The Reason Why

Today was the original completion date on the house.  When we got the news 3 weeks ago that our completion date had been moved back a week I was pretty devastated.  I know that it was only an estimated day, but I was still looking forward to having the house done.  I was so excited to move in and start our new life.  I know that there isn't a guarantee when you are building, but I was still hoping that the date wasn't going to move.  Once we got the news though I told myself that everything happens for a reason.  And there is a reason why the date had been moved back.  I know that some people don't believe that everything happens for a reason, and that's fine.  That is your belief.  I believe that it does, and today is my proof.

Normally it takes me roughly 15 minutes to get to work.  Today it took me 40.  It had snowed 4 or 5 inches over night and the snow plows had not been out to clear up the roads by the time I left.  The freeway was essentially a residential speed zone.  My max speed was 40 mph.  It was miserable.  I know that if we still had our New Home Orientation today it probably would have been cancelled or moved back anyway.  We wouldn't want to move in this weather.  I am not looking forward to the actual moving part, driving back and forth with boxes.  If we would have moved in the snow it would have been so much worse.  I am grateful that we are being looked after and that things are working out the way that they are supposed to.  It helps reassure me that this was the right decision for us and Springville is where we are supposed to be for the next part of our journey together.

Single Digits Baby!

After seeing the rock on Thursday we were convinced that it wasn't the rock we had picked out.  I gave our builder a call and he double checked everything for us.  He checked with the rock company, Edge themselves, and the design center.  Everyone told him the same thing, that is the right rock.  There was no mistake made.  We were pretty sad to get that news.  There was too much purple and orange on our house.  We did not like the way that it looked because it was so dark.  While visiting our house on Saturday. . .  And again on Sunday, we noticed that our rock has lightened up.  We were thrilled to see that.  It is still a little dark for what we wanted, but we are no longer disappointed with the way it looks.  Over the summer we are going to do some artificial aging and lighten some of the darker pieces.

There are only a few projects left to complete.  The pendant lights above our island need to be put up, the garage is going to be painted today, and the carpet needs to be installed.  I'm sure that there are a few little things that need to be finished as well.  I would have no idea what those would be though.  The building manager is going to do his walk through this week.  He is going to check to make sure everything is the way that we wanted it.  We are assuming that he will do that at end of this week sometime.  Maybe Thursday?  We are scheduled to have our "New Home Orientation" in 9 days.  That's right, we are down to single digits.  Next Wednesday is when we become super adults.  We will have our walk through around 1:00 pm, and right after that we will hopefully be able to head over to the mortgage place and sign papers.  Although, we are still not 100% sure on that one.  It all depends on paperwork and the appraisal.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that it will work that way.  That way we can start moving things in that day too.  February 6th can't come soon enough.

A Few More Pieces of the Puzzle

There have been a few large steps made on the home front.  All of our appliances have been delivered.  They weren't in, but they were in our living room in boxes waiting to be installed.  We have all of our outlet and light switches in.  I know that might not be super exciting to some people, but that means that our electrical is done and that we have all of our lights in.  Every light has a bulb and is working.  The only lights we are waiting on are the pendant lights that hang over the island.  We are super excited to have power!  That means that things are getting serious.  I like serious.

Covers have been added.  On outlets too.

Can lights.  We have 8 total in the house.

The light about the kitchen table.

Fan and light in the living room.

Bathroom lights.

The kitchen counter tops are in as well.  They look incredible!  The pictures really don't do them justice.  Again, you'll have to come and see for yourself.  They also have the kitchen sink in place, but there is no faucet yet.  They need to finish the plumbing for the house before they can add any of that stuff.

Granite is in.

The kitchen sink is in place.  We're just waiting on a faucet.

Chris said that not a lot of people, well no one, would find the next picture interesting.  I don't care.  I like the look of the showerheads.  It is really flat and open which means only one thing. . .  It will make for one amazing shower.  Who doesn't like a good shower?

The shower heads.

The mudroom bench is finally in.  It isn't finished, but it is there.  We are so happy with the way it looks.  We didn't know that we were going to have cubbys at the bottom so that we could store our shoes.  We also didn't know that it would have a small shelf on top and decorative lines on the back panel.  It looks amazing.  We can't wait to see what to see what the finished product looks like.  They need to paint it (we think it will be white), and add the hooks so that we can hang up our jackets and coats.

