#9 - Laundry Tub

I know, I know - I've got a gourmet kitchen, and a basement I can rollerskate in, and a giant bathtub and hardwood floors and a front porch and yet I pick "laundry tub" as #9?  Yes.  Yes I did.

We actually chose to install the tub in the garage, rather than upstairs in the laundry room.  Fact is, I need a place to dump stinky wet kayaking gear BEFORE it enters the house.  A laundry tub upstairs made no sense to me at all - I would have to take muddy, gross things over the hardwood floors, up the steps, across the new carpet and into the laundry room, all the while, dripping mud and gook and lord knows what.

So in the garage it will stay.

No more will I have paint in my kitchen or bathroom sinks!  No more will I have to soak kayaking gear in my bathtub!  Oh!  Even nasty cat boxes might benefit from the tub!

And so, Laundry Tub, you are my #9.

#10 - Kitchen Storage Extravaganza

I have managed to overlook many of my townhome's shortcomings because of my very affordable mortgage and some of its nicer features, like the big backyard (for a townhouse) and the gorgeous sunsets.

But when BF moved in, this became a serious problem:

Tiny fridge, overfilled beyond capacity with healthy food.
And beer, and cheesecake.  Perhaps I'd have more room
without the beer and cheesecake (perfect together).

My "pantry".  In a real kitchen, a cabinet like this would store
big pots and pans.  Without any other storage, my pots and pans are
hanging on the walls and precariously perched on the tiny fridge.
Try as I might, there is zero way to organize this disaster and find where
that weird smell is coming from (rotting potatoes).

In my NEW house, I will have what, 8 or 9 cabinets this size, with pull out drawers, and a corner storage do-hickey and 42" high cabinets and a PANTRY.  An honest to god pantry, with a door, and shelves, where canned goods can live out their days happily organized.

Ravenna Pantry!  How will I ever fill this much space?
Beer and cheesecake will only do so much.

So, #10 - Kitchen storage space.  It will solve all of my problems and I will live happily ever after.

Or, it will just make dinner at home a less frustrating experience.  But, either one is a step up from where we are now!

Less than 2 weeks to go

We have less than 2 weeks to go until we close on our new home.  I'm in total denial.  It doesn't seem real.

On Friday after work, we went up to see the house.  It had been several weeks since I had been able to see the inside of it and I was really excited.  I hadn't seen the wood floors, or the carpet, or the appliances....  Unfortunately, my PM called right as I was leaving work with some mildly bad news.  The tradesmen had just put a coat of stain on the steps and had taped it off - so we could still see the downstairs, but upstairs was off limits until the stain was dry.  A day later.  :(

So, I still haven't seen the upstairs with carpet and finished plumbing!  But regardless, here are some updates from the first floor perspective:

Driveway and sidewalk were poured early in the week.  BF was there when it was wet and neglected to carve our initials in!  Boo.  The shutters are painted, the electricity is on, lights are working and its like a real house!!  They also painted the concrete at the bottom of the house to match the siding color.

Wood floors are in, and they look great.  Right now there is vinyl down on top of them all, we had to peel it back here to see what they look like.  Its still a bit difficult to see how the floors and cabinets are going to look together because of that, but its really nice that they are taking such care to make sure the floors aren't damaged as they finish up all the other details.

Pantry shelves are in!  I'm assuming shelving has been completed throughout the upstairs too, but couldn't check.

This is the alternative placement for the built in microwave if you get a gas range.  I think it will actually work out well here - its right next to the fridge and I can nuke something while BF is working at the stove or vice versa.  With the microwave right above the stove, sometimes things get a bit hectic (note vinyl covering right up to cabinets).  We also got a microwave upgrade, by 2 levels.  Apparently, GE had run out of the standard microwave that comes with the stainless package, and the first upgrade after that, so we got the 2nd upgrade.

I'm starting to warm up to the laminate color, but its still not shiny and fancy.  We are still holding out to upgrade to quartz.  Someday.

Gas range is in, dishwasher is in - all we need now is the replacement door for that one in the corner there...

Stained steps!  They look a bit messy right now - they still have to finish up the details and put the white paint on.

Next week, the landscaping will go in (more about that later) and some final inspections.  We'll have our final walkthrough the wednesday after next!

I wanted to do a top 30 countdown, but have been way too busy and distracted.   Perhaps I'll try a top 10  over the next 12 days.

Verizon Strike Out?

Hey fellow bloggers!  Has anyone who is moving in the August & September timeframe tried to schedule their Verizon hookup yet?  There is a strike here in the northeast that I had heard was only going to disrupt landline service.  Since we didn't opt for a real phone, I've ignored it and beeped happily at the striking Verizon workers. 

However, the BF is having trouble getting through to Verizon to schedule our Fios service for tv and internet and has read somewhere (reddit?) that Verizon is telling people that it will be December before any new hookups can be made.  Perhaps Fios counts as landline service.

You can never believe what you read on the internet, unless its Ryan bloggers, so I thought I would ask if any of you have successfully scheduled or gotten Verizon Fios service...

Renter Drive By

Its getting real.  2 weeks until our final walkthrough, and 2 weeks and 2 days until closing.  I am not prepared in any way shape or form.

I also wasn't prepared this morning when BF found that our property manager had finally gotten our townhouse up on the "for rent" sites.  I've never sold or rented a home before, so to see pictures of my living room, my deck, my dining room and my kitchen lunchbox collection online for the world to see was pretty unnerving.

Also unnerving: someone already wants to see the house.  TOMORROW.  That might explain the family who crept by the house slowly, then turned around and crept by again while I was out weeding the front garden.

