My Heart Hurts

It has been exactly a week since we moved into our new home. We have been so busy packing, moving, and unpacking. This past weekend our family room and morning room furniture was delivered. We also got our washer, dryer, and refrigerator delivered. Everything looks great and I swear I will try to get some pictures up sometime this week! Yesterday was my day off and I was going to post some then but I had my PM, an electrician, two HVAC guys, a painter, and the cleaning people all here. Oh, and our brick got power washed yesterday too.

So why does my heart hurt? You all remember that huge window I have in my foyer, right? The one I have made you look at countless pictures of even before it was ever installed? Well it has to be replaced! SAY WHAT?!? There is a pretty big scratch on it. I have spent many many days looking up at the window from my foyer and looking straight at it from the upstairs hallway ever since it was installed. I'm pretty sure if there was a scratch before, I would have noticed it. I looked at it several times during our walk-through last week too and I did not see it there. The scratch magically appeared the day after our walk-through, when we got out keys. As a matter of fact, I noticed it the second I looked up at it. I'm pretty sure the cleaning crew caused it. They were cleaning the window the day we got our keys. They also left marks all over our wall and window trim below the window. The cleaning crew came out again yesterday to address some issues and to re-clean that window since they didn't really do that good of a job the first time. I asked them to tell me if it was really a scratch I saw up there or just something that needed cleaned off. The lady responded with, "Yeah, there's a scratch up there. We noticed that last week when we were here." SERIOUSLY?!?!? You noticed it last week and didn't tell anyone?!? Yeah, probably because they caused it. So my heart hurts because I don't even know how such a window gets replaced. How much of my house needs torn out to get to it? It's making me sick to my stomach just thinking about it. My husband is going to have to be here when it gets replaced because I'm not sure I could handle the stress. I had to hide upstairs when our fridge, washer, and dryer were all delivered because it stressed me out!

I mentioned in my last post that there were not enough outlets installed for Guardian to finish connecting everything in our basement and that our post lamp wasn't working. The electrician came yesterday and installed the outlets in the basement. He also found where the switch for our post lamp was drywalled over. I was impressed at how well the switch was unearthed. I was afraid there would be a big hole in the drywall, but there isn't. This light is really cool. It has a censor on it and automatically turns on when it's dark outside. There is a switch for it towards the front of our garage that we can use if we want it turned off. It's convenient to have because I always forget to turn my outside lights on when I leave the house and won't be back until after dark. Our community doesn't have street light (thank god!) so it's nice to have a light that automatically turns on.

A picture of out post lamp and my beloved window in the background. Taken before the house was power washed.
Sod should be installed next week!

Now for the update on the air conditioning issue. When we first moved in, we had our thermostat set at 74 degrees but the air wouldn't turn off even though the house was 67 degrees. The upstairs was having the opposite problem. It was warmer than we had the thermostat set for. The HVAC guys came out yesterday and fixed it. He was really honest with me and said that he had some wires crossed when he originally installed it. I commended him for his honesty and I told him that it didn't matter now that it was fixed! He was a super nice guy. I even asked him about adding a third thermostat so that we could have one in the basement. Right now our house has a two-zone system. The thermostat on the first floor controls the first floor and the basement. We also have one in our master bedroom that controls the second floor. He said we could have another thermostat installed in the basement and that it would be really easy to do and then we would have a three-zone system. All we would have to do is pay for the thermostat and for the labor. He said he could have it installed and hooked up within 15 minutes! I took down the number for his company and his name. We are going to schedule to have this done and I'm going to request that he is the one they send out.

Now for the paint update. I mentioned in my previous entry that we were not happy with the punch-out guy that was here the morning before we got our keys. I seriously think he just removed the blue tape and didn't do anything. My PM sent out someone else yesterday. Our biggest complaint was that there was paint all over the stained part of our banisters. There were also somes spots on the walls that were totally missed. The guy that came out yesterday was AWESOME! He was super nice and my dog totally loved him. She tried to follow him around everywhere. He actually used a drop-cloth and took his shoes off before coming into the house - the other punch-out guy did neither. He spent HOURS meticulously cleaning up the paint job on our railings and banisters. I told him that I really appreciated the fact that he was taking his time. They look amazing now! He had to come back today to finish up the railings and banisters in the basement and he went around the house looking for any other issues. We didn't put any blue tape up for him and we also have furniture in almost every room so he just got the really obvious things. We will save the blue tape for our 30-day.

