictures of me growing up/with family, then pictures of us with friends, then pictures of us together.  I am completely stuck on song ideas for my part of growing up pictures! I don't want it to be sappy, I don't like country, and I want it to be fun.  Gary's song is going to be Queen-Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy. Does anyone have any suggestions for what my song should be?????? I've been going crazy listening to song after song trying to figure this out.  I will take ANY suggestions! It just needs to be something upbeat and fun, about a girl :)

I will post again after Saturday when our furniture gets delivered! I'm so excited to finally have something other than an air mattress in our living room!

Wedding stuff, and a picture of the mudroom

FirstTimeBuilder had asked for a picture of how the bench fits in the mudroom.  I am at my parents' house so I had Gary text me a pic...please excuse the stark whiteness of the walls! There's been a lot of discussion going around about painting on here....we are not going to wait for the 10-month to paint, but we aren't doing it anytime soon. We just have too much else to focus on right now! Anyway...

It fits perfectly on that little wall.  And then we are going to get probably some kind of coat rack or something for the corner (where that shoe is)

We have had a lot happen this week! On Tuesday we went to Best Buy, ordered the washer/dryer (thanks Mom and Dad!) and bought the television/tv stand (thanks partially to Gary's grandparents!) Of course Gary insisted that since the tv was in stock, he HAD to make it fit in his car and had to take it right then. So we did---tight squeeze in the SUV but we made it home! It only took us an hour to put the tv stand together, and about 10 minutes to get the tv all hooked up.  Why people pay $200 to have Best Buy do that stuff for them is beyond me.  

From Best Buy

This was actually much easier to put together than the bench! Gary did not like it in the store and was afraid that the tv would sit down too low, but I convinced him otherwise...and now he loves it! 

Yesterday, I had a hair appointment and figured things out for the wedding day. I have had it in my hairdresser's book for the past year, but we actually discussed details now, such as time, number of girls coming, makeup, etc.  Before I left, I made my next appointment---last one before the wedding, and the one where we will practice styles! Wow that made it seem incredibly real that our wedding is less than 3 months away! 

Today after work I met my mom at the florist and we played around with centerpieces.  Now as I'm sure a lot of you ladies would agree, I would LOVE to have nice big floral centerpieces. But it's just not in the budget, and not worth the money.  So this whole time I've pretty much decided that we would do some sort of flower/floating candle thing.  We bought some candles, some rocks, and other decorative things a few weeks ago to take today...and here is what we came up with:

half of the tables will have floating pink lillies with floating candles and green sea glass on the bottom (not very much sea glass in this bowl, but you get the idea)

And then the other half of the tables will have submerged pink hydrangeas (she only had a green one available at the shop so use your imagination), with floating candles.  Not sure if we will keep the sea glass in these as well.

And then around those there will be 5-6 votives.  Still need to figure out about mirrors for underneath them..the florist does not supply those so we need to check to see how much we can rent them for from the venue. After that we went to the cake shop and went through books and books of wedding cakes. I think I have an idea what I want it to look like but still need to look some more.  

Oh and Levin called to schedule our delivery for our couch, chair, and ottoman! Next Saturday :) 

Ramblings

I really have nothing to post about.  All of the good things I was going to post about aren't happening until tomorrow! We found a tv that we really like, on sale at Best Buy. We also found the tv stand that we like.  And yesterday, my parents told us that they are going to buy our washer and dryer for us! Woo hoo :) They also already had a model in mind, on sale at Best Buy.  So we are going tomorrow to purchase all of that! Hopefully the tv can be delivered pretty quickly! Oh and the washer/dryer set is frontloading..which I love.  We won't be getting the pedestals, however.

I had my first wedding nightmare the other night...woke up in a panic because in my dream, my dress wasn't right, my shoes weren't right, and my bridesmaids dresses weren't right.  So of course now I'm freaking out about things.

