Hardwoods, Carpet, & Mistakes

I already broke my challenge of not visiting until the final walk-through. I only lasted two days! My mom really wanted to see the house because she hasn't been there since only the first floor was framed. Who am I to deny her a visit? :) Part of me wishes I wouldn't have gone. There were a few mistakes that I noticed that just pissed me off a little bit. I'm sure they will be fixed but I'm still annoyed. It's a Saturday so I can't call anyone about it. Also, our PM is on vacation all next week. Great timing. All of the gashes and nicks in the walls are also starting to get to me. I know these will be taken care of but they are caused by people not being careful in the first place.

I'll start with the positives. The hardwoods were installed yesterday. From what I can see, which isn't much, they look beautiful! The floor in the powder room wasn't covered up so I got to see a big section of it in there. Ever since the selection stage of this process, I've been worried about how our hardwoods would look with our cabinets. Well, the verdict is in and I'm so happy that I love the combination! That has been my number one stress point since the beginning. Seriously. I think about it almost every day.  Also, the carpet installers were there doing their thing.

Now the negatives. We upgraded the master bath and this upgrade was supposed to include a swinging shower door instead of a sliding one. Well guess what was installed? A freaking sliding door. I hate any type of sliding door so much! We were wavering on whether or not to get the 4' extension in our family room. Our SR told us that if we didn't get the extension, we would have a sliding glass door in our morning room. If we did get the extension, it would be a single 15-light door. That's probably what pushed me into getting the extension. Sure, having 4' more in the basement and family room is nice, but I really did not want that damn sliding door! My hatred runs that deep! No offense to anyone who has one. I'm just not personally a fan. But I digress. This is one mistake that better get fixed. How can they even tear out the door they put in without causing damage? Now I get to stress about this. Here's a picture:

This thing has got to go.

Another negative. We put in a change order a while back to "delete" the shelf in the laundry room. We plan on installing cabinets after closing and we didn't want to deal with having to tear out the shelf, especially since they use drywall anchors to secure it. Guess what got installed? You guessed it! The laundry shelf! Part of my knew this would happen. Our SR even warned that it might. It will get taken care of, but I'm still annoyed. We also requested to not have our toilet paper holders installed. I don't like the ones that come with the house. I want the kind that you can just slide the roll on or off without having to pull the middle part off. This type only has one anchor screwed in the wall where the RH ones have two. We didn't want to have to patch the walls in all four of our bathrooms. Our PM said this would not be a problem. Well, guess what got installed? They only put them in two of the bathrooms so far but I'm sure the other two will get installed before someone catches the mistake. The one in the master bathroom was installed out of reach, which is totally ridiculous. I hope they don't install the one in the basement on the side of the vanity. Then I could never change it and I will be so freakin' pissed!

Laundry shelf that isn't supposed to be there.
Also, I'm not very happy with the lighting in here. This room is dark.

This is in the master "water closet."It looks even farther away in person. I could never reach that.
It wasn't even supposed to be installed in the first place!

Hall bath. Also not supposed to be here. They also jacked up the wall. Was it their first time installing one of these?

This is the kind of TP holder I want.

Van with our carpet and padding in it. I'm glad I saw this because I've read blogs where people didn't get the padding they paid for. It's hard to verify once installed!

Love the hardwoods! The color is Saddle. This is the 1st floor powder room. Only part not covered up.

Crown molding is still missing in the study. This light fixture is just ok but I don't think it's fancy enough to be installed in a tray ceiling. It will be getting replaced.

Vented Microwave was installed! It's HUGE!

A peek of the floors up against the cabinets. I hope that's not paint on the floor!

Yes, my cooktop will sit just below the microwave. Not against code in Ohio!

Double wall ovens on the right, cooktop and dishwasher on the left!

The door leading from the garage to the house is jacked up. It won't close all the way and my husband had to yank hard to get it to open. The wood is also split. 

Food pantry. Looks bigger with the shelves installed.

Chandelier in the foyer!

