Time Flies

It doesn't seem like it, but we've been in the house for over 5 weeks. We're really enjoying the house so far. We've found a few things that need fixed/addressed, but nothing major. We're still getting used to living on this side of the city and so far away from Downtown. Dan's adjusted to his commute, but I'm pretty much late to every meeting I've had in the city.

We have really great next door neighbors that we've hung out with a few times and everyone else on the street seems really friendly too. The lots on our street are selling at a pretty steady pace, and from what we've heard they expect to sell out in the summer and finish building by the end of the year.

The work to repair all of the damage from the kitchen flood is finally in progress. The drywall in the basement was repaired and repainted last week, but there are a few spots they have to touch-up still this week (mostly in the stairwell).
The carpet in this room still needs to be replaced and the drywall dust needs to be cleaned off of everything, but at this point Dan is going to start setting everything up.We went with Restoration Hardware paint in "Stone" in the subtle velvet finish. The painters said the quality of the paint was really good, but I think when we paint upstairs we'll have everything color matched at Sherwin Williams.We were both really pleased with how the color came out. I even suggested using this color on the 1st floor too, but Dan wasn't thrilled with having to "share his color," so we'll see.

I'm still undecided on paint colors. I think I'm going to put a medium gray on both the top and bottom of the chair rail in my office. In the dining room we're either going to do a two-tone bluish gray or two-tone greenish gray (eventually I'd like to wallpaper part of this room). I'm leaning towards doing the hallway in a different color than the family room, kitchen and mudroom.
My initial choice of Silver Sage is now my #2, but still Dan's favorite for the majority of the 1st floor. I'm afraid it will blend in to the couches and make everything look washed out.I'd like to make a decision on this before the new flooring is installed. We ended up going with the same carpet we already had, but we're changing the wood. Initially we had the standard 2.25" Gunstock Oak. We're replacing it with a 3.75" bamboo. The color is similar to what we have already (although a little less orange), but we're getting the wider plank that I initially wanted. I really like what we selected. When I first mentioned bamboo, Dan was afraid it would look like a yoga studio, or Ikea. But once we started looking at the different options, we were able to find something that had the look we wanted without screaming "bamboo."
It's been a while since my last post, so here are a few shots of the unpacked kitchen.
The mudroom in the Milan is pretty small and has 3 doors that open in different directions (garage, basement and powder room). I found this piece at Pier 1 and it fit perfectly (especially around the Guardian keypad and light switches).
We had a storm door installed last week too. I hated that we got no natural light in the front hallway because of the front door, so I'm really happy with the new door.
Our yard is still a mess. We had a drainage issue at the back of our back yard that they started to address yesterday. They installed a slope drain and a yard drain, so hopefully that will help (they're actually doing this to all 4 houses that sit at the bottom of this hillside). We haven't really been able to walk into the back yard at all yet because it has been so muddy. I don't think I've ever posted a picture of the outdoor speaker Guardian installed, I haven't had a chance to test it out while standing in the yard, but from the kitchen, it sounds pretty good.
Back to the yard... The pool of water in this pic has been here since we moved in.
I'm pretty sure they installed a french drain where the mud pool was and filled it with gravel. You can see the yard drain they installed right where the guys are standing. This is tied into the drain that our gutters are connected to (I think).They dumped a ton of dirt and started to level the yard, so as of today it looks like this...
To my surprise they also started leveling the front yard too. Although, I don't like that they didn't remove the huge pieces of concrete from the front, instead they just covered it with dirt.
They've poured a few sidewalks recently, so hopefully ours isn't too far off. I can't wait until we have grass too, but from what the PM said that's another few weeks away.

11 Days In

Don't really have an update on the flood situation, we're still waiting for State Farm to send someone out to assess the damage. For now we've decided to postpone painting and focus on unpacking and getting everything fixed and back to normal.

It's been 11 days since we moved in, and although the amount of boxes we still have is stressing me out, I do feel like we've gotten a decent amount accomplished. I still haven't found curtains yet or hung anything on the walls, so even though some rooms are furnished, they still feel unfinished.