I did notice yesterday that there is a HUGE paint spot on the carpet in the middle of our formal dining room. It's hard to see since the paint color is very close to the color of our carpet. I stepped on the spot and noticed the carpet was really rough. Upon taking a closer look, I noticed it was paint. This paint spill was poorly cleaned up and I'm not even sure if they will be able to get it out of the carpet. The carpet in that room may need replaced. This is the only room that we don't have furniture in for now, so at least we won't have to move anything to get this fixed. I think I'm going to walk over every single piece of carpet in bare feet to make sure I didn't miss any other spills.

I think that just about covers the issues I posted about in my last entry. There were other issues but those will be taken care of at our 30-day follow-up. My PM has a list of the things we gave him last week and we have already started a new one. I still owe you guys a post about all of the things I love about my home. I swear I will work on it soon!

Must-Haves for the New House

Let me just start this blog off by saying WE CLOSE A WEEK FROM TODAY!!!!

I feel like every time I buy something for the new house, my list of things I need keeps growing! We already purchased our washer, dryer, fridge, morning room furniture, and family room furniture last week. You can read about those here. This week I picked out a rug for the morning room, a dehumidifier for the basement, a new light fixture for the study, an invisible fence, and a battery backup for our sump pump! I also bought new toilet paper holders, if you want to know why, read my last post.

I literally looked after over 1,000 rugs for the morning room and only found 3 that I liked. Apparently I am extremely picky. Who knew? I was looking for a neutral rug since I haven't even picked out paint colors yet. We aren't going to paint for at least another year so I'm not even going to stress myself out about choosing colors. We already have a color picked out for our family room but that's because we worked with an interior designer to pick out our furniture, artwork, and paint at La-Z-Boy furniture for this room. I wanted to make sure our morning room rug looked good with the family room rug since the space is open and you can see them both at the same time. Here it is!

It is 8x10 and will fit our table and chairs, even with the chairs pulled out.
This is from Overstock.com

I felt the need to replace the light fixture in our study because the one RH provided is too small for the space. We also accidentally ended up with a tray ceiling in the study and I felt that we needed something a little nicer for this room. The lady at the light store said I should get something larger and a semi-flush mount instead of a flush mount. If you want to see the fixture that RH installed,  read my last post. We are going to move the fixture that is already in there to the laundry room so that we can replace the hideous mushroom light RH installed. Then we are going to move the hideous mushroom light to our rental property. It's musical light fixtures! I haven't purchased it yet because I'm still looking around, but I like the one pictured below.

Found it at Lowes.

Here is the toilet paper holder I picked out. I ordered four, one for each bathroom. I am very detail-oriented. I don't like the holders that RH installs. I guess this just goes back to me being picky. Seriously though, if you want to read my story about my TP holders, read my previous post.

Found this at Home Depot but it's only available online.

Since RH pours their basement walls, they strongly suggest that you use a dehumidifier in your basement for at the least the first year. You should leave it running constantly. Make sure you buy one that can handle the size of your space. Also, get one that you can connect a hose to so that you can drain it straight into your sump pump. This will save you from having to constantly empty it out! I don't know much about dehumidifiers but we found one that had good reviews, is energy star compliant, and  is quiet. It even includes a 3ft drain hose. Most of them do not and you have to purchase them separately.

DeLonghi 45-Pint Dehumidifier

Model # DD45

We decided to purchase an invisible fence after talking with our future neighbor about them. I never realized how inexpensive they are and how easy they are to install. Our neighbor put one in and he said it was pretty simple. We aren't getting our sod until about a week or two after closing -- that was per our request -- so we will be able to get this into the ground before we have grass. Our neighbor already had his sod when he installed his but he said all he did was lift the sod up and put the wire under it. Our PM also installed a pipe under our drive at the bottom so that we could fish the wire through it. If you want to see our pipe, click here. We chose the High Tech Pet Humane Contain Electronic Fence Ultra System - wow, that's a long name! We chose this particular system for many reasons. It had great reviews, the dog collar is much slimmer than most others, and it has a tone-only mode. We are going to try to train our dog with the tone-only mode first. We want to avoid using the shocking method if possible. She's a pretty smart dog so hopefully she will catch on. This system covers up to 50 acres but only includes 500 ft of wire. We had to purchase an extra kit with more wire and flags because our lot is larger.

