The Back Splash

Finally the back splash is done! We may add a knife rails but the tiling is done!

Before:

After:

The only thing we have left to do is seal the grout which is not necessary but Brian and I think we should give ourselves that extra protection with me cooking :)

We love it! The blues and the gray tie in with our tile and the black and the silver tie in with the appliances. We think this one job makes our kitchen look so much nicer and more finished.

I just wish it didn't take so long :-\

Lets have some good news shall we :)

The wedding is over which means we have to go back to fighting with the builders to get things finished correctly. They almost ruined my mood tonight but our photographer has the proofs finished and the pictures are FABULOUS all 1900 of them! They are not ready to show and I am going to try to do our wedding all at once, or separate sections organized and posted right after each other, so I am not going to post any pictures until then. I need time to go through 1900 and figure out which ones I should post, I am sure you dont want to see ALL 1900 here ;)

So what can I post about? Upcoming projects on the house!

We are still waiting on the bookcases (hopefully/maybe this weekend!) and we have figured out what we are going to do about blinds. After living here we have revamped our priority list for our projects. So after that realization our new order is blinds, spice rack and putting apoxy on the garage floor. After that all of our project money so far should be spent.

From that point on the overtime I work will be divided. Half will go to paying down student loans and the other half towards projects. After blinds, spice rack and garage floor we will be working in the Master Bedroom. It seems a lot of people leave the Master Bedroom last as they are more focused on the rooms where people will be seeing however we do not have that many guests over and when we do...they are guests. We are living here and so while we do hang out in the living room it is more important to do our master bedroom before the living room etc. Plus if we do the living room we HAVE to do the kitchen which makes it a huge project.

Anyway, we have been able to get some things up on the wall to make it feel roomy in the mean time.

You have already seen the guest room but here it is after the picture has been hung:

Gramma Kay painted that picture also

It is not as high as it appears

The room isnt really done yet but it is getting there. We basically just have to paint it.

Here is the hallway....actually specifically the hall way the takes you to the garage and utility room. This is probably the only room that is actually finished :)

We got that magnetic white board at Costco and it fits perfectly! We thought that might be a good place to put it and write notes etc as the door to the right is to the garage.

And the master bedroom. I wasn't originally going to show it until more projects were done however as that project has moved down the list, I am going to show it to you now as we have it. These will end up being "before" pictures

The wedding gift my parents got us (notice the new Mallard Squishy! :)

The view from the entrance...yes Brian is insisting on the bed being that high

View from the  window: the door on the left is the way out and the doors to the right is the bathroom

Another painting my Gramma painted at the foot of the bed

Notice the paint chip in the last photo? There are three colors we are thinking about. We are thinking between the top two but I like the middle one. You may not be able to see the difference between the top two but you will get the idea.

Forgive our attempt at temporary curtains, we will have blinds soon ;)

We have moved in!

We moved on December 31st and were thankful for the three day weekend and movers.

On Friday I helped Brian pack and then went to Time Warner to cancel our cable after that I went to the house to meet the wiring guy and For Brian and the movers. While the movers didn't take everything we expected we were very glad we used them. Quick, friendly and helpful. After the movers left, Brian and his friends Al and Gary helped bring more stuff over from the apartment while I emptied boxes. I got most of the kitchen put away and most of the boxes in the rooms they were supposed to be in. We spent the rest of the evening unpacking and trying to organize our chaotic mess. Poor Brian did unfortunately find out we had plumbing issues when he tried to shower that night and no, we did not stay up for the New Year.

Sunday we woke up and Brian and I went to the apartment to pick up the rest of the stuff. Brian then went home to unpack while I cleaned the apartment. I met the boys home at 12:30ish and took a bath and we all went out for errands. We took Gary and Al out to lunch to thank them which took far too long and then we went to order the bedroom set Brian and I picked out from Ashley's Furniture and pick out a king sized mattress. After that we came home and did more unpacking and organized.

Monday Brian and I went to pick up some more tension rods and curtains to temporarily solve the window covering window and pick up some food. After that, guess what! We did more unpacking.

