Weekend Update + Pics

My gosh...it's almost the weekend again and I am JUST now posting about last weekend.  Please forgive the tardiness...this has been one busy busy week.  So really quick...over last weekend, we drove out to check on the progress of the home.  We were surprised to not only see trim completed, but they put in our darn cabinets, balusters, microwave and oven!  Whoooo Hooooo...it's getting real y'all!  LOL

I couldn't get great pics because everything was covered (since they appeared to be in a painting phase), but it was still a grand view to see progress.  

Since things are moving right along, we have scheduled our final inspection from the same company who performed our pre-drywall inspection.  You can read about our inspection results here.  

Below are a few pics of progress!  I can't wait to see what's new this weekend.  

Cabinets, microwave and oven in kitchen (microwave and stove covered)

Our choice: dark cabinets

Standard molding in dining room

Trim on windows

We have a garage door!

xoxo

Furnishing Our Home || Washer + Dryer

The time has come to get some shopping done (or at least that is what I'm telling myself)!  In the first post of my "Furnishing Our Home" segment, I figured we could discuss washers and dryers!  I know many of you have blogged about some pretty awesome washer and dryers...and boy there are some fancy ones on the market these days.  Do you remember growing up with a heavy-duty washer with about four main options: 'hot', 'cold', 'whites' and 'colors'?  Talk about technological advances!  

In our current apartment, we have a front loading set.  After using it for the last two years, I am pretty certain front loading is not for us.  We love the look and all the features, but we are constantly cleaning it.  Honestly, we hardly use any of the specialty features, but I guess they can be nice to have.  With our current set, there can be build-up of gunk and a smell of ewww if you fail to leave the door open and clean it periodically.  

With that, we have decided to shop for top-loaders (which is what we know best).  While there are many brands with so many different features available, we have narrowed it down to either a Maytag or Whirlpool.  There are so many options that you don't think about like a locking lid, view windows or not, stem, sanitize settings, and finally, whether or not you want your machine to sing a tune to you when you open the lid!  After reading reviews on both, I am torn!  There are pros and cons of both sets, so I need your help!  I will say that for me, the Maytag is leading the pack based on the reviews, but I would love to hear from you!        

Has anyone purchased a Maytag or Whirlpool?  If so, which model did you purchase?

If you went with a different make like LG or Samsung, which make/model did you go with and why?  Maytag and Whirlpool are our initial thoughts but we are not opposed to switching to another brand if they're awesome!  

Thank you to Sherry & John and LuLu for all the research and great insight!   

Whirlpool Cabrio

Whirlpool Cabrio

Maytag Bravos XL

Maytag Bravos XL

xoxo

Meet Diesel and the Drywall

This past Sunday, there were two reasons to celebrate: Diesel, our yorkie celebrated his BIG 5th birthday aaannnnddd we have drywall!  Yiiippppeeee!!!

Up until this point, we had not taken Diesel out to the site because there was so much going on and he is one active little guy.  Our PM gave us the OK (we asked in advance just to make sure it was safe to walk through).  Although there was no active construction, our PM said sometimes drywalling can be dangerous.   Better safe than sorry right?  

So, let me just say it was unbelievably large with drywall compared to how it looked without drywall.  Many people told me this would be the case, but my mind couldn't grasp the concept.  I could not understand how the heck the space would appear to be larger with more materials inside???  Huh???  Hey, I am not complaining at all, just amused.  

We let Diesel explore a little, but not too much because he could easily fit through some of the gaps like stair rails.  I didn't take too many pics, but at least you can see the garage and great room!   

I hear everything moves fast after drywall is up.  I can't wait to see it transform even more.  It's about time to think about furnishing the place right?  We have so many items to purchase.  I feel a future post brewing on furnishing our home.  :-)  I know you all will help me make some great decisions!

Hi, I'm Diesel!

Diesel enjoying his birthday popsicle

Diesel looking out of the deck level doors in his "I'm the birthday boy" shirt

Looking into the great room from the kitchen

Looking into the garage

xoxo

It's The "Quotes" Tag

Happy Monday!  I hope your weekend was super awesome!  

