Microwave shelf....
Kitchen's looking just about done....just missing the fridge that is being delivered tomorrow.
Shoe molding not so bad after all, at least it is not round....
Soooooooooooooooo close........
Thursday, April 28, 2011
So Close I can Taste it...i think....
Microwave shelf....Kitchen's looking just about done....just missing the fridge that is being delivered tomorrow.Shoe molding not so bad after all, at least it is not round....Soooooooooooooooo close........
Friday, April 22, 2011
Delivery
Well I am using my Good Friday to sit at the house and wait for appliances. One company had me schedule online so i picked 8-12 (they will be here soon, almost 11am) another one i scheduled 12-2 and they got here right at 10...hoping that ABC warehouse doesn't shop up at like 6pm....they wouldn't give me a window! (But they are calling me 45 minutes before dropping off!
Like my picture of my school work in the corner? Don't worry Brad, I won't be messy in my new house! Oh wait this is my new house!
Friday, April 15, 2011
Moving day
So we finally have a date for closing. It's drawn in pencil rather than pen, but at least it's a date. 4/27.
The mortgage is all set, insurance has been figured out, and the builder thinks construction should be complete by then. So, assuming closing does take place then, we'll move in on 4/30. That's just two weeks away.
The mortgage is all set, insurance has been figured out, and the builder thinks construction should be complete by then. So, assuming closing does take place then, we'll move in on 4/30. That's just two weeks away.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Almost there!
Getting ready to pour the garage!!!!
Hmmm Sean thought that maybe these lights wouldn't work....but they look good!
Pretty!
9am hardwood floor begins to be laid....
Our bathroom is definitely growing on me!
It....it...it looks like an actual real bedroom...who will be our first guest????
Hardwood floors look AWESOME....we definitely picked the right color!
This corner looked dark until the flash went off.....our floors will be color changing too just like the wallls...I love my house....I move in NOW??????????
Great Pose!
I am MUCH cuter!
Sooo excited! Even met more neighbors today! :)
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Brick is Cleaned...
Floors are delivered and will be installed this week....Stove is in Michigan and waiting to be delivered! Getting close!
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Decisions and Budget
We've made a few tough decisions in the past few days.
One was our decision on our shower door. Neither of us is very happy with how the master bathroom has turned out for several reasons. Layout, finish, the unlevel installation of the shower heads and controls... that room is a complete and utter dumpster fire. We both want to redo it at some point. However, we realize that we probably don't have the time, money or motivation to do that for perhaps quite awhile, so we reasoned that we should make it as nice as we can in the meantime, so we went with an upgraded frameless, Eurpoean style glass shower surround. That was quite an expensive upgrade, but after we realized the choices this supplier was offering us weren't going to work for us, we decided we wanted to purchase our mirrors and towel racks on our own, so we were able to roll the money the builder was planning on spending on that stuff into the upgrade, so at the end of the day it wasn't really that much money. I don't know if that will be enough to "salvage" that bathroom for us, but I know we would have hated the "standard" metal and chrome "cage" we were going to end up with if we didn't upgrade. If we redo that bathroom soon, it was a waste. But I think this is at least enough to keep us from feeling like we "have" to do it soon.
The other decision we made was on our stove. We're going with a 36 inch stove rather than the traditional 30 inch and what we didn't fully realize when we made that decision was that our options were very limited, and those options are all very expensive. We were eventually able to find one we liked a lot and even though it was still expensive, it was on the low end of what the options that were available to us. However, it's discontinued and very few vendors had it in stock. We thought we had found and purchased one, but the online vendor turned around and sold the model out from underneath us, and despite scouring the whole of western civilization, we were unable to find another one, so we were right back at square one. Eventually we "settled" for another stove that we don't like quite as much, and that cost almost $400 more :(. Theresa was able to guilt the online vendor into knocking $150 off of that price, but it still stings to have to pay more money for something we don't like quite as much.
I'm not sure if going with a 36 inch stove was a mistake, it certainly cost us a lot more money in appliances, than we bargained for, but both of us think that those extra 6 inches really add a lot in terms of making the kitchen feel more high end.
The best part about these two decisions is that they are the last major decisions we have to make! We are essentially done with the decisions, at least in the "building" process. I'm sure we have a ton more in the moving and living in it process, but we'll worry about those later.
