My little neighborhood is growing!

Well...I still have a lot of photo catching up to do! I attended a very nice Easter block party today and was pleasantly surprised to see that we have no shortage of kids in this new place we call home! Wow! There must have been at least 75 kids or more! I got to meet a lot of neighbors but I'll be happier to stand around and talk when the weather gets warmer. Can you believe how cold it is lately? Here's a little sneak peek of what's been going on since we built. My house is the venice on the left.

153 days and Coyotes in the woods!

Wow!  Can you believe we've been in for that much time?  We've had a lot go on with moving in and the holidays.  I look forward to taking some photos and sharing updates (probably in another month or two!) in the future.  We've had a few issues that still need resolved.  Rusmur flooring, which Ryan is using in our area, is on our s@*t list.  We will NEVER pay for them to do anything.  To make a long story as short as possible for now, they screwed up our tile in the master bath, some of it popped off, they fixed it, some of it cracked, they fixed it, some of it popped off again....etc. etc.  It's been a miniature nightmare.  Ryan Homes annoyed us by not putting the hammer down on the company the first time so we are 153 days in and we still do not have a complete bathroom.  I'll explain more and share photos once the whole thing is resolved.  Ryan Homes is coming in tomorrow to do the "final" repair.   Other than that.  WE LOVE our home.   We couldn't ask for a better view from our morning room and our bills are awesome!  We have over 1500 more square feet than our last home and pay less in our utilities.  You've gotta love that!  On a side note:  We have coyotes!!!  It's creepy when they howl at night.  We are definitely going to get a fence to protect our human and furry babies.  We also are happy to see the lot next to us being built! Yahoo!  If I remember correctly her name is Felicia??and his is Dale or Don....or maybe I don't remember at all.  At any rate, they seem pretty cool and have two little ones.  I'm excited!

Some Photos of the Chaos!

Photos of the chaos! Well!  We've been in a month and I feel like I've been on a roller coaster ride.  With teaching starting up again, my photography business busy with weddings and senior portraits, my daughter's new swim lessons (for babies), and oh...I don't know..MOVING INTO MY NEW HOME!!!! ...things have been chaotic.  So....here is some of what we have accomplished in the short month since closing.

Mums the word!  At $30.00 for an awesome looking flower box...I couldn't resist!  The lawn is thanks to my AWESOME husband!  For one month of growth from seed...it's pretty spectacular.  :)

The "formal" dining room.  We are making it into a study/piano room.  That photo has to be hung up and those boxes gone...but I'm liking it so far.  Maybe throw in an nice area rug on top.

My mother's contribution to the home.  Kaylee's bathroom.

I found some great bath photos that matched!

Rug just inside the front door.  Sorry!  I just didn't feel like rearranging the photos.  I'm TOO BUSY!

Kaylee's Sleeping room.  Yes...she has two rooms!  The rocking chair that goes in that corner is currently in my messy office.

The area that receives the LEAST amount of attention...but we did manage to get a painting and the ceiling fan up.

Master Bath...with a little mess and a paint swatch. 

"Hallway"

Family Room.  We splurged and got a plasma.  Dustin built the cool frame that we will stain or paint at some point.  Love it!

New AWESOME table from Sheely's.  Couldn't beat the deal on this so I got that too. 

Here is the bed that my Aunt bought us for the guest/playroom.  It needs some nightstands and definitely a different bedskirt color...but I like the price of FREE....so this is how it will stay for now.  Oh yeah..and all the blinds you see....that's my aunt.  She showed up like a tornado of blinds...came while I was at work and finished then whisked away to do something else.  I don't even know how to begin to thank her.  Now...I just have to think of window treatments....not privacy.  That's AWESOME!

Another view of the playroom.  I love the owl paintings.  Another Ross bargain.

Hallway decor.  Can you tell I love nature?

