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

My PM is Better Than Your PM

I haven't posted a blog in about a week and a half! Things have been pretty crazy. We have only visited the house twice in the past week and a half, which has been strange. During framing we were going out there every single day. We decided to keep our distance for a while so that we can see even more progress on the inside with each visit. So much has happend in the past week and a half. My sister and my one-year-old nephew are visiting us from Texas, which is keeping us busy and keeping our minds off the house. I also started a new job after not working for over 6 months. This came at a good time because paying two mortgages until we find renters for our current home will be no fun! Last week someone hacked our checking account and almost stole $2000. Thankfully the fraud department at Chase was all over it and stopped the transaction before it went through. We had to get a whole new account. ALL of our bills are automatically taken out of our account and getting them all switched over to our new account has been a huge pain in the rear. We had a HUGE storm last Friday. Brick pillars and part of the fence surrounding our pool at our current house were blown over. Thankfully we live in a condo and aren't responsible for the repair! This made us nervous for the state of the house we are building. We drove out there Saturday to check it out and to show my sister the house for the first time. I got super freaked out when we drove up and saw that all of the windows and doors were left open. The wrap around the house had come off in certain places too. Thankfully there was no damage! It didn't look like the inside of the house got wet at all, except for the basement and that's only because they haven't installed the window down there yet.

So back to the title of my blog. My PM is THE BEST. I feel so lucky. I read other blogs where other people have a hard time getting in touch with their PMs and sometimes it takes days. That would drive me insane! Mine responds to my texts within minutes and is overall a really nice guy. I have stopped texting him in the evenings and on weekends because he actually responds during those times. I don't want to encroach upon his family time so I have been doing my best to save my text messages for business hours! He is trying (and succeeding) to make this process as enjoyable as possible for us. Monday I expressed to him that I have been disappointed with the garden tub in the master bathroom. That tub has been bothering me ever since I first saw it installed. I didn't say anything at first and I just let it eat away at me. My husband couldn't care less because he doesn't take baths. The straw that broke the camels back is when both my father and my sister mentioned that they didn't think the tub looked very deep. They totally validated my feelings without me even soliciting an opinion. I called my PM with a general list of questions and I mentioned my disappointment in the tub. I told him that it did not look like the one my SR told us came standard with the house. It just looks like a regular bathtub without a shower. He told me that they recently switched vendors so the tub wasn't going to be like the one I expected and he offered to check it out for me. I really feel like the SR should have told us this. It may be a small issue to some but it isn't for me. Within a few hours of speaking with my PM, he texted me to let me know that he ordered me a new tub! He ordered the one that I was originally expecting!! That's just one small example of why my PM is better than your PM. He really goes above and beyond to make sure we are happy. After all, we are the ones who are paying for and will be living in this house :)

So much has happened at our house since my last blog post. The concrete was poured in our garage and in the basement. The HVAC, plumbing, hot water tank, and electric have all been installed. It even looks like Guardian did their installation and our brick was delivered! They also installed the service door on the back of the garage and the door leading from the garage into the house. The framing is finished for the most part but my husband did notice an error in the basement. One of the walls separating the storage area from the finished area seems to be pushed a few feet back farther than it should be. It's really too hard to explain on here so I will just leave it at that. I mentioned to my PM on Monday during our phone call. I thought it would help to tell him before they finished framing the basement. I visited today and they framed the rest of the basement but had not fixed this error. I also didn't see any notes spray painted telling them to fix it. I guess it will either be fixed or we will just have to point it out again during our pre-drywall meeting.

We were pleasantly surprised to see that the plumber mistakenly roughed-in a utility sink in the laundry room. We did not choose this option during our selection process. I was afraid it would take up too much room in the already small laundry room. We did ask our SR if we could get one installed in the basement or garage and she told us no without even submitting a non-standard request. I've been a little bitter about it since I have seen so many other bloggers who have them in their basements and in their garages! I was afraid to point out the plumber's mistake to our PM because I thought he might have it removed. Then I figured it would be best to tell him just in case he notices the error and has it removed thinking we didn't want it. He said we can keep it! Woohoo! I think it was meant to be! This is another example of why my PM is better than your PM ;)

We also noticed that we will have a thermostat on all three levels of the house. We were wondering if this meant we could control all three levels separately. I asked my PM and he said yes! He said it is all still the same HVAC system but that we can have different temperatures, within 10 degrees, on each level. SCORE! This will definitely help us save on our electric bill! 

Ok, so enough of this super long entry. Here come the pictures! They are in random order from when I took them.  I'm considering hiring Thomas to come up with witty captions for me. Mine are just so boring compared to his!

Brick!! Can't wait to see it on the house!

Mortar

I love the style of door they use for the garage service door!

Glad there is a light on the outside of the garage service door. I'm sure this is code but I still wasn't aware it was included. That alone makes getting the service door worth it. More light for the backyard! This is perfect since we plan on putting our hot tub in this general area.

Hose bib on the left, dryer vent is there somewhere, and I don't know what else that is.

Even though we got 9' ceilings on the first floor, the laundry room has an 8' ceiling. This is probably due to the HVAC system that runs over top of it.

Notes written on the protective covering of the door leading to the garage. I really wanted to see what this door looks like!

Lots of the lights in the kitchen!

Ceiling fan rough-in in the morning room

Fireplace and "eyeball" lights above it

Ice-maker rough-in for fridge

Pretty sure this is from Guardian. 

Temporary railing installed. Now I don't have to feel like I might fall to my death when I walk upstairs.

I think that little black thing is where our wireless router will be, in our second floor ceiling.

Lame-o tub. This will be getting replaced. Can't wait to see the new one!

Ceiling in the master water closet.

Gray one is from electrician. I think the blue one is Guardian.

One of the three locations for a thermostat. SO GLAD it's in the master bedroom!

My beautiful window from the inside :)

Electrical panel

Pretty sure this wall is in the wrong place. It should enclose that support beam but it's several feet back.

Another shot of the wall that's in the wrong place

This is in the finished part of the basement but the PM said he will build a small closet around it.

on the HVAC unit

Heater

Hot water tank and sump pump.

Hot water tank sticker. Does that say 85 gallons? The number is smudged.

Will someone please install this window so water will stop getting in my basement?

Other hose bib and water meter (left side of house)

Thanks to Charlie, I now know that this black thing is for my air conditioner unit!

Electrical outlet on the back of the house. Near the right corner

What is that? It's on the back of the house below the morning room windows.

The pipe on the left is just laying there but what is the one on the right? It's sticking out of the morning room wall.

Spot light that will be installed next to the second floor windows.

Light fixture next to the morning room door.

Outlet near the front door

Coach lights next to the front door. Is that my doorbell on the left side of the door frame?

Concrete in the garage.

Front stoop. I think this looks weird. The concrete doesn't match the foundation. Do they do anything about that?

Tray ceiling in the dining room.

I like how there are vents in the ceiling and in the floors.

Double vanity in the master bath!

Shower and lame-o tub.

Hall bathroom

Water in the basement from Friday's storm.

Kitchen sink placement.

Free utility sink rough-in! Woohoo! 

Laundry room hook-ups

Master bedroom tray ceiling!