I went with my mom after work today to Yankee Candle to order votive candles for bridal shower gifts...they were on sale for $1.00 apiece! Pretty good deal if you ask me.  I bought a few extras for the house :)

I stayed at our house last night because Gary and I were up late, me doing work and him doing homework.  I woke up to the bright bright sunshine streaming through the window and the sounds of a roof being installed on a home two doors down from us.  Note to self: buy blinds this week!

Oh I forgot on my last post to write about the project that I did last weekend.  I finally put together our bench for the mudroom! It took me much longer than it should have....so many little screws and bolts and washers and other little things that I don't know what they're called.  Not to mention that I put one section on, took it off, put it on differently, took it off, then put it back on the first way again...each time costing me about 20 minutes.  But it looks really good! I haven't taken a picture of it yet actually in the mudroom, but here's a pic right after I finished putting it together in the kitchen.

I had also purchased the matching wall piece (more cubbies as well as coat hooks) but we are not sure if we are going to put it together...might just take it back.  But I love the bench and it's great for the mudroom! 

Oh----geez I can't believe I forgot this one! So, anyone who knows me really well knows that I am truly arachnaphobic. I have panic attacks when spiders are around, and I have been known to refuse to use my car for weeks at a time after a spider sighting inside (even when I know the spider has been squashed).  Ok so I had myself pretty well convinced that my house was spider-proof.  I thought maybe if I just thought about it hard enough, I could will it to happen.  Nope. First spider sighting when I woke up yesterday morning! It was in the upstairs hallway and Gary had to be woken up to kill it immediately.  Now, I'm convincing myself that it came in with one of the boxes from storage. There is NO way that it found a way inside our house! 

Ok India, I hope this is enough of a post for you :) I really have nothing else to talk about but I will let you know when I do!

Getting settled in

I've been so busy with house stuff, bridal shower stuff, and work these past two weeks that I feel like I've been neglecting my blog! Not much has changed at the house..Gary has completely moved in and I have been coming and going on the weekends. Guardian came to activate our alarm system last Monday, and our table was delivered last Tuesday! I am soooo in love with the table! We have it in the kitchen right now...I eventually want to build an island (Lowe's has cabinets that *almost* match and the same countertop)...if we build an island, the table will go in the morning room.  Until then, it's staying in the kitchen to fill up the space! 

Last Thursday (St. Patrick's day), Gary cooked us our first real meal in the house! Who needs kegs and eggs when you can have steak and wine? Delicious!

So I guess Gary got bored this week, since I haven't been there since Sunday.  He called me yesterday and told me that he put up decorations.  I got scared, really scared.  He then calmed my nerves by telling me that they were easily removable and he didn't use any power tools.  And I wasn't going to like them.  But, he wouldn't tell me what they were.  So I went there today after work to find out what he was up to.   Let me first preface this by saying that he was an Army Ranger when we first started our relationship...and he accumulated a collection of army toys.  So this is what I find when I walked in the door today: 

Then I rounded the corner:

 And entered the kitchen:

And finally, I saw this guy. Gary proceeded to explain to me that "he's camouflaged"

I guess I shouldn't leave him alone in the house that long again...who knows what it will be next time! I'm just thankful he didn't whip out the power tools that he has never used in his life.  THAT will be a scary day! 

Other than that, not too much is new. We still don't have any blinds.  I was too busy this week to even think about it....maybe over the weekend we will make it out to shop.  We finally finished up the wedding registry and sent out the bridal shower invitations this week....I have to say, it is working out really nice having a new home and then having a bridal shower to fill it up with brand new goodies! I can't wait! 

Weekend updates

Well, we officially made it through our first weekend in our new home! As I had said in a previous post, the plan has always been that Gary would move in now and I would wait until June but would stay with him on the weekends as we have always done.  Surprisingly, it isn't as hard as I thought it would be to not want to move in with him right away....it just seems so overwhelming there! We spent all day today unpacking things that had been in storage for the past couple years...and I found that I had no idea where to put things.  I moved dishes around a lot and actually packed some things back up because I just didn't know where to put them! I'm imagining that over time things will just fall into place...but I'm used to being at my parents' house, where there is, and always has been, a clear-cut spot for everything!