I really have enjoyed blogging about the progress of our home, but some of the most valuable ideas were shared by all of you.  One thing that appeared to be a pretty cool 'trend' was writing inspirational messages in the form of quotes and biblical blessings on the bones of the home.  I thought this was one of the most personal touches added.  Many years from now, family after family, your messages will still be there where you wrote them.    

This was one item that was on my 'must-haves' list.  We went out and it was my mission to get my quotes up on those bones.  I am only 5'6'', so this gal had to use the ladder to get some height under her!!!  I used a mixture of biblical passages and life quotes that I found to be fitting.  There was one quote by Andrew Carnegie that described my thoughts when we first decided on our townhome.  "Concentrate: put all your eggs in one basket, and watch that basket".  Months ago when I first walked through the model home in our community, I told my husband that "I am putting all my eggs in this basket".  We start calling it the BoE (Basket of Eggs).  LOL  Super dorky but it worked and gave us laughter. 

If you are in the early stages of construction and would like to add another personal touch to your home (one that is not considered an upgrade, doesn't require an addendum and is FREE of charge), consider adding some quotes or blessings.  If you have children, they could join you and actually write on the 'walls' without getting in trouble!  

Thank you to all the bloggers for contributing to this idea!!!  I loved it!!!  Here are a few of the quotes/blessings I used throughout our place.  

"Never regret anything that makes you smile"

"You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out" added to the entryways

"Concentrate: put all your eggs in one basket, and watch that basket"

"Don't let yesterday take up too much of today"

"Talk happiness. The world is sad enough without your woe"

"Everything you want is on the other side of fear"

"Reflect. Release. Relax" added to powder & bath rooms

xoxo

Inspection Completed + Findings

Hello everyone!  I wanted to sit for a brief minute to update you on how our inspection went!

source

You all know that we, like many of you, hired our own inspector to do a full sweep of our place before they installed the drywall.  I decided on a women-owned company to do the inspection from the list of candidates provided by our broker.  It was really funny that when the inspector showed up, it...was...a...man!  HAHAHAHA  Apparently, my hubby knew this from an earlier conversation but I had no clue.  LOL

Anyways, he was very friendly but also very thorough.  He did not find many errors at all and was very impressed with the framing of the home.

Here is the list of his findings:

• Make sure that all electricity has fire draft sealant  (some orange foam stuff) between floors
• There was a wall in one of the secondary bedrooms where the wood was not flush.  He said this is what will cause a crack later as the house lose water over time.  The inspector said we can expect the home to lose about 2,000 lbs. of water within the first year.  YIKES...sounds crazy right?
• The master tub liner was not in place.  He said to have that put on to prevent any future damage.  
• The drip pan for the furnace was damaged.  Replacement required.

We shot the report, which also included pictures, over to our PM who will have those items taken care of today.  Our PM requested that the hubby and I take a trip out there tomorrow morning for another walk-through before our drywall is installed.  I really adore our PM...just sayin'!  

The bottom line is we thought the inspection was well worth the money.  Things he observed and commented on would have never been a thought to us.  He was the professional AND he did not have any emotional attachment to the home.  As eager homeowners, we tend to be so happy about the bigger picture that we can sometimes overlook the smaller things (at least that is how we were).  We have learned so much through this process, and I am beginning to separate the homeowner part of my feelings from the business side of things.  

Most likely, we will also have the inspector join us in the final walk-through.  There are some things he mentioned that could be very helpful in the future.  For example, we knew to check the water lines, but we would not have thought to let it run for 40 min.  eeekkkkkk

If you are trying to decide if you should have your own inspector, I would suggest you go for it!  

Chime in: If you had your own inspector, what were your thoughts?  Good investment or waste of time and money?  

xoxo

Powder Room Changes...Already???

Hello there!  I hope your weekend was super awesome and filled with more home news!

Since finding out from our PM that we would be allowed to paint once we move in, I flew to HD to check out some paint swatches.  Things like this really help to visualize the setup for a room or decor that would go well with particular colors.  I am in no way a design pro or interior decorator...I just happen to like things nicely put together.  

For the current moment, my brain is wrapped around our powder.  We took a trip to Mosaic Tile to check out some back-splashes and tile options.  