My office is finally functional. I have to exchange the computer console part of my desk because our tower doesn't fit. I'm going to put another 2 or 3-drawer file cabinet in it's place and we'll keep the computer where it is now (hidden under the back corner of the desk). I still need to order a rug and print out event pics that will be framed and hung in a collage above the sofa. I'd also like to replace the desk chair at some point too.
I love the light fixture in this room. We had to make a few modifications since it's made for a foyer and was supposed to hang about 12-18" lower, but now it's perfect.So I ended up keeping the dining room set we initially bought, and now that it's here, I'm happy with that choice.

Although the credenza technically fit in the dining room, it really didn't. It was too tight and the table and chairs blocked the whole thing. We ended up moving it into the hall, and I think it works really well there.Dan's brother is staying with us this weekend, so the guest room is ready. We're using our old king size bed in this room, and there's still plenty of space to eventually add some other furniture. We had slept in here the first week since our new mattress was just delivered yesterday, so I had put up a temporary paper shade in the window. I just bought cellular blinds for the 2nd floor windows in the front of the house and roman shades for the master bedroom.
It only took 3 shower curtains to find one I liked for the guest bath (still deciding on the towel color).The washer and dryer are up and running. Question to others with front loaders on pedestals. How do you use the drawer under the washer with the tray that's on the floor? It ended up cracking a little when Lowes was installing it, but I still can't open the drawer on the pedestal.The master bedroom is coming together too. We installed a ceiling fan (Lowes) and will get the roman shades up this weekend.
Finally, my closet...We had the shelving hung higher so we can add a second row. Dan has enough space in his closet that he doesn't need a second row, but we're still going to install shelves so he can fold his sweaters instead of hanging them.

We installed one 8' rack on the long wall of my closet and decided to add a dresser on the other wall instead of another rack (more practical for tank tops, t-shirts, pajamas, etc). I picked up a 6-drawer dresser at ikea, but it's too heavy for Dan and I to carry upstairs, so it's in the garage until his brother can help this weekend.
I need to figure out a way to store my handbags. Right now they're just thrown on the top of the rack around the closet, some are in dust bags, some aren't, and I can't really see or access them. Any suggestions?And last but not least, one of my favorite parts of the new house...
Dan installed 9 shelves on the left side of my closet for my shoes! I did have to get rid of a few pairs to get everything to fit, but it's perfect. We put my old shoe racks in the garage to use for "everyday" shoes (and overflow).

It was like Christmas morning when I was unpacking my shoes. I only had about 25 pairs at Dan's mom's house, so all the others had been in storage for months.
I've always had to store half of my clothes and shoes depending on the season, so I'm really glad that I can finally have everything out in one closet.

Unbelievable

Let's start from the beginning...
We closed on Friday the 17th. Closing went smoothly and only took about 45 minutes. From there we went straight to the house to unload the few things we had in our cars and to wait for the mobile storage delivery.
Dan spent the day unloading the pods with the help of his friend and my brother, and by the evening they were completely empty and our garage was full.
We weren't able to do any moving on Saturday because of my event, so Sunday was the big move. The fridge was delivered on Sunday, but Lowe's wasn't able to hook up the water line for the ice maker (more on this story below). Almost everything was brought into the house and distributed to where it needed to go, and by the end of the day I was able to park my car in the garage. We moved all of our stuff from Dan's mom's house, and Sunday was the first night we actually slept in our new home.
Our furniture was delivered on Monday and we started to unpack and get settled in.
Monday night was the first time we were actually able to sit down, relax and take everything in.
Fast fwd to Tuesday morning. I came downstairs and when I walked into the kitchen, I stepped in an ice cold pool of water!?! At some point during the night the water line that Lowes didn't install (so Dan and his friend did) had come loose/broke and was pouring water into the kitchen. The water had surrounded the island and extended to the living room carpet, but the game room was by far the worst. We ran downstairs to find water pouring from the light fixtures, air vents, door frames, etc. I could not believe that this was happening.

