28 - 1 = 23

Confirmed!

The new close date is Wednesday 10/22.  How does moving the closing up 2 days bring us 4 days closer to moving?  Weekend surcharges on movers, that's how.  We can now move Thursday instead of waiting all the way to Monday.  Woot

And none to soon, since our water in the apartment has turned yellow.  Only a pale yellow, though, not like a bright Baylor Bears flourescent uniform, just enough for Marissa to notice "the water looks like pee"

NVR is a challenge.  Be careful; just for reading this blog, they may want to see your financials, too.

Alicia met with the driveway guys today, and we're going ahead with the 20' wide driveway, 2' wider than the standard no-added cost edition.  That'll take it from garage edge to garage edge, give or take a few rocks.  Come spring, I may also get my trash pad.

There are pictures of the driveway marked off.  They are very nice pictures, and you would have enjoyed seeing them.

Alicia also talked to the carpet guy.  Actually, both carpet guys.  One who introduced himself as "the carpet guy" at the house, and another, who is our personal carpet guy.  What, doesn't everybody have one?  He gave us some ideas for keeping the carpet stain-free.  Our carpet guy, not the carpet guy.  I'm told he was also friendly, but we forgot we had questions until we had left.

I say we, because even though I didn't quite make it to the house, I did meet up with Alicia about a block away, so that's sort of like being there.  I might've made it too, if it hadn't been for those meddling kids... getting onto their school buses.

The carpet guy did let us know that he starts on Monday with the install, though.  I wonder if he has a name.

So, what's left?  Carpet, granite, plumbing, appliances, a window, some doors, another coat of paint, $+|t tons of cleaning, ... so yeah, not much that a few weeks won't take care of.  Oh, some siding repair, a lawn,

23 days.  Not that we're counting the 544 hours to closing or anything.

28 Days to Close...

...and it's looking a lot like a house.

We visited the site known thus far as Crown Point Lot 25, and saw some nice progress.  By the way, for anyone who hasn't been following along, we're Phil and Alicia, and we're building a Ryan Homes Verona.

We chose this plan because it has rooms... lots and lots of rooms.  In 2014, does one need a "formal" living room?  No.  Does a family with 2 small kids need a place for them to play?  Yes.

Could said family just have gone with a plan, such as the Milan?

Sure... and we almost did.

The living room can optionally be done as a very nice office... but we love entertaining and either the dining room or the family room (a.k.a. living space) becomes the playroom - the Verona solves that. 

Here's our floor plan... let's start downstairs.

Living room (downstairs playroom), dining room, and office.  All full size (I won't paste another floor plan we considered, but in one, the office was a 7' wide nook carved out of the garage).

We'll go upstairs in a moment.  First, here's a look at the kitchen progress.

Sensing a touch of Stonecrest color theme?  Wait until the granite goes in.  Sorry, didn't mean to spoil any surprises...
But, we're nothing if not predictable.

Oh, speaking of surprises, we did a custom order of a stack of drawers in place of a cabinet.  Imagine our surprise when, while looking at the stack of drawers in place, that this was not the one we ordered, but rather comes standard.
Which really makes it somewhat surprising that our request to have some drawers put in the kitchen was answered with "wait, you want what?  I'll see if we can order something like that" instead of "oh yeah, those come standard"
So, now we have to decide if we want to have way too many drawers or cancel the special order.

#bathroomselfie

The bathroom is through an archway (not pictured).  Straight ahead is the bathroom; to the left is the office.

 

Living room and dining room... we didn't do a lot of "standard" lighting, but we liked the chandelier in the dining room; it's simple.  And as Kat (our realtor) noted during the walk-through today, it's our style.

Yes, we invited her to join us.

No, we're not inviting anyone else.

Upstairs we go!

I noted once before that we selected the "bonus" room over the garage.  I don't think I realized, until today, that doing a 2' garage extension also extends this little nook area by 2'.

When walking toward the window, it felt like the floor wasn't quite level, but our project manager is going to check it out. 

I can't find any pictures of the light fixture in our blue bathroom from Stonecrest, but the resemblance is uncanny.

 That special-order light/fan/heater we got.  Nice.

Won't you be my neighbor?  Maybe in a few months...  nice windows on the back room.

