Pre-Settlement!

Today was our pre-settlement meeting, we met with our PM at the home and this meeting covered everything, literally EVERYTHING about the home... appliances, mechanical systems, flooring, counters, cabinets, drywall, utilities... honestly you think you know things (we all live in a home obviously) and then you go to a meeting like this and feel ignorant! So something that struck me when we left this meeting... we are not new to home ownership. We bought our first house a few years back and it was a pre-exisiting home. We closed on the house within 30 days and the day we closed we moved in and we were on our own essentially. The house was 100% ours so if anything broke or went wrong or was damaged, it was all on us to take care of it. Kind of daunting really for a first time home owner. However with Ryan homes, even after settlement they are there. We have a 30 day post settlement follow up, 10 month final review and a free one time drywall service good for one year, not to mention all kinds of warranties and a service line for general issues as well as emergency issues. In fact, we were given a very full binder which covers everything we could possibly need to know, from how to care for the different surfaces in the home to contact information on specific contractors who were used for construction. This meeting took a total of 2 1/2 hours ish... in additon to revewing everything possible about the home, we went through and used tape to mark off any things to be fixed. Whether marks on the wall, scratches on the bannister or damage to trim.. you'll notice little blue pieces of tape in the pictures so that's whats up. Our PM gave us both a long piece of tape yet he has a really critical eye, self-admittedly OCD so I barely had the chance to use mine! 

HAHA I wish I had taken this picture straight! I was trying to get a good shot of the door with the house number but somebody was rushing me...

Entry

Entry again, study to the left, powder room to the right

French doors to study

Study

Powder room

Rec room

Pano of the rec room

Kitchen (with deck replaced:)

Looking off the deck.. eventually it will be developed but not for a while yet

And my kitchen again.. with appliances! So happy with how this turned out!

Don't mind the binder on the floor lol. Thats the binder they gave us for the home

SO excited to have a gas stove! I can't wait to start some canning!

Upstairs hall, behind the doors is the closet for washer and dryer

Upstairs hall looking towards master. Hall bath on the right, stairs on the left

Bedroom 2- To be guest room

Bedroom 3

Master

We will meet again the morning of settlement with our PM to go over everything that was marked today. I just can't say how happy we are and how blessed we feel at this point. Everyone we have worked with throughout this entire process has exceeded our expectations. We were pretty wary after reading some other blogs but our experience has been thankfully smooth and with only minor issues. Honestly, the amount of communication and dedication to working with us from everyone starting with our sales rep to our project manager (and even NVR after our initial frustrations with them) have made all the difference. So if your in the market for a new home... go to Ryan homes at Fieldside in St. Charles!

Week 13

Well folks, time is ticking down... Friday is pre-settlement and next Thursday we close! We are so close but I guess we have been waiting what seems like forever... so it almost doesn't seem real yet. I keep telling myself, next weekend we will be moving into our new home! In the meantime.. here are some updates! When we took these pictures on Friday night we had recieved an email from our PM just confirming our pre-settlement meeting and when we wrote him back mentioned we would like to stop by the house and see what had been done. He let us know that sod and landscaping was nearly 100% done, painting of the exterior had begun, privacy fence and deck had been installed and a few things were left on the interior as well, but Tuesday (today) they should be 100% complete.

I can't say enough how much I love it! Everything is really coming together to make it a home! We did another quick drive by Sunday evening and they were just finishing painting the front door red

Side shot... you can see our fencing comes out I think 5 feet to the side being an end unit. I honestly don't think we could have gone with a townhome if we hadn't been able to have an end unit. I know it might not seem like much to some, but just that little extra space in the yard and that little extra light you get (a lot extra light, really) from the windows makes such a big difference, at least to us. 

Okay, so this might sound a little crazy but my husband and I had gone to a nursery (for plants, not babies:) the other weekend just to look around and I had decided that I really wanted to put holly bushes in the front. Not just any holly bushes, but I wanted two nice, tall ones, to frame out the front. We figured when they did the landscaping they put in the typical juniper bushes (which I can't stand) probably because you just can't kill them, and we would have to rip them up next spring.. Anyway we were surprised to see holly bushes in the front and a tall one as well! (remember how I said it's the little things before?) So we plan to just add one more tall one next to the door. Don't even get me started on the rest of the plans we have...

So this is the back yard space with grass, and a deck! Oh and fencing too... The ONLY thing off was the color of the deck but our PM assured us that would be corrected this week. We had selected the driftwood however they installed the mahogany (driftwood=blue, mahogany=red) 

Not a big yard, but enought for our pup! At least with privacy fencing now he can hang out outside, he is a jumper so normal fences don't hold the crazy animal in...

So a big kudos goes out to our PM here... normally they stop the fencing and make it flush with the rear of the garage, however he was able to extend it down to the front which gives just a little extra space along the side of the garage, again.. little things like this make us VERY happy! We plan to do some potato condos and (google it) this gives us just the space we need! 

More holly bushes :)

We have appliances! I wasn't sure if I should take pics of this yet, everything is still in plastic and stuff was all over the place, but figured what the heck... it's still exciting to see a gas stove! 

Stay tuned.... The final update before we close comes friday!

Week 12

Today my husband asked me, when do we stop calling the new house a house, and start calling it a home?... well, I think today must be the day, because for the first time ever it no longer felt like a construction site, it felt like a home!

I have been waiting to see this for a looooong time! I am in love with the counter/cabinet/floor combination we put together! I was really starting to second guess some things after we picked them out so long ago, but seeing it now everything just looks exactly how I was hoping it would! 

Just waiting for some appliances now ;)

LOVE IT!

Kitchen with counters!

Everything and the kitchen sink :)

Tan and brown granite

I really love the ceramic floor.. it was so nice to see it all uncovered! This will be so much easier to maintain with our dog!

Kitchen ceramic and livingroom carpet

I am so glad we upgraded the padding and the carpet,what a difference from our current home! We have some probably really cheap version of carpet and padding and it just feels and looks janky. 

Rec room

Hey I forgot to mention, we have power! Notice the recessed lighting ;)

back entry

Ceramic tile and carpet by back doors

Entry

And now that we have power, we can take a good picture of the hall bath! I really like this lighter version of what we have in the master bath.

Hall bath

Master bath (nothing has really changed but you know me and pictures!)

Master bedroom (We went with lighter carpeting for the entire top floor which is master bedroom, 2 guestrooms and hallway/stairs)

So this week according to our PM, we now have power (which you saw in pics) and the cleaners were out for a base cleaning in which they removed all of the construction debris and floor coverings. Now our PM will be going through and marking things for the contractors to come in and take care of outstanding issues. Also by Thursday we should see front leadwalks and sidewalks (they weren't able to get out last week) as well as privacy fencing and our deck! And by Friday sod! Next time we see this place it should look as much like a home on the outside as it does on the inside!