Bench in the mudroom.

The outside is done now.  Well, we think at least.  They got the rock put up, but we are not convinced that it is the rock that we picked out.  The rock we chose at the design center had more greys and tans in it.  The rock on our house is very purple and orange.  That is not what we picked out.  I called our project manager to make sure that they didn't make a mistake.  He said that he double checked it before it went up, but he would check again to make sure there wasn't a mistake made.  We are waiting to hear back from him to see what he says.  If they didn't make a mistake, and that is what it is supposed to look like, we will be happy with what we have been given.  How could we be ungrateful for everything that they have done for us already?  We decided though that we will do some artificial aging to it this summer.  That way it doesn't look so dark.  Normally we wouldn't make a fuss over mistakes, but this is a big deal.  It is a major part of the house and we are spending a lot of money on it, so we want the exterior to be what we picked out. 

The outside is done. . .  Maybe.

That aside, I still love our house.  And I am so grateful for everything that we have been given during this process.  We are excited that we get to close in a week and a half and we get to move in shortly after that.  Hooray for a new beginning!

2 Weeks

We have officially hit the 2 week mark.  Only 14 days to go until we have our final walk through.  If everything goes perfect there, and there is nothing to fix, we could sign our papers the next day.  Hooray!!  We are so excited to be homeowners and for our new life to start.

On Saturday there were small yet big things done to our house.  We now have one sink in.  It is the sink that is in the main bathroom.  The bathroom counter tops were one thing that we were a little nervous about.  We didn't know what to expect with them, but we were pleasantly surprised.  We love the way that they look, and it is only going to get better the more complete they become.  It isn't fully done, but it is still in and we are excited about that.

What the main and master sinks will look like.

We were able to snoop around a little bit more on Saturday since the cabinet guy wasn't there.  We noticed that our island has a wonderful detail on it.  The lines give a different look that we didn't realize it had.  Needless to say, we love it.  During the beginning phase, while we picking out all of our options and stuff we decided that it would be a good idea to add a cookie rack in one of our cupboards.  We had to open up every cupboard, but we found it on Saturday.  That is going to be a really nice feature to have in our house.  It is right next to the stove, so it will be very easy access while we are cooking or baking.

The island

The cookie sheet cupboard.

All of the hardware had been put on as well.  Towel racks, door knobs, door stops, hanger bars (what you hang your hangers on.  I don't know what they are called.) for the closets.  It has all been done.  We are glad that we went for the brushed nickel rather than the chrome.  We think that it is a nicer look overall and are excited to see those in.  Lets be honest, I am excited when anything new happens.  Even if it doesn't mean anything to anyone else.  I was excited when they cleared the extra dirt off of our lot.  So, I know that these are a small things to get excited about, but that is what I do.  Get excited over things that done mean a lot to a lot of people.

The hardware is in.

The closet doors with the door knobs/

What the front and garage door look like.

My favorite piece of hardware.  The stubby doorstop.

The outside is really almost done.  We are just waiting on a couple of key things to finish it off.  We have all of our soffit and fascia finished now.  House lesson:  The soffit and fascia is the underneath side of the overhang on the roof.  It is also the gutters.  The picture I took shows exactly what it is.  The rock and a few trim pieces are all that we are waiting on.  Hopefully they are able to get those done this week.  Oh, we also got our garage door on, but I was too nervous to put it down in fear that I would break it.  So there will be pictures to come soon of how cute that is. 

The soffit and fascia are all done.

Just waiting on the rock.

With only 2 weeks left you would think that my stress levels and list making of things that need to get done would be through the roof.  But I am surprisingly calm.  We are going to start packing non-essentials this week and slowly get everything put into boxes and clean our entire apartment top to bottom.  Things have gone smoothly for us so far, why would that stop now?

