Two Weeks...And Feeling Nostalgic

We close two weeks from today. Two weeks from right now we'll be arriving home with the girls (they're going to daycare the week we move so that we're not worried about them getting hurt), eating dinner and spending the night in the house - on an air mattress because we don't want to leave the house unattended after we've closed.

But as I get excited about the future in our new home, I can't help but get a little nostalgic about this house. This place that has been our home for almost the last seven years.

In February 2012, we stood on this dirt and staked our future here.

We even made ourselves part of the house forever.

This is the place we came home to after getting married. And it's the place where we learned to be parents. 

Madeline's first day at home

Charlotte's first day at home

We also said goodbye to the three dogs that Brian had when we met. We lost Lenny shortly after we moved in. We lost Roxanne about two years ago, and we lost Max about a month ago. But we also added Oliver in July 2008 and Daisy in May of this year. 

From top left around to the right: Roxanne, Oliver, Max

From left: Lenny, Max

The newest canine Leymon - Daisy

This house has seen so much change over the years. We've added cabinets and flooring. We've replaced appliances and furniture. But I think the yard has gone through the largest change. We had initially rocked the whole thing, but when it became "baby makes three" Brian oversaw the addition of a beautiful lawn. And that perfectly shaded lawn that's nestled behind the house and the afternoon sun has been a beautiful play area for the girls. 

Packing is probably about 70% done. Yes - there is a packing calendar. Anyone who knows me can't find that as much of a surprise. We've got all our utilities scheduled and the movers are set. All that's left is to anxiously await that big day and say goodbye.

It Pays to be Persistent

I went into detail in the Hiccup post about my frustration with the look of the tile backsplash. As a reminder, I was upset that there was some issues with the fact that the window sill wasn't level and that the tile looked unfinished.

Here's what it used to look like:

I worked with the construction super and talked about my concerns. Beyond the crooked window sill, I just wasn't satisfied with the overall appearance of the tile. There was such a huge gap at the bottom, and once we looked at it together, he saw my frustration. He agreed to work with them to add another row of tile along the bottom and to add some beveled grout along the edge as we saw in the model.

I'm so happy with the result. It looks so much more polished now.

Here is a closer look with a few fabric samples for Roman Shades I have been looking at. I have more samples on the way, too, because I'm not sure what direction I want to go in. They still have to paint the wall, but the finish on the tile work is done and I'm thrilled with the results of my work with the builder.

During that last meeting with the super, he also mentioned that once the roof was done, they'd put our solar tube in the closet. We had seen it in the model but didn't realize we were getting one. I love how it adds natural light without it being an actual window.

You can really see the difference in this picture from a few weeks ago from the same angle, prior to the installation.

So things are getting really close. All the drywall touch-up was done on Thursday, and I think they were finishing up the painting touch-ups on Friday. This next week will be the last touch-ups and then we do our walk-thru on the 11th and close on the 15th. Yay! 

Not My Finest Moment

I wrote yesterday about the journey to getting a walk-thru date, which is what triggers the closing date. What I left out was that the conversation to get the date got a little heated. I had been through three very hard days of phone calls, and I'd reached my boiling point. I got very upset with the super and may or may not have told him "at this point I don't trust your company to build a birdhouse."

He did laugh and took it in stride, but I felt bad. I texted him after and apologized, and he let me know that he didn't take it personally and understood we had been put through quite an ordeal the last few weeks and months.

Even so, I firmly believe in saying "I'm sorry" and "thank you." So I took a Starbucks card over there today and as a result, got a chance to walk through the house with him to discuss concerns and see the progress.

A few more things have happened, including completion of our shower and the hanging of our mirrors. We opted for framed mirrors, and I can't believe what a difference it makes.

We got to talk more about my concerns over the kitchen backsplash as well, which was good because it's been a lot of texts, phone calls and emails up to this. 

We also got some great news in that the appraisal on the house came in higher than the amount we're under contract for, so we're already building equity, and we haven't even closed yet. And the appraisal was done without any appliances or landscaping taken into consideration, so it's worth even more than that,too! They're also raising their prices, so we're getting more home for our money than if we'd waited to buy. 

So all in all, things are rolling along and this time next month, we'll be unpacking! 

We Have a Date!

I'm going to tell the story of trying to get our closing date in gifs.

Overall this process the last few weeks has been a lot of this:

And feeling like this:

We'd talk to someone, either the super or the sales manager, and they'd say "tomorrow we'll get you a closing date". And I'd be like this as I waited for the phone:

Then the conversation would begin, and I'd quickly realize we weren't, in fact, going to get the date and something else needed to happen for them to actually set the date. And I'd start to feel like this:

And this cycle went on for about a week and a half. There was screaming. There were tears. There was probably some devil eyes along the way.