Home Depot Model # HC-8000

Extra wiring and flags. Model # BE-500

Now for the battery backup for the sump pump. Your sump pump pumps excess water from your house. It is operated by electricity. If your power goes out and it is raining, the excess water will not be pumped from your house. It will end up flooding your basement if there is enough water. A battery backup is a little pricey but it's much cheaper than repairing any water damage to your basement. Our sump pump failed in our condo and now we have to replace a 2-year-old floor down there due to water damage. We are not going to let this happen in our new house! This sucker is getting installed within the first week of living there! I was under the impression that it was literally just a battery that you somehow connected to your sump pump. Wrong. It is actually a whole other sump pump that you install. Also, when you buy the kit, the actual battery isn't included. Say what? Yeah, it's weird to me too. The kit is about $140 and the battery itself is $94. We chose the Basement Watchdog Emergency Battery Backup Sump Pump from Home Depot. We love Home Depot, can you tell? It helps that we get a 10% military discount on all in-store purchases :)

The kit: Model # BWE

The actual battery: Model # 24EP6

Appliance and Furniture Purchases! Great Deals!

We close on our house two weeks from tomorrow so I have been doing a ton of research recently on appliances. I already knew that I wanted the LG front-load washer and dryer and a GE Profile refrigerator to match the rest of my kitchen appliances. I've been looking around at different stores to find the best price. We got an even better deal than we ever expected and had a great salesperson. Most of you may not know it, but stores will price-match other stores and sometimes they will even take 10% off the price from the other store to encourage you to buy from them.

We went to HHGregg because they had the fancy new fridge I wanted for several hundred dollars less than everywhere else. This fridge is normally $2999.99 but is on sale at Best Buy and Home Depot for $2699. HHGregg has it on sale right now for $2429.18 and even though it doesn't usually apply to such a great sale, they gave us the 10% military discount too! So we got a $3000 fridge for $2186.26!!! It's super fancy and has an LCD screen with some pretty cool features! I wasn't seeking out a fridge with an LCD screen because I'm pretty sure I don't need it but the cost of this fridge was about the same as the one without it. I also love that the ice-maker is on the inside of the door so it doesn't take up valued fridge space. I've been dreaming about owning a french-door refrigerator for as long as I can remember and that dream is coming true! Here's it is!

Model # PFE29PSDSS
I'm in love!

The side of the fridge is gray, in case you were curious.

I love how there are shelves on the inside of both doors even though the ice maker is on the left side! 

The washer and dryer we purchased are normally $1200 a piece. HHGregg is having a great sale on them and after our military discount, they were only $854.33 a piece! Because they were such a great price, we decided to get the pedestals too! I was going to have my hubby build me a fancy pedestal that holds laundry baskets in it to save us some money but I really wanted the ones that match the washer and dryer and he really didn't want to build me one! So we both win! They are normally $250 a piece and HHGregg gave them to us for $189.99 a piece! That's still a lot for a pedestal, I realize that, but that's what you pay for convenience, I guess! Here they are:

The brand is LG and the color is called Graphite Steel. Model # WM3470HVA & DLEX3470V
This was the only picture I could find of them together!

We had a really great experience at HHGregg today. Not only did they give us such a great deal on all three appliances, but they also took 20% of the cost of the service plans for each one. The washer and fridge both have a $50 mail-in rebate as well so that's another $100 of savings! HHGregg normally only offers 12 months financing but we told them we needed at least 24 since we are buying so much for our new house. Our salesperson asked his manager and he said it was no problem! They were both so professional and thanked my husband for his service. I seriously recommend this store to any of you who are still shopping around for appliances. If you live in the Columbus area, our salesperson was Justin Coffman at the Easton location - he told me to put his name in my blog :) He is super knowledgeable. He knows everything there is about the fridge and washer and dryer we purchased.

Ashley Furniture is just across the street from HHGregg so we decided to go in there and look around. I picked out the morning room set I wanted a long time ago but I like to check-in from time to time to make sure they still have it and to see if it's on sale. We weren't going to buy it today but it was the cheapest I have seen it in the past 4 months. We bought a table with a leaf in it that seats eight since our morning room is over 19ft long. We bought all eight chairs, the matching buffet, and two matching bar stools for our kitchen island.

The table and chairs. 

We only purchased the bottom half of the buffet. I want to hang a picture or a mirror above it. It looks so much prettier in person. It's darker. This picture doesn't do it justice at all!

Both together

We bought eight of these dining chairs

We bought two bar stools for the gourmet island

La-Z-Boy called us yesterday to tell us that our furniture and artwork are ready for delivery! Perfect timing! You can read my blog entry about that furniture HERE. We also have our eye on a set for our formal dining room but that will have to wait! I blogged about it a while back. You can find that entry HERE. We are just spending so much money right now and we still have to purchase 6 ceiling fans, a backup for our sump pump, a dehumidifier.....the list goes on and on! Whoever knew that buying a new house was so expensive? ;)

We close on our house on Monday, August 6th. We get the keys on Tuesday August 7th. We have our La-Z-Boy furniture, Ashley furniture, and appliances from HHGregg all scheduled to be delivered on Saturday, August 11th. That's going to be a crazy busy day!

