Showing posts with label appliances. Show all posts

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Week 16: Closing & The Big Move!

Week 16: August 29 - September 4

It finally happened, and it still feels surreal! In true Fab fashion, it was not without drama. (sigh).

Our good friends had offered to take Munchie off our hands so we could close and move in peace. So I met them to hand her over Monday morning. Thank the Lord for friends. All of this madness would have been a lot harder with her underfoot!

Closing Day
Hubs, our realtor, and I met at the Ryan title company office on Monday, August 29 at 11 a.m. in Blue Bell, PA with our cashier's check, extra blank checks, and ID's in hand. We've been through two other closings and several re-finances and expected it to take an hour or so, max. Maybe shorter since Ryan, NVR/ Homeside, and the title company are ALL THE SAME DAMN COMPANY.
I was wrong.

Delay #1
We got through signing about half of our paperwork before we realized that the county was listed incorrectly (Berks, we're in Montgomery). Title company woman had to stop us and re-run that paperwork, then have us re-sign everything.

Delay #2
She explains a tax form that gives us the total of the additional tax bill we should expect in 8-12 weeks. Totaling almost $7,000. First we've heard of it. Hubs understandably flips out. I ask the woman to give us five minutes. She steps out. Realtor calls mortgage guy. Mortgage guy points to builder/ sales rep. Title company points to mortgage guy. We can't get ahold of our sales rep to see who she points to, but realize that it's just a waste of time. We completely understand and agree with owing the tax, but strenuously disagree with not being told until the middle of closing. In the end, we understand the reason why our estimated cash to close mysteriously dropped by $5,000 the week before closing....those were tax funds that for some fluke reason of tax schedule, we're paying in a few weeks instead. DEEP SIGH.

Title woman returns, signing continues. At this point, my hunger-induced pregnancy nausea is really kicking in. I ask how much longer we might be here. Woman laughs at me and offers to find me some crackers from someone's desk (I grudgingly decline).

Delays #3-5
We finish the neverending signing, but are immediately faced with more delays. Title woman explains that 1. We need "approval" from Homeside that they have everything they need. 2. She needs to run us our copies of the documents, and 3. Homeside (NVR) has not wired the money yet. We had an 11a.m. closing. Not 9 a.m. At this point, we've been in the office for over 2 hours. So throwing out the notion that the bank could have wired the funds the night before....they have had 4 hours during which to do so that morning, but did not. I don't know about you, but if I was 4+ hours late doing a key part of my job, I wouldn't last long.

I am barely holding it together. You just cannot mess with a miserable pregnant woman like this. Hubs and our realtor, being smart men, realize this and are desperately trying to hurry things along. We continue waiting for another half hour or so before the wire transfer is confirmed. Realtor busts out the sparkling apple juice, we chug, and we run the heck out of there. Entire process clocked in at 3 hours.

We have only appliance deliveries scheduled for the afternoon, and figure we have lots of time to get to the house, so we stop for a pizza lunch. I put the first delicious bite into my mouth, and Hub's cell rings. The Best Buy delivery truck is running 2 hours ahead of schedule, and is now sitting in front of the house. We are currently 45 minutes away, and still need to run back to our temp living house (15 minutes in the opposite direction) to grab my car. We tell them we'll be there as soon as we can, throw the slices in a to-go box and run out the door.

We finally get to the house and find Ryan installers replacing the kitchen appliances with the upgraded ones. There's obviously no where to sit, so I plop my nauseous self on the stairs. At that moment, my tush is glad we hadn't upgraded to the hard-woods! Best Buy comes with the washer and dryer and for a while it's like an appliance store exploded in the house. Of course, the fridge was on a DIFFERENT Best Buy delivery truck that we would now be waiting for.

Hubs runs out to do I have no-idea what errands, and in the meanwhile, I unload the Bed Bath & Beyond goodies (new bathroom décor, towels, etc.), the hand soap and TP into the house. Which is about all there is to do except wait.

When he gets back, we decide to run to our new post office to change our address and get the key to our community mailbox. We get within 1 minute of the post office when Best Buy driver confirms he will be at the house in 5 minutes; and so we turn around and fly back to the house to take fridge delivery.

As fridge delivery guy leaves, our friends arrive bearing hoagies, tomato pie (it's a Philly thing), and drinks. The husband is a pastor, so he walks us through the house offering a prayer and blessing for every room, and leaves us with a beautiful cross to hang over the front door. It was lovely.

