Three Months In

WOW!

Three.  Months.  Three months!

I simply cannot believe how fast time flies!!!

We have neighbors!!  And, after a flurry of homes all being completed seemingly at once, things are a little quiet in the neighborhood.

I am still in the process of decorating - a process that will take about 15 more months (until tax return 2016 arrives), but I can already "see it" in my mind.

We had a few issues with move in - no home is 100% perfect - Ryan has handled them very well.  The worst thing, and potentially most expensive, was that when our pipes were laid from the water main to our house, there was a hole somewhere in the pipe.  36,000 gallons of water on one bill, and we just got our second water bill with another 31,000 gallons (there was about 2 weeks between the time the pipe was fixed and the next water bill).  About $900 worth of water bill.

Our 30 day post move in went well.  LADIES!  This is to you:
(Gentlemen, I will apologize now for the generalizations, don't hate me)

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES leave your husband to be the only one at home when they come by to make the repairs - unless there is a fully detailed and comprehensive list you have written as a guide.  Most men simply do not have our attention to detail.  They are made for "big picture" stuff.  My dearest love and the wonderful repairman Ryan sent got kind of "tunnel visioned" on a few of the things and kind of missed others....   And, dearest love signed the paperwork, so anything left - if Ryan wanted to be not so customer-focused - is now officially "our problem".  Luckily, Ryan is just awesome and the things that can be taken care of will be, and we're good.

By the way - did you know that the grout that seals the countertops to the backsplash will expand/contract with the seasons and leave a little "crack" in it?  Neither did we.  We know now, so be prepared :)

I think that's all the update for now.....     We are getting settled.  I am still trying to decide on window dressings.  I REALLY like the shutter-style wooden ones, but at $250-300 each, I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon....   Right now we have redi-shade paper blinds in the windows until I can decide.  We have white "light filtering" in some windows, and black "light-blocking" one in others.  They make a nice - and VERY inexpensive - stopgap :)

I hope you are well and your home-building is going well!

Happy Fall!!!!!

The excitement is building!

21:45 hours until closing!

21:45 hours until we can take our 4 children out of the 20X15 foot hotel room we have lived in for the past 4 months for good.

21:45 hours until we will have a yard.

21:45 hours until I will have my own kitchen again.

21:45 hours until we will have a fireplace.

21:45 hours until I will have a walk in closet.

21:45 hours until we will have an amazing master shower.

21:45 until I do not have to worry about telling the little guys "don't run, there are people downstairs!"

21:45 until I can say "go have a nerd-war in the basement (well, we have to unpack the nerd guns first....)

But, then again, who's counting?!?

The wait is over!!!.... Hopefully...

We finally have a date (although only after I held firm on not pushing it back further).  Tuesday afternoon (8/19) we will have our closing... finally.  I'll still only believe it when it's done and the keys are in our hands but it's still a better feeling than what we have been going through the last 4 weeks.

Our experience with NVR Mortgage

I thought I would add some context to the scene below.  Although the house itself has been far from the mess that was seen in the movie below, the experience of dealing with NVR mortgage has left me with nothing left to do but get my Tom Hanks on and laugh it off.  Every time we take a step forward with them, it seems to go back to being all wonky again.  We were finally happy with them for the first time this morning about 9:00 or so and then a few hours past and we are right back to pins and needles due to some stupidity by their underwriting.  So we are right back to being to feeling like Tom Hanks in the scene below.  When the tub falls through the floor (or you have to deal with NVR), what else can you do but...:

Hurry up and wait....

We had our pre-settlement walk-through last Friday (8/1/14) and it went well.  We had a few places where we put some blue tape where some touch ups were needed but otherwise the place look amazing.  It was even fun to feel the heat coming off the fireplace despite the fact it's still summer.

Now for the bitter part.  We will not be closing today as planned.  We also received work Friday afternoon that our loan officer still hasn't gotten the paperwork back yet from USDA on our loan.  That is probably because they didn't submit it in time (a disputed point between myself and them right now).  The frustrating part is not having it delayed... the frustrating part is that they say they can't give us a new date!  I explained to them how I can't schedule things like movers, internet hook-up, etc. without a new date but they are adamant about how they can't provide a new date (even though they can provide the exact date that USDA is up to know on paperwork... in case you don't know, they process in the order received so if you submitted on the 7/2 and they are working on 7/1 then yours should be processed by tomorrow... so, yeah... it's not hard to make a guess as long as you pad a little for a potential delay).