Our refrigerator was delivered on Saturday morning (way too early, I might add)! At one point in the day, between family/friends visiting, Gary and I were laying in the living room and we heard the first few pieces of ice fall from the icemaker....we both became way too excited to hear the ice and realized that we will have some different joys as homeowners than what we used to have! 

We slept on the "blanket bed" Friday and Saturday night...Gary moved his bed in today so thank god next weekend maybe I'll feel a little better--my body is sore from sleeping on the floor! We keep finding little things that are irritating.  Nothing that requires a lot of time or energy to correct, but just irritating!

-light over the sink burnt out 2 hours after I got the keys on Monday.  When Gary tried to unscrew it to replace it, the bulb broke and he couldn't get it out.  Had to use pliers. 

-light in the powder room burnt out on Saturday.

-our yard is filled with trash and debris.  Gross. 

-THE DRIVEWAY.  I still can't pull into it. Gary can in his SUV but it takes a ton of effort and I'm afraid he's going to gas it and go through the garage wall.  I tried to use a snow shovel to even out the gravel but no luck.

-pieces of blue tape from our pre-settlement walkthrough are still there....probably 7-8 things that were marked but not corrected.

-a few spots on the walls that need touched up.

-they didn't paint under the window ledges.  You notice these things when you sleep on the floor against the wall. 

-Water runs down an area by the front porch that we don't think it should run down. My sister's fiance says we need flashing there to prevent that. 

-a large gash on the inside of one of the cabinets

That's all I can think of right now.  Again, mostly just irritating things, especially the lightbulbs...I should be able to expect them to last more than just 5 days, let alone 2 hours!

Guardian comes tomorrow to activate the alarm system, and our table is delivered on Tuesday morning! 

It's been quite the week!

Hey everyone! I haven't been on ALL week and finally got a chance tonight to read all of your posts!

So, we had our closing on Monday at 8:30am.  I woke up with butterflies in my stomach that did not go away ALL day! The closing was EXTREMELY easy, just signing a million pieces of paper but it was done within 30 minutes.  I sat with my phone next to me all day waiting for the call that our keys could be picked up, and it finally came at 3:30! Gary had class until 8, so I packed my car full of blankets, pillows, wine, and bottled water and headed to get the keys and go to the house.  I was sad that he didn't get to experience the first "walk through the door" with me but I was too anxious to wait!

turning the key for the first time :)

(Gary pointed out that the door paint needs to be touched up...just one of several things we've noticed since Monday!)

the finished product

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of trying to pull into the garage. (who would've thought I would want to use my own garage, right?) Well, my car sunk several inches into the gravel.  Literally, it sunk. Absolutely going nowhere, and I couldn't see half of my front tires.  So, I made the first of many "help me dad at my new home" phone calls! Luckily, right when he got there our new neighbors across the street, who close next week, also showed up and helped to push my car out.  So I killed two birds with one stone, "help me dad" and "help me neighbor" :) 

I must've pace the entire house about a dozen times before Gary got there...just marveling in the fact that it's ours! When he finally got there we ended up having a few friends over to play euchre on our makeshift kitchen table: 

After they left, Gary and I decided to forego the air mattress because it was only a twin and we would've been uncomfortable.  I had brought over quite a few blankets anticipating this, so we made a cushy little blanket bed to sleep on for our first night 

And that is the story of our closing! In other news, I got a call from our sales rep today asking if he could show the house to someone..I readily said yes, as I was grateful that we got to see the Sienna before we signed papers. Then he told me they actually PAY you to let someone see your house! I don't know how much and didn't want to ask in front of the couple that he brought over, but that's awesome, since I would have done it for nothing!