And then today, we got the date. And I left work like this:

And drove home like this:

So we walk the house on the morning of September 11th and then close a few days later. Woo hoo!

So Close... But Still Feeling So Far

We've had a very difficult time getting the builder to commit to a date.

When we first walked the lot for our pre-construction meeting, they said we'd set a date when we installed our counters because the availability of granite could impact a date.

Then as we went on, we were told "no - it's not counters - it's when we finish final floors." In our case, that's the carpet.

Well counters are in.

Carpet is in.

But we can't get a date that anyone on their side is sure will stick.

I was literally get a text message from the superintendent with September 16th as our walk-thru date (which is a week later than the latest timeframe we'd been previously been told would likely be the week) as I was getting a call from the sales manager saying the superintendent wouldn't commit to a date.

I'm sure one day we'll laugh at all of this. But not now. I feel like we're in this constant state of flux where we can't get details. I'm upset. Brian's upset. Our realtor is upset. And we're all confused by their inability to figure out when this house will be done.

When we walk around, this house doesn't look like it has a month of work left. If they hustled, it may not even have a week of work left.

Sigh.

Monday we're supposed to hear back from the sales manager with a more realistic date because they are going through all the "backlogged" houses with the regional manager. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Master bath - since we were there on Wednesday, they put in the counter and sinks.

Love my illuminated pantry - with no wire shelves! I've said it before, but I'll say it again because it makes me happy.

Love our beautiful front door

It's a sad little tree, but it's our tree. Since this was taken yesterday, the house numbers are up. 

I just didn't get a pic today.

Hiccup

Since we signed our papers in February, the building process has been fairly smooth. Other than weather-related delays, for the most part it's been fairly smooth sailing.

Until now.

I very briefly mentioned in this post that there were some issues with the backsplash in the kitchen. We are on our third sales person, and I know if our previous sales person was still there, this wouldn't be such a stress point as it has been.

We love the colors we picked.

That's not the problem. The problem is the quality (or the lack thereof) of the job that was done installing the backsplash itself.

When you stand back and look at the whole area, the tile looks crooked. On top of that, they didn't run the tile up to the edge on the window, which is how it's been done in the models we saw.

When we went back to the house over the weekend, we took a level with us. The ledge of the window is definitely crooked. Unfortunately we also had our new salesperson in tow.

Our previous sales person was awesome to deal with but she left to work a job that had better hours since she has kids. I totally understand that, but if this had happened when she was still working, it wouldn't have been so hard. The current sales person we're dealing with kept saying "it's too late - I don't know how they'll fix it" and had no sympathy as we stood there looking at the level and seeing that the ledge was not level and the whole window just looked terrible.  And keep in mind this is someone who has worked for the company for 17 YEARS! Then when she did say it could possibly be fixed, she said it would take THREE WEEKS! 

She then insisted that somehow the backsplash was throwing the whole ledge off kilter. I'm not a construction expert, but even I knew that was a load of crap. So I showed her that the ledge was fine by putting the level on top of it.

This is why I can't stress enough that you should have a realtor when you are building. I sent all these pictures to our realtor and she is going to handle it for us. I don't have the energy to deal with this woman, and our realtor can take it above her head for us. It WILL get fixed before we move in. Not only that, she will make sure from here on out that the house is unlocked when we want to stop by so we don't have to deal with "the woman" to get the house unlocked.

Here's the thing. I understand that mistakes happen, and up until now, when they've come up, the company and our previous sales person were pretty easy to deal with. My issue is that this new sales person was so unapologetic about it and the subtext of our conversation with her was basically that we were out of luck and would have to accept it as is. And that's just not gonna happen. I can guarantee you that.

Hopefully we'll have an answer on this and a closing date this week.

At least my fingers are crossed for that.

Stained

Brian and I stopped by over lunch today and saw that the staining of the banister and doors had been done. It's amazing the difference it makes from the unfinished wood. I also realized I hadn't included a shot with the dining room in it, so I took one today.

They also put the mosaic backsplash in, but I'm not including a wide shot because we have some issues with the overall quality of the installation - specifically how they installed it around the window. We don't have an issue with the colors we picked, so here's a close-up shot of how it looks with the counters. Swoon. Love it!

Having a Bit of Pinch-Me Moment

We walked in today with a trash bag in hand because we wanted to clean the garbage out of the island. Why? Well when we knocked a wall out of our current home to expand a closet, we found a bunch of trash in it. Yuck, right? We've seen trash accumulate in the island as construction has gone on and kept meaning to clean it out just in case. Last week we couldn't get anywhere near it because they'd put the tile in, and then this week to our surprise - counters were in.

And my pinch-me moment happened as I gazed at this beautiful house and realized in about a month, it'll be ours. Seeing everything come together makes me so excited to realize this is where we'll watch our girls leave for their first day of kindergarten, and where we'll experience many more firsts.