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 :)