I'm very glad to see the last of the decisions fall by the wayside, both because I hate making them, but also because our budget was starting to get a little bit blown. We were doing really really good up until the past month, and then we just started spending a lot of money on little things here and there. The good news is that we've also been able to save or earn a lot more money than we had budgeted, so at the end of the day we're not any worse off than we had planned, but the fact of the matter is that we probably paid "too much" for the house if you're looking at it from an investment standpoint. But we're thinking of this as a place to live and the things we spent money on are things we're going to use every day we live there (which will hopefully be a long time) and we felt they were worth it to us.
However, part of our original rationale for building was that after we had purchased and existing home and put money into fixing up an existing home on some level, that the total investment would be somewhat close in cost to building new. Instead, we simply spent the same amount of money we would have spent renovating an existing home on upgrading the one we're building, so the true cost difference between existing and new construction is probably quite a bit more than we originally thought, making the price rationalization for building less valid.
But... oh well. That reasoning was only one of many factors we considered and I think we're still pretty happy with our decision. Building a house has certainly been an experience and it's one that I think I'm glad I've had an opportunity to experience in my life.
Yes I realize I used "experience" twice in that last sentence. I spent literally 3 minutes trying to think of a better way to phrase that and came up blank, so I'm settling for bad diction. Deal with it.
One was our decision on our shower door. Neither of us is very happy with how the master bathroom has turned out for several reasons. Layout, finish, the unlevel installation of the shower heads and controls... that room is a complete and utter dumpster fire. We both want to redo it at some point. However, we realize that we probably don't have the time, money or motivation to do that for perhaps quite awhile, so we reasoned that we should make it as nice as we can in the meantime, so we went with an upgraded frameless, Eurpoean style glass shower surround. That was quite an expensive upgrade, but after we realized the choices this supplier was offering us weren't going to work for us, we decided we wanted to purchase our mirrors and towel racks on our own, so we were able to roll the money the builder was planning on spending on that stuff into the upgrade, so at the end of the day it wasn't really that much money. I don't know if that will be enough to "salvage" that bathroom for us, but I know we would have hated the "standard" metal and chrome "cage" we were going to end up with if we didn't upgrade. If we redo that bathroom soon, it was a waste. But I think this is at least enough to keep us from feeling like we "have" to do it soon.
The other decision we made was on our stove. We're going with a 36 inch stove rather than the traditional 30 inch and what we didn't fully realize when we made that decision was that our options were very limited, and those options are all very expensive. We were eventually able to find one we liked a lot and even though it was still expensive, it was on the low end of what the options that were available to us. However, it's discontinued and very few vendors had it in stock. We thought we had found and purchased one, but the online vendor turned around and sold the model out from underneath us, and despite scouring the whole of western civilization, we were unable to find another one, so we were right back at square one. Eventually we "settled" for another stove that we don't like quite as much, and that cost almost $400 more :(. Theresa was able to guilt the online vendor into knocking $150 off of that price, but it still stings to have to pay more money for something we don't like quite as much.
I'm not sure if going with a 36 inch stove was a mistake, it certainly cost us a lot more money in appliances, than we bargained for, but both of us think that those extra 6 inches really add a lot in terms of making the kitchen feel more high end.
The best part about these two decisions is that they are the last major decisions we have to make! We are essentially done with the decisions, at least in the "building" process. I'm sure we have a ton more in the moving and living in it process, but we'll worry about those later.
I'm very glad to see the last of the decisions fall by the wayside, both because I hate making them, but also because our budget was starting to get a little bit blown. We were doing really really good up until the past month, and then we just started spending a lot of money on little things here and there. The good news is that we've also been able to save or earn a lot more money than we had budgeted, so at the end of the day we're not any worse off than we had planned, but the fact of the matter is that we probably paid "too much" for the house if you're looking at it from an investment standpoint. But we're thinking of this as a place to live and the things we spent money on are things we're going to use every day we live there (which will hopefully be a long time) and we felt they were worth it to us.
However, part of our original rationale for building was that after we had purchased and existing home and put money into fixing up an existing home on some level, that the total investment would be somewhat close in cost to building new. Instead, we simply spent the same amount of money we would have spent renovating an existing home on upgrading the one we're building, so the true cost difference between existing and new construction is probably quite a bit more than we originally thought, making the price rationalization for building less valid.
