Saturday, December 7, 2013

Too good to be true?

In the back of my mind, I've been a little worried that everything seemed to be moving to smoothly, and I've been mentally preparing myself for the news that something is going to be delayed.  Well, I got that phone call on Thursday.  I'm still not sure what the whole story is, but apparently last week, someone stole the wire connecting the house to the main electrical supply.  A new wire was ordered and the power company (West Penn Power. GRRRR!) was supposed to be out Thursday to hook it back up.  Our PM talked to them Thursday morning to verify they were coming and was informed they would not be out until Monday.  We are supposed to close on Tuesday, which doesn't give our PM enough time to get all of the inspections completed before closing.  We were initially extremely upset.  We have sitters and movers lined up and now everything has to be rescheduled.  We even tried calling the power company ourselves to see if we could get them out sooner.  At the end of the day, it's not as bad as initially expected.  Our biggest concern was that the movers wouldn't be available.  We only have our storage until through December 15th, so if we couldn't get movers scheduled before then, we'd have to pay for another whole month for the units.  So, now we're closing December 13th and moving the 14th and I'm crossing my fingers and knocking on wood that nothing is delayed going forward. Here's hoping!

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Final Walk-Through Scheduled... I think?

We are getting really close to closing and part of me is super excited, but the other part is nervous that something will go wrong and we won't be able to close next week.  Hubs has been very diligent about getting in touch with NVR to make sure they have everything they need, since they don't seem to be concerned with asking for everything themselves.  We've had a few different days/times tentatively scheduled for our final walk-through, but I think we're finally down to an official day.  Time is still yet to be determined. I'm definitely starting to get annoyed with the whole process and how nothing ever seems to go according to schedule.  It's frustrating that I'm living 45 minutes away with a baby, so I plan to be in the area for something and it ultimately gets pushed back a day or two.  Haven't they built enough of these things that the timeline should be fairly consistent? I also can't wait to see what happens in our final walk-through with a few issues in the house.  We try not to bug our PM too much with small issues that we see because we realize he may not have done an inspection yet, but when there are obvious cracks in cabinets that have been hanging for weeks, it was time to say something and not just hope that they would be fixed in the next few days.  I understand that he's busy, but our home is also a priority and he should be there to look at things before the last week and hope that everything he needs to get fixed will.  I have a feeling there will be a lot of post-its hung around the house for our 30 day inspection. Every switch plate will be hung level if it's the last thing I do!

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Blinds

We bought blinds!  It was kind of an impulse thing one night right before bed.  Hubs saw a sale going on at JCPenney's, so we checked them out online and in addition to the sale, there was an extra 25% off the entire order.  Score!  So, we ordered two different types.  Bamboo for the morning room and cellular for the rest of the house, and all of them are cordless.  A few days after we ordered them, I was having some doubts that we ordered the correct size, so we swung by the house yesterday to take some measurements.  We had ordered 36x64, but the windows are about 35" at the top and some of them are close to 34.5" at the bottom.  Darn!  There's still another day to get the sale price, so I'm going to re-order them tonight.  The blinds came today, so I got one out of the box to make sure that I like the color and to measure it.  Love the color and the blinds are 35.5", so we're going to order the 35x64, which should be 34.5 wide and fit perfectly!

The sale price is awesome and free shipping!  For anyone that's been looking, here's what he paid:

Double Cellular Shades - Originally $110/piece, we paid $41.25/piece
Bamboo Roman Shades - Originally $82/piece, we paid $30.75/piece

Here are pics of what we ordered:

JCP Home Cordless Double Cellular Shade

Natural Woven Bamboo Cordless Roman Shade

 Now we need to make a decision on which refrigerator to buy...

*UPDATE:  It all seemed so easy, right?  Well, apparently, I didn't measure the blinds exactly and they're closer to 35.75", so they won't fit in the bottom of the window, but we're not positive, so we're going to order  both the 34" and 35" ones.  The other issue is the length. Even though they say 64" long, when pulled all the way down, they pull back up to about 58", so we might order the 72" length, just to be safe.  I can see why people have blinds custom measured!

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Weeks 10, 11, 12

Time to play catch-up!  I feel like I haven't been up to see the house in a long time, but the hubs has been there regularly to see how everything is coming along and has been sending pics.  I'm so excited that the siding is done and can't wait to go see it in person. We've really been worrying about how everything will look, but i think we'll be happy. I think the hubs is a little iffy on the berry shutters, but I like them! It will definitely be one of the more colorful houses in the neighborhood.  It seems like there are a lot of white/yellow houses right now.







I love the brick accent and the extra roof tier with the garage extension!

Monday, November 11, 2013

Closing Scheduled

We finally got our closing date!  We've been asking for what seems like forever for a final date and have just been given ballpark weeks.  The final inspection on the house will be December 4th and we'll close on December 10th.  Can't see we're entirely thrilled with the long wait between the house being finished and closing, though.  If the house can be done this quickly, how long does it take to get the paperwork ready?  I feel like we've given NVR information on every aspect of our life, with the exception of maybe our kindergarten report cards.  Now I need to check on our storage units, because if we have to pay for an extra month, there will be some phone calls made.

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Week 9 - Brick complete and kitchen delivered

So excited to see some pics of stuff that will go into the house!  The brick is exciting, too, I guess!


Love how the counter comes with the sink already installed

Kitchen cabinets!

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Week 8 - Drywall

We went to check the house out late last week and were super excited to see the drywall was all up.  They still need to sand and paint, but it's awesome to see the house with some walls.  They also started our brick this past weekend, so we went over again to see it.  I think we're happy with it, but I'll have a better idea once I see it with some siding.
Garage

Morning Room

Kitchen

Family Room

This is one of the transfer grille's I was talking about in a previous post.


Brick on the back of the house