Final walk through

Closing is Thursday!

Final walk through yesterday went well.  We marked several minor drywall repairs.  There was a hole on the insulation on the garage door that they had "repaired" with duct tape, so they're going to "fix" that.  They're going to repair a shingle that's missing, leave us some extra hardwood, replace a cabinet door and figure out why there isn't a gfi in the kitchen.  The sod is looking ok.  He admitted though that it was supposed to be watered over the weekend but someone dropped the ball.  He's confident it will come back, but if not they will take care of it.  I got a contact name so I can figure out what all of the plants are in front of the house.  We talked about granite and hardwood cleaning.  He suggested a 409 granite cleaner (I've heard good about Method granite cleaner) and Bruce for hardwood (we like Bona better so we will continue to use that.)  He also suggested closing upstairs vents in the winter and downstairs in the summer.  I hadn't heard that, so we may try that?!?!  It's a fairly big house so saving that gas & electric bill will be helpful.  I did get some inside pictures but I totally forgot the basement and exterior.  This was my first go with panoramic mode on my camera, sorry.

House on lot, note spotty sod.

Alex's bedroom

2nd floor laundry with tub instead of a closet.

Adam's bedroom

 

Boys bathroom

Austin's bedroom

Huge bonus/play room.

Master bedroom

Master bath with closet in the back and tub to the right.

Officially the dining room, but we're using it as a sitting room with no tv.  Light will need changed.

Standing where refrigerator will go.  Looking at kitchen, morning/dining room, and great room.  Office is the door at the far end.  Island to come this weekend!

Standing in the morning/dining room.  Kitchen on the right, sitting room through doorway on right, pantry is the double doors, basement is the single door, hallway/entryway/mudroom is the next doorway, great room on the left, office through the door on the far left.

Entryway.  Mudroom on the left and powder room up farther on the left.  Considering painting the back of the front door black?!?!

We are starting to plan to get some loads of stuff there this weekend.  At this point we have stuff stored at both sets of parents and my brothers.  So we'll spend the next 2 weeks getting that unloaded.  Also, hopefully get the island installed this weekend and work on the backsplash.  All while keeping the yard watered!

We ordered a traveling sprinkler to try out and see if it helps water all of the grass!

 

13th week update???

Oh no!  I have lost count of the weeks.  I think we just finished up week 13.  We have our final walk through tomorrow and close on Thursday. There's not a ton to update since I updated midweek.  I do though have to share a picture of my fabulous red door, columns and sod!

Loving this pic!  Storm clouds moving in, but the door, the columns, the grass!

Close up

Not impressed with the lack of watering they did this weekend.  Thankfully we have good neighbors who watered a bit for us.   Hopefully the sod is starting to take hold.

I do have a list of things to ask the Project Manager about tomorrow.

• Is it possible to remove more brush in the backyard?
• There's a random missing or discolored shingle.
• Bonus room seams on the ceiling
• Can they leave us some extra hardwood? (They did vinyl and carpet.)
• Crown molding around cabinet isn't tight.
• Trim around garage is pieced instead of a single piece.
• Garage door panel insulation has a tear.
• I need to know about taking care of granite.
• What are the different plants that are planted?
• Some random drywall spots to bring up.

Not sure too about putting some sort of protection on the carpets.  We got the base carpet, mainly because of the kids, and plan to replace in a few years or so.  But I'm thinking we should "scotch guard" to help us out a bit.  Any experiences?

We also got the blinds ordered, 24 windows total!  (3 of which were in the garage.)  Still deciding on cabinet knobs and making arrangements to get the cabinets for the island and pick up our table this weekend.  The fridge is supposed to be delivered Friday but I think I'm going to try to push that back a week so the backsplash can be finished without having to deal with the fridge there.  Also looking for curtains for the boys room.  The rest of the rooms can wait.  But with early bedtimes they get the darkout curtains so those are a must.

I went to order our chandelier and it's out of stock! :o  I did get Austin's new bedding ordered though from Bed, Bath & Beyond.  It should be our first package to arrive.

Austin's bedding

**UPDATE - I checked and we did just finish week 13,  AND I checked and our chandelier is back in stock at World Market, so I ordered it!!! :D

It's getting close...

It's almost finished!  It should be finished by the end of this coming week, beginning of next week. Carpet, drywall repairs, columns, sod/grass/landscaping, painting front door, uncovering basement bath rough-in, etc.  Then we will walk through early next week before we close on 4/28.

Granite is in.  Exterior lights are on.  Concrete driveway, sidewalk and front porch have been poured.

We still have a list of things we're not happy with.  A few I am planning to send to our Project Manager Monday, the rest will be brought up at our final walk through before closing.

Lots of concrete poured!

View of the cul-de-sac from the garage.  (With kids already playing in the driveway.)

