Much Ado About Something...

Wow. To those faithful few who have logged in and checked this blog frequently; always in anticipation of seeing a new photo or hearing about something great; I apologize. There has been SO much going on with the house that I've not taken the time to update the blog. Sorry.

But here goes...

This photo was taken on Thursday, Sept 19th; as we headed to the coast for our 3-day Disney Cruise. As you can see, they had just poured the concrete for the sidewalk, frontwalk and driveway. Thankfully they accepted our request to have the driveway poured as wide as possible. It's 17' wide, which is large enough for two cars parked side by side. Phew! (Because every home has a side-entry garage, some of the driveways are very narrow in this community, some barely wide enough for one car. Not sure how some of these home owners can make the turn into/out of their garage. With ours being so wide, we can use the garage for storage, instead of the cars... at least for awhile.)

Not too much different here, as this photo was taken just a few days later on Sunday, Sept 23rd. The final grading was done to the property, to prepare it for sod and landscaping. Still some exterior painting to be done (see the shutters). The big to-do here was that the house still needed lots of work on the inside on Thursday, and we were told by KB what parts of that should be done by Sunday (the day of this photo). 4 days later, and not a single thing had been done.

Well, we threw a fit. We were enraged because KB was telling us to be prepared to close on October 5th. With the amount of work to be done on our home, there was NO WAY it was going to close on time. I told our sales rep, "The only way I could see this house being ready to close on time, is if KB puts an inspector in the house for 10-12 hours a day while a crew of 8 to 20 'elves' come in and work like crazy, everyday between now and October 5th!" I was pissed.

The next morning I receive a call from a senior construction manager from KB who apologized for the lack of work being done on our home, and insisted that they will get the house ready to close on October 5th, still. He explained to me that they are putting one of their inspectors in our home all day, everyday between now and closing, while he inspects multiple crews working in the home each day. So it wasn't elves, but they pretty much did as I said they'd have to do.

Since that call, progress has been moving much faster in our house. It will be really close, but if they can continue their current pace, our home should be ready to close this coming Friday, October 5th.

Noel and I are continually making trips out to the home, and KB is having their inspector call me daily to let me know what's being done, and not being done in our home.

Here's a photo from this past Thursday, Sept 27th. As you can see, the landscaping has been added to the home. Basic package. Maybe if we can convince my Uncle Steve to come to Florida, he could come up with some good ideas to enhance our yard!

Here's some photos taken yesterday morning, Saturday, September 29th. The exterior:

And an image of the carpet. The carpet was installed on Friday. The power also was just turned on to the home on Friday as well. The A/C was powered up for the first time on Saturday. When we head out there again tomorrow, we'll let you know how that's going.

The house is gorgeous. We're both really excited and anxious to move-in and finally call it ours. Noel and I are also both really hoping that we can play host to all of our out-of-town friends and family sometime soon, too!

With all the stress involved in the home, I've barely had time to cry over all the pain caused to me by my Mets. But much like KB, they too are trying to swoop in at the last minute and get things done right for me. They need a win today... So wherever you are, enjoy this clip and keep your fingers crossed for a Mets win and a Philly loss:

Spend A Lot, Save a Little

Not many changes to the house in the last week. Not much to show you anyway.

But here's how the house looked as we pulled up to it this afternoon:

With not too much to share about the house, instead we'll tell you about our new appliances! Sound thrilling? Well its not. But at least its a story to share.

Going back to Labor Day Weekend, Noel and I were celebrating our first anniversary by searching out the best deal on appliances for the new home. The kitchen is almost complete, just needs a fridge/freezer. We also wanted to purchase new washer and dryer, as our current ones are nothing special and 5 years old.

Noel found that Best Buy was running a sale on LG appliances, offering 10% off the sale price. So we rush out there to take advantage of the deal, after figuring out which items we wanted online. Turns out the price online is not the same as the price in store on some items (a fridge for example). We got them to match their own online price (saving us about $500) on the one item! We also pick up the washer and dryer we wanted, at the price we expected.

The next morning, Noel insists on checking out the Sunday paper to see what new deals are available. Well I'm glad she did. She found that Home Depot had a better deal on the washer. It also said that they would price match anyone else AND give an add'l 10% off the price match.