Well this post is long enough, I'll save some of the other things for my next post!

Preparing the air mattress...and a meeting between bloggers!

We close in TWO days! We have decided that we are going to sleep at the new house on Monday night, on an air mattress.  (with no tv, no refrigerator...really, with nothing other than the mattress, some bedding, the fireplace, and some glasses of wine!)

Our pre-pre-settlement walkthrough and pre-settlement walkthrough both went really well, but my feet were hurting after standing/walking for so long! We met with our PM on Wednesday for the pre-pre-settlement, where we basically just walked around inspecting every wall, doorframe, floorboard, etc for areas where paint needed to be touched up or other fixes.  When we returned for our pre-settlement on Thursday morning, a worker was there correcting all the taped areas and we basically just spent the time going over warranties and how things worked.  (kinda boring).

After the walkthrough, we went to Levin's to check out their sofas, and found one that we really liked.  We learned that they were having a sale this weekend where there were different tiered discounts based on how much you spent.  We went back today to buy our sofa, oversized chair, and ottoman and ended up getting the extra 20% off discount!

Here is the furniture in the floor model color....too light for us! We opted for the second option, which is the fabric on top of the middle of the couch in the picture below:

Unfortunately, the second option color is a special order and isn't stocked in the warehouse.  So that means 6-8 weeks until delivery :( Booooo....

In other news, I got a facebook message from India of The Ryan Homes Experience yesterday letting me know she was in Akron visiting her family...so we made plans to meet for coffee today! :) Very fun to meet her and her mom, it's so nice to talk to other people who are building a house--my friends/family are sick of hearing me talk about it but all of the bloggers love talking about it! We talked about how these blogs are exploding and how cool it is that we actually got to meet each other! So neat to make friends with people all over who are going through the same thing! 

New friends brought together by Ryan Homes.... aww :) 

A week from tomorrow!

What a day! We went to our house today to see how things look and it was sooo much different than when we were there last week! Carpet has been installed, appliances installed, all fixtures, pantry/laundry room/closet shelving, all lights now work, all light switches/electric plating.....wow.  Besides a thorough cleaning and some touch-ups, the inside is ready to be lived in! 

pantry

LOVE this sink!

master bath

lights in master bath

laundry room

upstairs hallway bathroom

hallway from bathroom

They put our porch posts up this week as well.  Still need to be painted white and not sure what happens with the wood

After we left the house, we went to Bed Bath & Beyond to start our wedding registry.  OH MY GOD. We left after more than 2 hours and put very little onto our registry! TOO many decisions to be made! We did decide on our dining ware, flatware, and a few other big things.  The very first (and most important) item was a Keurig! I've been waiting for one of those! :) Also we somehow agreed on decorating for the master bath and the upstairs bath, and we registered for all the accessories and bath towels for each.  We are going to need to go back at least 2 more times to get it finalized....also I want to register for some things at Kohl's as well, and I'm hoping that they have a comforter set there that we both can agree on.  I think the decision making would be much easier if I could just pick everything out by myself....today we seriously went back and forth for 10 minutes over cutting boards: 

me- "Which one do you like better?"

him- "I don't know, which one do you like better?"

me-"I don't know either. I like all three of these."

him-"I like those, and I like these over here."

and so on, and so on.

Really? A CUTTING BOARD gives us that much trouble!?? End of story, we didn't register yet for any cutting boards. :) 

Can't wait for a garage!

My day off was way less productive than planned due to the weather, but I did manage to go with my mom to order the wedding invitations and stopped at kohl's and bed bath and beyond to get some decorating ideas! I bought three prints that may be used in one of the bathrooms....time will tell how we decide to decorate but I really liked them and didn't want to take the chance that they would be gone next time I go! 

