2 months...

Finally found an acceptable tv stand for the family room.  We wanted something longer and shorter than the sofa table we were using for the tv because we had nothing else.  It looked all wrong so when I finally found this table on target.com I was so excited, also glad they were having a great sale... put it in my cart, go to check out and it wouldn't let me sign in on my phone so I get on the computer sign in... out of stock.  Are you kidding me? It was in my cart 5 minutes before.  I was sad but noticed they had an email address to ask for color swatches so I thought I'd ask about another place to buy it.  I got a response the next morning telling me to keep checking target.com because it should be back in stock in a few days.  Sure enough Saturday morning it came back in stock and the amazing sale was still going on.  (Ten minutes after I bought it, it was back out of stock again so I got super lucky). I saved over a hundred dollars and with my target card got the shipping and extra handling fee taken off.  It mailed right out and arrived here Wednesday afternoon. My amazing husband put it together as soon as he got home from work. Took about an hour.  

I love the look of it, the size and height.  I also love that it freed up the sofa table that I wanted to put in the main entry/ hallway. 

Also this weekend I finally found the navy and white striped rug I was hoping to find for the entry way (Also got one for the mud room).  Before, I had this old red rug that we had in our tiny apartment living room back in 2004.  I am not doing red anywhere in my house so I was anxious to get this old rug out of here (and down to the unfinished basement for the kids to play on).

Before and After

Oh also you can see I finished painting the front door and the pantry.  So far that's all I plan on doing for now.  😊

Our couch finally arrived!! And my 1st house project!

 Yesterday our couch finally arrived! The store upgraded us to white glove delivery and credited our card $75 for all that trouble their delivery service caused.  We are so happy to have a place to sit now and hang out together as a family.

 Let's see if this photo will work, my attempt at a panoramic shot of the main gathering area of the home.  There is still a lot of work to do.  I need to figure out what to hang on the walls.  Ultimately I want to paint the walls (maybe SW agreeable grey... got a sample today, just on the top of the sample it looks tanner than I was going for.  I will see what it looks like when we try it on the wall.  The solid wall in the morning room is going to be a white faux shiplap wall.  I am excited to do that project but also nervous to get started.

Today I got an itch to do a project and this one seemed simple enough.  Lowe's has sample paints on sale for 99 cents thru 07/18.  However home depot is whats closest to us (I don't even know where Lowe's is yet).  Anyway, I thought they would price match it and give me the extra 10% off but they said they didn't know what to do bcuz their paint is so much better than Lowes.... uhhh anyone know if this is true?  Anyway, she offered me half price since I was there.  I took it.  Four kids in home depot, I was not anxious to drive across town to lowes to do it all over again, for a couple dollars difference.   Anyway, I got SW Naval and I did the hall closet door as a test since I wouldn't have to look at it much if I hated it.

 After 1st coat... getting nervous...

    

And here's 3 pics of the finished product because I love it and I am obessed.  I am super excited to buy a gallon and paint many more doors. 

 

I have decided to leave the french doors to the office and off the morning room white.  But I am definitely painting the front door, the pantry door, the laundry room door (since it says closed and is visible from downstairs), the three doors in the mudroom, and probably the linen closet upstairs... the first two I want to do right away though are the front door and the pantry door, they look so blah to me now amd they're what I can see from the couch.  Its funny I find myself back on the stairs like I used to sit when we were still waiting for our couch because I just want to stare at my pretty navy blue door.

If it isn't one thing...

...its another.  And this doesn't have anything to do with our Ryan Homes build, its just life in general these last couple of weeks.

Maybe it all has to do with moving in general as well.  I just can't seem to catch my breath with everything I have on my plate.

Last week it was my van dying.  And my tire popping from a construction screw.  This week its our couch being delivered by an incompetent driver who decided in front of our home that he thought the couch packaging numbers were wrong and he would not give it to us, or even let us see it or let us show him our order or photos of what it should look like, instead telling us "no delivery for you today" (he barely spoke english by the way, so getting that sentence out of him was pretty much all we got)  and in turn caused lots of trouble.  I've been on the phone for hours today with the delivery company, and the couch place that hired them.  The best they could do was say they will try to get it on another truck and back out to us for delivery sometime next week! Are you serious???