71 Days Down. . . 17 To Go

I started to get nervous about the move for the first time since we decided to build.  I am not nervous about things going wrong or this being the wrong decision.  I am nervous because it is the start of the next chapter in our book.  We are officially grown ups in 17 days.  We are going to have a house, new neighbors, new city, essentially a new life.  Our life is going to change soon.  I know that it is going to be for the better, but it's still change.  On the same note though, I can't wait to be in our house.  It needs to be here quicker. 

The rock should be started soon.  They just finished our neighbors rock (which they of course did in 1 day), so ours is not too far behind.  We are very excited to see it.  When we were picking out all of our options, we weren't happy with the rock that they had.  We liked the coloring of one rock, but not how it was placed.  Or we liked the placement of a different rock, but not the coloring.  We were at a loss.  We didn't want to have to settle for something that we weren't in love with.  We have noticed that the rock can make or break how the outside of the house looks, and we did not want that to happen.  After a little bit of a struggle we were told that if we liked the coloring of one rock, they could make it in a different placement that wasn't shown.  That was a game changer for us.  And so that's what we did.  I took a picture of the coloring of our rock, but not the placement.  Because of that smart move on my part, we don't remember what we chose.  I know that it wasn't something awful though.  Otherwise we would not have chosen it.

The outside is prepped for rock.

Now the crazy updates.  Our railing has been stained, and it looks amazing now.  We are so happy with the dark color, and it is easily one of my favorite things in our house.

The railing is stained.

It is beautiful.

Another giant piece of our house puzzle has also been completed.  The cabinets are in and finished.  I would assume that they are finished.  The guy was still there yesterday finishing them when we showed up.  He finished them all in 1 day.  We are super happy with the way that these have turned out.  Everything looks perfect and better than we could have ever imagined.

The kitchen cabinets.

The microwave and stove go here.

They are the same in the bathrooms too.

There are more things that have been finished too, but I couldn't get a good picture of them.  We have all or our walls and base and casing painted.  The colors are 2-toned.  You can kind of see it in the kitchen pictures, but that doesn't show the true colors.  It is my mission to get a good picture of the colors.  It will probably be when we have the lighting in.  We also had all of our windows framed as well.  They look awesome.  There will be more pictures to come of those, if I can get a good one.  That is something that I would like to share because it looks really sharp.  But if I can't, you'll just have to come and see it in person.

It is starting to really look like a place that we can live and eventually raise a family.  I am starting to think of all of the memories that we are going to make while we are living there, and I couldn't be more excited about that.  Am I ready to start Chapter 2 in the book of Chris and Katie?  Bring it on.

Edge + Builder = So Grateful

We went on Saturday (of course) to see our house.  They still don't have the rock up.  We are a little sad about that, but we understand that they have a system.  Plus, everything else has been amazing.  Even though no extra work on the outside has been done, there has been plenty of work on the inside.  The shelving in all of the closets and pantry and laundry room have been done.  They look really good too.  We are very pleased with how they turned out.  We especially love our closet.  There are shelves and shelves of space in there.  It look awesome.  The pantry has a lot of space as well.  With the shelving put in there, it makes it look bigger than I remember.

Bedroom closets

Master bedroom closet.

Pantry

All of our doors and closet doors have also been put in.  They look really great and fit perfectly with the arts and crafts styling that we are going for.

The doors all look like this.

The closet doors.

The railing had also been completed.  It really helps it feel like a real house.  It is no longer just a hole in our floor.  We have something else added in that we got to pick.  The railing is a light color now, but it will be stained to match our cabinets.

The railing

The pillars for our railing.

All of the base and casing, Chris told me that is what it was called, has been finished too.  Side Note: That is something else about the house that I didn't know it was called.  I knew baseboards, but not the official name for both.  The baseboards look perfect, and the casing around all of the doors is so beautiful.  I think that it is my favorite part of the inside so far.  I love the big tops and smaller sides.  It is such a polished look.  The windows will have the casing around them too.  They forget to add that part when they did everything else.  But after a quick phone call, it will get taken care of today.

Baseboards are in.

Casing around our doors.

The unfinished windows.

