Less than 2 weeks until closing! Progress pics and shopping trips!

We had a great productive 3 days this weekend!  Saturday, Dan's parents took the kids for a few hours so we could do some appliance shopping.  If you've ever been appliance shopping you know it was a looong few hours! 

I hate how some stores are like car-dealerships.  The sales-people pounce on you as soon as you walk in and they never leave you alone!  Then the negotiating begins..."let me talk to the manager", "ok, let's check online and see what prices you'll get elsewhere",  "well, how much do you think this is worth?", "this is our best price.  Oh it's not good enough?  Let me talk to the manager again.".  Seriously?!  Just give me your best price and stop wasting time!  So anyway, we knew what we wanted, checked a few stores, and ended up with a great deal from Best Buy.  I highly suggest going there for appliances.  No high-pressure salesman, no screwing around, just "how much do you want to pay? Ok let me see if we can do that?". Done.  We ended up getting a Samsung 29cubic feet, stainless-steel, french-door with ice in the door.  Love it!  Bigger than we expected to be able to get and under our set-budget because we got $1200 off!!!  Yes, you read that correct.  I'm a good negotiator;) 

Then my Mom came to watch the kids for Sunday and Monday.  We did a ton of shopping.  It was so nice to go just the two of us and really be able to take our time and think without all of the kids.  We got all of the curtain-rods, all of the curtains for down-stairs and the master-bedroom, new bedding, the morning-room light fixture, and a couple lamps for the master bedroom.  The best deal of the weekend was the china-cabinet for the craft room.  I've been looking for one to store craft supplies and homeschooling stuff for Connor.  We wanted to get something second-hand and paint and refinish it.  I found one the perfect size for the wall with great storage space at Seconds City.  It's a second-hand store by us that drops the price 1% for every day the item is there.  Well, since we've been so crazy busy when I looked at the date the china-cabinet got there I was thinking it would be 60% off.  But, when I went to pay the cashier said "$17.80 including tax".  I had to have them repeat themselves and thought they meant "$70.80".  Nope, I just bought a china cabinet for $17!!!!  Apparently, it's July not June (see what I mean I don't even know what month it is!).  It was 90% off not 60%!!!  Super-score! 

Also, on Sunday we took my parents out to the house to see the progress.  We were excited to see the flooring had been started!  It wasn't supposed to start until Monday so this was a nice surprise!  We chose Armstrong Sedona-Cherry for the foyer, hall, mudroom, powder room, kitchen, and morning room. That was all complete! The carpet will probably be put in the beginning of this week.  We also met a new neighbor!  The lot next to us just got sold and they were checking out the stakes when we were there.  It is a retired couple that is building a PISA.  They have four adult children so I'm hoping for visiting grandchildren sometimes!

A HUUUGE thanks to our parents for all of their help! We had a great weekend and are feeling much better about the few things we still need to do.

And lastly, in our current house news...Our house was listed online last Tuesday afternoon.  On Thursday we got a call to do a showing on Friday.  The people that saw the house Friday loved it and filled out the application.  They also asked to move in early (right after we move instead of Sept1) and to sign a 2 or 3 year lease!  We found out on Monday the application/background/credit check was approved!  So now, we are finalizing the lease and if all goes well we should have it signed this week!  What a huge blessing!  One showing and not even a week of being listed!  Moving in early so we get a little extra income and signing a long lease so we don't need to find renters again for a few years!  It couldn't have went better (as long as the lease gets signed!).

Now for pictures!!!

(Click to Enlarge)

Armstrong 5.25 in planks (pretty dirty here!)

Armstrong Sedona Cherry shown in morning room

Flooring next to cabinets!  We love it! 

The step is in the garage now.

The kids/guest bath

Wire shelves are now in all the closets (this is the upstairs hallway closet)

Shelves in master closet

We have toilets in all the upstairs bathrooms now (this is the master/water-closet).  The powder-room will probably be completed soon now that the flooring is in down-stairs.

I had to check the size of the garden-tub!  Can you tell my excitement?  Actually that's my normal smile but I am excited to not have jets anymore!  Our current house has a jetted tub and I can't stand cleaning those jets!

Basement has insulation on the walls now.  We'll be using this for the kids to ride bikes and play during the winter until we finish it.

Our a/c is working now but there is a ton of condensation in the basement.  I'm not sure if this is because the house has been so hot and the a/c was just put in or if it's a problem.  We're going to check on this.