We did stumble across one teensie, tiny problem...  or at least, it seemed like it to Bryce.  To people whose basement flooded a week after moving into their former house, this:

is a problem

This is what's left about a week and half after a heavy rain storm left standing water in the basement.

The explanation is sump-pump failure, and we're assured the faulty one has been replaced.  But a sump-pump can only pump out water that comes in; it does not draw water in.  So, we will await the next rain storm.

Hopefully the heavy-duty dehumidifier will dry out what's there and it's just a case of water rushing in through an open window.  We shall see...

On to more positive things... nice view from the back of the house. 

 Lights!

No, I'm not going there.

Or there. 

While talking with Bryce to gauge the remaining timeline, he informed us that the driveway is next. Since we want a little more than the standard width, one of us will be there tomorrow, camera in hand to discuss with the driveway people. Until then...

No pictures, just an update

It's been a busy few weeks for us and our project manager, so meeting up to check out our progress wasn't happening... so with nothing new, and no time to report it, we've gone silent... but no more!

Here's an update on everything as we know it:

Tomorrow (Monday), we will meet with Bryce, our project manager, to check on the house.  We'll get some pictures.  Make sure to check back.

We'll be discussing the final few weeks and dealing with the walk-in closet in the master bedroom, since we plan to install a custom system and the "standard" placement of wire racks would be in the way.

We also expect to get an update on our closing.  We were originally told we'd do a final walk-through on Wednesday 10/22 and close on Thursday 10/23.  Then, the closing came in at 10/24, and now we're told it might get pulled up a few days to 10/20 and 10/22.  Obviously closing on a day that isn't Friday gives us far more flexibility on settling in, so fingers crossed.

For now, we're holding on the original timeline, which would have us moving in on Monday 10/27.  We've started the countdown, and each day, Marissa gets to post the new number.

So, fine, there is a picture.

On the apartment-front, either timeline is safe, so we'll be submitting our intent to vacate at the end of October.  It's been working out fairly well.  Space is at a premium, especially in the bathrooms, where one person could fit comfortably, were it not for a large inflatable duck tub, bucket of toys, and lack of hooks... oh, and a baby who finds that to be the coolest place to hang out.  Let's hope she enjoys it as much when it's time to potty train.

It'll definitely be nice to expand back into a few thousand square feet.

Post-Drywall Walkthrough

Our project manager has several projects he's overseeing.  Ours is the nicest and the most important, of course, but we understand that he's a busy guy.  He had a few days where he could take us on a walkthrough.  This Wednesday was one, but because it's sort of a busy week, neither of us were too keen on being late that morning.  So, we called Jackie, our sales rep, who was happy to take us through.

Crown Point is a little different from many of the communities Ryan Homes is in because it's always been a mixed community - though Ryan has now left it, some homes there are Ryan and some are Cordelle, so getting to see our Ryan home going up next to and across from some new Cordelle builds gave her a nice reference of how they compare in the process/progress.

I think she also enjoyed seeing our house and how our options were coming together in it just as much as we did.  One such option had many people scratching their heads: a pot-filler.  We put one into our remodeled Stonecrest kitchen, so how could we not put one in the new house.

That option had everyone, all the way up to Mr. Ryan himself, scratching their heads.  What is this contraption?  How does it get put in?  How can we charge them extra to do it?  Those sorts of questions.

Even after it was understood, whoever drafted it apparently still didn't understand exactly what we wanted and what was involved.  That wall, you see, is an outside wall.  Wow, that sentence is correct, though has different meanings, with or without the commas.  Because of that, they can't run plumbing in it.  Apparently, in Central New York (and probably other places), plumbing has been run incorrectly for the past 150+ years, and simply can't go in an outside wall because it could freeze.  So what's one to do?  Well, make an inside wall rest on the outside wall.  Voila.  The "bump-in" accommodates the plumbing for the pot-filler, and they will now forever know how to do this option, even though it's likely nobody will ever again request one.

Here's where the fridge goes.  The fridge is being delivered in 12 days.  We'll probably need to change that.  The opening to the right is the pantry; to the left is the wall of the mudroom (mud area, in which actual mud will not be allowed).

Here's a look at the morning room.  It looks neat from the outside, but even more so from the inside.  It's wide open now, but when the counter/cabinets are in, the left half of that opening will be blocked by a peninsula of cabinets and countertop.  It was our trade-off for having a little more space around the kitchen (and also the standard option).