The head contractor, Wade, of Edge Homes is great.  That is something that we are so grateful to have.  We had a meeting with him at the start of this process and he gave us his business card and told us to call him if we had any questions at all through out this process.  We have stayed quiet so far because we have been thrilled with everything that they have done.  Not one thing has gone wrong, and we are grateful for that.  Since he is overlooking 30 homes at a time, I am sure he gets a ton of phone calls everyday from home buyers telling him that something else is not right and it needs to get fixed.  So I felt bad calling him about the casing on the windows, but it needed to be done.  It was something that needed to be addressed and brought to his attention.  He was glad that I called and was going to call the carpenters after we got off the phone.  It is going to get fixed today before they start painting.  He is the nicest guy and we are so blessed to be building with him.  Thanks to everyone at Edge.  You are all amazing!

Newest Info on the Home Front

Yesterday, I went to go take a look to see how far they had gotten on the outside of our house.  And to see if by chance the rock had been delivered or put up.  That is a negative on that one.  But there was still a quite a bit that had happened.  I saw a sign on our door that said "Wet Tile 01/07/13"  That meant that our tile had been placed.  I tried the front door to get a picture of it, but it was locked.  I walked around to the garage, and thankfully the garage door was unlocked.  I didn't go inside though because I would have to walk on the tile, and I didn't want to mess anything up.  But I was able to get a picture of what it is going to look like.  The picture that is shown is of the laundry/mud room.  We are going to have tile in both bathrooms and the entry as well.

Our tile.

I saw through the garage door that our hardwood was done as well.  But like I said I didn't go inside because I didn't want to ruin any of the progress that they had done.  So I went around back and took a picture through our sliding glass door.  The picture isn't great for that reason.  Also, there was quite a bit of dust on the floor as well.  I was just excited to see that something on the inside had been done.  I will get a better picture later.

Our hardwood in the kitchen.

Most of the outside has been finished as well.  There are still a few trim pieces on the corners of the house that need to go up as well as the rock.  The porch was done though.  And that is Chris' favorite part of the house so far.  He loves it.  I understand why he loves it so much. . .  It is adorable.  When our house is finished, our door will be black.

The porch is finished.

I thought that it would be a good idea to get a close shot of the colors.  Every time that we have gone down to see the outside work it has been cloudy.  We haven't been able to get great pictures yet.  But the up close shot is pretty good and shows our colors pretty well.

An up close shot of the colors.

And this is the (almost) completed look.  The colors turned out pretty well here.  That is what they look like in  person.  We are so excited to have our house getting so close to being done.  As of right now we have about 3 weeks left.  The date could change though.  We realize that Christmas and New Year's was right in the middle of getting things done, so things could go over by about a week.  We are okay with that though.  Things have been going really fast and the quality is exceptional.  We couldn't be happier about how things are.

The outside is almost complete.

It's Now What We Picked

Saturday was kind of a fun and special day for Chris and I.  We went to Springville to check on the house and we had a pleasant and amazing surprise.  The outside of our house was beginning to be put up!  Hooray!!  We are now able to see our personal touches and what we picked come into play.  That has been something that we have been waiting for for a very long time.  

Only the back had work done to it so far.

On the inside of the house they had done quite a bit of work as well.  The walls and ceilings have the texture done and the corners have been rounded off.  They also have some prep work done where we are going to have tile in our house.  It may not sound like a lot, but there had been a lot of work done.

We love the texture on the walls.

The black on the floor is the prep work for the tile.

We were very pleased with the progress that was happening and couldn't wait for this week to start so that we could see the finished product on the outside.  We decided to go again on Sunday to see how much work they got done on Saturday.  Remember, when Chris and I went at about 2:00 on Saturday afternoon, just the back had been completely finished, and they were starting on the garage side of the house.  And this is what we saw when we pulled up.

Almost the whole house (minus the rock) is done.

It was such a great surprise to see what they were able to accomplish in not a lot of time.  The outside of the house is almost finished.  They still have some trim to put up around the garage and the front windows.  The white exposed above the door will be yellow as well.  They also need to finish our porch and the rock.  We are guessing that they will finish most of that today.  But it depends on when they get the rock in, and if the temperatures need to be higher than what they currently are.  But during all of this, they will also have people working on the inside as well.  The Edge elves seem to get everything done at a record pace.  We'll see what they end up accomplishing this week.