Paint - More overwhelming than building a house

I know for sure that we are going to use Benjamin Moore paint.  For the longest time I had planned to go to Lowes and paint match a BM color with Valspar paint, but my NVR loan officer highly recommended using Benjamin Moore, regardless of the higher price, and here is WHY.  She told me that it is the only paint that she uses, because no matter, what you will only have to use ONE coat of this stuff.  She said it goes on smooth and is very durable.  You really end up paying the same amount of money on the other stuff because you have to apply more than one coat of the anyway.

Well you don't have to tell me twice!

OK, so I just wrote a 42 million word post and got frustrated, so I deleted the whole darn thing because it was all over the place.  Mike saw me do it and he laughed at me. :(

I will stick to the basics.  I want to use Benjamin Moore's Revere Pewter on the entire main level.  My plan is for a neutral kitchen/dining area and a gray/spa blue living room.  Revere Pewter could work because it is in the gray category but still has enough neutral gray in it to work in the kitchen/dining area.  It is also known as an EXCELLENT color for open floor plans and transitional spaces.

In some lights it is very gray and in others its more beige.  I wouldn't go so far as to calling it a greige though. The first pic below is of it looking more beige, and the two following pictures is of the same exact color looking more gray.

I am so UNSURE about what to do with my open living space!

Homesite Visit - Week 13

Great visit today!  I only took a few photos since you guys have almost seen it all.  The whole row got sod, trees and bushes.  Pretty much everything on the outside is done, with the exception of trim painting and doors.  Door numbers were also installed, which was pretty exciting!

Carpet everywhere was installed.  Its hard to tell how well it goes with the wood floors, but as far as I can tell its a good match.

The refrigerator was installed and working, but still not pushed into place.  Our new range was already delivered which is awesome, but it was sitting in the middle of the dining room.  I suspect this was because they were still working on getting the vent installed for the microwave. 

I was a little bummed when Mike pointed out a piece of trim that had been ripped off the backside of the cabinets on our island, which it seems happened when they were maneuvering the dishwasher.  It was just laying on the floor so I placed it on the counter so no one would step on it and break it.

Our washer and dryer also got installed.   They were just the basic model but I was surprised to see that they had a few more fancy options that I've never seen before. And the garage door opener was in too!  And last but not least our roman shower in the master is complete. 

At this point there are a ton of very small things to do.  There is a little less than 3 weeks before our Pre Settlement Walk-through so I am certain it will all be done by then.  I was planning for this visit to be our last before walk through, but since those things I was worried about haven't been taken care of, I think we will visit one more time next weekend in hopes it will set my mind at ease.  At that time I plan to go through with blue tape to mark anything that we see so that there is less to worry about at walk through.  I REALLY don't want to have to obsess about those things when we get our demonstration so I can focus on learning about my new home.  Hopefully Adam understands this!  

I am a little disappointed to see that a few items that I emailed Adam about two weeks ago, still have not been addressed.  The issues were, paint on the cabinet trim near the dishwasher (it wasn't splatter, it looked like someone didn't realize it wasn't covered when they painted the baseboard trim white) and also the malfunctioning window in the master bedroom.  He never did respond to my email, so I wonder if he never got it...

I know the granite issue is still outstanding while he consults with someone about it.  I stared and stared at it today when we visited, and still just couldn't move on.  I tried to force myself to be OK with it, but it just really bothers me the way it looks.  I'm eager to see what it looks like once it's gone.  I have several samples of tile that I want to stop by with to see if they work with the granite and cabinets.

It looks very real now, right?

Landscaping!

Carpet on the stairs heading up to the third floor.

Fancier range with the "warming zone"

Roman Shower complete!

This is a clearer pic but it still doesn't look as bad as it does in person.  The brown outlet makes it worse, lol.

Closing change AGAIN! & a granite update

Well, we are back to closing around the 2nd - 3rd week of February.

This makes way more sense. 

Lauren our SR was very shocked about the February 1st date, because she knew that the condo approval from FHA hadn't come in yet and we definitely needed that to close.  SO she did a little calling around and come to find out, the scheduler was not able to see that our loan was of the FHA persuasion which is why the mistake was made.

Glad we got it all worked out though and no harm done, except for a little freak out on my part.

I also had a chance to chat with Adam today about the granite back splash thingy.  He said they haven't actually done anything yet, because he wants to talk to the guys who will do the work first to assess the aesthetics of it, but he doesn't think removing it will be an issue.

Serves me right....

Earlier this week there were rumblings that we may be closing on February 1st.  In the back of my mind I was thinking, "but how could this be?!, we've always been told the middle of February!!".  I took it with a grain of salt because so many different people have said many different dates, this was just another to add to the list.

Well, today I got confirmation that, barring any weird stuff going on, we WILL be closing on February 1st!

I'm excited and terrified all at the same time.  THAT IS 3 WEEKS FROM NOW!!!

We can't have our first mortgage payment until April because we REALLY don't want to pay both rent and mortgage together in March.  But because its the 1st -5th of the month, they typically offer interest credit to close during that time, making the first payment the following month.  If we decline the interest credit, we will have our first payment in April, however we will still have to pay the entire month of interest at closing which we were not planning for.

Remember last week when I had a minor freak out about the granite?  Well right now, this is a bonafide, real life, Cami Kotwicki freak-the-smurf-out situation.

