Top 12 list of things I am thankful for!

In light of closing in TWO DAYS, I wanted to post about what I am most thankful for regarding the new house.  I could literally go on forever about being thankful for recessed lights and living in a house that nobody else has ever lived in and so on, but here is my condensed top 12 list...

12. Beautiful kitchen w/ island - The kitchen truly is the heart of the home.  Our last house was pretty open, but the kitchen was slightly dated.  I can't wait to cook on my gas cooktop and in my double ovens, which will come in handy since I have Celiac disease and sometimes cook two versions of meals - one gluten-free and one full of gluten.  The kitchen turned out better than I could have imagined.  I didn't love the granite the first time I saw it installed, but now that the floors, appliances, and cabinet hardware are in, I love the granite and how everything came together!  I can't wait to see my pendant lights up!

 

11. Walk-in pantry - Woooooooohoooooooo!!!!  I am sooooo excited about this!  About 5 or 6 years ago, I posted on Facebook that most people dream of having a walk-in closet, but that my dream is to have a walk-in pantry.  This is literally a dream come true.  It's going to be awesome to have a place for regular pantry items, but also my cumbersome cookware like slow cookers and such. :)

 

10. Attached garage w/ utility sink - This is a huge deal!  We may not park in it, at least for the first few months while we are getting organized and situated in the house, but having an attached garage to keep all of our outdoor equipment is going to be AWESOME!  And that utility sink is going to be clutch with 2 boys, a dog, and a husband...and for when I decide to refinish/paint furniture.  Our last house had a detached shed.  It was a decent size and had electricity, but I hated going out there. 

 

9. An electrical outlet inside the "his" side of the master bathroom cabinet - This is something I have dreamt about since my husband and I got married.  You know those beard and mustache trimmers that have to stay plugged in to charge?  Yeah, I HATE those being out on the bathroom counters and/or when they are in a cabinet with the wire hanging out and plugged in.  Well, not a problem anymore! 

8. A dedicated study/office - I have the flexibility to work from home, so this will get tons of use.  One of the things that sold us on the Verona is that we could have a study AND a bedroom on the first floor.  The study will be a dedicated office and won't have to pull double duty as a guest room. :)

 

7. An extra bedroom that we don't have any plans for - Let's face it, I'm sure we will find a use for the 5th bedroom, but for now I'm pumped to have extra space!

6. Hardwood floors on the entire first floor (except 1st floor bedroom) - I have this thing about guests having a hard surface to walk on to get to a bathroom from any exterior door (I can't take full credit - a friend of mine said something about this years ago and it stuck with me.)  Coming from a house with almost white carpet throughout, this is suuuuuuper exciting!  Not to mention I absolutely LOVE the way the floors turned out. 

5. We stayed in our same elementary school district - This was a promise made to our kids, who were NOT sold about moving from our old house.  I moved a lot as a kid, and while new schools didn't bother me very much, I wanted to give the gift of continuity to my kids.  My family moved to Richmond when I was twelve and I quickly realized that so many of my friends had known each other since elementary school - some even went to preschool together.  I thought that was so awesome!  So thankful we could do that for our kids!

4. A neighborhood pool - This one is for sure NOT on my husband's list, as he's not a pool guy and we sacrificed lot size for living in a planned community with a pool (at least in our elementary school district), but I am stoked!!  I grew up going to a neighborhood pool (a friend of the family that we "lived with" had a neighborhood pool that we would use all summer - haha) and it was a blast!  While I would love to have my own pool, we don't have the time or money to invest in the upkeep.  Plus the liability issues that come with owning a pool are a turn off.  I am so looking forward to taking the kids to the pool and socializing with my neighbors!  The pool will also make staycations way more fun!

3. A neighborhood with lots of kids and some awesome neighbors - There are tons of kids and it will be so cool for our boys (and us) to make lifelong friends.  I was added to our neighborhood's Facebook page a few months ago and I think we will fit in there - let's be honest, the moms love wine 🍷 and there are always impromptu block parties and get-togethers!