There was 1-2" of water in the back unfinished storage area, but it was only wet in half of that room. Luckily most of the boxes that were getting wet were rubbermaid containers, not cardboard. The water was running along the drywall seams and dripping throughout the game room so we set out bowls and cups to try to catch it. I called the old PM (who is now on the service side) in tears and told him what happened. He said it probably wasn't as bad as it looked and that he would try to stop by to check it out.

The PM came out and basically said everything just needed to dry out and then it could all be fixed (as long as the hardwood didn't cup and need to be replaced). He pulled back the carpet in the living room and game room, and cut some of the drywall seams in the ceiling to allow the water to get out. We have a hoover steam vac, so I ran it all night on the carpet and the pad to try to help them dry. By Tuesday night, my 4-day old house was ruined.

We had multiple fans and a dehumidifier running until Wednesday morning, but nothing seemed to be drying. The water in the carpet was actually spreading further into the rooms. So on Wednesday morning, we called a restoration company to come in and set up their industrial fans and dehumidifiers. The hardwood was cupping at this point, but they told us it might actually end up going back to normal. They cut out all of the wet carpet pad (it was completely soaked) and a portion of the game room ceiling.

As of yesterday, everything had pretty much dried. The hardwood is cupping throughout the kitchen, mud room, hallway, living room and bathroom. So after 6 days in the house, we filed our first homeowner's claim. There's a delay because our new house wasn't showing up in our agent's system yet, but we should hear from them on Monday.

We've been noticing other areas that got wet, like the quarter round near the stairs and around the island, parts of the game room walls that were nowhere near the leak but where the water somehow got to, etc. It's such a mess, but it can be fixed and once again I just have to be patient.

Here are a few pics of the damage...

You can actually see the water pouring from the ceiling in this pic.
This was the color of the water that leaked in the basement.The pad was so wet that when you stepped on it your foot was covered in a puddle of water.
The hole in the game room ceiling and some of the cuts along the drywall seams.I'm sure it will be weeks before everything is fixed, so instead of leaving the furniture pushed into a corner, I set the living room up again. The carpet is loose and wavy since it isn't nailed down and half of the room is missing a carpet pad, but it will do for now.
We were able to stay busy all week and got a decent amount of unpacking done (kitchen, office, bathrooms, Dan's closet and part of mine). DirecTV installation was Tuesday (the guy was awesome and was walking around in his bare feet because of the water everywhere) and our washer and dryer were delivered on Thursday. We've been sleeping in the guest room on our old bed since the mattress for our new bed won't be delivered until Tuesday. Once that gets here our bedroom will be finished too. I was at a dance competition all day today and Dan was busy installing shelves in my closet for shoes (it's amazing, will post pics soon).

So, all in all, we've had quite the week.

It's a Start

33 More Hours

In less than 33 hours we will be closing on our house!

We're scheduled to close at 9am on Friday, and I'm hoping to get some unpacking done that day. We won't be moving anything on Saturday because I have a big event that we'll both be at all day. Appliances are scheduled for delivery on Sunday and all of the furniture comes on Monday. Getting quotes for painting fell to the bottom of my priority list (along with finalizing paint colors, buying light fixtures, window treatments, closet organizers, etc), but once we're in we'll figure it out.

Since I'm probably not going to have a chance to post for another week, I leave you with the end of the tour...The Game Room.
Looking from the steps, there's not too much to see in this corner.
Here's the other half of the room.
From here you see the entrance to the utility room, bathroom and stairs.
Pretty much the same view, except you see the front storage room.Not the best shot, but here's the 1/2 bath.One of the things we really liked about the Milan is that it had 2 unfinished areas in the basement. The unfinished storage in the back/side of the house has a decent amount of space.Here's a shot of the box with all of the wires (not sure what it's actually called).
The front storage room will be used primarily for my work stuff.Well that's it. Our House. I'm sure it will take forever to unpack, but I'll try to post a few "just moved in" pics sometime next week.