Last Post Pre-Closing?

With any luck, this will be my final post before closing! The PSE&G debacle is behind us, the majority of the township inspections are scheduled for Monday, our home owner orientation is scheduled for Tuesday, and unless there is some hiccup with obtaining a Certificate of Occupancy along the way, our closing should be on Friday the 29th! Not too bad considering we were secretly starting to think/dread that mid-July would be the date. Our living situation has been awesome, but 10 months is certainly more than we had hoped to be imposing on my parents!

I recently decided to build a monster sized binder with the millions of documents we've signed throughout this process. It's really helped me star organized and stay on top of some of the nuances of building a house. You look at so many flooring and cabinet and siding options that sometimes it's hard to remember exactly what you signed yourself up for. I would highly recommend that anyone building a home try to stay organized like they've never been organized before! It pays dividends later as we've already been able to point out a few little things that needed correction before they had the chance to hold us up!

Now it's crunch time and of course I'm beginning to dread the laundry list of post-close projects I've signed myself up for! I have a sneaking suspicion that my "summer" won't be quite what it's been in years past... So far I've come up with the following as my Top 10:

1. Install Ceiling fans/lights
2. Window Treatments
3. Paint interior
4. Backsplash
5. Fence
6. Garage workbench/organization
7. Build a new desk, a new basement table, and a new headboard
8. Basement Bar
9. Irrigation
10. Deck/patio

I took care of that top 1 today with a mini-Home Depot shopping spree to pick up the bedroom and office fans! I'm pretty stoked that the blades are the same colors as the ones we plan to use in the living room!

So that's it for now! A quick post, but I thought an update would be nice. I wanted to make sure everyone has a week's notice before I start calling in those moving favors! I've moved a lot of crap for a lot of people over the years (you know who you are!) so it's time to cash in (hopefully) next weekend!

PSE&G: My New Mortal Enemy!

I should be packing right now for a move-in date that's 12 days away, but unfortunately that is not the case. Late last week, we were informed of a hiccup with PSE&G getting to the house to set the meter. It sounds like they've twice pushed back their scheduled visit which has thrown the schedule way off. What should be like a 10 minute job for them is now likely going to push our closing back until after the 4th of July. What's so important about the stupid meter anyway? Well, it would be nice to know that all of the outlets and lights and HVAC and sump pumps work prior to move in so it's not really something I can argue about. And I don't really blame the builder (though I secretly wish they would have gotten up PSE&G's ass a little sooner!) because it certainly sounds like they've been getting the same run around from the utility and they are equally unhappy about having to reschedule. It's just a bummer all around. Worst of all, now I have to pay for another month's worth of storage unit fees! Ugh!!!

But... Paparone extended an olive branch to us this week by giving us a "sneak peek" into the progress they've made since our last visit. Everything (except electric service) is coming together awesome! 

Starting with the kitchen, the cabinets are perfect and the island we designed with the cabinet guy couldn't be better. Jen gets a nice pat on the back for the hanging pendants she picked out too! I'm harboring a small amount of sadness that we didn't spring for the quartz counter tops, but every time I get those negative thoughts in my head I go back and look at the price to remind myself why we stuck with granite. It will get the job done for the next decade!

One of our first projects will be a tile backsplash. We love the added depth of glass tile so we're about 95% sold on that as our choice. The next decision is whether we go with a solid or something with a little texture. After holding them up to the wall and the counter, we both agree on the tile to the left with a little bit of texture on the backing. Should be a nice little weekend project once we get settled!

The only real hiccup with the house came in the master bathroom where they forgot one of the corner shelves that we had asked for and identified on our markup drawings. It doesn't make a difference to me, but apparently foot shelves are a necessity for women who shave their legs (who knew?) The one benefit of having all this extra time is that making this tile fix shouldn't impact us at all. 

On the bright side, our dream living room fan is back in stock! This will match perfectly with the hanging pendants in the kitchen. We're debating whether we want a second one in the morning room, but will probably make that call after move in. My guess is that the windows on the back of the house will give us plenty of breeze when we want it. 

Otherwise, everything else is moving along well. Our yard was graded an feels much bigger than expected when you come out the back door, sidewalks/steps/patio were poured, driveway should be going in today, grass should be going down next week, and exterior trim is wrapping up this week.  

Now that we've gotten over the initial disappointment, we're okay with the 2 week delay. We have had an insane amount of support from family and friends during these past 8-9 months so a few more days won't hurt. This also gives us another round of paychecks to stash away (minus the stupid storage unit costs!!!) for window treatments, paint, fencing, a new basement TV, a new mattress, a desk, cabinets/workbench in the garage, irrigation, a deck/patio, etc. The list goes on forever... 

Closing Around the Corner!

Updates have been a little few and far between lately, mostly because all of the work has been behind closed doors! But FINALLY we have an answer to the question that people have been asking us for months: "When are you moving in?" Our closing date is June 25th!!! So if you owe me even the slightest bit of a favor, prepare to get a phone call!

I stopped by this afternoon and chatted with the Project Manager. Everything is on track for our Homeowner Orientation meeting on June 19th. That is essentially a punch walk for us to identify a handful of fixes. The loan paperwork is all in place, homeowners insurances is figured out, the appraisal is done, and today I paid (hopefully) the last storage unit bill! I'm told they will be pouring sidewalks and driveways next week, the siding guys will be back out to touch up a few things, finish electrical is complete, and the rest is on cruise control!

If you don't want to be bored by furnishings, this is where you can stop reading... 

So what else have we been up to? Trying to furnish the place! Jen decided long ago that pretty much every piece of furniture we own would not be nice enough for her shiny new house. Most everything we've stored for the past 10 months is probably going to the basement, attic, or the curb. I'll be honest, I've had a little bit of fun with it too. My inner bargain shopper has come out in full force trying to use every last gift card, coupon, and sale that I can find to save a few extra bucks.

We both fell in love with a sectional from American Signature Furniture down in DE (home of tax free shopping!) as well as a coffee table and end table that were paired with it. It's typically a cheaper furniture store, but we've had amazing success with their products in the past. Considering the prices we were looking at when shopping at the other big brand stores, this was a no brainer. because the sectional is a little smaller, we thought acent chairs would be a good idea as well and I'm especially proud of the deal that I found at Target where we got this pair for $160 shipped ($66 out of pocket after some gift cards and lingering Paypal balance!) Jen grabbed some giant curtains too. It's all coming together nicely!

Appliances were a decision that we may have lost a few friends over. Team Front Load vs. Team Top Load might be the most heated debate since blue/black dress vs gold/white dress! We ultimately decided on front load for A) Front controls B) Ease of use for short people C) More options available. We shopped every store that sold appliances and ultimately found the best deal on a set with the most features at Home Depot. This GE set has everything we wanted, including steam and it "looks pretty" according to Jen. The Refrigerator was an easy decision because the rest of our appliances are "slate" in color. That's an option exclusive to GE so we needed to find a GE refrigerator that fit our opening without breaking the bank. As it turns out, that's only two options. The one that was Energy Star Rated was $200 more, but comes with a $100 NJ Clean Energy Program credit which felt like a great bonus. The washer and dryer carry these credits too which was an awesome last minute find!

Lastly, we got around to getting crafty with customizing some stools to our liking and upcycling an old patio table that has been hiding behind the shed for 10 months. I told Jen that the fabric she originally picked out was "grandma's couch" but it's growing on me and works really well with my Target chairs! The outdoor table isn't perfect but considering I'm only out a little stain and a few cans of spray paint, it will get us through a year or two!

I'm predicting the first BBQ before the end of July! So close!