Mudroom.  They've uncovered the hardwood so I insisted everyone remove their shoes :)

Powder room.

Partial view of great room and kitchen.

Stairway with stained handrail.  Again, half walls to be removed upon closing.  Still kicking myself for not getting that upgrade from the beginning :(

Sitting Room.  Not sure what to do about the chandelier in here yet. 

And we have water for the ice maker!

1st floor office, carpet to come.

Dining Room for our new table & chandelier!

Another kitchen picture with granite.  Island to be built after closing.  Notice the drywall repairs that need done.  I requested they not put up the little 3 inch backsplash of granite since we want to install our own backsplash immediately.  Well apparently the guy doing it cut his finger the job prior and bled all over the work order telling them not to install the backsplash :o  So now they're going to have to fix this.  Better them than me!

Front porch.  Columns still to come.  Door needs painted still as well.

This is in the bonus room.  I don't really understand how a wall can get that uneven, but I am bringing this to his attention Monday morning.

This is the upstairs hallway/  Again, the "hook" at the end will probably drive us crazy forever, so I am also bringing this to his attention Monday.

In terms of decorating and actually getting the house move in ready, we bought the refrigerator. Home Depot will be out this week to measure for blinds.  I've got a few leads for granite distributors.  Our dining room table is almost finished.  I'm trying to decide on what chairs to put wit it.  I've decided to hold off on a rug in there.  I do want a rug for the great room sooner rather than later.  I still need the ceiling fan, some end tables, and accent chairs.  I'm really waiting mostly so everything can go directly to the new house instead of having to be moved.  I called and have gas & electric, water & sewer, and trash all started.  We also made a last minute decision to change auto/home insurance back to Progressive after a few years away.  All of our paperwork is complete with NVR Mortgage. 

Sneak peak of our dining room table that is almost finished!

Chandelier that we finally decided on for above our new table!

Samsung fridge we ordered from Lowes.

I can't decide!

Today we decided to walk through a model again.  We found a model of our exact Palermo (elevation D) but after the 30 minute drive we found out they were closed today :(  So we ended up back at the original Palermo model we've walked through already a few times.

I am doubting our (my) granite selection so I was hoping seeing it in person would help.
We have selected white cabinets with a black/gray hardwood floor.  Currently we have selected Caledonia granite.  I am thinking that may be too dark.  My other favorite was Azul Platino. Even at our selection meeting I was stumped.  Thoughts?

On the left is my current selection.  The right is what I'm considering changing it to.

While we were there I took a few pictures just to remind myself how they decorated some of their rooms (very kid friendly..haha)

Mudroom  (Alex wasn't up for posing.)  We will do some sort of built in here on the right for the boys shoes and coats and such.  There is a closet on the left for Andrew & I's coats and shoes.

1st floor powder room - Is it driving anyone else crazy that that lid is up???

Great room.  (Ours will have no fireplace, so we'll for sure need a bigger tv :P.)  I LOVE the look of this room!  I also love that there is no couch on this end of the room dividing the area.  instead it looks much bigger and wide open.  Notice the office door at the far end.

 Morning room.  We too plan to use this as a dining room.  Love their table!  Debating on the idea of putting a rug under the table.  Thinking with 3 littles right now we should go without a rug.  (We do not have the 2 extra windows on the right, so I will need to find a large picture or something to go on that wall.)

Looking at the kitchen from the morning room/backdoor.    The double doors are the pantry and that glass door is the basement.  (Ours will be solid until the basement is finished.) The kitchen is still by far my favorite place in the house.

Laundry room is pretty small.  We have opted for a utility sink to the right instead of a closet. It's on the second floor though which is perfect!  I've pinned a few ideas including building the pedestal so that laundry baskets can slide under for sorting.  Not sure how that would work with the drain thingie.

Master bedroom.  This one has a 4' extension, so it's a bit bigger than ours (and probably much more fancy than mine will ever look too.)

Bonus room!  Super excited for this room.  I'm still not sure what we'll even put in this room.  I think the boys Jungle Jumperoo they are getting for their birthday will be perfect along with maybe an air hockey table?!?!

And then while we were there my dad mentioned how much he loved the wrought iron balusters (which I totally do too) but it was an upgrade we decided against to "stop the bleeding" (quote courtesy of my husband.)  So now we will have a half wall there.  Should we reconsider???

Capped wall.  Ours would not have the extra crown molding.

This is pretty close to what ours would look like with white spindles and the dark hardwood. 

Sooo...I took the time earlier today to write this entire post.  In the meantime realized we were past the date of making changes!  So, Caledonia granite and capped wall it is :)  (Heading over to update the to do list because I'm confident Andrew could do the spindles for us once we are all settled.)

Side note, we are still playing phone tag with NVR mortgage gathering all of the documents they need from us.
Should be meeting our Project Manager and having our Pre-Construction Meeting towards the middle - end of January.