 So that's all for now.  The other rooms are too scary messy to share...but I will get around to decorating them and sharing that too.  In the meantime...check out these flower shots that I took at our old house.  I'm thinking of blowing two of them up and putting them in our stairwell:

I promise I will be back! I have a loan question to!

So, I finally figured out why people disappear after their closing.  BUSY! BUSY! BUSY!  If I could pay Ryan Homes to add more time to the day when I purchased the house....I would have done it without a second thought.  We have our garage cleared out (read...basement stuffed) and our lawn looks AWESOME (thanks to husband).  Our neighbors are jealous....but we water it like we're suppose to.  My flowerbox kicks some major butt and some of my decorations are rockin' out the house.  I've found some great decorative steals at Ross Discount store and Marshall's.  Just wait till you see the photos!  I will be back soon....I promise.   OH...and on a "What the crap!" note.  NVR sold the loan to PennyMac and my first payment is still due at the same time BUT the 30 years begins in October NOT in August when we signed.  I could have sworn I paid the first two months mortgage payments so I was not expecting this.  I also paid interest for at least the month of August to September.....so why was I paying interest?  And what was I paying it on?  If my loan doesn't start until October......what's the deal?  Any thoughts?  Ideas?  Please share!

Busy! And an uexpected rental snafu.

So...I've been so busy getting my old home ready to rent that I just literally haven't had time.  I'm sneaking in a minute here to blow of some steam.  My husband and I have been working extremely late to get our old home ready for a renter that we found early on in the game.  We were excited because they fit in the old neighborhood and seemed like they were a good choice.  They got us the security deposit and first months rent quickly and the only thing left to do was to have both of their signatures on the lease (we had one), copy their photo ids,  and give them the keys.

Our appointment was for yesterday at 5pm.  I waited and waited....and I'm still waiting.  They didn't return my call or email inquiry.  They've just completely disappeared. It is so strange!!

Part of me is pissed that they left me hanging and the other part is worried.  Are they even still alive? 

So...I've reposted my home and I am looking for a renter again.  I will return the money to their company that paid me for their home minus the costs associated with them after I find a replacement renter.  Right now, one of them is responsible for a year of rent.  He's not out anything though because his company was the one footing the bill.  I've got an email in to the company to try and solve the mystery.  I'm not out any money but I'm annoyed that I'm not being kept informed.  Did he lose his job?  Is he in the hospital?  Was he arrested?  Is his family ok?  Did someone die?  Is he up to something sneaky?  So many questions....

I guess it's good that this all happened now!  So...lesson learned....renting is NOT a smooth ride.

WTF? Electricity Theft.

Ok...so normally I'm not a swearing pissed off person but today I was almost there.  The new home across the street has many contractors coming and going and they all decided it must be alright to use my electricity.  WTF?   REally?    I carried their cord out of my outlet, across my yard and asked who was paying for the electricity.  I had been gone about 2 hours so I have no idea how long they were stealing from me. What really made me pissed was that they lied to me.  When I confronted them, the one guy told me that they didn't know anyone was living there.  REALLY?  You didn't see me this morning with my daughter?  You didn't see the flowers on the front stoop?  You didn't see the flowers right in your face on the lamp post?  And the kicker:   (Wait for it...Wait for it)....REally?  You REALLY didn't see that little decorative gnome with his little decorative bird friend sitting on my front stoop RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE OUTLET that you moved to get to it?   REally?  You didn't see that?  Stop lying to me and giving me your excuses.  Man up and apologize and then compensate me.  Ok...whew.  See...I told you I was a little pissed.  The guy then proceeded to tell me that he thought it was ok since the Amish guys were doing it.  Ok...so now there's more than one guy doing it and that makes it ok for everyone else to do it. GROW UP.  Then when I asked him about the figurines and the obvious signs of life, he just pointed to this poor young kid who was obviously learning and said:  "He did it, he's new.".    Wow.   Wow.  Wow.    WTF?