As we're finishing up with them, the Budget Blinds woman arrives to show me samples, and give us a quote for whole house faux wood, cordless blinds. Once we choke down the number, she leaves, and we follow.

I know we did some other errands on the way back to our temp living, but I can't remember what they were for the life of me. We passed out unconscious and set alarms early to meet the movers.

Moving Day

Hubs awakens before dawn to pick up his boss's pickup truck, then meet the movers at the storage place at 7 a.m. I go directly to the house to await the Comcast installation guy by 8 a.m. By 9 or so, I get word that the movers are on their way to the house. Their crew boss is waiting for the truck in my living room and gets a call to tell him that they have been pulled off the road by state troopers for a Department of Transportation spot check. I think it's a joke for a while, and when I realize that it's truly happening, I text my state trooper friend to "please call off her friends and let my furniture go!"

They are delayed for about 45 minutes, but finally arrive and quickly begin unloading. I stand at the front door directing them where to bring everything. Hubs is off running mystery errands again.
My lovely and wonderful friend arrived around 11 to help in whatever way she could, and I kept her busy with small tasks as the movers finished up.

Once they left, she and I went to work, and mostly focused on the kitchen, as most of the boxes were destined for that room! We had been too nervous to let the movers place all the boxes on the hardwoods, so we were forced to make trips into the garage for everything. Burning calories(?) My friend took on the designated shelf-liner cutter role and became an expert quickly.
Another wonderful friend stopped by around 1 with Wendy's for us. Have I mentioned how awesome all of our friends are?
Our work continued until an afternoon Raymour and Flannigan furniture delivery. Our master bedroom mattress, dresser, and nightstands all arrived in good condition. Munchie arrived with the friends who had kept her, and we gave her a tour of the house and her newly arranged playroom! She was thrilled, but didn't stay long. Hubs took her back to our temp living house to sleep; and my friend and I resumed work and didn't stop until after 10 p.m. I tossed and turned on the new mattress all night. The next morning I took my first shower at the house, and despite only having a sample packet of conditioner and bottle of hand-soap to work with, it felt amazing!

Wednesday, crazy Hubs went to work, Munchie stayed with our niece, and my friend and I continued our mission; unpacking and organizing, and managing a second furniture delivery. Mealey's delivered two new family room sofas, a morning room table, chairs, and sideboard, and new "big girl" furniture for Munchie's room. The garage door replacement panel arrived and was quickly replaced, and a random local window guy came to take measurements of the glass in our front door for potential switch out. We made major kitchen progress, and welcomed a visit from another friend bearing dinner for us in the afternoon. Hubs picked up Munchie on his way home from work, which meant the whole family would finally sleep in our new house!

My amazing friend left early Thursday morning, and while Hubs installed our new FrontPoint security system, I threw clothes and swimsuits in bags and packed the car for our Labor Day vacation to LBI. We finally left the house around 2 p.m., and Munchie and I promptly passed out for the ride to relaxation.

The rest of the madness at the house would be waiting for our return.

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Week 13: Making it Pretty

Week 13 - August 8 - 14, 2016

Days 85 - 91

8/8 - text PM to ask for pics of newly installed appliances (crickets - turns out he was on vacay)
8/13 - Door unlocked = surprise visit!

So, we were sad that we wouldn't get to see any progress this week. But an invite to a friend's pool in the area meant a drive by/ door try. We were met with unexpected success!

We ran through the house really fast, but managed to notice the following changes (stay tuned for pics):

Floors uncovered - looks amazing, but now nervous about them getting damaged!
Appliances installed - need to check these for accuracy. I thought we were getting "gas on glass", and we saw gas on stainless.
Cabinets swapped out for correct finish
Laundry-room door swing changed (YAY!)
Banister stained
1 coat of paint on front door
Interior & exterior door handles installed
Yard grading
Toilets installed
Corrected cabinet and side panels around fridge opening

Still to be done

Missing handles on garage door
Replace/repair dented garage door (a new find)
More coats of paint on the front door
Door swing on master bath
Drywall repairs noted previously (didn't check on these)
Landscaping & hydro seed (sigh)
Cleaning (obviously)
Final painting
SO.MUCH.TOUCHUP.

What else....