I was expecting to use this weekend to clean up and spiff up a bit because the house is a total disaster zone.  How do people move AND have a nice house for strangers to visit?  I just have never understood.

Because I totally suck at checking voicemail on my iPhone, I didn't get the message until 8:30 tonite, so there is no way we can show tomorrow, but I'm going to try to get our act together so they can show it on Friday, even if its not perfect.  Which it totally won't be.

Particularly if I keep blogging instead of cleaning up.  So, more news and pictures coming your way tomorrow.

NVR Mortgage Madness

Remember a while back, when I indicated that the NVR mortgage application process wasn't all that bad?  Well, I take it back.  Its turned into a damn paperwork nightmare, and because its all via email and phone, its just that much worse.

I have little to complain about, because BF has been handling the vast majority of emails and phone calls (Love him!).  But I'm still annoyed, so I'm going to tell you about it.  In great detail.

When we were first approved for the mortgage, our mortgage guy M1 sent us a list of items we would have to document before settlement.  No problem, we had 3 months to do it, right?

Well, no, not really.  Turns out that M1 the mortgage guy only handles the application.  M2 the mortgage guy handles the settlement.  So, the list the M1 sent us early on had to be completed and sent to M2 the mortgage guy.  Thing is, the settlement part doesn't get set in motion until after your settlement is scheduled.  Which means that even attempting to do anything prior to 30 days out was impossible, as there was no one to send it to.

Problem number one was the transition from M1 to M2.  First of all, can't we get guys with names different enough to distinguish?!  Jeezus.  BF had trouble remembering who he was calling why because their names were so similar.  And, the black hole that existed for several months was pretty irritating. 

The biggest problem so far for me though, has been documentation that involved stressing out other people; namely my mother, who graciously gifted us some money last winter to put towards the house.  M1 noticed the larger than normal deposit and needed gift documentation.  He told me they would mail a letter to my mother, she just had to sign and send back.  No problem.  My mom isn't the best at separating junk mail from real mail (I mean, who gets anything important in the real mail these days?) so I put her on notice and she had been diligently checking and looking for months for this promised letter.  Thing is, the promised letter doesn't go out until M2 takes over, after settlement is scheduled.  Nobody bothered to tell us this piece of information.

Last week, when M2 took over, all of a sudden it was critically important that he receive all of this documentation immediately.  He emailed a form to my mother (email, after checking the mail box all summer!) and requested that she email it back, with a copy of the cancelled check.  Who gets cancelled checks?  Because the source of funds was slightly obscure, she didn't keep records and had to spend an inordinate amount of time on the phone trying to get a copy.  Then, because she doesn't have access to a scanner or fax machine, had to go to tremendous lengths to get the information back quickly.  She went above and beyond and I love her for it, and I hate NVR for putting her in that position when there are lots of other things in her life that need tending to.

While that was my biggest beef, its been a chain of item. They want a copy of my father's will, to document the source of funds from the sale of his house after he passed away last year.  Which I couldn't locate after rifling through my ENTIRE file cabinet TWICE, then had a breakdown.  I have Verizon bills from 2003, and couldn't find my father's will and estate documentation?  I did finally find it (NOT where it should have been), but cursed NVR many times over for wanting it. 

They also wanted documentation of my intentions for my existing home (renting), which I understand, but also wanted justification for why we are moving only 12 miles from our existing home.  I fail to understand why I had to write a letter justifying why I wanted to move out of my starter home.  We also had to document lots of large deposits into our checking - which were transfers from other accounts - some as small as $1,500.  Paystubs, bank account statements... they needed it all.  And we had already gone through this when we applied!

I don't know whether this process is more difficult for this house than it was for my current house because banks have tightened down on the lending process, I actually have money to document now (as opposed to when I was 2 months out of grad school and drowning in debt) or because NVR is making it more complicated than it needs to be.  But whatever the reason, it stressed me out beyond belief last week and I hope we are done, done, done.

Incredible Progress

Things are happening so fast, I just can't keep up.  I have well less than 30 days to go and way more than 30 days worth of stuff to do!  It also feels like there is way more than 30 days worth of work for the tradesmen to do on the house too, but PM is confident that they will meet the deadline.

We are scheduled to do our final walkthru on Aug 31 - we will have our independent inspection that day as well.  Closing will be on Friday, September 2.  We'll have labor day weekend to get our ducks in a row, and the movers will come on September 7.  If all goes well...

Its been a while since I've posted any new pictures for you, so check this out!

The vinyl siding is finished!  Just waiting on the shutters.
The color is Delray Sand.  We like it - its happy and cheery, but
not ridiculously bright

Last week, they finished tiling the master bath, installing the new unbroken tub, and laid the very unexciting vinyl floor in the office/mudroom, bathroom and laundry room.

We also got cabinets!!

Cherry Cabinet (forget the name) and
Brazilian Brown laminate counter

We are both fairly unthrilled with the laminate.  The color is ok, but a little grey for my liking.  The square corner cut looks cheap and/or industrial.  It will be fine for a while, but I suspect we will upgrade sooner than later if we have any money left over after paying the movers, and our property manager, and for our washer/dryer and for our fridge, and for the deck...  Hmmm... Maybe we will be living with the laminate for longer than I thought.

They also installed the railing for the steps last week - it still needs to be stained, but it looks really nice.  I can't wait until they can uncover those hardwood steps!

Later this week, they are supposed to lay the hardwoods and the driveway and sidewalk.  Its really starting to look and feel like a house.  Like OUR house!