Ready?

Aim!

Fireplace!

The archway (which I either didn't know or more likely forgot we had) leads to my office and the bathroom.  Kids and wives will be allowed in one of those rooms; the other is all mine.  Fortunately, we have other bathrooms in the house.

Turning 90 degrees, one sees stairs and a doorway to the dining room.  One could also see the front door if one was looking there, but one was specifically told to look at the stairs and the doorway to the dining room.

The dining room is "near" the kitchen.  One of the few things that had me questioning this particular model was that the dining room was not a direct walk from the kitchen.  However, for everything this had that was perfect, that was a minor thing to lose.

Speaking of the dining room, here it is.  Apparently in new construction, the entire house is held together by caulk.  And here is the giant caulk collection.

Here's a look through the master bedroom.  You can see Lot 26 being built next door; this will be the Cordelle model home for the community.  Perhaps if it's nice, we'll buy one... in about 30 years when we have a penny to our names again.

I have very strict rules about pictures being taken in bathrooms, but I thought we could make an exception in this case.  It's unlikely there will be many other such pictures taken.  Children included.  I don't know why some parents feel the need to save naked tub pictures and think their kids will want to see them some day.

I hope ours don't, because we don't have any.  Though I think we have some creatively framed pictures of soapy hair.

In the master bathroom, the giant heating fan.  This picture is taken from the walk-in closet in the bedroom.  The placement of this closet was the other thing I questioned about this model.  Compared to the Milan, for instance, closets in the Verona, while sufficient, are not overly plentiful - especially since there is not one that you don't have to walk through a bathroom to get to.

I did have an idea for another closet in the room, but it seemed silly to cut into another room to do it.

The tub in the upstairs hall bathroom.  This room looks long and narrow, but it's just the picture.  It's really somewhat short and narrow... but it'll have two sinks.

Marissa's bedroom.

Lucy's bedroom.

Laundry room.

Guest bedroom.

As we got set to head downstairs, I took a picture of the stairway ceiling/light.  Alicia yelled up the stairs, "did you just take a picture of my butt?"

As you can see, I hadn't, but then proceeded to.

Twice.

As Bryce explained, the easiest way to get rid of trash when working in the basement is to throw it out the window.  I think we should've gotten a discount instead of an upcharge for the egress window because of the convenience it provides for the contractors.

The cabinets have arrived, and they're in the garage, just waiting to go in.
They're 42" cabinets in a light maple color.
Those who were ever in our kitchen on Stonecrest might think that sounds familiar.
If you do, just wait until you see the granite color.

For fun, let's compare this to the collection of cabinets from the 209 Stonecrest kitchen remodel.

Tough call.

So here we are.  I think the sky makes this picture.
The pile of trash might take something away from it, however.

Good day.

Should we register 4783norstarapartment102.com?

The answer is no.
No, we are not doing that.

You can already access this blog by going to 209stonecrest.com or to 4477southwoodheights.com.  Are we that self-absorbed that we feel our blog needs a 3rd access point?
Oh wait, you can also get it through 4477southwoodheights.blogspot.com.
So, yes.
Yes we are.

We made it to our 2nd weekend in the apartment.  In some strange, twisted world, the path from a nearly 2000 square foot house (if we included all living space, it's probably more, but that's neither here nor there) to a 3000+ square foot house is through a 900 or so square foot apartment.

The detour also includes a storage unit, a family basement, 2 garages, and basement freezer.

We have stuff, what can we say?  We're a family of 4, each member of which has enough stuff for a family of 4.  We don't even know what half the stuff is that we have.  But it's our stuff, and we couldn't bear to get rid of the ... thingies, or doodads.

So, here we are, finally decompressing, stretched out on the living room floor, with our heads in the
dining room and our feet in the office.

The move was a challenge.  First, because of all of our stuff, second because we didn't quite grasp the enormity of the stuff we had, and finally because it was our house.  We made it the way we liked it.  Literally.  If a wall or door wasn't right, it was gone.  If a wall needed to be put in, it was.  If we got halfway through a renovating project, of which there were many, and decided something wasn't right, we stopped, reversed course, and did it right.  Contractors love us.  Who wouldn't.

But it was our house... the first house we bought together, moved into as a newly engaged couple, then left almost seven years later as a family of four.

Yeah, it was a challenge.