Also, I realized that one of the things I look forward to the most is having a garage.  Having two parents and three siblings at home, then living in various apartments, I have never been able to park in a garage! The winter dumping that we've been getting since 3pm has really made me excited to not have to deal with this next winter:

And this is AFTER my dad shoveled the snow away that had been piled up around my car! 

2 weeks from today our keys will be in hand!! 

Shopping!

It just took me about 25 minutes to read all the posts that I have missed over the weekend! Geez :)

We had an eventful weekend for house things! On Saturday, we met my parents, Gary's parents, and my aunt and uncle from out of town at the house.  We had spoken with our PM about this on Thursday and he assured us that we would still be able to get in through the garage door for the next week.  Well, as luck would have it he was wrong.  We ended up having to abandon our guests for about 30 minutes and drive to the model in a neighboring town to pick up our key. Annoying...but both the PM and the sales rep were apologetic and accommodating.

So while we were there giving everyone the tour, we measured for blinds and measured the space where the refrigerator goes.  We then went to Lowe's for their sale and picked out our refrigerator! Gary's parents had offered to buy this for us as a wedding present, so it was really nice to not have to worry about that cost.  I really love the one we picked out!

Today we went to Wayside Furniture to take advantage of their "Presidents Day Sale".  Advertising very misleading....only a small portion of the items were on sale.  But, we did find a sofa, oversized chair, and ottoman that we REALLY like for the great room (not on sale but still decently priced).  Unfortunately, we, like many of you, have a problem with making decisions and we could not commit.  Hopefully we can make a decision about that soon!

After the confusion with the keys on Saturday, our PM called us to apologize for the door being locked.  During the conversation Gary mentioned a few small things that we had noticed (crooked cabinet doors, gouges in one of the cabinets, some irregularities in the ceiling, a saw-blade slit in part of the drywall).  The PM said he would like to do a "pre-pre-settlement walkthrough" a week from tomorrow.  Basically, the carpet, fixtures, odds and ends will be done this week, he will correct everything that he notices, and then he would like to meet with us to go over anything that we see.  That way when we have our pre-settlement walkthrough hopefully everything will already be corrected and we can focus on all the other stuff rather than pointing out things that are wrong.  I was happy about this.  Hopefully there won't be too many other things that need to be corrected!

Happy Day off to everyone who gets to stay home tomorrow! We all deserve it :) 

Cabinets, countertops, and more...

Just got back from the house---they were busy today!

flooring-this picture was taken Friday but I haven't had a chance to post 

kitchen

countertops

fireplace

master bath 

Just a few notes:  

1) I thought I would be disappointed with the "standard" vanities in the bathrooms.  While they are not my first choice, I think they're manageable.  Definitely not on the list of immediate projects.  

2) All of our doors were hung.  They are more like an off-white than a white....do they get painted? They looked funny.  I guess I just assumed they would be ready to go before they were hung..?

3) I am VERY disappointed in the kitchen sink.  I know I have read the same in a few blogs, but I didn't remember there being an option to upgrade the depth of the sink.  That will definitely need to be quickly replaced.....sooo shallow! 

4) While we would have loved to get the granite countertops, we didn't because of money.  However I REALLY like the laminate that we got--butterum granite.  I know some of the other bloggers have the same and I've seen all of your pics, but it was so much more reassuring to see them in person! 

5) In a previous post I mentioned the knobs for the cabinets.  After looking at them today, we decided we are going to have the knobs installed.  I really do like them and I think they just add a little bit more character to the cabinets. 

We are now down to 21 days until close! (Wow actually counting that in my head gave me a little bit of butterflies in my stomach...it is so soon!!)

Closing and *real* first furniture purchase!

I stopped by the house this afternoon with my mom and they were finishing up the mudding/taping on the drywall.  Other than that, nothing has really changed since Gary and I went on Thursday.  At that point, there were boxes filled with cabinets in the garage so I was really hoping to see them installed today but I guess that will be happening later in the week.

