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!