Oh, yeah, and the whole phones thing.  I had to do a bit of work in the morning - that's the cost of not getting ahead, but no big deal.  I was up early enough... except that apparently instead of shutting off the internet (and TV/phone) on Thursday, I woke up Wednesday to find it off.  I always choose my words very carefully, and likely told them I needed it through Wednesday, which apparently in their mind meant turn it off Wednesday.  My fault for not being clear.  So I used my cell phone as a 4G modem, which worked great.  I even posted on Facebook...

... which seemed funny at the time, until my phone really did decide it was the right day to die.  So, no landline and only 1 cell phone - sort of difficult for people trying to coordinate things on the go.

This was the last picture of Stonecrest taken from my phone - in fact, it's not even saved on my phone anymore; I stumbled across it while looking for stuff that synched to Facebook.

It looks organized, but only because the pile of stuff we were bringing to the apartment had only begun to grow.  We made it through the morning, making our last runs of stuff into garages and basements, and about 1:00 in the afternoon, looked at the living room, and realized our 2 or 3 trips in 2 cars was going to be more like 23 trips in 2 cars and rented a U-Haul.

Simple enough, 4 hour rental, in and out.  So we loaded it up, still packing the two cars full of stuff, and drove to the apartment.  After which we drove back to U-Haul, extended our reservation into the next day so that we could get a certified check, which apparently we were supposed to have been told we needed.

In the process of the extra trips, the temporary fish tank fell and cracked, and later in the evening, the hood of the regular fish tank fell and shattered.  

Good times.

Whatever.  One last night in the empty house for me... could've really used a blanket - it was a cold night.

We finally got settled in Thursday around noon.  Priority one: Marissa's room.  Both kids obviously were displaced, but she's the one who noticed we were pawning her off a bit more and understood to some extent what was going on.  So we wanted her to feel at home in the apartment, and once she got past the chaos in the living room and a few unpacked boxes in the hall, she walked into a room to find a bed made up in her own sheets and comforter and plenty of familiar toys - and even something new, a special pair of sisters from her favorite Disney movie.  She was happy, so we were happy.  

We would've done the same for Lucy's room... if she had a room.  But I'm sure she's content in her corner of our bedroom.

We've now made several runs back and forth with boxes.  We knew packing that we were bringing a few boxes only to have to take them back into storage.  We've also unpacked boxes from storage to find things we needed here.  This is why we didn't "store" everything, but rather put it in garages and basements.  Thanks to the families for giving up lots of space to house our boxes.  The big stuff like furniture and TVs and stuff went in this:

That truck is big.  If we'd known this 53' was available, we probably could've just moved into that instead of building a 54' wide house.

Traffic on Stonecrest would've been snarled for hours.  If there was traffic on Stonecrest.  Nobody has ever had to leave one of our parties early to beat traffic - though on occasion they have because the party sucked.

The transition and chaos were a bit rough, and having to work mornings for the first 3 days we were here didn't help.  Nothing like settling in on the first night and setting an alarm for 2:45am.  Our house wasn't always the neatest, but except when Alicia was out of town, I always knew where everything was - so it's a bit stressful not knowing where everything is.  I'm still missing a printer cord and wireless mouse receiver.  We're looking for a lamp.  How do you lose a lamp?  But except for the glitches, we're destressing.

Almost normal.
So close, but not quite.

Close enough that going out town for a few days, Alicia knew better than to trust me alone with 2 kids, so she left Marissa to enjoy daddy-daughter date night and took Lucy with her.

Close enough where we can smile about silly things like a box of radio station envelopes being the perfect size for my studio equipment:

Close enough that we can see a funny bumper sticker and laugh about it for days.  I mean c'mon.
HONK IF YOU HAVE TO POOP
What parents wouldn't tell their 4-year old what it says.  Yeah, she repeated it all the way home, but that's the chance you take.

Close enough that it didn't get on our nerves until her third day of repeating it.

Close enough that we can do the countdown to move-in in days instead of weeks
40.
40 days and 40 nights.
After the summer we've had, that timing seems appropriate.

We took another tour of the house today.  We needed a little reminder of why we were going through the stress.
It was a nice little pick-me-up.  Or pick-us-up.  Is that the correct plural?

Want a tease?  Or maybe a cabinet?

Thanks for visiting.

Inside update tomorrow, hopefully

Phil & Alicia