2. A dedicated playroom for our kids - As mentioned in a previous post, at our last house the playroom was our sunroom, which was off the dining and family room areas.  This resulted in my husband and I making the boys clean up everything they had worked so hard on (elaborate train tracks, Lego creations, etc.) every day.  In the new house, the entire third floor is theirs to destroy! 

 

 

1. Making memories in a beautiful brand new home with space to spread out, along with come together as a family - This one speaks for itself, but I am incredibly thankful and blessed that we are able to give our boys a new home with plenty of room in a great neighborhood.  And of course, I cannot wait to have the space to entertain!!!!! 

The kitchen hardware of my dreams!!

When I went by the house yesterday, a crew was there (including our PM) trying to finish up everything possible before today's RH internal inspection.  There will definitely be some things left to do, but it was nice seeing the house relatively clean with all the protective floor coverings removed.  I literally welled up with tears walking through the house, imagining my family living there.  It was overwhelming.  Perhaps the most overwhelming moment was when I walked into the kitchen and saw the PM's assistant installing the kitchen hardware I bought.  He was working on the long row of cabinets above the cooktop, so I only took a picture of the smaller side.  I made it a point to thank him and told him how much I appreciate it since installing what I provided definitely takes longer and requires additional leveling than the regular on-hole knobs.  I was stopped in my tracks with admiration of how amazing it looked.  When bulding a home with RH, it's very easy for your home and kitchen to look like every other RH house.  Having our hardware installed instead of the plain round knobs was just one small way we could avoid the total repetition of finishes when compared to other homes in our neighborhood.  I literally could not be any happier with the way it turned out. 

 

 Also, here is a before (left) and after (right) pic of the mantel.  We asked for it to be lowered during our pre-construction meeting so we wouldn't be breaking our necks to watch TV, but it was originally installed at normal height.  It was lowered over the weekend and it may not seem like a huge difference, but it makes all the difference in the world when looking at it in person. 

 

5/20/16 - Water in the toilets!

Way less happened yesterday (5/20) than I thought would happen.  When we met with our PM on Wednesday, he said the house would be pretty much ready for delivery yesterday.  He said the cleaners would be coming and it would be sparkling.  As I was leaving work yesterday, he sent me a text stating that the house wasn't cleaned and that there would be crews there tomorrow (today) lowering the mantel (something we requested at the pre-construction meeting, but was installed at normal height) and re-pouring the one section of concrete by the front porch steps.  

I went by the house anyway (of course) on my way home and saw that not a whole lot had been done. :(. What I did see was...

Water in the toilets!  It really is the little things. Haha! :)

Master bath water closet:

 

Microwave (with vent to the outside - because I hate the lingering smell of cooked bacon) installed:

 

Just a pic of the master bedroom.  They replaced the broken window:

 

When we met with our PM on Wednesday, I asked him if he was 100% confident the upgraded carpet padding had been installed on the second and third floors (we did not upgrade the padding in the first floor bedroom bc we mainly upgraded for noise reduction purposes and didn't need that for the first floor.)  He said he could pull up a corner in check at some point.  Because I trust no one, I went ahead and pulled up corners myself in the first floor bedroom closet and one of the second floor bedroom closets.  Good news - the upgraded padding was indeed installed!

First floor bedroom padding - you can see there are little holes in the top and that it's not very thick:

 

Second floor bedroom closet - Spillguard barrier and it's thicker:

 

This was actually at the top of the stairs - I was on a mission to be sure we got what we paid for:

 

 

5/19/16 - Just bloggin' my little life away!

Now that I'm caught up on posting progressive pictures, I would like to stay caught up.  

I went by the house on my way home from work (like always) to see it and drop off the kitchen cabinet and drawer hardware that our project manager (PM) is so graciously allowing us to provide.  RH is notorious for not allowing things like that, but our PM has really worked with us on a few things. 

With RH (at least in our community), you are given the option of brushed nickel or oil rubbed bronze for ALL your knobs, hardware, faucets (except in the kitchen for some reason) and light fixtures.   Whichever you decide applies to the entire house - you cannot mix and match between BN and ORB.  I knew I wanted mostly ORB (especially door handles and bathroom faucets/fixtures), so it was the most economical choice to get "whole house" ORB, then switch out cabinet hardware later.  