 Also this week I've been in contact with GE because our microwave is doing something crazy, so far the customer service rep has been kind and professional, I emailed back photos and hopefully they will be replacing our microwave.  Not sure what else can be done to fix this issue.  Photos below of the microwave problem:

Tomorrow our PM and his crew are coming to fix our 30 day issues.  I want these things fixed but I am not looking forward to having people in my house all day, and not being able to go anywhere. I wish we could have blue taped and had things fixed prior to closing bcuz I feel like had we done that my desire to not have anyone mess up my house in the process of "fixing" it would have won out and we would deal with anything extra or wait it out until the drywall thing in a year.  But since there was no blue taping and fixing issues before closing I feel the need to have them fix these things, because there are many. Anyway, tomorrow will be interesting with a house full of workers and my 4 kids running around.

We still need to get our drivers licenses changed, which we thought we had more time than we do, but found out when our van died that we need to do some extra inspection things here in PA and get all the car stuff fixed right away.  Of course our van was dead so getting that stuff done wasn't happening, so now its on the top of our list of things to do.

 The propane company hasn't contacted us back yet in about a month about our application they had us fill out.  Still confused how that all works, also found out our neighborhood is now eligible to get natural gas hooked up and I'm not sure what that means for us... are we out of luck? Are we stuck in this propane contract Ryan homes made us sign?   Maybe I could get some information if the neighborhood FB group would approve our requests to join, its been a month and we can't get them to let us in...

My daughter sprained her ankle at tennis camp today and came home and threw up because it made her queasy... wish I could say it didn't get all over the wall in the bathroom... with that paint Ryan homes uses that we all know wipes down so easily... 😕

I have been feeling more and more sad to not have my mom here to show her the house or to help me decorate. All these things I've just blogged about I probably wouldn't have even felt the need to share except that I don't have my mom, who was also my best friend, to vent to or share the fun stuff with. I find I can get through the day and not let it get to me, but its every night when I cry myself to sleep just missing her and wishing she were here to listen to me or help me figure out what to do.

I am feeling like I'm at the end of my rope, just hanging on.  I am ready for everything to calm down and feel normal.  No more issues with appliances, furniture deliveries, not knowing how to pay HOA fees, needing to get new licenses and car registrations, registering kids for school, kids getting sick or hurt, house defects needing to be addressed, cars breaking down or getting flat tires... I need a break from the mounting bills and more and more problems that need to be solved. I guess that's just life, but I am hoping for a smoother ride going forward because these last few weeks have felt heavy to carry.

Okay, that is all.  Sorry I'm such a downer tonight.

One Month In...

I am so excited that I can take photos in front of my house again now that our PM replaced our two dead trees by the front door.  They don't warranty landscaping so we knew it might be a long shot getting the trees replaced, we hoped for the really really dead one because it was dead before we closed.  Anyway the second our PM came by for our post settlement follow up on Monday morning our adorable 4 year asked him for a new tree.  Who could resist her request? Haha. It was too funny, I couldn't believe she ran right up and asked him. Wonder if we would have had the same luck as her if we were the ones who asked?   😉

 Anyway, came home this morning from being away a couple hours, to our two front trees being replaced. What a nice surprise!

 In other news we worked for an hour or so Saturday afternoon, putting all the littles to work as well 😄 and we finally got all the boxes and furniture out of the garage and can park both of our cars in the garage.  We love it.


Tonight, my sweet husband, after working a full day, going with me to pick up my van from the mechanic (dead alternator), and then going to a tire store to attempt to have my tire plugged (dumb construction site screws!!! Makes me mad I go around picking them up out of the roads in an effort to save everyone's tires and I end up with one in my very expensive tire... ugh.) Anyway, it couldn't be plugged, and we had to order a new tire since they didn't have the size we needed... but he came home from doing all that and still managed to muster up the energy to hang my new curtain rods and curtains in the family room.  Love that man!

As you can see we are slowly... very slowly... pulling together our family room.  Still waiting on that couch to be delivered. Think it'll be after the holiday now. Bummer.

 But we are loving it coming together. I am not a decorator but I wish I was. Its fun for me but hard to know if certain patterns and colors will work together.

