Locked Up!

I am so glad I geared myself to ask permission to see my home whenever I stop by because today I HAD to get the key!  That's right folks, my house is locked up tighter than Fort Knox.  Okay not that tight but you get the picture.  One must have a key now to visit the Grand Ol' Courtland on lot 14.

And here is why:

As predicted, the minute they installed the appliances, the locks are put in place.    A little sad that I just can't go in whenever I want, but it also means we are drawing ever closer to that magical date.

I really wanted to go see how the staining was going along.  Let's just say I will kindly suggest that everything be painted again if they had not already consider it.  Here is the progress so far:

If you look at the steps you will notice how deep the stain looks on the right and how it seems to fade as you travel left.  This is not the lighting effect from the camera- this is actually how the stain currently looks.  So the stain needs to be deeper and a lot more even.  I was told by my SR that my PM is a bit OCD when it comes to staining.  I am going to assume that my SR and PM worked together in another community because I distinctly remember our house being his very first project where we are now, so I am not sure how she knows this information.  To be fair- I was told that the painters would be there this weekend and the PM would not be there to see it until Tuesday as RH has President's Day off.  So we will see if his OCD beats my OCD.  Challenge!

I also went and rechecked my kitchen cabinets to make sure the damaged one was replaced

Totally different cabinet!  Take a look below at the damaged one

Do you see what I am talking about?  Previously this end had NO outlet as per plan.  So yes that cabinet really needed to be replaced.  Did I mention I was giddy with delight admiring my 42 inch cabinets?  At my nearly 5'2" my step ladder (forget the step stool) will be put to good use.

And I got another pleasant surprise!  In the model homes we toured the left side of the gourmet island- the side closest to the refrigerator, had cabinets that were very shallow.  I checked my cabinets noticed that they are about 3-4 times deeper than the model cabinets- HOORAY!  That nearly makes up for a total lack of a walk in pantry for a home of this size.  I will say that is my ONE disappointment with this RH model so far.
The tradesmen also took the time to repair my column

It doesn't appear to be painted over but at my height I can't really tell. Whilst one thing was repaired another was damaged:

That is stain on my carpet.  The workers probably didn't even notice it.  "Oh they will clean that up, " my SR told me.   Really? Pray tell how?  We didn't upgrade our carpet and just got Rockport.  This is a cheap carpet to say the least.  If you have ever had cheap carpet the one thing you know about them is that they don't clean easily if they clean at all.   As long as it is taken care of, is all that really matters.

My sink and powder room fixtures have been installed.  I also took at picture of our granite jutted up against our cabinets.  In case you wanted to know this the popular Rushmore Cabinets in Hazelnut Glaze with the St Cecelia granite.  From all the blogs I have been reading, this is a very popular kitchen combination.
Sadly I did not get to go upstairs because it was taped off by the painters.  I do know that carpet should be in place upstairs as well.

Last but not least our neighborhood is growing fast!  I think I counted 14 available lots left and only one of them is wooded.  The rest is what I would call interior lots where all the backyards back up against one another.  I also noted lumber delivered for another lot AND my future neighbor and fellow Courtland Gater across street has broke ground!

This seems like such a distant memory to me.

Our heat was running today when I entered the home.  It was a nice toasted 70 degrees on the inside.  Good thing because this was on the outside

Yes, that is one large icicle. But happily my siding stayed in place during the high winds,  

I can't wait to see what happens next week and then I think I may be forced to take a 2 week break.  Not looking forward to that