I have been a bad blogger

I admit it, I have gotten quite lazy with my posts.  After the excitement (and drama) of building a home from the ground up, what else is there?

The fixes.

Let's go back to our 30 day.  We had a few issues, only one of which was major.  I kind of think that one major issue, led me to notice things of a similar nature in the home.  The major issue- our hallway in the basement was crooked.  Crooked, narrow- whatever- I just knew it wasn't right.  I had to convince my husband that I wasn't crazy when I said the basement hallway narrows as you walk in.   If you look at the floor plan of the basement, you will notice there is one long wall as the entry way to the main part of the basement, and a diagonal wall,  connected to it, right at the very end.  This diagonal wall was 3 inches too long and made the longer wall bow out.  Yes- I spotted a 3 inch difference. 

There solution was to take 1 1/2 inches from each wall to open the space back up.  And speaking of spaces- I am still a little irritated with the PM for not turning this space into a usable closet

This is the dead space under the stairwell, a perfect opportunity for a LARGE storage closet.  Sigh- guess my contractor (when I get one) can take care of that for me.

Now if you notice- in the last pic there is a missing face plate for my light switch.  My PM kept saying he would replace and never did- I will explain  a little later on why that never happened.

As far as the other things that I noticed- for your viewing pleasure

This is the TP holder in the master bathroom.  I have a sink in the powder room, that looks pretty much the same.  I was in the process of waiting to spot our PM in the neighborhood (to notify him of the work that still needed to be done) only to find out through the grapevine that our PM QUIT!  I was NEVER informed.  Okay fine, the new PM (which was the original PM), will pick up where the old PM left off right?  I waited 2 weeks, before my husband got the info from our neighbor who was still in the build process.  I texted and got a ring at my doorbell within 5 mins.  He didn't know that our 30 day was never completed  and we are almost 3 months out.  RH drops the ball again- or should I say this division and its workers drop the ball.

I will say that I am actually a little jealous of other RH communities where the PM goes the extra mile, and you get a nice shiny key chain at close and your SR comes by bearing gifts to help celebrate your new home and your new adventure.  None of that happened here, and I am little disappointed about that.  
BUT, I have this nearby

The little things really do count.

Victory Closets- the Finished product

Excited!  Our closets were installed on Thursday and it has truly improved our storage capacity.  Here are a few images of the install.

This are the before shots. 

After pics

Shoe rack!

My son and husband were really excited and started putting clothes away before I could take pictures!  In any case- my sons closets are the same, allowing for room as they get older. We truly love the fact that we can adjust and switch everything around with very little fanfare and NO TOOLS!

                                      

Victory Closets Design

We recently had our closets measured for a full on closet storage design.  In an effort to keep our bedrooms neat and tidy we decided on no dresser in our room, just a couple of night stands.  To help facilitate this we knew we needed something better then the closet maid wire shelving that RH typically installs to make better use of our closet space.  In comes Victory Closets.  If the name sounds familiar its because I previously blogged about this company on our trip to the Philadelphia Home Show.  

These are the 3D designs he came up with (and encouraged by my husband)

This design makes use of all  available wall space (including a tiny nook that RH left out) and includes shelving as well as 8 drawers.  What is unique about this system is that all the parts are interchangeable.  Meaning I can add an extra shelf from my closet to my son's closet (yes they are getting revamped closets as well) if I needed to and vice versa.  I could call and add other parts, like a drawer,  months later.   I would say that this closet system has at least tripled our storage options while doubling my sons'.  The one drawback is that this system only comes in one stain.  

I will take pics of the install once it is complete.

Furniture and Nail Pops

It seems like forever since I updated this blog.  Oh wait, I just did that last week!

Things seem to be coming right along.  Our loan was already sold to another bank- on this they actually move fast, smh.

We purchased a few pieces of furniture and got some really good deals.    This time around while looking for furniture, we are being VERY picky and not limiting ourselves to just one store.   I previously posted about these purchases and this is how they look in the home so far....

Morning room still needs a little work.  In the model homes- they all seem to have a sideboard.  I typically think of this only for the formal dining area, so I think I will do a couple of side tables to elevate my potted plants I just purchased today.

I would also like to point out my husband's handy work in installing our ceiling fan

In the family room we did place the leather seating, but I am not quite sure if I like placement of everything.  Hubbie and I can't quite agree on the type of console to put in here and of course I would like some pop of color via accent chairs.  The question is- which color to choose?  I did decide not to cover up those gorgeous wooden floors.  

Oh and I came across this rustic distressed floor lamp!  I will get  couple of table lamps similar to this one to add a little more light to the FR.

And it finally happened- our first nail pop.

Just discovered that they fix these once and one time only- so I will save these for the 10 month review.

Still waiting for RH to finish landscaping my yard.  They regraded the front and side and planted the standard community shrubbery but some how, someway they ran out of dirt to finish the back.  What is it getting shipped in from Italy?  There is PLENTY of dirt around these parts right now.   

