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

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.