We leave first thing that morning to go straight back to Best Buy to return the appliances we purchased just the night before. This is, by the way, a brand new Best Buy store, and apparently they're trying hard to get some business as they refused to let us return the items, instead insisting that they not only match the deal we could have received at Home Depot, but give us an ADDITIONAL 10% off their reduction on the price match. Saving us an additional $400!!! Woo hoo!!

So that's how we did really well on our appliance shopping! Here's a bit about the items we purchased:

These are (obviously) not to scale.

But the washer and dryer are both large capacity! We're excited about all of the appliances as each is Energy Star certified, which means they are energy efficient. The washer uses much less water than a top loader. We're also excited as the washer has a 'Steam' cycle which is a quick 15 minutes to quick clean and wrinkle remover! Should be good for the work clothes, and a nice alternative to dry cleaning EVERYthing.

The fridge is a 'french door' style... or as they say in Paris: 'a door' style. There's a water/ice dispenser in the door, too. The black is to match all of the appliances that come with the house.

Coming up next:

Monday, September 17th: Pre-Carpet Inspection

Thursday, September 20th: Noel and Jeremy depart on 3-day cruise on the Disney Wonder

Friday, September 21st: Noel celebrates her b'day. I won't tell you which one, but its the last one that starts with a '2'

Friday, September 28th: Final Walk-thru of house

Friday, October 5th: Expected closing date

Saturday, October 6th: Everything arrives at house; and all hell breaks loose

The Halibut Is Good Enough for Jehovah!

This post is more about the stone work on the house. But if you don't understand the title of this entry, its time to re-rent this film.

Last weekend we updated the blog from our Saturday visit to the house. The builders had just started the exterior stone veneer on the house. Noel and I made our 1st anniversary (celebrated on Monday, Sept. 3rd) special with a visit to our new home, where we hope to celebrate many future anniversaries together. Here's a photo from that trip (just 2 days after the previous post):

Here's what it looks like this evening:

And a close-up on the stone work:

And while we're talking about stone work. The builders finished up the master bathroom shower and tub tile. OK... its ceramic, not stone... but I wanted to share the photos anyway:

And, for your enjoyment, and those of you who still won't rent the movie, here's the scene to which I am referring...

In the Immortal Words of Bob Dylan and God

As Bob Dylan once sang, "Everybody Must Get Stoned!"

They've begun adding the stone feature to the front of our house! Here's the image from yesterday morning!

Here's a closeup of how the stones look. Its pretty neat, actually. The stones are poured and shaped concrete which have been painted. They use mortar to place right on top of the stucco'd exterior. The central 2-story facing of the house will be covered with this stone work.

In addition to the exterior stone work, the builders have also managed to complete the fancy tile work in the Master Bathroom shower and tub. Here's a good look at that (if you click on the image, you should be able to view a full size image, and zoom in on the nice accent feature):

And in the immortal words of God, after having spent a very busy 2nd day on the job creating light, "And it was good!"

Here's the lighting features which have been installed into our home. We love these lights! They are ver nice looking!

Here's the pendant lights which hang over the breakfast bar. You also get a good view of our kitchen cabinets which were installed just a week earlier.

(And a closeup...)

Here's the bathroom light fixtures:

This is the light suspended over the Breakfast Nook table:

And finally, the chandelier which will be over the formal Dining Room table:

While we were in th house, the A/C company was working on installing the air conditioner unit. Hopefully the next time we visit the house, that will be working well and it will be much more tolerable to walk around the house.

You Put Your Pot In There...

This post is a week later. Mom and Dad were with us when we took these photos, but they do not appear in any of the photos. Sorry.

Here's the regularly scheduled exterior shot...


That looks much the same as previous weeks. But the interior is really starting to look nice! They installed our kitchen cabinets! With so much storage, we'll finally have a place for every kitchen appliance, pot, pan, plate, bowl, etc. Yeah!


The tile work in the master bathroom was started too. I really like the color! Finally, we'll have a place where I can shower.



Here's a closeup of the color of the tiles that will appear in the Kitchen, B'fast Nook, entranceway, Laundry Room and downstairs bathroom.


We're off to see the house again this morning. It'll probably take me a week to get those photos online. But keep your fingers crossed I get them posted sooner!