Yesterday and another shopping spree

Yesterday we attempted to walk the unpaved trail towards the park that's about 1/2 mile behind my home.  We stopped well before we could even go half way.  Two reasons for this:  the trail was VERY muddy AND we saw about 20 (yes twenty) deer running through the brushes. While  I am not afraid of deer,  I am afraid of whatever was making them run in a panic.  Shhh- listen to nature, lol.

Today was big errand day- and I still didn't get everything that I set out to purchase.  I still didn't get my area rug and now my kids are missing their new lunch boxes and my husband is missing a couple of new tools (reportedly needed to finally install my fan).

The goal was to purchase furniture for the basement in effort to move a lot of the activity out of  view of guests.  We toured our local furniture store Raymour and Flanigan because I already had credit with them and the basement didn't really need any of the custom furniture we had been purchasing lately.  That's when we stumbled upon this http://www.raymourflanigan.com/Product.aspx?zpid=22854 

This was a floor sample so we got the set at a steal of a price.   We also purchased this http://www.raymourflanigan.com/Product.aspx?zpid=21788 for the guest room.

 While the sales person was checking on extending the financing for these items (later discovered my 36 month could have been 48 months- grrr!)  I spotted another floor sample that I thought would be a better buy for the basement http://www.raymourflanigan.com/Product.aspx?zpid=25144. 

 The problem- the basement door wasn't wide enough to allow us to move it downstairs so we purchased it for the family room instead and thus I finally have furniture for this space.   I do plan on getting a few accent pieces but I finally feel that we have enough for the main living spaces.  

Area Rugs

I have been agnozing over  an area rug for my morning room.   I still haven't decided on the furniture and decor for the family and I didn't want it to clash.  So I decided to go neutral in the morning room and upgrade my taste for the family room.  This still allows me to get my curtains (and couch) custom made if I wish.  On that note- I kind of like this beauty from pier 1.  I suspect I am going to need a 9' x 12' but I have one these lovely 20% off coupons ready for the purchase.

My little electric heater

First and foremost, I am more than happy to be in my new home.  We  are still moving stuff out of the old house- but we have enough here to make us comfortable.  That is until night falls.

I have my electric heater running.  The temp outside has dropped back into the 30's tonight and my upstairs heat does not work.  While 62 degrees may be comfortable for some of you- I am really, really cold.  And that is not acceptable.

I was holding on to my 30 day list- front porch and picture window needs to be cleaned, front door needs to be repainted,  outlet in basement does not work and now heat needs to be fixed.  Don't worry, I am definitely not waiting until 30 days arrive before hounding them on the last two items.

CLOSED!

A little more shopping

We went furniture shopping again.  This time we only had time to visit one store as Sunday hours around these parts are 12-5.  It took awhile to convince anyone to head out today, but I was determined.

Like before- our purpose was to find beds for everyone.   My kids still want to share a room.  That's fine as they are still young enough that will work.  The other room will be designated as their playroom until they decided they need separate spaces.  Originally we searched for beds that had storage underneath but when the kids kept insisting on bunk beds we agreed on this:

This also comes with a desk. And since toys will not be in the room, we actually have space to add an additional student desk so each will have their own private space.

We included this in the write up

When it came to the master bedroom, my husband and I continue to butt heads.  I couldn't understand his need for a white bedroom.  When I bluntly asked him why- he said because he wants the room to still feel open and light.  That, I can understand.  It's the reason why I wanted those glazed hazelnut Rushmore cabinets so bad.  So I agreed to a distressed type white for our bedroom furniture.  I still can't come to terms with his instance on a queen size bed in the size of the master we have.  He feels that the queen bed is plenty of room and says that when he rolls over he never rolls over onto me.  LIES!  I sleep on the edge rather frequently and yes,an wayward arm or leg does smother me from time to time.  With all that, I didn't argue too much when we wrote the order up for this in a queen:

The distressed look for this brand is called "worn linen".  We also added two night stands but no dresser or chest of drawers.  We plan on customizing our walk in a little later to hold all of our clothes.  Guess I am going to have to down size so he can have space in the closet.  The things we do for the ones we love. *giggle   

Color:  Worn linen

While we were searching through the catalogs for just the right bed for the kids, we sat on this bench

It easily accommodated all of us and was quite comfortable to sit on (to my surprise).  So we added this to the order as well,  to add the extra seating to the morning room table.  

In case you were wondering- no charge cards were used on these shopping trips.  I am not giving that mortgage company any more reasons to hold us up.   This order was just written up- as these items have to be made since we customized them a little.  Once we have the keys- we are heading back to the store to put 50% down on this and to pay for our other little beauty.  

My next major course of action is the appliances and an area rug for the morning room. And lets not forget those darn temporary blinds.