After some thought and Pinterest-ing, I decided I just could not live without cup pulls for the kitchen drawers...and I was leaning toward BN for the kitchen hardware.  Our kitchen faucet is already BN and I think BN will just give the kitchen a cleaner look with the white cabinets and gray countertops.  The problem with switching out the hardware later is that RH installs basic one-hole round knobs on all cabinets and drawers, so if we wanted to install cup pulls after closing, we would have to drill two more holes in the drawers and hope the pulls cover the original holes.  I also really like the look of bar pulls for the cabinets.  Again, all hopes would be lost if RH installed the one-hole round knobs since the bar pulls require two holes. 

A few weeks ago, I asked our PM if we could supply different kitchen hardware or if he could leave the RH knobs off altogether and we could install our own after closing.  He said he would check on it, but I never heard back from him about it.  Yesterday, we met him at the house to go over a few things that need to be addressed and he said, "Are you going to bring me the kitchen hardware?"  SCORE!!!!  I had been waiting to buy it until I knew he would do it, so I went to Home Depot and got the hardware I really wanted.  I dropped it off at the house today, so he will have it for tomorrow, which is when he said he needed it. 

Here's what I got...

For all drawers, except the long drawer under the ovens:

 

For the long drawer under the ovens:

 

For the cabinets:

 

I also got these for all the bathrooms because I think the ORB will get lost against the dark cabinets, but we will swap these out ourselves:

 

As for the other things I took pictures of during today's visit...

Front steps brick fixed.  They had made it too wide, so it looked weird and asymmetrical when the railings were installed.  They still need to re-pour that section of concrete walkway. 

 

Utility sink in the garage.  This was there yesterday (actually installed two days ago), but I forgot to take a picture.  I actually didn't take any pictures yesterday!  So not like me!

 

Double ovens installed:

Beautiful stain on the stairs.  I couldn't go upstairs today because the poly was still wet. 

 

 

Well, that's all for today!

Dreamy hardwoods and more finishing touches (5/12 - 5/16/16)

OK, so I literally picked my hardwood floors from one, yes ONE, plank at the flooring showroom.  We had been looking at the level B hardwood that I had negotiated into our contract at no extra cost and don't get me wrong, I really liked some of the engineered level B choices, but then I saw it... that one lonely little plank of American Scrape 5" Oak in the color Nantucket and I knew I had to have it as soon as I laid eyes on it.  It had the grayish undertones that I loved about some of the level B color choices, but had the thickness, beauty, and random scraping of solid hand-scraped hardwood.

Now fast-forward to 5/11/16 (the day before install) - I panicked, like a serious all out sweating panic.  What if I hate them when I see them?  Can I live with floors I hate?  What will RH do for me if I hate them (nothing...)?  The images I saw online were not consistent and it scared the $@!* out of me!

Low and behold, my hardwood flooring is more beautiful than I could ever have imagined and these pictures do them no justice at all:









The pride and joy of the kitchen awaiting installation:


Gas cook-top:


Kitchen faucet:


Bathroom toilets and faucets:




Carpet (not the best pics, but to give you an idea of the color):

The beginning of the end (5/6 - 5/10/16)

Another exciting few days - the start of "final touches".  I am in awe of how fast RH builds a house.  This is not always a good thing and we have definitely hit some bumps along the way and have been ALL OVER (as in overseeing) our build, but as the project comes to a close, it sure does feel good to see tons of stuff going on.

:) GRANITE!!!:











Shower frame in master bathroom:


Shelving...

Pantry:


Master closet:




Linen closet in laundry room:


Our door knobs, towel bars, and toilet paper holders were installed throughout the house.  This is the kids' bathroom on the second floor:


Exterior doors painted Black Fox (a really dark charcoal gray color)

Front door:


Side garage entry door:


Back patio doors:

Let there be light! and more! (4/29 - 5/4/16)

This was a pretty exciting several days!  Electricity was turned on! :)

Master bathroom tile:


Light fixtures...

Dining Room:


First to second floor stairs (gotta love a nice boob light):


Second to third floor stairs:


Master bathroom:




Kitchen:


Fireplace!!!!:


Of course, one of my favorite views to capture:


Deck (steps are to the right):