A couple other concerns are: a chip in the master bathroom cabinet, a chip in the molding of one of the windows, floor that needs sanded in a bedroom, light fixtures not installed in bedrooms (looks like they confused which lights are complete and which are rough-ins), our kitchen faucet is missing (the PM thinks the plumber has it), and the cable box still hasn't been moved (they said it will be done this week).  All of these will be brought up with the PM and I'm sure they'll be corrected.

Some views from inside....

Little girly's room-you can see the pond and golf-course green here.

View from the play-room-this window has a view of the golf course/pond/street and the other window is of the cul-de-sac

Cul-de-sac from the side master-bedroom window (love the Cross the window made in this pic!  God is sure watching over us!)

The other two master-bedroom windows are of the yard/golf-cart path/wooded area

Front of the house with garage door down and dumpster taken away (still needs pillars and door

painted)

Some things coming next:carpet, powder room (toilet/sink installed), master-bath (glass enclosure installed for shower/ garden tub installed),  kitchen (appliances and faucet installed), exterior (door/pillars painted,  final grading and landscaping)

Some Shopping Trip Items....

Samsung 29 cubic feet fridge- $1200 off!

Master bedding- but we got burgundy/reddish sheets instead of the teal shown

Bedding next to curtains

Morning room light fixture-Portfolio 6-light dark bronze chandelier

$17 china cabinet for the craft room!  We will be painting and distressing it, knocking out some glass, and changing the knobs/pulls.  We'll be storing the little things (crayons, paint, markers) in baskets on the shelving, paper, books, etc will be in the drawers/cabinets. 

Less than 2 weeks until closing!!!!!

A bear named "B" and starting to feel like home!!

It was a crazy week here.  Dan's been gone on a business trip since Saturday morning and it seems like one thing has went wrong after another.  It started with getting the kids bikes and having to assemble them myself with no clue how, then one of our lights fell off the ceiling and hung by wires, the kids weren't sleeping, the car broke down...basically it was just one of those weeks!  So needless to say even though I've had a lot of help from my mother-in-law and my Dad, I've been more tired then usual.  Which may explain my too emotional state right now... 

I had my first pathetic cry like a baby yesterday.  All because our current house is now listed online.  As I was saying in the last post, everything's been feeling a little bittersweet leaving this house.  But it all became real seeing the listing and it's all because of a bear named "B"!  If you look at the link you can see B laying on the floor by the front door in the video...
http://columbusrealestatepros.appfolio.com/listings/listings/f4858543-c126-47b0-bcff-f08b32a821db

Connor has had this bear since birth.  He's slept with him every night and cuddled him since probably 4 or 5 months old.  He named him "B" at around 7 months old and the name stuck.  He still, at almost 5, loves his B and sleeps with him each night.  Well, the video shows B laying on the floor by the front door (even though I had told Connor to bring B with us outside).  I didn't notice he didn't.  And that simple little thing reminded me that we are leaving a lot of "babyhood" behind here.  Every child was brought home to this house.  We had many sleepless nights in this house.  Heard first words and saw first steps being taken.  I know that we will have new memories in the new house and we are definately bringing B along with us.  But seeing B, by the open front door, just symbolized so much for me.  We are closing the door to this part of our lives.

So after being so sad about leaving our house yesterday, I decided I better take a drive out to the new house to make me excited again!  And it sure did the trick! I am in love with our new house. It is starting to look more and more like a home everyday.  We have a driveway, front step, exterior lights, and completed siding and trim.  We now have working interior lights and light fixtures in most rooms.  The simple act of being able to turn on a light really makes it feel more real.  Our microwave has been installed and a lot of the faucets are in as well.  The tile has been completed in the master bath.  We also saw lots of kids playing and walking down the street.  So many exciting things to remind me that even though we are closing one door, the door we will open soon, will be a doorway full of blessings.

 

Our home.  The driveway, walkway, and exterior lights/lamp post are now in.

The front step and walkway

Lights!

Foyer Light

 Dining Room (our craft room).  This chandelier was a nice surprise.  We were supposed to be getting a smaller, simple, 5 light chandelier.  I was excited to see how much nicer this one is!

Some of the recessed lights in the kitchen

Yay! We have a microwave and it vents the stove to the outside of the house!  Our current house doesn't have a vent at all for the stove!  This will be so nice!

Family room-another nice surprise is a lot of our rough-in's actually have fixtures on!  I'm hoping they don't realize this and change it!  This gave us an extra few light fixtures so we won't need to rush to pick out or own or could just keep these!