Sunday night I wrote a blog post but kept it as a draft because I thought I would contact Ryan Homes first and let them try to fix our problem before venting publicly.  So glad that I did that because they fixed our problem right away.  We hadn't heard from our PM once since pre settlement and we were over 30 days.  We heard our new neighbors were about to have a 10 day post settlement follow up and that felt wrong to us that we hadn't even heard from him, and our things pre settlement never were fixed.  Anyways, I emailed our SR and was probably over dramatic but I have been extra emotional lately... he emailed back first thing in the morning, then we got a phone call from our PM and he scheduled to come over that morning to do our post settlement follow up. 

Turned out there was a mix up btw two PMs we had, an old one and a new one and each thought the other was handling our follow ups and actually that meant no one was. And since we didn't have any contact information for our PM we had no way to let him know we were being forgotten. 

Anyway, its all fixed now.  Next Thursday we are scheduled to have our issues addressed, which include scratches in hardwood floors, wall touch ups on drywall and paint, a new window, vinyl in kids bath, shutter and garage door. 

We received our survey in an email and will be filling it out as soon as our things are all fixed.  Can't believe its been a month in our house here.  :) 

Home Depot Price Matching

Okay, I may be slow, and I have heard of price matching before but haven't ever tried it out before and definitely not AFTER the purchase either but today I gave it a try.  I am a bargain shopper (sometimes even to a fault), we don't ever make big purchases or go on vacations (married 12.5 years still not even a honeymoon-lol.), and I always shop around for the best price on the things I do buy.  Yes I even shop at multiple grocery stores to make sure I get the best deal on food as well.  My bargain shopping is also why we still do not have a couch in our family room nearly a month after moving in-- because after falling in love with a really nice sectional (nicer than any piece of furniture we've ever owned) at the local furniture store I looked for it online and found it for nearly a thousand dollars cheaper through an online retailer... they are taking their sweet time delivering it and everyday we get a little more anxious to receive it but definitely worth the savings in our opinion.

 Anyway, I really shouldn't make a habit of checking prices of things I've already bought since it drives me crazy if I find a better deal after the fact but in this case it managed to work out in our favor.  I noticed Home Depot's Red, White and Blue sale had started and just out of curiosity wanted to see if they had a better deal on my washer and dryer at their Memorial day sale or their 4th of July sale-- I fully expected the Memorial day sale to be the best price and I was just going to go on my way being happy with my good deal... ummm nope! They now had my washer and dryer set for over $80 cheaper (total plus taxes).  

After being disappointed about it but really knowing there was nothing to do about it, we had needed a washer and dryer right away and it would have been super inconvenient to have not been able to do laundry this month waiting around for the 4th of july sale... so I really decided it was okay because it was something we needed.

 Then I had the thought about price matching and price adjustments.  A quick google search told me home depot did 14 days.  We were definitely out of the 14 days but I thought it couldn't hurt to ask on their convenient little chat feature on their website.  The rep there told me they do price matching and will refund money within 30 days of the purchase. The rep was super helpful and got our refund all worked out, sent me a confirmation email with the receipt for the over $80 going back on our card! I can't tell you how much this made my day!!! (I was so excited I joked we should go to Olive Garden to celebrate the extra money coming back to us... instead I boiled a box of pasta and a package of hot dogs and we had hot dogs and pasta salad as planned ;) )

We have been frequenting Home Depot since we moved in, bought the washer and dryer, a lawn mower (3 times actually, there is a story for another day), and all our ceiling fans , plus little things like hose, sprinkler, grout sealer, hardwood floor cleaner, drywall anchors, etc... they are the closest home improvement store to our house but they also have the best prices (or you can believe me I would drive further if the deals were better somewhere else). Anyway, we have been shopping there quite a bit and we keep having very positive experiences with pricing, selection, and customer service-- so I just wanted to share our experience and also give others a heads up about the awesome price matching policy they have! Also, if you are still in the market for appliances their Red, White and Blue sale seems to be one of their bigger sales of the year for sure so definitely check it out! :)

One week in...

One week in our new Ryan Home and you aren't getting rid of me so easily.  It makes me sad when people stop blogging after their build is over, or even just part way through their build bcuz I love reading those blogs so much (seriously if I could make a career out of it I would)-- I don't know if anyone cares to continue to read this blog but I plan on continually updating it as we go along anyway.  I have been a family blogger since 2007 and kind of stopped once facebook and instagram came into play bcuz sharing there was so much quicker-- anyway I don't think fb or instagram care to see my house updates so I will channel all my house excitement into my blog posts. :) 

Today marked one full week actually waking up in our house (though I suppose it technically wasn't since we went and slept in MD on Memorial Day so the kids could go to school one last day).  Anyway, it was our first Sunday attending our new church and it was exciting to meet all the new people.  After dinner tonight we walked the neighborhood with some ice cream sandwiches for a treat, as you can see some evidence of that in this photo we took afterwards.  (First family selfie on our new front porch btw ;) )

 On our walk I snapped this photo of the back of our house.  If you look closely you can see where my husband gave up on mowing that crazy steep hill!

