3 days in

Just dawned on me I never published this post! :o. So here it is late.  Originally written end of April.  New updates to come shortly.

We've owned the home now for 3 days.  Thought I'd give a brief update.  Our POD with the majority of our stuff isn't being delivered for 2 weeks, so we're not fully moving in until then.  In the mean time we've moved most of the stuff from my in laws and brothers.  We've still have what we're living with at parents to move.

Thankfully with help from our parents we've accomplished a lot this weekend.

Stairwell torn out.

Top of stairwell.  Hopefully the new spindles will be here soon!

4/6 ceiling fans installed

Mudroom, caused by me with the silly hinge doorstops.

These stupid doorstops have all been replaced.

New door stops!

Bonus room play room has some TOYS!  At least kids can be somewhat occupied while we're moving.  To give an idea of size, that's a fairly big bounce house in the back.

Backsplash has been started.  Andrew's trying to convince me to use light grey grout instead of white.  Stay tuned...

Table and chandelier installed.  Chairs to come.

Landscaping issue :(  I don't want to dig out under the sidewalk so I'm still investigating.)

Picked up 21 of the 24 sets of blinds.  Waiting for 3 special orders then Home Depot will be here to install :)

I'm also trouble shooting trying to get our exterior lights to work dusk to dawn automatically.  Then I'm also thinking about sealing the basement floor.  Still searching for all of that :)

Less than 3 weeks...

I have started to write this blog several times but my mind is so all over the place I'm having a hard time focusing.  So here goes...

The house is finally locked up so I haven't been able to get in much.  Andrew was able to get in and instead of sending me lots of phone pictures he sent me tons of problems :(

I'm still not sure how anyone thought this was a good idea.  Originally it was all drywalled but our project manager cut the drywall so they can and fix it.  Having conduit sticking out like a handle in the garage is not acceptable.  I know, I'm picky.

Reminder to have repaired - yet I've already forgotten which room this is!

Boys bathroom, reminder to have repaired.

On the other hand I was able to get in yesterday and get some other pictures.

House with grading.  There quite a slope on the left, but that's the smallest part of our yard, so really no big deal.

Exterior lights.  I was hoping for the larger lights like a lot of other homes in our community but apparetly the elevation we chose gets these lights.  Future project.

Entry way.  Still loving my decision to have them move the return air vent here :)

2 of the three entry/hall lights.  I'm thinking I'm going to need to change these out fairly soon to something a bit more "rustic" looking to match the house.  They really are pretty, but whoever called them "boob lights" has completely ruined it for me.

The 3rd entry/hall light with the dining room light in the back.  Again, replacing that light for something a bit more rustic.  Handrail that still needs stained. 

Half walls to be removed and replaced with wrought iron rails soon!

Powder room.  It'll probably stay like that for awhile.

Standing in the kitchen looking at the great room.  Could to go on far wall and right wall.  TV between windows.  Office behind the door at the end.

Morning room where our new dining room table will go.

Standing in the corner of the dining room looking into the great room on the left, kitchen on the right.  The door on the left is to the basement and the double doors are the pantry.  The opening on the left is the hallway/entry way and the opening on the right is to the yet to be decided room :)

KITCHEN!  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it.  We've ordered the exact same cabinets for our big island.  Again, to be built before moving in.

Future refrigerator.  Where's the water line for the ice maker???

He insisted I shut him in here.

Master bath

Project manager says they will be out this week Monday and Tuesday to finish drywall repairs and paint Wednesday.  Granite should arrive middle of the week.

Then there's the whole idea of moving and all of the stuff we need inside this house.  I have coupons from Lowes and Wayfair that are about to expire so I've been trying see if there's anything there.  I did finally purchase door paint, red and black.  Today we also purchased backsplash tile and grout for the kitchen.  I'm hoping this week to buy the great room ceiling fan.  Home Depot should be calling Monday to schedule to come out and measure. We're still looking for a fridge and island granite.  I know I need to make a trip to Ikea to buy Austin's new loft bed.  He also too needs a mattress and bedding.  We need a new king mattress and bed and bedding.  We're planning to try Tuft & Needle for mattresses.  Sooooo much still to do!!!

White backsplash tile with white grout

One option, but with darker, more black blades

This is the great room ceiling fan I am leaning towards.

Chandelier ordered for over new dining room table

Pre-Construction Meeting complete!

Well, we finally met Kevin, our Project Manager, yesterday.  We really liked him.  He has lots of Ryan Homes experience.  He went through the plan and our selections and answered all of our questions.  Andrew is still a bit concerned about the size of the garage and whether or not our boat will fit.  It's within inches, so it'll be close either way...

Also, Kevin is willing to let me bring my own paint for the front door.  I wanted red, but they really just had more of a muted, fall red.  I want a brighter red.  So now I'll be searching to find the right red :)  (And check that off my to-do list for once we move in!)  Even as I type this I am thinking I will wait until the brick and siding is up to decide, assuming that's a possibility.  I am guessing they don't paint the front door until one of the last things?!?!

Just realized I never posted this.  This is the brick, black shutters, white garage door, and the only red front door option they had.  They actually have 2 different samples of this brick.  One looks more brown and lighter and we actually prefer that one.  I took this picture as a worst case scenario.  Missing is the shake & siding.  (See below)

This is the siding.  There is no siding on the front of the house.  So this is basically the side and back of the house.

This is the shake.  It is on the front with the brick.

This isn't our home, but its the exact elevation we chose as well as VERY similar colors.  So, this is basically what ours will look like from the outside...just add a red door :)

This is one my Interior Designer friend suggested - Benjamin Moore’s Heritage Red

This is the other - Benjamin Moore’s Caliente  I think I like this one better but to be honest my non-decorating eye can't tell much of a difference! :P

When going through, I also let Kevin know if he accidentally put balusters instead of a capped wall on the staircase we'd be good with that :) Otherwise that's our plan before we move in, right after the island.

Kevin plans to call each Friday to check in with us.  He understands completely that we will probably be out there or driving by daily.  (He said he would too if he were building a new home!)  We live close enough that is literally just a few minutes of out of the way.  We know too from past experience that it will happen fast.  If someone makes a mistake (which we expect, we all make mistakes) we're hoping we might be able to catch it.

They will begin clearing our lot today, stake the home on Wednesday, dig the hole on Thursday and maybe even had a footer poured on Friday! :o  With the warmer temps we've experienced this week, I am hoping they continue for another week or so and let the foundation really dry.  (Can you read my non-construction expertise coming out?)

Dumpsters are there for removing the trees and brush.  He's planning to save as many big trees as possible, but the majority of this will have to be cleared.  Our house has a 60' set back and they like to clear 30' around the house.

And of course before I even managed to get this post up, we've driven by and they're clearing trees!

He said they estimate it takes about 58 business days assuming everything goes perfect.  They're still telling us May 1, even though those 58 business days means more like mid-April.  The last houses on our street all sold last month so it'll be a busy time of building these next few months.  We are glad to be one of the last homes; construction traffic will be gone! :)

Our current house is still moving through the sale process.  Planning to close at the end of next month.  That will be a relief!  Planning to get a POD for storage.  DREADING packing!  It'd be so much easier to sell everything and just buy new.  Thankfully Andrew keeps talking me down from that bridge!

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.