Time flies!!!!

Hello all! As with many moving into our new home has taken up all of our time and we now find ourselves past the 30 day mark and wondering where the time has gone. We love our new home and its hard to imagine a time when we didn't live here...well at least until about 6am every morning when construction on our neighbors homes resume! A lot has gone on inside our own home though so here is a rundown:

Our closing went great! Other than a minor detail on some paperwork that we had to wait for, we were done in a relatively short amount of time- about 45 minutes. Yay! As with many we had our NVR woes throughout the process but overall it wasn't too bad. I was pretty happy though to get a letter in the mail a few weeks ago saying that NVR had sold our loan to Wells Fargo. We had our previous loan with them and they made it easy to manage.

Moving in was pretty hectic but with the help of family and friends we were able to get everything in pretty quickly. I am Almost finished unpacking all the boxes yet I feel that as soon as I finish one box another appears in its place a if there is an magical place that stores them.

We did, however, experience more construction chaos on our very first morning in the house.  Apparantly, unbeknownst to us, our house came with a waterfall feature in the kitchen...just one of the "free upgrades" you might ask?  Yep...we go down into the kitchen after hubby takes a shower and find a significant leak coming from one of the pot lights in the kitchen.  Catastrophe!!!  So on the very first day in our new home we had almost EVERY one of the sub contractors back in the house...plumber, drywall, painter, electrician...they were all back in the house.  I have to say that PM and assistant PM were great about getting everything coordinated and fixed as soon as possible so that we didn't have to deal with the problem for long.  Of course, this happened on a day that I had several deliveries scheduled so not only were the subs in and out of the house, but our new TV was delivered and our blinds installed (I reccommend paying $118 to Home Depot to have it installed...they were very professional and had the entire house done in less than an hour).  To fix the issue in the ceiling they had to cut a hole the size of my island into the ceiling to make sure that there wasn't any wet drywall left behind.  According to my assistant PM, the seal around the drain pipe in the master bath shower broke when weight was put on it along with hot water.  It appears that when the seal was installed, it did not set properly presumably due to the extremely cold temperatures that we've experienced this winter.  So when we went to use the shower, it came loose causing the leak.  PM and asst PM were great about getting this resolved as quickly as possible.  I can, however, still see the patch in the kitchen where they cut into the drywall so that will be something that I add to our 1yr paint/drywall list. 

 

Here are pics of the winter wonderland that we've experienced in our house (including just last night! its beautiful but when is spring coming???)

Signed, sealed and delivered!

The papers have been signed and sealed- the keys delivered! We are the proud owners of our very own Rome! (pics and more to come- including commentary on living next to construction)

Final Loan Approval!

After a harrowing 48 hours in which I talked with my LO more than my own mother so that we could get the last documents needed for underwriting- we got our final loan approval! We are ready to sign on the dotted line and move on in!

We had our final walkthrough yesterday and everything looks beautiful! I was so excited that I forgot to take pics of the inside! Here are a couple of extra pics of the outside now that the landscaping is done.

Almost there!

Final walkthrough is on Wednesday and settlement is next Friday!!!!

PLEASE READ- if you are building a ROME with 42 inch cabinets

For all my fellow Rome bloggers or those contemplating building a Ryan Homes Rome model- beware of the bulkhead if you have chosen to upgrade your kitchen cabinets to 42 inches!  With 42 inch cabinets it may leave you very little space- 14 inches to be exact- between countertop/top of the stove to the bottom of the cabinets.  Its not a close up picture but you can see how close the microwave is to the stove...standing in front of the stove/microwave Hubby couldn't even see the knobs to the stove and my crab boiling pot would certainly not fit in the small space!!! With our closing just a few short weeks away, we were frustrated that this wasn't noticed by our PM prior to the cabinets being installed or even when the bulkhead was being finished.  When we visited the ROME model we noticed that the bulkhead was jogged up to accommodate for the 42 inch cabinets but that in our home this was not done.  PM assured us that it would get corrected and earlier this week I visited the house to find someone working on jogging the bulkhead up the 4 inches that we would need to have adequate clearance for the appliances (Timberlake manuals, appliance manuals and many of the county codes require there to be 18 inches between countertop and bottom of cabinets).  So when looking to upgrade your cabinets in the Rome model make sure you keep an eye on the bulkead above where the cabinets will sit so that they don't have to cut into the drywall to fix something that could have been avoided.

Not a close up but you can see how close the microwave is to the stove.

The guy showing me how far up he was going bring the bulkhead.

The now jogged bulkhead...everything should fit now!  Such a relief as the refrigerator is non returnable and I just love by big coffee pot too much to downsize! 

15 Panel Door, Tile and a nice surprise!!!

I met with PM yesterday to walk through the house but this was quickly nixed as they were spray painting the entire inside of the house. But we were able to have a nice little chat about the progress with the house and what the progression of events would look like over the next few weeks. Now that the house has been painted he said that I would see tile in the upstairs bathrooms and laundry room. Granite may be going in by the end of the week!

Since I wasn't able to go into the house yesterday you know that I stopped by today not expecting much but finding that there had been A LOT happening. Our non standard request of having a 15 panel door in the study was delivered and oil rubbed bronze handles were installed on doors throughout the house. But the most exciting part of my visit today came when I went upstairs and found that all my tile had been installed! When I saw the master bathroom I had to do a little happy dance as the tile went above the shower head. Bonus points for my PM on that one! We had read a couple of blogs where adding tile above the shower head was either an upgrade or a non standard request. But as you can imagine, we figured out that we REALLY wanted this after the change request deadline had expired. In one of our many conversations with PM we mentioned this. He never made any promises but said that of we could get the extra tile from the flooring company that he would have it put in. Well, we were never able to get that so I thought that this was an option that would be just a woulda shoulda coulda kind of thing. As I write this I am still thrilled to my toes! Thanks PM!

Beatiful Suprise!!! YAY for my PM!



Guest bathroom...not to great of light since it was already starting to get dark when I went...it still needs to be grouted

Laundry Room...still needs grout

Door handle...oil rubbed bronze...an upgrade but one that is in most models

Our non standard request...for the study

It's all in the details!!!!

Now that we are at the 1 month mark to moving into our new Rome Home the progress takes on a completely different look. When everything started it seemed like everything moved at a pretty fast pace (I mean it seemed like the framing went up in less than a day!) So for anyone who is building or contemplating building a new home- that fast pace will seem to slow down after the pre drywall meeting with your PM but if you look closely there are still a lot of things going on in your new home. After reading so many other blogs I decided to forego my daily visits to my beloved homesite and instead go only every other day =) After staying away for a couple of days I found that there had been a lot of little things happening at my Rome. The porch columns and kitchen cabinets were being installed, the entire house had a new coat of paint, the base boards were in, most of the doors were installed, the banisters were up, bathroom vanities installed, attic access installed and...wait I think that's it. Whew! When I write it out it seems like a lot more than what it appeared in person. Here are the pics:

Yay for the kitchen cabinets!! The one above the refrigerator is too big for the LG model that we purchased but PM assures me that he is ordering a special custom cabinet to ensure that it fits (I sent him an email with the specs prior to install so I was suprised that the wrong size cabinet was installed...I  really hope he comes through- the fridge is non-returnable!!!)

Kids ( and guest bathroom)

Master Vanity

Ballister railing- in many areas this is an upgrade and NOT standard...though of course it is featured in many of the models!

Attic Access- still needs paint!