 Sorry, these photos are so random, this is how my children watch a show right now while we have no family room furniture.  Hopefully Ryan Homes will be able to come fix our drywall issue before we get the family room furnished and decorated, then at least something good will come out of having no couch for a few weeks.

This photo I took and texted to my landscaping managment major brother and asked of this poor sad tree will "come back". He basically laughed and told me its dead. He said it either didn't get enough water or was planted poorly by the landscaper, or it was just a bad tree from the nursery.  Either way it isn't coming back.  We know its not a water issue since it rained for 3 straight weeks before we moved in-- Ryan Homes made us sign a paper saying they don't warranty landscaping, which makes sense but seeing as this tree was dead before we closed I am hoping they will replace it for us. That is one of my questions for our PM.

Thursday was my husbands first day back to work after taking over a week off to move-- my goal for that day was to finish unpacking the kitchen and have the island cleared off and clean! Totally accomplished my goal minutes before he arrived home.  (I also mowed the front yard, did laundry, and gave my aunt and uncle a tour of the house that day too).  Anyway, really love my pretty kitchen, it totally motivates me to keep it as clean as possible (with 4 littles running around... seriously makes us re consider our decision to buy a nice home while we still raising children. Lol.)

I took this photo when an old family friend asked where my laundry room was... but I am posting this to help illustrate this scary moment we had yesterday afternoon... my 4 year old decided it would be a good idea to climb along that railing from the stairs side in. Meaning when she made it all the way over to the corner and looked down she was over 10 feet off the ground. Thankfully, she was fine and managed to get back on safe ground quickly and it certainly scared her enough that we hope she won't ever do that again!

 Wednesday our washer and dryer were finally delivered (after a missed delivery Saturday morning, Wednesday afternoon was the soonest they had). Laundry is my favorite chore in the world to do. I love everything about it, is that weird? Anyway, its been extra fun with my new machines... only down side I have found now with these large, high efficiency machines is I have less loads to do, which means less time doing laundry. Bummer.  But I'll survive.  Hopefully its going to help cut down on costs too bcuz holy cow the bills have already started rolling in... one week in!!

Tuesday night when we got back from our two day trip to MD we found that our PM had pulled up the dead sod and replaced it with new. So happy about that!

 One more photo, from the day we moved in. The kids enjoyed popsicles on the front porch, that our sweet neighbor brought over. (You can clearly see that sad tree was already dead when we got here.)

Anyway, thats our first week in the house, randomly and backwards.  Other things that happened this week were my new nephew Emerson was born on wednesday in MD and I went down to meet him.  Friday we drove down again for an orthodontist appt and to say goodbye to my sister and her two babies who moved to California later that afternoon. Its been a busy busy week.  Hoping this week will be a little slower paced and I hope to stay home lots and get more unpacked.  Also on the agenda is sorting out some utility bill issues, and getting our pool passes so my littles can swim!!! :)

We Closed!!!

So we actually managed to close on Friday afternoon at 1pm.  It was nothing short of a miracle.  And there was so much drama in the first couple hours of the morning on the phone with NVR.  (I will admit I cried like a baby on the phone, and demanded they close us no matter who had to stay late the day before their long weekend vacation.) 

We give all the credit to our amazing SR who jumped right in and got in contact with everyone involved and their bosses as well.  Our loan processor got ahold of someone at USDA and pleaded our case- the rep. he spoke with said she was leaving for the long weekend at 11:30am but promised to get us approved before she left.   And that she did. NVR worked quickly from then on to get everything in order and scheduled our closing for 1pm. It went pretty smoothly from there, and was pretty uneventful. 

We got the keys, drove up and moved some things that night.  Yesterday was the big move and we are now getting settled in. Still lots more to do but we are loving the new house. 

Here are a couple photos of my favorite things so far... of course the morning room, and the kitchen, and then the view from my bedroom window. Loved waking up to that this morning!