Linen closet in the upstairs hallway

Carpet about to get installed in the formal dining room.
I really wish the carpet installers didn't wear shoes. Seriously.....

Love the french doors to the study!

This is also one of my annoyances. The light to our basement stairs is installed on the WALL not the ceiling! This wasn't a mistake either. That's where it's supposed to be. It looks ridiculous! It doesn't help that the fixture is fugly. Couldn't they have at least installed a wall sconce?

Air conditioner. 

My husband set up our utilities and trash service two days ago. They are all scheduled for the week we move in. They already delivered our trashcan. That was fast! Trash day isn't even until Monday!

I didn't even notice until looking at this picture that they installed the rest of our outdoor lights! I'll have to remember to a get close-up next time.

Please Make Me Feel Better...

So I've been reading some blogs today that mention upgrades that the bloggers wish they would have gotten. I used to dwell on things we didn't get and even second-guess the things we did get. We got most of the upgrades we wanted and I can't even remember most of the ones we didn't get but wanted. They weren't anything major. I would still love to have that window in the laundry room though.... Anyways, our home is close to completion and I LOVE everything about it so far. It makes me forget about everything I didn't get or do. Except one thing. I only have one regret. We opted for carpet in our formal dining room. I wanted hardwood but my husband and my SR talked me out of it. We were originally planning on getting hardwood on the whole first floor. It cost WAY more than we thought it would. Close to $12,000 if I remember correctly. Instead, we opted for the hardwood in the foyer, powder room, kitchen, and morning room. I'm glad we ended up getting carpet in the study and in the family room but I'm still a little bummed about the formal dining room. Hardwood was super expensive for this room and my SR pointed out that I would spend over $1000 just to cover the hardwood up with a rug. This room also won't get used that much. We did get the tray ceiling, crown molding, and chair rail in there though so part of my still wishes that we would have sprung for the hardwood.

Did anyone else get carpet in their formal dining room? Does anyone think it's weird to have carpet in a formal dining room? It has to be pretty common for Ryan Homes to make it standard, right? Be brutally honest!

Installing a PVC Pipe Under Driveway

I mentioned in my blog yesterday that I asked my PM for permission to install a PVC pipe under our driveway towards the end. After we close, we want to install an invisible fence for our dog and run it all the way around our lot. Our neighbor installed one and he ran the wire along the crack that is at the end of his driveway. We wanted to avoid this because I'm sure the wire would become damaged over time. Well, not only did our PM give us permission, but he said he would install the pipe for us!! Woohoo!

As for the missing crown molding in my study, they just ran out. He said it will be installed around the edge of the regular ceiling - like we paid for - AND they are installing it in our tray ceiling - which was free since the framing crew put it in that room on accident! Woohoo again! I was worried that he wouldn't have it installed in the tray since we didn't pay for the tray. I was going to be upset if they didn't. It's not our fault that the tray was installed in there on accident. That doesn't mean they can leave it looking unfinished! No worries though since he said it will be taken care of! He really wants that 10 on his survey :)

Hardwoods will be installed on Friday, carpet this weekend, and granite on Monday! Our PM is on vacation ALL next week. That is literally the last week before we close. I'm a little freaked out by that but I'm sure everything will be just fine. 13 More days!!

Don't Mess with a Girl & Her Crown Molding

Things are moving super fast in our house lately! We close two weeks from today! I texted my PM to ask him when the stone would be put on the fireplace and he said it was finished already! I told him I was going to drive out there and check it out. Well, I made the drive and was super disappointed. I wish he would have told me that the painters were there. They had the whole fireplace and all of the kitchen cabinets covered in plastic. I couldn't see anything! Such a wasted trip. I drove home all sad and told my hubby. After dinner we drove out there to see the rest of the progress and hoped the plastic would be taken down by then. The workers were still there (at 8pm!) but they were wrapping up and had already removed the plastic covering! YAY! The fireplace looks GORGEOUS! We aren't going to have a television in our family room so the fireplace is the main focal point. All of the cabinets are in as well! Our PM said they measured for the granite countertops today and they should be installed next Monday!

