Since Sgt.Rich blogged about his fan acquisition, I thought I'd mention ours too. We bought a Hampton Bay 56" Cherokee oil-rubbed bronze fan:
We also bought a two-foot extension pipe, and we plan to hang this wee beastie in our fabulous morning room.
We have just thirteen days to go until settlement. My wife and I just got back from England where I had been performing Best Man duties at my brother's wedding and enjoying Christmas with my family. It should've been wonderful, but we both picked up a nasty cold (from which we are both still suffering) and I developed quite severe tendinitis in my right shoulder (which is better, but still bothering me).
We visited the house on Wednesday. Things have moved along quite a bit in the two weeks we've been away. We now have decking and columns on the front porch. The columns have been added to the side porch, living room and dining room. We have some beautiful hardwood flooring, soft carpet and surprisingly attractive “resilient” flooring. The bathrooms have been fitted out and the Guardian bits and pieces have been completed. The kitchen is largely done, although we are waiting on appliances. Yesterday, we ordered a Samsung RF4287HARS refrigerator:
We've arranged to have it delivered and installed the day after settlement, although we apparently have to provide a waterline hookup hose. We'll be getting a washer and dryer (probably Electrolux) soon, although they can wait until after we've moved in if necessary. We also need to get a garage door opener. We bought a fan for our morning room and some sealer for the granite and tile. We had intended to get a fan for the bedroom, but decided to wait until we'd decided on the color scheme.
There are a couple of little issues. The shingles were “flapping” in high wind and one eventually blew away. One outlet appears to have been stuck in a stupid place, so I hope to get it moved. Apart from those things, everything seems to be coming along nicely. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be engaging in the traditional Ryan Homes blogger countdown to settlement.
As promised, I have a few pictures that I took after the drywall was completed. The foyer:
The kitchen:
The morning room:
The basement:
The master bedroom, looking towards the bathroom:
The front of the house:
The “long front” of the house. I'm puzzled that a small area of the siding has not been done here. I can only assume it is something to do with it being where the gas, electric, cable and phone stuff comes in:
The morning room from the outside. I love that room:
So that's it until we return after Christmas. Happy holidays, everyone!
I'd like to get a French door refrigerator for our new kitchen. Can any of my fellow Ryan Homes bloggers tell me what the maximum size can be? What manufacturers and models have you had good experiences with? Any I should specifically avoid? I think the fridge is really important, so I'm willing to splurge to get something good!
My wife and I are off on a two-week trip to England on Wednesday. Ostensibly, it is for my brother's wedding but we will also be spending Christmas with my family. The trip has been arranged for quite a while, so it was just bad luck that it happened to fall at such a crucial and exciting time in the finishing of our new home. When we signed our contract, the projected settlement date was supposed to come just before Thanksgiving. Obviously it slipped a wee bit!
We will be making one more trip to the house early on Monday morning and I hope to be able to take plenty of pictures for a final, pre-vacation post. After that, we will have to wait until December 29 at the earliest before we will be able to see the house again.
Anyone paying close attention to our timeline may have noticed that we have some firm dates to look forward to. Our pre-settlement walkthrough will take place on January 6, and we will be closing on January 12. So from the signing of the contract to settlement, a total of 230 days will have elapsed. But all that really matters is that we now have just 35 more days to wait until we own our new home!
It seems I may have unfairly maligned the drywall guys in my previous post. My wife and I paid a visit to the site after work about four hours after I was last there, and we were surprised to find the interior lit up with a generator humming away outside. Going in, we discovered the drywall chaps doing their thing, some of them on those awesome drywall stilts. We walked around the house for about an hour, and by the time we left they had almost finished.
I noticed a few problems while we were there:
As of lunchtime today, I'd say about 80% of the siding is up and it looks superb. They are working above the front porch and along the “long back” at the moment. It looks as if an area at the bottom of the “long front” has been left until later, although I'm not sure why. With the heavy plant machinery no longer required, work has begun on the front sidewalk.
<grumble>Inexplicably, no drywall work is being done today.</grumble>
We've had about half of our stuff in storage since we moved out of a single family home in 2008, so I contacted United Mayflower about getting our storage container delivered in January. I also spoke to our moving company James C. Logan (moved us twice before, very happy with their service) to begin the moving arrangements. We still don't have a date for closing, so I've had to be a bit vague. Most of the loose stuff in the apartment is already packed into bankers boxes (perfect for moving) but we still have a little work to do.
There's a team of framers working on the townhomes today, but the guys putting up my drywall and siding were nowhere to be seen. We have good weather until Tuesday when we expect a few days of rain, so I am surprised there's nobody working. About a third of the siding is done:
The color we chose is “Devon white” - not very adventurous; however, it will not impose any limitations on what decorations/flowers we eventually choose.
I'd say about a quarter of the drywall is done. The bedrooms are mostly done, but there's been very little activity on the first floor or the basement. From what I can see, some of the items that cropped up in the inspection have been addressed but there are some notable exceptions. I'd like to see this pipe in the basement properly secured, for example:
Yesterday, we had our pre-drywall independent inspection. Only a few minor issues were discovered:
Some guys turned up to begin hanging the drywall and putting up the siding ("Dover white") this morning, so hopefully these few items will be addressed before they conceal everything.