But... oh well. That reasoning was only one of many factors we considered and I think we're still pretty happy with our decision. Building a house has certainly been an experience and it's one that I think I'm glad I've had an opportunity to experience in my life.
Yes I realize I used "experience" twice in that last sentence. I spent literally 3 minutes trying to think of a better way to phrase that and came up blank, so I'm settling for bad diction. Deal with it.
Is the end in sight?
If you've followed the rash of photos Theresa has posted recently, you can see that the contractors are hard at work. In the past two weeks the house has been fully painted, the plumbing (including fixtures) is now finished, some more trim carpentry has gotten done and the electrical finish work is going on right now and should be done next week.
That's a lot of progress. I haven't seen it myself, but looking at the pictures it looks good. If you're keeping track at home, that means that we're down to the following before the house is fully complete:
That's a lot of progress. I haven't seen it myself, but looking at the pictures it looks good. If you're keeping track at home, that means that we're down to the following before the house is fully complete:
- Finish electrical (including connecting service)
- Attic insulation
- Wood and carpet floor installation
- Interior door hardware
- Shower glass surround
- Touch ups
- A/C install
- Driveway/Garage concrete pour
- Exterior painting (trim and doors)
- Garage door install
- Final Grade
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Pictures for Brad
More room than I thought there would be between the sink and the wall! :)
Shower just needs a door...who wants to make that decision?
Bathroom looks better with the tub installed...I will take a better whole room picture tomorrow...
Brad picked out good lighting option for the nook. I was VERY unsure of anything but a chandelier, but I think it looks great!
Not sure how bad the windowsill will be in the way...may not have hot water in the kitchen ;)
Lots of room!
Pretty wall sconces!
Half Bath
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Are we done yet? How about now? Now? That is totally how I am feeling and have been for the past couple of weeks. Brad got it in my head when we signed that there was a chance that we would be in by February, even though I knew better I half way believed him. When we weren’t in by Mid-Winter Break, I KNEW we would be in by Spring Break. Well guess what folks, it’s day two of Spring Break and all I get to do is pack and wait another 3 or 4 weeks….Oh Joy!
As much as I want to be annoyed by the fact that we are not in our house (and trust me I will rant later) I am excited to have a nice relaxing Spring Break packing. Both roommates are out of town and I can tear apart the while house and put it back together (hopefully) before they get home. So I guess it is not all that bad that we are not in our new house yet.
Ok here comes the ranting part. I am soooooooooooooooo done making decisions and writing checks. Our biggest current headache is the shower door. Since we are not fans of a majority of our master bath, it just adds to the sting when we get quotes to change the shower door from Chrome. If we go nickel it is 850 upgrade and 1050 to go frameless. Who wants to spend more money on a bathroom you plan on one day redoing? Then again when will the “one day” happen? When Brad said maybe he will redo it in 5 years I said yea that or have a baby….guess what he chose?
I was also VERY not happy with Glenn the other day. Usually he is just a good, maybe scattered, guy to work with. Well I called him Monday and we had lots to talk about. He laughed at me when he asked why we bought a garbage disposal (saying that we soooo should have know it was included)…well excuse us, you told us to get kitchen appliances and so we did. So than I had to call ABC warehouse guy and he expressed his displeasure for having to go get the garbage disposal out of the to be shipped pile.
Well that wasn’t the end of my frustration with Glenn. Next I just politely reminded him that there was no light box over the island for the pendants. Glenn was not happy about that…wanted to blame me. I was not happy. So I ran into the painter and told him that I made Glenn unhappy with me and that he laughed at me….well next time I talked to Glenn he informed me that he was not laugh at me that he only laughs with me. God to know!
Ok I am done ranting, and yes I feel much better! So we spent last Saturday day at Lowes picking out light fixtures. We finalized our order and then changed our mind and then finalized again …now we have picked them up and I have two vanity lights to change….sounds just about right!
So this week I will spend it packing and going through all my sister’s stuff to see what we are taking. I also have random boxes at my condo that Brad would really appreciate it I minimized. But I am NOT getting rid of my 3rd grade art project! I will also be spending some serious time reminding Glenn that we need to get the house finished before Brad doesn’t have a place to live and our lock expires. I have to do all this with 13 cell phone minutes!
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