First floor update

I haven't blogged in so long!!! About two months ago, I found out I had a tibial stress
fracture and a broken heel and I stopped all house projects. Now I'm finally off crutches, weening myself out of my walking boot, and the decorating, unpacking(!), and building can continue!

I ordered some pieces from West Elm back in January, including a couch which finally got here a couple weeks ago! I'm so happy with it. Our previous couch was microfiber, and got really hot. See example:

He often became one with the couch.





So, we moved the old couch to our bedroom (more on that later), and replaced it with a "brushed heathered cotton" couch. 

It's very comfortable. Eventually I want to update the end tables, but for now they work. With the exception of painting, and getting furniture from my in-laws in Atlanta for the guest bedroom (we had it when we lived there but couldn't fit it when we moved back to VA), we are done with the first floor!

View from the couch- still thinking I need something on the wall on each side of the TV....sconces? 

Dog corner :)

We leave the sliding glass door open almost all day when we're home.

Mud room

Other side of mud room

Powder room- someday I will finish the cabinet.  Got it at Target and it didn't have all the pieces.



"Mom, what are you doing?!"

First floor guest bath

I love this rug! Anthropologie (on sale)

The only furniture in the first floor guest room



Yeah, it's pretty much a storage room.

This is the dog's favorite part of the house...



This is why!





So many weeds!





My favorite part of the porch

Now for the bad...a huge complaint is that for a while, we were getting blocked in our driveway.  I totally get that they have a job to do, but I would appreciate it if the Project Managers would give us a heads up if a delivery is expected and they need to park behind our driveway.  I was almost late for a doctor's appointment because I couldn't get out, and a (new) project manager just stood there.  The attitudes of some of these people are ridiculous. So, I've started to take pictures everytime it happens.  The lots across the street still need to be built, so I expect more issues when that begins.  The workers also drive waaaaaayyy too fast.  Since we live on the corner, they must find it fun to take it fast.  Well, my dog was inches from being hit a few weeks ago.  I'm so glad there were people in the street, prompting the driver to slam on his brakes because my dog would have been flattened.

This is one backing up, after Aaron went and asked him to move.  He told Aaron, "Well, we are all fighting for a parking spot today."

I actually had errands to run when this one happened.  I went out in my cast and crutches hoping I'd get some sympathy. Nope. But once the forklift was off the back, I was able to do a 500-point turn out of my garage and turn my car around to drive straight through the little gap.

 

Now onto settlement issues....or just house issues.  I cannot wait until this gets fixed.  There's been a lot of empty promises, like "we'll finish painting that" or "we'll drop off some extra paint for you to patch up holes." Oh well.  They're going to be in my house for a long time come the 10 month inspection.  These are just a few of the issues. 

Cheap paint- someone's jeans bled onto the wall. 

That's been there since the 30 day walkthrough.....

This has been there since the 30 day walkthrough as well....I finally took the blue tape off. 

Edge of the bar height counter from the morning room side. 

All the granite has separated from the wall.

They actually fixed some bad nail pops in the foyer/stairwell, but never came back to finish painting.  Super cute..."Welcome to my home, here's some unfinished work!"

We also got a fence a couple months ago! But.....the Ryan Homes landscapers did not accurately measure our property line when they sodded and planted trees, so we lost all our trees in the back yard, because they were half on our property, half on the lot behind ours! The landscaper was kind of rude to me when I first met him, so whatever. They are giving all our new neighbors different grass, trees and flowers and they all look really good.  I really love the new trees they are planting.  Oh well, less work that has to be done when he plan our pool :)

Despite all the issues, I am still happy with our house.  Having new houses built is a little bittersweet.  It was nice being the second family to move in, but it was kind of creepy at night. I'm enjoying walking through all the new houses and getting ideas for projects we could do. Speaking of upcoming projects, I've ordered all new patio furniture and plan to build a paver patio in the back corner of our yard (it gets all sun in the fall/winter and all shade in the spring/summer) with a raised flower bed on the 2 sides that back up to the fence.  I plan to plant citronella because that area has a lot of mosquitoes.  We've had some awesome weather the past few weeks and have really been enjoying our deck.  The paver patio will give us a little more privacy since it will not be raised. More on that later :)

30+ Days

We had our 30 day walk-through the day after Thanksgiving, and the major repairs were done this week.  Luckily, we've only had issues with nail pops and settling, which will be repaired at the 10 month- so that the home can go through all the seasons. We had to get the tile guy to come fix the master bath shower and the upstairs guest bath shower. In the master bath, there was a raised tile and in the guest bath there were some spots not grouted. The drywall guy also came to fix the baseboards on the stairs where it had begun to separate from the wall. All in all, we are very happy. Yes, the nail pops are annoying, but I really think we're the only people who notice them.  Since Thanksgiving, we've really been lazy about getting things done.  We were focused on getting our Christmas stuff up and hosted a few get-togethers. I don't have a good picture of our tree...we put it in the morning room. I couldn't find a good spot in the family room! But it looks great in the morning room windows/sliding glass door.

Our main complaint has got to be the construction workers. We knew what we were getting into...but did not think it would be like this. Last week, a house broke ground across the street from us...and then the delivery for their foundation began at 10:30 at night...and lasted until 5:30 in the morning! On a Monday night/Tuesday morning! Mind you, I get up at 4:30 am for work so I did not have a good night of sleep. The other complaint is that we've seen huge truck tire tracks in our driveway, pretty close to our grass, so we wouldn't be surprised if they are driving in our grass too. They are extending our street to begin phase 2, so these are contractors who build the road.  I assume they are city contractors and are not hired by Ryan. Either way, it's annoying. Right now at 7AM there are 7 personal vehicles parked in front of our house- and their cars are where they take their smoke and lunch breaks, so it's pretty awkward to be in the front yard while they are sitting in their cars. And if we ever wanted to entertain during their work day, our guests would have to park in our driveway.

Okay, no more complaining. Here are a couple of pictures!

Dining room view from kitchen

View from front door

Entertainment center that my dad built from some sketches I did for him. It's a little cluttered due to some Christmas things being on here. In this picture, it kind of looks like I need something tall in between the TV and windows, but in person it looks fine. Hmmm...

Porch during the day, I have added wreaths to the railing and a bow to the lamppost since this picture.

Porch at night!

Morning Room

I think the Morning Room is done...for now. I am looking for 2 really cool chairs for the head of the table, and some really cool curtain tie backs, but other than that it's done.