Guest/Kids bath with lights, cabinets, and faucets (don't mind the crazy person in the mirror!)

Our shower has been tiled.  I love the clean look of the white tiles!  Now if I can keep them white!

The bath has been tiled too and I was excited to see the access panel is not in the front!

Sink faucets are in and granite looks nice with the lights on!

Close up of granite.  It's definately more yellow than the model and I actually like it a lot more!  The model had a lot of pink undertone and I was worried it would look to pink.  This looks pretty nice!

We'll be back out to the house on Saturday.  I can't wait to see what they do next.  It would be so awesome if flooring is in when we come back!!!

Day 58 Pictures of Progress

It's hard to believe that in just 3 weeks we will have our keys.  In about 4 weeks we will be living in a new home.  So exciting and bittersweet at the same time.  We love our current house, and the more work we do to get it ready to be rented, the nicer it seems.  It's a little sad going for walks with the kids and knowing that the streets we've walked on the past 6years won't be there for us to walk on anymore.  There are just so many memories of the kids growing up here.  We've outgrown it though and we know it's time to move on.  We love the new neighborhood and we know it's going to be so awesome, it's just a little sad to leave this stage in our life behind.

The new house is coming along and looking gorgeous.  We really love everything about it!  The siding was supposed to be complete on Thursday so we thought we'd see that when we drove out Friday, but unfortunately it still wasn't complete.  The majority was though, and it looked like they might finish the rest by the end of the day.  The painters said they would be finished up on Saturday (I'm not sure if they are painting the door and pillars or if someone else does that).  I think next on the schedule will be installing the Kids/Guest bath cabinets and mirror and then all of the plumbing, door, and light fixtures.  We'll also probably be having the flooring and shower/bath tile installed soon.  Other things on the list are paving the driveway and walk-way and landscaping.

We were so excited when we saw the front of our house now with siding, some shutters, and trim.  It's exactly like we pictured if not prettier!  We love the look of fresh, clean, and traditional.  I love shabby chic and cottage style decorating and I think this house fits us so well!  It's pretty and traditional and seems so fresh and welcoming.

Sorry in advance for the bad pictures.  The camera was picking up a lot of the dust in the air and so the pictures are spotty.

(Click to enlarge)

Here's our new home!  We can't wait to see it with the rest of the siding and shutters, and the front door (dark green) and pillars (white) painted.  Hopefully next visit it will be all done!  I am so glad we decided against the stone because this looks exactly how we would want it!

We were so happy to see the second coat of paint has a cream tint to it!  It's not just stark white like we thought!  You can tell with the trim painted white the slight difference in color.  I think this will be so great since some of the rooms won't be painted right away.

The trim is all in and caulked and painted.  The painters were working and said they would have it all finished up on Saturday.

Our handrail has been stained.  I think it was called Scandia Teak.  It's a little darker than we remembered but we actually like it more this color.

The doors are starting to be painted a brighter white.

The kitchen cabinets and countertops are now all installed.  We love the beveled edges on the straight counters and the breakfast bar.  The supports under the breakfast bar and island look nice too.

Cute little supports!

The gourmet island is even bigger than I remembered.  We love it!!!

We checked to see the color of our knobs/pulls with the cabinets.

We also checked out the faucet height and size with the sink (this is just the base).  The color of the stainless steel looks more off here because of how dirty the sink is.  We were happy that they agreed to install our faucet for us so we wouldn't need to change it out right away from the standard.  We chose the Moen Lindley Pull-down faucet.

The upstairs really is looking so finished.  The walls and trim look so nice!

The vinyl has been installed in the upstairs bathrooms and laundry room.

Master bedroom-showing trim.  It was a nice day out and nice to feel the breeze coming in the windows.  I just love the view of all the trees!

Master bath-mirror, cabinets, sinks, and granite installed! 

The wheat granite has more yellow than the samples and model.   I'll just probably work some yellow into the decorating colors to pull it all together.  I'm actually not that crazy about any of the granite colors Ryan offers.  Dan really wanted granite for the bathroom since we have it in our current one so this was his splurge!  I think the wheat granite in the model looks good from afar but up close it reminds me of bird poop splatters!  Sorry I know that's gross.  Even though this one is more yellow I think I might like it more because it's less poop-splatterish.

Our pretty house!  I asked Dan if he thought everyone would think it's the prettiest house they ever saw and he laughed at me.  But hey, my mom said it was the prettiest house she ever saw so maybe I'm right;)

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