Mosaic Accent Wall

Display at Mosaic Tile (my powder room idea)

I really want this space to be a warm color to remind me of my favorite season (Fall).  Although it will likely only be used for guests, I still want it to be inviting.  I saw this awesome display at Mosaic Tile and got a quote.  If you have never been to a Mosaic Tile, the cool thing is every display has a name plate telling you who installed the display along with their contact information.  The installers are local (at least they are at this location) so it makes contacting them very easy.

Our powder room was not a first priority (believe it or not), however, it will become one of the first places to get a full makeover.  I say this because with this accent wall, they will need to move the sink and toilet to complete the installation.  Why not use that opportunity to replace the standard white pedestal sink (and maybe the toilet)?  Great idea right?  LOL  I am currently shopping for the right bowl/vanity/sink to replace the standard one so I will update you all with those options soon.  Who knew finding a bowl would be so difficult?  There was some information requested from the installers like "what will you be replacing the standard sink with?", which requires me to have a sink selected...and I still don't have one.  Since 90% of the room will be complete once the install is complete, I figured we could paint it add some simple decor and mark this room as DONE.

xoxo  

Pre-Drywall Meeting + Closing Date

Hello everyone!

So we recently had our pre-dryall meeting that consisted of our PM, broker, the Trinity Wiring guy and of course...us!  We walked each floor pointing out our preferences on outlets and tv connection locations, and what the different color spray paints meant.  The place was really moving along in a positive way.  I must say that our broker is the bomb.com.  He was very meticulous on every piece of sunlight he saw around the doors and windows.  Our PM jumped right on it and said it would be fixed.  The meeting didn't last that long (maybe 45 min.), but we left with confidence in the building process.

There was a post from one of my blogger friends, Lauren, over at New Beginnings in Our Palermo Ryan Home, about painting before the 1-year drywall warranty expired.  I had no idea that in some communities, if you paint before your warranty expires, it could void the warranty.  With this new information, I wanted to ask our PM about it (because I totally planned on painting ASAP).  Our PM told us that if we decided to put a custom color on the wall and later on something needed to be repaired (i.e. crack, etc.), they would paint the wall back to the standard color only and not the custom color.  He went on to say that we would be responsible for re-painting the wall to the custom color.  I really thank Lauren for the post!  I would have never thought this would be a question of concern, but I was really wrong.

Oh...I almost forgot...our PM was able to get us a closing date of December 6th, 2014.  Yiipppeee!  Our home will be ready around Thanksgiving, but since we will be traveling we asked if we could move it to the first week of December.  We are pumped!!!

Up next...we hired an inspector to tell us what our home really looks like!  Stay tuned!

Our broker pointing out something to our PM

We have a fireplace

Our humidifier was installed

xoxo

Almost Inspection Time

Happiest Friday to everyone!  We received an update from our PM today so I thought I would share the info:

"We are currently finishing all of your rough trade installations.  The electrician should be finishing around next Wednesday when we have our pre-drywall meeting.  The plumber and HVAC contractors will start to go for their county inspections.  I hope to be in drywall the week of October 13th."         

As you may know, we decided early on (from the advice of our broker) to hire our own inspector.  I must admit one thing that drove me to hiring this particular company is that it was a women-owned business.  It's not everyday you see this so it made me smile.  After speaking with them, I felt good to give them our business...now let's hope they don't let me down!  :-)

The inspection has been scheduled for Friday, October 10, 2014.  The inspector called our PM to gather the needed information for her arrival and everything is set to go.  You know I will be sure to update you on the outcome!  

As for us, the pre-drywall meeting has been set for next Wednesday where we hope to gather more details around timing and other key milestones and deliverables.  Here is the picture that our PM sent us today.  Fun fact: When I received this picture, I freaked out saying "why the heck are the dormers off centered?" Duh Eboni...it was just the angle of the shot.  I had to look at other pictures and call my hubby for assurance.  Whew...I promise this process increased the sensitivity of my nerves.  LOL    

Have a wonderful weekend and keep blogging!  You all have been AMAZING with updates and pictures galore!  

 

Front view

xoxo