Did I say I was excited?! I AM VERY EXCITED!  But I fear we may have to push back closing to accommodate our budget.  :(

OH-MY-GOODNESS

Update on the range - SMURF YEAH!

Just wanted to post a quick update that our AWESOME SR & PM worked out the range issue and we will definitely be getting the one we were expecting and not the one that is currently sitting in our kitchen.  WOOHOO!

If I could give my team an 11 on their coveted Ryan Home's evaluation, I totally would!

Still no word on if Adam is able to remove the granite trim from the kitchen counters.  Hopefully we will hear back about that later this week.

Useful Tools and some home decor

Today I read M's post about important things to look for at your pre-settlement walk through (find it  HERE), and  it prompted me to look for an important tool at Lowe's today.  We are now proud owners of two cheap and nifty tools that will allow us to test the outlets of our new home, and in the future will assist us with any electrical projects we may have.

We got THIS IDEAL Analog Voltage Detector Meter, which will help test the functionality of our GFCI outlets (the ones in the garage and bathrooms that automatically trip when there is an issue with the circuit) and we also got THIS Sperry 80-480V AC/DC Voltage tester.  Total cost for both including tax was just under $15, so definitely worth the cost!

The reason I got two tools is because the first one by IDEAL will overload the circuit with the touch of a button, automatically tripping the GFCI outlet.  If the GFCI outlet doesn't do what it's supposed to (and lose power) this handy tool will tell you what's wrong with the connection and help you determine why it's not working.  The other tool by Sperry, will help us test all the other outlets in our house to make sure they are working, but also in the future will allow us to test whether power has been shut off to areas we want to do electrical work.  This will be especially handy when we hang our own ceiling fans!

I am a DIY fanatic and get so excited when I get new tools!  Mike isn't into being a handy man, so I get all the cool projects all to myself.  Its fantastic.

Anyway, this weekend we also FINALLY decided on our dining room set.  It took many weeks of debate.  I was originally going to build the table myself, but didn't find plans that I truly loved.  Enter World Market.  I LOVE this place!  They are having a big furniture sale right now and this weekend there was a 10% off coupon in the Sunday paper, so we made our move. 

We got the Verona extension table in mahogany, as well as 4 matching Verona chairs.  To complete the look, we also got two Suzani Hayden upholstered chairs to go on the ends.  The table extends to seat 8 so eventually we will purchase two more Verona chairs to complete the set.

Verona Chair

Suzani Hayden Chair

Verona Table

Other than the dining set, we plan to replace our very broken sofa with something cheap and easy to clean.  The plan right now is the Ektorp sofa from IKEA, primarily because the slipcovers are removable and some of them are machine washable.  So if the cover gets dirty we can wash or dry clean it and if we get bored with the color, we can purchase a new cover with minimal cost.

The only other place that I know of that has sofa's like this is Pottery Barn, and as much as I would LOVE to have a Pottery Barn sofa, it is just WAY out of our price range right now.  So alas, I must settle for my Ektorp at $399.  It sure is better than having a broken couch, right?

Stay tuned for my next non-construction related post, sometime next week.  I'll be talking about wall colors!  I have been STRUGGLING with choosing my colors.  Mike likes white, sigh.

Homesite Visit - Week 12 Mild Freak out!

Let me get my freak out, out of the way.  Good news is, the granite counters in the kitchen got installed!! WOOHOO!   Bad news?  While I knew they were installing the 4 inch granite back splash thing, I didn't know that it would look that awful! When I saw it in the breakfast bar area, I was SO UPSET.  The picture doesn't look as bad as in person.  I just simply do not like it.  I emailed Adam to see if he can have it removed.  I was planning anyway to install my own subway tile backs plash when we move in, so the walls won't go long without protection.  I am PRAYING that he says its no problem!!

Here is the pic.  Its a little out of focus....  see the section that connects the lower counter to the upper?  UGH, its AWFUL!  I know its fixable, but still.  Why didn't I see that coming? lol

 

 Okay I feel better now that my freak out is over!  On to more important things.

We did have heat.  It was great.  There were no chilly spots or hot spots.  I guess we have that Energy Star 3.0 certification to thank for that!  Our water heater was placed in the closet with HVAC.  It really does look like R2D2.  (M, I am officially stealing your idea of calling it R2D2, anything else wouldn't seem appropriate!)  However, R2D2 is not hooked up just yet.

We had working lights, light switches and electrical outlets!  All of our toilets, sinks and other plumbing fixtures were installed.  The trinity installer was also there working on our security system and surround sound.  He did mention that a jump wire to connect our CO detector was missing.  I sure hope they dont have to rip down any drywall to fix that!

All appliances were there with the exception of the dishwasher.  Nothing was fully installed yet.  I did notice that the stove was not the one we were promised.  The one we thought we were getting had a 5th burner on it and the one that was in our house only had 4.  It also had less stainless steel finish than the one we were supposed to get.  It seems like a pretty substantial downgrade....  Our AWESOME SR Lauren is working the issue, so hopefully it turns out in our favor.

They had to remove the center cabinet to install the vent for our microwave.  This is one of the things Adam emailed us to warn us about so we wouldn't have a heart attack when we visited. 

Everything is looking great!  It wasn't as terribly messy as we had expected which is a nice surprise.  There really isn't much left to do.  A bunch of little things to do, but as far as big things we are just waiting on all appliance installations, carpet, full installation of the water heater and the washer and dryer.  Not much right?  Check out our pics below.