08/28/14 HOLY MOLY HOME SWEET HOME

Good evening, good morning, good afternoon, and salutations!

I haven't updated in such a long time and I really feel bad for not posting any photos or any updates. Why? Because it took FOREVER to get any internet out here. I have been nothing but courteous to our internet provider about having them come out and give us some internet. They gave me the biggest run around I have ever dealt with. After going over our family plan on our mobile devices, stealing wifi outside a Starbucks, and going to random friend's homes to use their wifi... we finally have internet.

So here I am... and get ready... for an overload of photos, updates, rants, and raves!

We closed on August 8th, 2014. That was a start of our 2 week vacation. My boyfriend's mom told us that we need to bring in rice, sugar, salt, and holy figures into the home before we bring in anything or anyone so that we can bring peace, luck, and all the good stuff to our new home.

So we did:

We didn't move in until Monday. We rented out a huge U-Haul and said our goodbyes to our old apartment. We had lots of memories at our old home.

Here are some photos of our house before it was filled with boxes and furniture:

Our home

Air conditioners (Minus the sod, this was taken awhile back)

Misty Gray 

Kitchen

Foyer

Dishwasher

Dishwasher

Soaking tub

Love how easy it is to clean the outside of these windows

Finished attic/man cave

2nd Bedroom turned into a loft like room (Huge wall and door was deleted) LOVE IT.

Another angle of the loft

Stairs to the attic/man cave

Built in porch light

Microwave and stove

Sod

Sod and mailbox

Flowers next to the driveway which I may run over in the future

Plants/Landscaping outside the front porch

Front porch steps

Another angle of our kitchen with the crazy bright sunlight in the morning room

Sod and back deck steps

Panorama of our backyard

From our back deck and yard

Our chickens

I'm kidding with the chickens. My boyfriend and I took a road trip and one of our stops was Pennsylvania to hang with the Amish on their farm. (Okay maybe we didn't really hang with them but it was cool to feed their animals during our stay there)

Now the nitty gritty. Let it be known again that we just moved in and just hit the 3 week mark, so we're still experiencing a whole lot of hoopla.

We love it here. We love our location. We love our home. 

But I do have my gripes. I mean nothing can be perfect and we have to accept that. 

1. Changing our address was HARD. Well for me it is. I can't change my bank address, subscribe to magazines, and all that jazz. To some companies our address is non-existent. So I'm waiting patiently until our address comes up in the global system. 

2. The bugs out here are humongous. If you're a bug collector... you're in luck. I think I spotted over 10 different species since I moved here. I can't wait till winter... that's all I have to say. My mosquito bites are painful and itchy as crap. I went ahead and bought some indoor/outdoor bug spray with an attached hose and sprayed the house down like crazy.

3. The walls of our house are very very sensitive. I want to believe it's because it's new... I mean, I accidentally hit the wall with a power cord and it already made a mark and dent. Our walls look terrible... especially by the stair case since we moved in. It's because our staircase is sooooo narrow. 

For example: We have a queen size box spring. That queen size box spring ain't going up those stairs. SO FUTURE VENICE OWNERS WITH QUEEN SIZE BEDS... Prepare to cut and fold up your queen size box spring! Because that's what we did. New York Style. 

Oh and let me tell you... MR. CLEAN MAGIC ERASERS ARE YOUR FRIENDS. Erasing those scuff marks on the wall wasn't too hard. But there are still some deep ones that are hard to scrub off. Our PM told us that he can give us a little bit of wall paint so we can paint over any imperfections. I have to email him about that actually. We can also order it from Fredericksburg if we want a can of our own.

4. The lights and the switches. They're so hard to get used to because one turns on one light and then the other turns that light off. I need to label them but... that would look super tacky. We actually changed all the recessed lights in the kitchen to "dimmable CFL's". It's so bright at night that we want them to dim... so we went to Home Depot bought the lights and the switch. Apparently it messed up one of the switches in the kitchen because there's three different switches to activate the kitchen lights. Aye. At least my lights dim damn it! lol. We're definitely going to do the same to the attic because it's ridiculously bright. But dimmable CFL's are not a buck fifty... I'll tell you that much. 

5. Our door lock. Holy crap. My key does not work. I look so damn sketch on my porch trying to get into my own home because I'm having a hard time turning the key. So I go through the garage door. Hopefully we'll purchase our own locks soon.

6. Installing a garage door opener was difficult because the wires were not labeled. 

7. I have to bring this up again... but the damn cabinets above the fridge is really hard to get to. I can't deal. So everything is in our pantry which is already packed to the rim. It looks so terrible right now. lol I'm so jealous that the Rome has so much cabinet and pantry space. GAH!

8. GET CURTAINS AS SOON AS YOU MOVE IN. Or some blinds... I think that's the first thing you should purchase before you start settling in. We didn't do that and now we're slowly getting curtains... because having all those windows aren't cheap. lol. 

9. It's sooooo dark at night. There's no street lamps yet because we're like the only people living on our side of the neighborhood currently. It's so damn creepy being near a lake and forest that you can see through our windows. Especially when you have no curtains! haha.

10. The house to the right of us... is kinda close. But the other house to their right is farther from them. I think it's because we have a Venice and they're both larger than us.... I mean our left has ample space and is far from the sidewalk so we shouldn't complain.

I believe majority of these rants are just nit picky things. So enough of the debbie downers... let us give out the best parts of our new home:

1. The experience. Nothing was hidden and everything was explained throughout our Ryan Homes purchase. NVR, our PM, our SR, and our RA was fantastic. 

2. Quiet. Maybe it's because we're the only ones here on the last end of our street. Sigh it will all change though. lol

3. My custom loft. Love it. It opens up the hallway on the second floor.

4. The finished attic without a bedroom. It's like a studio. I like how open it is. 

5. The friendliness of the neighbors. I met a lot of them as I was watering our grass one evening. I think everyone in this neighborhood works out! I need to get on it. lol (Also, hi Ricky! We got your note! Congratulations to you guys! Can't wait for us to be neighbors!)

6.  Very close to the interstate. That's all I need to get around.

7. Our corner lot. Though we're a bit close with our neighbor on the right side of us.... at least we have no one on our left. 

8. Our driveway. It's so long... I love it. I really don't know how people can do the side parking garage... it's so short... 

9. Outlets are everywhere!

10. Sunlight is everywhere! The house does get hot quick though when there's no cold air going through since I have no blinds, but the AC does cool up each floor with no problems. There was this one incident where the first floor did not cool at all. But our PM told us to give HVAC a call which they came out and fixed it. It feels better in the kitchen. 

Well that's about it folks. I'll probably run through more rants and raves in the next coming months.

Thanks for sticking with me and reading this very long post. I rather put it all on here versus breaking it down with a post after post. I'll do a before and after post probably this week or next. I did a couple of DIY's that I'm pretty damn proud of. lol.

Until next time!