GUESS WHO?

We're back. I can't believe that we haven't made a post in such a long time. This is madness to me.

We'll we're pretty much settled in. Let me get this out of the way now, there a no pics. But we're 90% unpacked. We have to unpack our clothes, Daniel is way ahead of the game than me though. We also need to unpack and mount both TVs. Daniel put up all of the blinds and curtains, I'm so glad he's tall.  We still have no idea what we're going to due with the morning room windows.  Daniel drove on the street behind our house, which is up on a hill and there are no houses up there yet, and was able to see my mom and I in the kitchen.  I want something that would give privacy, but not detract from the beauty and the light that the morning room brings. 

We both took vacation the week after we closed, and boy did we need it.  Movers came that Monday, Tuesday the garage door openers were installed and the asphalt for our driveway was laid, Wednesday our bedroom furniture came, Thursday washer and dryer delivery and installation, Friday and the weekend we put up the blinds and curtains, and Monday the microwave was installed.  And last Friday Guardian came to activate the alarm.  Busy, busy, busy.  Oh and we also had guests that first week too.  My dad and stepmom came in.  We surprised them with an actual bed as they expected to sleep on the air mattress they gave us.  It sucked going back to work, but we have to pay the mortgage now right? 

I'm using our washer and dryer for the first time as I write this post.  We got the LG 3360 series washer and dryer.  They both have steam and the 6 motion technology.  We also replaced our range hood with an LG microwave, LMV1680BB.  We love it.  I couldn't have imagined getting Ryan to install the microwave.  It's literally just high enough for me to use it.  So pretty much the only GE appliances we have in the house are the stove and dishwasher. 

Once everything is tiddy, I'll take pics and post them.  We gotta keep up with India and her faboulousness. 

MOVING PART 2

As I write this we are waiting for the movers to show up. It's ironic when we move out of our old place they were early and we were not ready. We even went over the schedule time. This time to we are ready and they are held up at another site. I pray this time around there are no hiccups. We had Directv installed on saturday and we love it! The contractor they sent was very knowledgeable and is okay with Daniel calling and asking questions since he wasn't there during install . You want to know something hilarious? Remember that last minute change order we have to do so we can get the extra output for the dvr, the contractor said we don't have to have it anymore. Also in tap for today Verizon is supposed to come out and fix the phone. I know its small and we do have cellphones, but service is so bad I can't even send text messages sometimes. Gotta go movers are here

AT LAST, IT'S OURS

Yesterday was jammed packed. Closing went smooth. We were greeted to a "congratulations on your new home" sign at the front desk. Ours names were first on the list. Our realtor also came to the closing and gave us a thank you gift, which we hope to use soon. After closing the running around began. First we went to Costco and picked up some items. Namely the replacement for our kitchen faucet. We also stopped by our garage door contractor's office to order garage door openers. Definitely cheaper than doing it through Ryan and since its the same company no issues with our warranty with Ryan. The hiccup of the day came with Verizon. As of now we still don't have phone service. I called them around 4 pm because we both thought a technician was coming to the house. Turns out the line was activated for phone and internet, but the phone isn't working. We don't know about the internet as we haven't opened up the Guardian panel downstairs. The phone issue really sucks because they gave us a new phone number, after we started giving out the original number of course, and we really need a landline phone. Cellphone service really sucks out here so we really, really need a landline. So after that hiccup we headed over to Levin to order our bedroom furniture. It's going to be delivered Wednesday. The last stop was Best Buy. We ordered our washer, dryer, and over the range microwave. The washer and microwave is coming Thursday and they dryer Friday (because its gas its a separate install). All three are LG. Washer WM3360HWCA, dryer DLGX3361W, microwave LMV1680BB. The great thing about the washer and dryer is that we got them cheaper than what is advertised. They didn't remove outdated signs so we got that price. When we finally get home we tried to turn on the heat upstairs, but that unit didn't kick on, but the downstairs did. So we were a little chilly last night because I refused to run the lower unit. That's the purpose of dual zone right? Well it didn't dawn on us until I looked in our homeowners manual to check the breaker. See during pre-settlement we asked our PM which breaker switch controlled which furnace. So he turned one of the breakers off and it was the one for upstairs. Well no one thought to turn it back on until this morning, lol. Now its nice and toasty. Today Direct TV is coming and our refrigerator will be delivered. So you know what that means, GROCERY SHOPPING. Oh the things we're going to put in the pantry. On another note, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the natural light in the house. We didn't turn on the lights until we got home at night. All in all it feels great to be in our home. It's going to be chaotic for a while with the movers on Monday and the deliveries and installs throughout the week, but this is what we dreamed of. Homeownership. To all of the mommy's and mommy's to be, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

PRE-SETTLEMENT & BEYOND!

Our pre-settlement yesterday was great. We had the inspector come in at 10 am and he was there until just after our pre-settlement started at 2 pm. Daniel was there the whole time as I had a half day at work. Overall the inspector said the house was built well and he didn't see any major issues.  The inspector gave us piece of mind and I feel we learned a lot from him and our PM.  Something that I feel made it so great was that our inspector took time.  Being there for 4 hours he did a through job.  Our PM said most inspectors come in and are done in like an hour.  Our PM even asked him for his card because he did a thorough job looking at the house.
Most of my time was spent in the kitchen. I didn't want to leave it because...we have cabinet crown molding. I didn't think we would have it. I wrote a note to ask our PM for contact info for the cabinets so we could add it later. Now there is no need. Also just before we left we ran the dishwasher to get a sense of the noise factor. It's defiantly quieter than ones we've had in the past, so we're keeping it for now.