First Furniture Purchase!

As you may have read in my previous post about shopping for furniture - you can find it here - my husband and I have been looking at La-Z-Boy. You can pick whatever couch you like best and then choose from over 1100 fabrics to personalize it. You can even personalize the accent pillows. We decided on having two full-size couches facing each other with a coffee table in the middle. There will be a rug under the coffee table. We will have two accent chairs, one on each side of the fireplace. There will be no television in our family room. We wanted this room to still feel "open" and have plenty of seating for guests.

Here is a rough sketch of the furniture layout we chose:

There is no wall on the right side, it flows right into the kitchen.

Here is the couch we chose. It is called the Collins and it is sooo comfy and soft! The best part - it's made in America!

The color is called Brown Sugar

Here's an up-close shot of the fabric with the accent pillow

Here is what our accent chairs will look like, they match the pillows:

This chair is the Charlotte. It's a recliner! Can you believe it? If not, look down!

IT RECLINES! I am excited about this because I look forward to reclining and reading next to the fireplace. I'm so glad that this chair is a recliner but still has a smaller profile.

I also mentioned in my previous post that La-Z-Boy offers free in-home design. We are meeting with their interior decorator later this month. She is going to help us pick out a rug, coffee table, accent tables, decor, and paint colors! I am so glad they offer this service. I would be lost without it! I really want this room to have a complete look. We won't be painting for the first year but at least I will know what color goes best with our furniture choices! We also weren't planning on buying any furniture until after we close on the house. La-Z-Boy was having an awesome sale that we couldn't pass up. It also takes at least two months to get the couches delivered since we personalized them. We only had to make a down payment and won't have to pay the rest until we are ready for them to deliver.

Furniture Shopping & A Suggestion

I have been to so many furniture stores in the past week and I have been having a hard time finding couches that I like for my great room. I found some couches with patterns that I like but then I didn't like the feel of the couch and vice versa. I went to La-Z-Boy last night and found out that you can pick any couch that you want and then you have 1100 fabrics to choose from for the couch and for the accent pillows! You can even purchase extra fabric to make your curtains match the accent pillows! They also have these really cute accent chairs that recline! Only they don't look like recliners because they are much smaller! Just when I thought I was already in heaven...the sales guy tells me that they have an in-home design consultant!! She comes out to your house -- or in our case she's just going to have to look at the floor plans since our house doesn't exist yet -- and she makes sure the couches you have selected are a good size for the room. She also helps you coordinate accent pieces, rugs, and decorations! It gets better, they are in partnership with Sherwin Williams so she even helps select paint colors that compliment your room and the furniture you pick out! Oh, and did I mention that this is all FREE!!

So if you are having a hard time choosing furniture, I HIGHLY recommend La-Z-Boy. They even have a 3-D room planner on their website. The sales rep also told me that you can purchase a protection plan on the furniture that protects you from stains associated with food and beverage spills and bodily fluids for 10 years. If you get a stain, they will have it professionally cleaned for you and if that doesn't work, they will replace it! This is perfect for those of you with children or for those of you who are worried about stains in general!

We made some preliminary choices last night but we went in to the store too close to closing time. We will be going back this weekend to finalize our selections and then I will post some pictures on here of course!

I have already fallen in love with a dining room table and chairs for our morning room. I found these at Ashley Furniture -- I LOVE LOVE LOVE Ashley. Most of our current furniture is from there.

The table comes with a leaf in it (not pictured). It can sit up to 8 people. Our morning room is 19'3'' long so I want a long table to go in there.

I love the design on the back of this chair. It's super comfy too! I wanted to get matching barstools for the island in the kitchen, but my husband wants something with a smaller profile. We'll see.

I don't think I would get the top piece of this. I might put a picture or a mirror above it instead. The hutch looks SO much better in person. This picture does not do it justice.

The table and hutch together

As for the formal dining room, my husband picked out a set that he really likes. I think it's a little too expensive but he had a good point, you only really get one set of formal dining room furniture in your life. I'm also not a huge fan of the two end chairs but I love the hutch. The table is 9.5' long but it has two leaves you can take out of it, which brings it down to about 6.5' I think. We aren't 100% set on this set but I thought I would share some pictures anyway!

I'm not a huge fan of the design on the back of this chair. We might get just the ones above.

This shows only one leaf, but there are two.