So right now we are on indefinite hold (which is far worse than a 1 or 2 week delay we had been expecting since we realized their screw-up).  But if you really want the kicker: they didn't even inform their own settlement services group.  As of this morning, our PM still though our closing was today because that is what the settlement coordinator was telling him.  Say what? 

Side Note: We'll have more pictures once we move in.  We already know that our first new neighbors will be closing the first week of September (their place is looking spiffy).  I wonder if they will close before us? (LOL)


UPDATE 8/6: We have found out that the delay will be about 2 weeks with 18th or 19th being most likely dates (although the previous Friday is a LONG shot and the 20th is too painful to think about...)

Moving forward... ever so slightly

Well things are still progressing... with the house if not with the mortgage.  We still don't know when the closing will be as they are still trying to fix there snafu (unknown if they even can which could mean 1-2 extra weeks of waiting for closing).

Despite all that, the house is really starting to look great.  The grass is in.  The carpet is in.  The double oven has been put in place.  We are looking forward to the walk through.  It did get pushed back a few days to Friday but we were fine with giving a few extra days to make sure they get it just right.  Hopefully, I'll have some good news on the closing date early next week.  Until then, here are some pictures:

 The grass, trees, shrubs, and mulch!  If you zoom in close, you can even see the number on the house... which is wrong!  (They got two of the numbers switched so they will have to fix it next week)  Side note (literally): you can see our neighbors siding going up on the right side of the picture.  Looks like we won't have to wait long for someone to move in next door.  We will have to wait long for someone to move in on the other side as they don't even have that lot for sale yet (there are three other homes in the development that had basements poured already when we were there last weekend but they are down the street).

The carpet is clean (for the last time).  Also, in the background you can see the door to the office has the glass in now! 

 The kitchen is looking really nice with that hardwood floor and dark counters!  Also, do you think there is enough light in the Morning Room?  I think I need my sunglasses just to look at the picture.  (Note: Still some "blue tape" indicating some cabinet doors that need fixed)

What is it about my youth that makes me want to yell "A Shrubbery!!!"

Better Late than Never.... On photos anyway....

Still no resolution to the mortgage company debacle....

Stomach hurts from being in knots for the past 30 hours.  As of now it is just "likely" that our closing date is not going to be the date the settlement company said that "would not change."  We'll see.

Anyway, here are photos from our most recent trip, and, at the very bottom, the ones our AWESOME PM was kind enough to send me....

 View from the front door towards the kitchen.  Powder room on the immediate right, the entryway visible in the photo on the right is to the mud room.  The blue, well, those are the spots that need a little "perfecting".  The cardboard on the floor is due to the beautiful hardwood underneath.

 The aforementioned Powder Room.  I have decided that the window behind the door is going to have a "stained glass" look.  Instead of getting curtains or blinds (I HATE blinds!),  I am thinking of this:

It is an inexpensive - and pretty - way to have privacy in the bathroom AND it goes with the color scheme I am considering for the main level...  (more on that at a later time)....

 The laundry room, it almost cried out to me, "PLEASE, I need to have a washer and dryer in me.  I need to find my special purpose."

 The beautiful, wonderful double oven that will be installed...  It only looks green because of the protective film... 

 Hokey, I know.  I will never get excited about my toilet again, I am sure, but it has its own room!!   

 And the toilet is in its room, with the door closed, and you can kind of see the closet door.  (Did I mention that the master closet is as big as a room unto itself?)

 Bonus Room...  I think that may end up being my favorite place to hide hang out when I am not cooking some savory bit of heaven...

 Bonus room, again, but had to show the window in the former photo to help you really appreciate the light in this one :)

 He is taking a photo of the dishwasher.  I think the kids are as excited about that as I am about a private privy.

 Just beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   I am going to have MY OWN KITCHEN again after over a year without.

Thanks be to God for this blessing!

The kitchen from the Great Room

 My incredibly wonderful, awesome and amazing PM sent me this.  My backsplash is in!  And look at the pretty sink and accoutrements...

Dusty, plain, and possibly with a bit of my PM's foot, but it IS carpet, and it will be ours....