WE'RE GOING TO BE HOMEOWNERS TOMORROW!!!!!!

I'm so glad we went through NVR settlement.  The fact that we don't have to wait for a wire to come through in order to get our keys is fantastic. 

So let's finish this countdown

#2

NEW CONSTRUCTION

For us we required a new home.  We kinda got spoiled.  Our first place together was an rehabbed apartment with new everything.  Plus we couldn't find our requirements in existing homes in the areas we were looking.  Plus something has to be said for piece of mind in not needing to replace our HVAC, appliances, and a roof.  Plus the experience of building from the ground up is awesome.  Going from a flat piece of land to our dream home is so amazing to us.  Which leads me to #1


#1

WE BUILT OUR FIRST HOME!

I know there are a few of us in the Ryan blog family that are building our first home, but it is not the norm throughout the country.  To top it off, we didn't build a starter home, we built a forever home.  That's such an amazing and at the same time a humbling experience. 

I didn't take a lot of pics on my phone yesterday, but here it is.  The finished product...




Isn't she a beauty?




Showing off our FABULOUS crown molding on top of the cabinets




Just in case you got basic black appliances.  The back burner on the right is a simmer burner



AND WE WAIT!

We don't have really nothing else to do before closing. Our rep from NVR settlement called me yesterday to give our final figures and what we need to bring to closing. Ironically after what we went through to get our SSN cards, we don't need them for closing. Can't wait to see the house tomorrow for pre-settlement.

#4

TRAY CEILINGS

I know this is something small, but I LOVE TRAY CEILINGS.  Then to make it even better we have two of them.  I can see myself just staring at the ceiling in looking at how marvelous it is in all it's glory. 

Don't get me wrong, tray ceilings were not a requirement of ours and we don't expect to get it back for resale, but they're gorgeous and I don't care, lol. 

#3

(I can't believe we're in the top 3 of our countdown.  It feels like it was yesterday figuring out what would and wouldn't make the countdown.)

MORNING ROOM

Did you really think this wasn't going to make the countdown?  We love them.  They let in so much light and just make the kitchen feel even more open.  Of course our favorite thing is the center window with the semi circle window on top.  Also we like that we have a patio door, due to extending the family room, as opposed to the sliding door.  Just makes the space feel more formal.

We feel Ryan adds value with this upgrade by including the additional square footage in the basement.  A lot of builders don't do that, yet the price point for the upgrade is very close to Ryan.  In addition to the fact that we love the morning room, we pretty much had to add it for resale as about 60% of our community has them.  At least that's what we kept telling ourselves to justify the upgrade.

BAD JIM, BAD!

So we attempted to show my brother more than the outside of the house yesterday, but we couldn't because...OUR PERMANENT LOCKS ARE ON! Yay! Thus the title of the post, Jim is our PM, lol. It was exciting driving up to the house and seeing the landscaping (mulch, shrubs, and tree) has been done, our mailbox is installed, and the door has been painted. Our locks are sexy because they're all ours. The door isn't as deep of a chocolate that we thought it was going to be, its more like a milk chocolate and we love it. All in all we're a little disappointed that we couldn't show the inside to my brother, but he really enjoyed what he saw in person and we showed him the pics on the blog too. We decided not to take pics since we'll be there again Wednesday for pre-settlement.

Now on to the second bust if the day, the Victoria Falls model is complete and open in a new community. Did we see it? Nope. Epic fail #2 of the day. Now we've had this happen before and we learned to call before hand to make sure someone was there. This time we did not. No biggie because we'll be living in our house on Friday. I text our rep to let her know, just in case someone asks her, and she took it as a personal mission to find out why no one was there on a Saturday. She's great, even makes sure to keep juice boxes in the fridge at the model for us, lol.

Yesterday wasn't s complete bust. I think we found our dishwasher at a great price. It has everything that we want except for steam and adjustable racks. For that price we get what we need.

#6

REC ROOM

We have dubbed the largest bedroom as the Recreation Room or Rec Room for short. We even labelled the boxes for it as Rec Room. In this room will be our treadmill, our first couch that we bought as a couple, our entertainment center, our first flat screen TV, and the PS3. Eventually we'll transition this down to a dedicated area in the basement once we finish it, but for now its upstairs. Stephanie, our sales rep, is excited about this room too. We joke that one day we'll come home and my mom is in the kitchen cooking and Stephanie is in the Rec Room on the treadmill and taking phone calls from the model on her cell via Bluetooth, lol. Yeap one big happy Ryan Homes family.

This portion of the countdown from this moment on is in ranked order.

#5

AREA AND SCHOOL DISTRICT

I was born and raised in Pittsburgh. So it was important for us to be in a sense behind our family geographically. So when we have kids and are dropping them off, thanks Mommie, it
will be on our way too and from work. We still had 5 communities to consider between the three builders we were looking at. Three of the communities were also in the same school district. When we made the decision that we were going with Ryan that put us into 3 communities all in different school districts. In researching school districts we used schooldigger.com and the annual report that the Pittsburgh Business Times comes out with their statewide rankings. We factored in lot size, school district, taxes, HOA, and community size. Out of all of the communities we got the biggest bang for our buck in our community and we couldn't be happier.