We finally locked in the interest rate on our 80% mortgage (doing an 80/15/5), but are still waiting for the paperwork on the 15% one...
We ordered our new king bed and bedroom set (moving up from a queen!)
Submitted my company's internet service request form (they pay for our access!)
Still need to order a fridge, coffee/side tables for the family room, our daughter's "big girl bed", etc. etc.
Need to call the utilities about switching over
Need to call Guardian about final stuff. Not sure what this is for, but we were told to do this at our pre-drywall meeting, and I'm already a week late....oops.
Shop for rugs, blinds, curtains, garage door opener, dehumidifier, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. (basically, hemorrhage money).

Our pre-settlement walk-through is scheduled for Monday (8/22) at 2pm.
People. This is really happening!

Monday, August 8, 2016

Week 12: Floors, Appliances, Touch-Up Work

Week 12 - August 1 - 7, 2016

Days 78 - 84

Hardwood floors & carpets installed - 8/1-8/3
Appliances arrive - 8/4
Drywall spackling/ touch ups (everything is pink!)
Sprayed inside of main vents black (instead of shiny)
Bathroom fixtures hung (TP holders, towel racks, etc.)
Shower surround in master bath installed
Shower curtain rods hung in hall & guest bath
Faucets installed everywhere.

We asked our PM for a walk-through on Wednesday afternoon. It was GREAT to see the progress, and our floors in particular. I love them!! Wish we could have seen the appliances, but we were a day too early. We measured for blinds and took a few pics (see below).
Work definitely feels slower now that it's detail stuff and not drastic changes.
We caught a few new fixes:

Cable outlet was faced into the loft, when it should have faced into bedroom #3.
Long towel bar hung in powder room (had requested it be left off). I don't understand why they install a full towel bar in a powder room. It should be a ring or short bar. So silly.
Move TP holder in master WC from next to toilet to on opposite wall.
Carpet transitions between rooms obvious in a couple of places - you can see the cuts.
Front living room window is being bowed up pretty severely by mortar globs on the stone.

And a few remain that PM added to/kept on his list:

Banged up kitchen cabinets
Still wrong vanities in hall and guest baths
Door swings of laundry room and master bath need to be reversed
Crooked ceiling drywall in pantry hallway (between kitchen & dining room)
Horrendous drywall gap and blobs of spackle around front door light switch
bowed drywall above loft windows
white outlet cover on espresso island

Some general stuff I don't love, but can't do anything about:

Front door has no trim, and a plain white kickplate. Snore.
Strange undersized garage carriage lights
We paid for upgraded padding in study. It does not feel upgraded in the least.
Ugly/cheap-looking window in front door
Meh about the stone selection

One happy note: PM demonstrated that electrician was able to accommodate my wiring request to control front porch and garage lights from the same place inside the front door. Yay PM!

Day 8: Dining Room and floors! Note the raised box molding to accommodate higher baseboards we'll install ourselves. Resolution to that ugly issue!

Day 80: Entry View with bonus shots of hubs and PM + So.many.boob lights.

Master Bath light fixture - not a big fan

Day 80: Master shower. BIG fan!

Day 80: The Glorious Tub!

Day 80: Study with "upgraded" carpet and pad

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Week 7: Insulation, Inspections & Drywall

Week 7 - June 27- July 3, 2016

6/27 - day 43 - Framing fix-up

6/28 - day 44 - ?

6/29 - day 45 - Insulation (Ryan)

6/30 - day 46 - County Inspection & Insulation ("elves")

7/1 - day 47 - No work

7/2 - day 48 - Drywall on first floor started

7/3 - day 49 - No work

Well, this was a pretty boring week. Other than my husband and his awesome friend sneaking in Thursday night to install extra insulation in the garage, there was not much major progress.
Insulation, inspections, and the very start of drywall.

I had planned to stop by the house to write some verses and poems on the framework before insulation went in, but have been feeling crummy, and didn't make it. Chance missed. :(

In more exciting news, we took advantage of the July 4th sales this weekend and purchased our washer and dryer at Best Buy! Checked prices at Home Depot and HH Gregg, and all had the same deal running- $400 off each piece. We also put some furniture on hold with another great sale at Mealey's; including a morning-room set I didn't think was on our "must" list, but somehow ended up there. Also on hold - 2 sofas for the family room, and furniture for Munchie's "big girl room".
The unexpected purchase of a new morning room set means that I'll have to use our old dining room set for now. But it's a fair trade for the new beauty that will get daily use!
Pics below.