Our PM also said our driveway will be poured this week. I was in the middle of a conversation with him and I asked him if we could place a pipe under the end of the driveway to feed our invisible fence through after closing. He stopped responding and that was around 1pm today. That doesn't make me very happy. If we miss this opportunity because the driveway is poured without us knowing, I will be very upset. I've heard of other bloggers doing this but I need some advice. What is the easiest way to "fish" the wire through the tube once it is under the driveway? My neighbor installed an invisible fence by just lifting up his sod and putting the wires under it. That sounds easy enough. He also ran the wire through the crack in the end of his driveway. I don't want to do this if avoidable. I would rather put it through the pipe if our PM ever gets back to us about it....

One thing that really bugged me about our trip today is that there wasn't any crown molding in our study. This was included in our trim package. I know that the tray ceiling was a mistake made by the framing crew but we still paid for the crown molding to be around the regular part of the ceiling. I also feel that they should put crown in the tray. It's not our fault that they accidentally installed a tray ceiling. That doesn't mean they can leave it unfinished. I texted my PM right away but I don't expect a response until tomorrow. I hope he responds first thing because I am super impatient and upset that this room was skipped over.

Our PM said we get any leftover brick. I guess this is it.

My beautiful kitchen! Can't wait for the granite!

Close-up of the gourmet island! It's HUGE!
The door behind the island is to the basement. It will be interesting moving furniture down there.

Food pantry to the right, door to garage in the middle, and laundry room is to the left.
At first, I was bummed we didn't get the option to have the 6-panel doors. I actually like the 2-panel doors better now. They look better than I thought they would.

I've been wondering if we would get a lazy susan! The verdict is in!

This empty space is where the dishwasher will go.
The sink is to the left and has a view straight out the morning room windows <3

If there is even a HINT of cigarette smoke in my house, WWIII will break out....

I don't like how the ceiling looks just above the cabinets. They textured it and the cabinets don't sit flush.  Hopefully they can make this look a little better. We would have gotten the trim above the cabinets but we didn't know how that would looks since they go up to the ceiling like that.

Knobs!

The fridge will be on the right and the double wall ovens on the left!
I wonder if they can move the upper cabinets up to sit flush with the ones to the left? If not, I will NEVER be able to reach these.

I don't know how I feel about this. This is the cabinet above the wall oven. You have to open the right side before you can open the left side. Weird.

The whole kitchen

Recessed lights! The big off-centered hole is for our in-ceiling speaker! We got the  home audio system. This includes two speakers in the first floor ceiling and two in the second floor ceiling.

My beloved morning room <3

The large hole is for our second home audio speaker on the first floor. The little one is our ceiling fan rough-in.
Our recessed eyeball lights are above the fireplace.

I now introduce to you, the fireplace! LOVE the stone!

I thought this looked cool. This is the only light in the basement right now.

They installed and stained the banister! This is the basement.

Looking up the basement steps.

Close-up

Looking into the basement from the stairs.

Rounding the corner from the last pic

Rounding another corner from the last pic.
The doorway on the left is to the morning room extension part of the unfinished area.

One part of the unfinished space with door #1 into this area.
My husband will be finishing this for a media room later.

Other side of unfinished space. This is the morning room extension. Door #2 into unfinished space.
I love that there is a door on each end of the storage area since it's so big.

The big hole in the ceiling is for one of our two second floor home audio speakers. The second one is right outside the master bedroom.

I love this railing!

I love this! There is trim around the window too but it's too hard to see. There is also crown molding in the upstairs foyer and hall :)

My favorite shot of the railing! I love the shape of our upstairs hall.

Tired of looking at my spindles yet?!? That was the last one, I promise!

Crown molding on the inside and outside of the formal dining room tray ceiling!

Chair rail in formal dining room!

Umm...there's supposed to be crown molding in here too. What the heck? I know the tray ceiling was an accident in here but our trim package still included crown molding in the study.
Don't mess with a girl and her crown molding!

Closet doors in one of the bedrooms. Love them!

Master tray ceiling with crown molding