Here is what I did:
1. Called the SR.
2. Called my husband who wanted me to call the police for  theft.
3. Emailed the PM.
4. Called the sub contractor who consequently told me they've never had anyone make a big deal about it.  Really?  People have no problem just paying for electricity that they don't use?  I find that hard to believe.  I need to find these people and have them pay for my electricity.  I don't have a problem if you pay for it and use it but, unless you ask......and I say yes, please don't take it from me.


Here is what happened:
The PM, who did not know about it, said that they will pay for half of my first month's electric. 

Here's how I feel:

Better.  Ok.  That's more than fair and I appreciate that type of customer service.  At the very least I just wanted them to pay for what they used but how in the heck am I suppose to figure that out?  We'd have to rely on the subcontractor who already lied to me.

So....THANK YOU RYAN HOMES for making a wrong situation right once again.  You continue to impress me with your customer satisfaction and concern for your Ryan Home owners.  :)  Crisis Averted.

Oh..and on a side note and a little bit funny:  I met one of my neighbors who proceeded to tell me that there was a crazy blogger in the neighborhood.   Uhmmm....Could it be?   I'm still trying to figure out what I should say next.  I hope you all would let me know if I've ever been too nuts.  I'm relying on your sanity to keep me straight. :)  My mother told me that she thought my information about Dustin's credit score was a little bit much....then I proceeded to tell her that the whole reason we have a house right now is because of that willingness to share.  Without my blog and your replies, I would have never known how to fix his score so quickly.  Ahh...I love my little virtual world.  Much love to you all!  Now...back to moving in and getting the insane amount of stuff I have in it's new place.  Too bad blog land can't come and help me move, decorate, landscape...etc...etc.   :)

FINAL WALK THROUGH!!!!!!! AHHHH! So CLOSE!

Love!  What a fantastic day!  Here are the shots of our final walk through.   There are some things that will be completed before we close but MAN...does it look good right now or what?

My first real mailbox on a post!

Landscaping! Dustin wants the address plate to be a little nicer so he might fix it so the brick looks continuous just above it right after we move in. 

Awesome Garage Light.  Reminds me of Colorado.

Our PM explaining the ins and outs of our fireplace to Dustin.

Entry Door

Dining Room

Going up!

Master Bed

Master Bath...with a PERFECT tub!

I love all the light!

I think I'm coming straight here after we close.

NO wait.....maybe I'll just do it now!  Like my sandal tan?

Master Bed again

Master Closet

View out of the Walk-in Closet

Upstairs Laundry Room!

Attic access with some foam that will be trimmed.  No Attic light.  No Problem. :P

Kaylee's little room!

Kaylee's Big Room...maybe a bedroom maybe the playroom?

Another view of the big one.

And another.

View from the side window of the big room.

My opinion on my PM and SR and the whole Ryan process.

Kaylee's Bath

Kaylee's  Bath Floor

Soon to be Photo extravaganza room. Where the magic happens.

A view from the magic room.

Upstairs Hallway

Upstairs hall the other way.

Looking down stairs

Banister!

Powder Room!

Family Room!

Close up of Fire Mantel detail.

Kitchen!  That's my PM catching up on calls. 

Entry light!

The chandelier from the formal dining room being used as our temporary morning room light until we get a ceiling fan...which might not be until next year....cause I kind of like this.

The biggest issue we found that will be replaced completely.  They think a touch up painter must have dropped something on it from high above.

So Pretty!

My first Disposal!

Gas Range.

We decided that we are going to get molding.  Our PM is going to see what it will cost for him to order from his guy.  It shouldn't be too much because we won't need too much.  Then my husband will put it up.......To be continued.... :)

I forgot to take photos of the AWESOME brick work they did to fix that basement window for me.  I was so happy I had to stand and stare at it for a few moments.  It exceeded my expectations and that makes me giddy. :)  More photos to come next week...but for now...I'm going to breathe a sigh of relief that we are ALMOST at the finish line, relax and enjoy the rest of this wonderful day.