08/23/15 Hi

Salutations!

I'm a couple of days shy of a year from the last time I updated my blog. Seeing if anyone is still out there and still perusing the blogging life of home building?

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!

08/04/14 I'm still alive!

Oh my goodness, what have I missed?

I missed you guys.

It has been the most stressful time for us as we're nearing our pre-settlement meeting this Wednesday and then our closing on Friday... It really hasn't hit us yet.

But yes friends. I'm still alive. lol.

These past few weeks, we've been trying to sell items on Craigslist because we want "out with the old and in with the new". It has been so tough because some people are just so damn sketchy. Like I went back and forth, back and forth with messages after messages trying to make sure that we have a legit sale. GAH. I managed to get some real people to contact me and we ended up having an easy smooth transaction. I sure did get one of those fancy money checking markers... I want to make sure we didn't receive counterfeit. lol Majority of my items are going to be donated.

Anyway, I'm back and ready to roll. I'm trying to catch up on everyone's progress! There's sooooo much to read!

Also pics coming hopefully after the pre-settlement meeting! So far our house looks awesome!

07/17/14 Water and Electricity!

We want to thank our SR Beth for letting us see our house yesterday during after hours. We took a look at it yesterday evening and had a field day!

Lights!

We have electricity! Oh and it feels so damn good. The AC was on when we got there, it felt good during this summer heat.

We took our time walking around the house and looking at the flooring, the patio, and porch, and of course the lights.

Man, everything looked great! We were getting excited each time we see something new from the last time we visited. There was toilets, water, faucet fixtures... and speaking of faucet fixtures...

I love the kitchen faucet... It's pretty neat that I can pull it out and it had different spray actions going on... like a shower and a regular stream. I'm like a foreigner to faucet fixtures. Haha.

We love the AC in the house, it gets cold quick and we felt very comfortable... I wish there was carpet already so I can lay on it and take a quick cat nap. lol.

Faucet!

Attic lights!

So I suck and don't know what size our deck is so I took pictures to show caparison for LaurLew! I thought it was a bit big... but since we have one of the smallest homes in our area, anything next to it makes it look big! lol. 

From the morning room 

From the 2nd floor

From the backyard 

I love the patio light!

Until next time! Which would probably be Sunday. lol

07/13/14 Granite, porch, lights, floors, patio! Ole!

WARNING: Prepare for massive images overload!

We went to see the house today. We picked up the key at the model home and our SR told us that there's someone in our home giving a tour. Last Sunday, she told me they've been giving a lot of tours at our home since we're the only Venice on a corner lot, with an open finished attic, and customized loft. So I guess our home is being used as an example. lol

We saw the family coming out of the garage with this guy who I've forgotten his name... he introduced us the person who started Ryan Homes in Culpepper Landing. I have no idea what came over me, but I kinda sounded prude to them... I said, "Like our home?" with the most stupidest grin on my face. Trust me you guys, I'm not that kind of person and I have no idea what made me say that. Haha! I know it's not really ours just yet... but hey I'm damn proud of it.

I like how our home is being shown though. We want people to know that even though it's a cookie cutter home, you can still customize some things that aren't considered "optional".

Anyway, here are some new updated pictures! There were some guys working on our porch and patio. We made ourselves at home and took a gander inside.

Breaker breaker. Can you spot the spelling errors?

We were wondering if we need to go out and buy an extinguisher... Glad they're giving us this fancy white one.

Have no fear! Santa Cecilia Light is here!

I think it looks good!

I like how good the kitchen looks in this picture. lol 

Double double sink y'all!

A sample of our Misty Gray flooring that's going to be underneath our gas stove.

Close up on the granite.

Back deck patio

Front porch (Someone was working on it to the left and I said, "hi" and he just looked at me. Sheesh.)

Light fixture in the powder room.

Light fixture in the master bathroom.

Light fixtures on the 2nd floor hallway.

These fire/carbon monoxide detectors are everywhere! In each room and hall.

Hall bathroom flooring

Master bathroom flooring

Powder room flooring

Laundry room flooring

Neighbor's home. Don't know what model they're getting. It looks like a Milan.

Recessed lights in the attic. I can't wait to see them light up at night.

Porch is coming along!

Deck is coming along!

I like how long the deck is.

More pictures are going to be uploaded by the end of this week to see the finishing touches on the porch and patio! Can't wait. Hope you guys don't mind! lol.