HAPPY 4TH EVERYONE!

We're having a cookout on Sunday. This will be the first time a lot of our family will see the house. I'm going to pick up my mother-in-law tomorrow from Detroit. We're so excited. Happy 4th. Let's not forget what our forefathers did to get our lovely country started and the men and woman that protect us to keep us great.

SMALL PROGRESS MADE!

For the past 24 hours Daniel has been surprising me with stuff he's done or gotten for the house. First thing he did was yesterday by getting our recycling can. Not the one that our township provides. Oh no. This thing is about the size of our garbage can and is on wheels. We recycle a lot so the one or two "crates" our township gives won't be enough. Plus being able to roll out both cans makes it easy on me if I have to take it to the curb. Second thing, we have a shelf in our garage. Our countertop on the breakfast bar bowed a little so they came in a replaced it today, during our 30 day inspection. So instead of throwing it away our punch out guy just used it to make a shelf. Last thing, OUR TV IS MOUNTED in the family room. I came home and I instantly heard the TV. I thought Daniel had the tv up loud upstairs. Nope, its our lovely Samsung hanging above the fireplace in all its glory. I love my hubby. So our 30 day inspection went well. There really aren't any issues. We had loose floor board in our bedroom, which was fixed last week. The countertop issue mentioned above. We had the electrician in here 2 weeks ago because the treadmill kept tripping the breaker. They painted the scrape marks on the wall too. In other house news, our concrete sidewalks are in. Well and I'm still working on putting together my closet. Sorry for the rambling, but I'm about to go to bed now. Toodles

RYAN HOMES CURRENT SPECIAL!

Is a free morning room!!!  I'm hot.  When we signed it was a finished basement, but a morning room?  I've only seen that incentive in a new community, but not as an official campaign.

In home news, nothing has changed.  Well other than the stainless steel cookware set that we got from Costco that I'm in love with.  Daniel is in the family room right now marking the studs for the TV.  Slow and steady wins the race right?

Miss you guys and congrats to all of those who have closed recently. 

Special shout out to my girl Noey.  What did I tell ya, it's all in his plans.  Glad the house is officially yours.  :-)

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