Paint, paint and more paint...

So we finally finished painting the kitchen, nook, hallway, and living room. I used Valspar's digital painter to create this kitchen and the living room. The kitchen color is slate green with the nook wall in coffee n' cream to complement my dark furniture.


The living room color is natural, the fireplace wall is skylark (milk chocolate brown), and I'm thinking of painting my fireplace mantel black as well. The hallway is also coffee n' cream but due to the different lighting the color looks different.



I thought about going darker in the living room too, but figured that with the kitchen being dark already I needed to go light to balance the two. Overall I'm happy with the outcome. I also felt that with these colors, I can change my accent colors with the seasons. Bright orange in the fall, soft blue in the summer and so forth.

Right now, I just need decorations and my furnitures which are arriving this Friday. I'll post the actual pictures up soon!

Landscape almost done...

After much deliberation we decided that we absolutely needed to have our backyard landscape done. With winter, rain, and all, we just know that it's going to be messy. Also we don't want our yard over flooding because it's super tiny.

We got a pretty good deal, paying a little under $4K for the sod, drain pipes, sprinkler system, concrete, and an extra water spigot for our outdoor sink. This is by far the most affordable out of all the quotes that we got. The most expensive was $7K.

The concrete is done and we are just waiting for it to dry. Two weeks before the landscaper started, the weather was perfect not too cold or hot. Right after the concrete was done, it rained the next day. I'm kind of worried about how this will affect the concrete, so we'll have to see.

The yard should be done by this week, just in time for my halloween party. I don't think anyone will be outside because it's just too cold.

Pictures to follow.

Settling in...

We have kind of settled in. These are our furnitures from our old place. My new furnitures will not be deliver until next month because I'm waiting for the tile people to come first. I'm going to paint the house after the tile people and before the furnitures get deliver.

Right now, we have been talking about having the back yard landscape done. The reason being that I don't feel comfortable cooking in my house plus I want everything to be semi-ready when you all visit me in the summer time.

How we are paying for all of this stuff you might ask? I don't feel like I have to justify my actions to anyone, but I will tell you our secret. When we decided to buy our house, we prepared ourselves for these expenses and have saved up for quite some time now. We've also slowly bought items that were on sale to help lighten the load.

Welcome to our home...

This was taken after our final walk-through. Our house closed as expected and we are glad that it's finally over. Yeah right...one week before the house was going to close, we actually considered walking away. The landscape was not completely done and although the doors to the cabinets had been changed the inside lining was not. So many things going wrong, but I will save that for another post, so enjoy!
Entry Hallway and Living area:








Kitchen and living area:








Kitchen:




Guest Bath & Hallway to Bedroom 4:




Bedroom 4:



Hallway to Bedrooms & Living area:
















Bedroom 3:


















Bedroom 2:


















Master Bedroom & Bath:












Bathroom 2:




Laundry:

Tiles are put in...

As you can see here, the tiles are being put in, but the cabinets have not been replaced yet. This is why we have gaps where the cabinets sits on top of the tile. We are still waiting for the cabinet installers to come out and fix this problem. The ridiculous thing is that the installers are blaming the cabinet makers and vice versa. Regardless, the problem has been reported and someone will have to correct this one way or another.











Tip: Once the tiles have set. be sure to check for hollow or crooked tiles. We have over 20 tiles that are hollow or crooked. Tile people are coming out next friday to replace them.

Granite with the wrong cabinet...

Here you can see that they have put the granite in although the cabinets are the wrong ones. You would think that it was more logical to fix the cabinets first before putting the granite in. Well not to this home builder. They want to make sure that the house close on the expected close date. Why? So that they don't have to pay the $100/day late fee if the loan doesn't get funded on time.

The benefit to the homeowner...NONE! We are left with a house that is poorly constructed and have to deal with it after we moved in.

Pictures of the walkway...

After much talk about the situation with the builder, the landscaper finally came out and the walkway is finish. I’m happy that it’s done, but as you can see from the two bottom pictures they already made a mistake. Can you tell? They left out the grass on the left side.

Enjoy!







Tip: Make sure you get what you paid.