At this point the house is getting there. The plumbing issue is resolved but now there is Internet wiring issues. Things need caulking, paint needs touch ups and the microwave is not venting outside. We have let head builder know and will add to the list as things come up I am sure. The house is as organized as it will be without projects being finished. Brian can't finish his office without the Internet, can't finish the loft without the book cases can't finish master and guest bedroom without bedroom set. And it won't be clean until we can get rid of the trash.

We are definitely enjoying the new house!

The House: 12.17.11

Well...I don't really have any good news but I don't know if I have any really bad news. I just don't know.

After we let ourselves into the house (it was locked this time but we found the key) and looked around we went back to the model and found the sales lady and her boss there. I think they knew what was coming. Her boss started to try and defend the head builder but as we continued to explain what has been going on he became more and more quiet. Her boss thought 90% of the problems were cosmetic and no big deal. He is right that they are 90% cosmetic and shouldn't take long to fix however most of them shouldn't have even happened and we don't feel like we can trust them to fix them they way they should be fixed. They haven't been able to fix anything correctly and/or without breaking something else so far so how can we trust that they will fix the cosmetic issues the right way this time? The sales lady's boss did agree that the wood floor was the bigger issue just because of timing and we completely agree. If this wasn't a holiday it also wouldn't be as big of a deal since they would have 3-4 more working days if we didn't have Christmas. However we do the final walk through in 3 days, leave for Christmas and close on the 27th. 3 days is enough to fix the cosmetic things but not enough with the floor. We are not sure if we are closing on the 27th. They may be deciding to redo the floor completely which we are hoping they do. At this point they have put it down wrong and fixed it wrong (floor is almost completely hollow). We don't trust them to try to fix it for the second time. I am not sure I trust them to put it down again but it is easier to put a wood floor down then to patch it. If they do put a wood floor down we could close on the 30th which means we have 1 day to get everything out of the apartment and have the apartment cleaned.  We would much rather close on the 30th and have the cosmetic things fixed and the floor done properly then close on the 27/28th with things not fixed properly. Every agrees that the head builder is going to have fun on the 22nd for the closing.

They have put carpet down. Brian, Al and I think that is premature since they still have to work on the stairs (stairs need a lot of work), fix sheet rock and paint and we dont really trust them to do that without wrecking the carpet. Sales lady's boss thinks it will be fine since they will put a tarp down but given past history...Brian and I aren't so sure. These people have proven themselves to be incapable of being careful and being detailed so we are not sure that the tarp will be enough. We shall see. Al is working on the 22nd so his friend Dave (also a builder) is going to come with us. We have told Dave and have been assured that Dave will be very vocal about what he finds wrong. I will be testing every outlet, Dave will be making sure everything is level  and we will be making the Head Builder wish he was more thorough when the house was being built.

Someone vandalized our driveway and it is not chalk

Center view

Right hand side yard

Diagonal view front right

Left hand side yard

Diagonal view front left

Left hand side yard from back

Diagonal view back left

Backyard from left, we will have to seed the easement ourselves

Center view from back

Right hand side yard from back

Diagonal view from back right

Back yard from back right

Nursery, notice the carpet

Just one of the MANY cosmetic issues they have to fix

Guest Bath

Closet, the metal thing needs fixing

Guest room

No baseboard in bedroom

Trim is up but needs work

View from entry way

Half Bath

Utitilty Room

Dining Room with the wood thats hollow and spongey

Stairs

One example of what needs work

Living room

Kitchen and breakfast nook

Kitchen

Another cosmetic issue they have to fix

Have to finish trimming the cupboards

Need to repaint

Those drawers are still in the wrong spot

Living Room

Kitchen from the living room

The pieces of wood should be touching each other

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom

More touch ups

Linen closet in Master Bath

Walk in closet

Our security system is supposed to be there

Loft

A very good example of why the stair case needs a lot of work

No pins in the door

Brian's Office

Closet

Office Bathroom

Attic

That is supposed to have a phone line there too

The brown wood should be white

The calk isnt even so the wood looks damaged

The hole is still not filled in

Oh we also learned that we might not be able to have HTC cable which we were told we could since the very beginning. Having HTC is one of the main reason's we liked the house and the only reason we got the security system. Hopefully we will find out on Monday that we can have HTC