We got our letter today with all of our closing information so now I need to get busy on that stuff.  We are having our final walkthrough on March 3 and closing on March 7. Less than a month! I was hoping to have the closing be on a Friday so we could stay there (sans furniture) over the weekend.....just something about staying in the house the first night we're able to.  Oh well, maybe we'll just stay there on the 7th anyway and I'll run to my other home to get ready in the morning :)

In other news...Levin Furniture was having a super sale this weekend so we made our first purchase!

I had been eyeing this set for about 2 months so I was really happy to get it for a good deal.  It's hard to tell in the picture but it is a counter-height table and it is dark brown wood.  We also got the bench.  Plenty of seating for just the two of us!  Here is a link to the website for a better look 

http://www.levinfurniture.com/p-1617-972-collection.aspx

We also checked out a bedroom set that we both really liked, but without being able to finance things until the mortgage is finalized we decided to wait on this one.  (Plus what good is a king-sized set if you don't have a king-sized mattress yet? Priorities...)

Mattresses can be ridiculously expensive. After falling in love with some really expensive ones, we went to my brother's house to watch the superbowl.  He and his girlfriend just bought a king mattress from Menards this week for about 1/3 of the cost of what we were looking at.  Of course we checked it out as soon as we got there and decided we are definitely going to Menards! It was soooo comfy I could have stayed there all evening!

Snow Day :)

I know many of you are experiencing the same nasty weather that we are getting here in northeast Ohio today! Luckily, as a school-based therapist, I get to enjoy the snow days just like the teachers! This is the fourth snow day so far this year, and by the looks of the radar, I'm gearing up for another possible one tomorrow.  Even Akron U and Kent State were closed today--you know it's bad when they close!  Since the house is under roof and work can continue on the inside, Let it snow/rain/sleet!

So I've been sitting here on my day off, trying to do work.  My job is a never-ending mound of paperwork.  Of course, anytime I have to do computer-based work I get very very distracted by the internet.  So I've been on a dozen furniture sites, looking at some of the blinds sites that were suggested in another blog, and looking at appliances.  Basically just trying to figure out some type of a budget and some type of a plan for what we need to buy when.  My dreams are way bigger than my wallet! Gary's parents are buying our refrigerator OR our great room tv as a wedding present, so that's one thing out of the way. But we also NEED living room furniture, dining set, and washer/dryer right off the bat.  My king-sized bedroom set can wait, if needed (but I really don't want to share a full-sized bed with him every night for a long period of time).  But we do plan to get as much of our furniture as possible from a place like Levin's that offers long-term no interest financing....we will pay things off after the wedding when we have cash gifts.

We are not planning to both live there immediately when it's done. Gary will move in first, and I will join him after the wedding. I know, that's kinda silly, but there are multiple reasons for this--1) I'm kinda traditional and want it to be special when we move in together and we're married 2) I have two needy cats who will need someone to take care of them during our honeymoon.  If I stay at home until then, my parents will just take care of them.  If not, we have to have a housesitter and I don't know if we want to do that already!

The only problem with all of this is I will be insanely jealous of Gary living there.  Of course, I will stay there on the weekends (I usually stay at his house now on Friday and Saturday nights)...but still I will be really jealous.  So....who knows what will end up happening.  The good thing about this plan is it will take away some of the pressure to get it furnished right away..he can live there with the bare minimum.  Plus my bridal shower isn't going to be until April so we won't have a lot until then anyway.  I go back and forth about this every day....I REALLY want to move in when it's done! I have about 5 weeks to figure it all out!  

Siding/shutters

I was shocked when I pulled into the neighborhood today and saw the amazing transformation that our house has seen in only 24 hours! I expected the siding to be STARTED today, not fully completed! I could also hear plenty of banging going on inside the house.. I somehow kept away the urges to open the front door to check out the drywall progress.

I'm so happy with our color choices! We were so unsure what we were doing but I think it looks great!