Getting a little closer to "home"

Ten weeks later, my shutters finally arrived. They were worth the wait - they look so much better than the blinds we installed in our master bedroom and the nursery. They're also more functional since they let in more light when open and are easier to clean. To save money we only did shutters on the ground floor (family room, library, and dining room) and in the two bedrooms in the front of the house on the second floor (i.e., windows that affect curb appeal). The remaining two bedrooms in the back of the house we opted for the less expensive wood blinds.

The shutters make a huge difference in the look of the house. The temporary paper blinds, as their name would suggest, gave the house such an unfinished, transient look. I'm looking forward to getting the rest of our back ordered items.

A few pics:

Reese's Room

Dining RoomLibrary

Getting there...

With tons of help from my sister, we're somewhat unpacked. I still have stacks of boxes to sort through, but they have been moved into the guest room so that the main living areas are clear. We're really enjoying the new house, and J and I both have commented on how it immediately felt like "home".

I've put off taking pictures for the blog since there are punchlist items to be done and I'm still in the process of hanging up my artwork. I've put a few pieces up, and it's really nice to move from the unpacking phase to decorating. Now the fun really begins! We had a ton of things in storage, and most of our belongings still work for the decor of this house. I did have a new couch made for the living room, but luckily we still like most of our furniture (side whine: I ordered the couch Nov. 2 and it's not going to be done until the end of the month!) I want to eventually replace our dining room table for something bigger since it only seats 6 and is a little small for the scale of the room. This purchase will have to wait since we want (and need!) to put the kibosh on unnecessary spending.

Anyhoo, I digress. Hopefully I'll get my act together and get the paintings off the floor and will take "After" pictures soon!

Kitchen

My kitchen is still in progress - it's been a huge cluster with the oven unit and it basically needs to be redone. The crown moulding is not installed, the doors need to be replaced because the stain is too dark, the cover that surrounds the double oven needs to be replaced (for the THIRD time), and the door on one of the ovens needs to be replaced.

In addition, the flooring people installed shoe moulding all around my toe kicks when I specifically told the builder not to, so when it was removed, there was damage to the floors and the toe kicks. Some of the toe kicks are being replaced and the flooring will be patched. My builder has already agreed to pay the $1100 bill if we need Kiva to install new trim if the patching doesn't work, but I think it'll look fine.

And of course, my really cool light fixture that goes over the island is on back order. Story of my life.

Anyhoo, enough whining. My designer asked me to take some in progress pictures for her portfolio, so I took the following pics. Even with the things that are unfinished/wrong, I LOVE the kitchen. It is, if I do say so myself, gorgeous and exactly what I had in mind. Moreover, it's completely functional. I have more storage than I know what to do with, and it's been great to eat with my family (including my sisters/parents when they've come over) at the island. I've even cooked a few times, LOL. Granted, I've just done spaghetti (twice), but I got to use my cool pot filler. I'm sitting at the island right now, actually. The kitchen opens up into the family room, and I can be with the family and watch tv while working in the kitchen.

Thanks, Rachele!

Double click on image for larger view:

Kitchen - February 9, 2009

Priceless email that made me smile

I sent my builder an email checking on status of the house this morning; I told him I had packers coming in this week and the movers coming in on Friday and wanted to see if we were still "on". His response:

"As of today I think we look fine for moving in on Friday. My only concern is still the power meter, but I was assured by Centerpoint that it would be in today, which means is should be in before Wednesday. Everything is ready to start up and the appliances will be in tomorrow, so given that we get power you will be fine. Glad you’re getting packers this time, I was wondering how you were going to do that. Not that I don’t think you could, I know you could still kick my a**, but I those boxes get heavy...."

Things that make you go, "hmmmm...."

They put the first coat of paint on the walls, and I noticed they painted around the paint samples. I told the painters it was okay to paint over the samples. They said, "oh, no, we have to sand it all down to make it smooth first." Hmmm, you'd think they'd do that before painting the first coat...

Ah, well, as long as it gets done.

*note: the first picture is the nursery. We ended up using a different color than the sample we put up, hence the color difference.

Update on kitchen island

Jim finally got in contact with Keith, the person in charge of our kitchen install. They've agreed to pay for the replacement decorator doors. He hadn't returned our calls because... get this... his house burned down last weekend and he and his wife and daughter "got out with just minutes to spare".

Crazy! I guess there IS someone that is having worse luck than me these days. While I don't feel bad about being persistent about getting the decorator doors replaced, I do feel bad for him and his family. That is just terrible!

Update, a little bit of venting...

Haven't updated in a while because things have been crazy hectic with hitting my eight month of pregnancy, trying to finish the house, and a huge work project all colliding.

This is undoubtedly the most hectic and stressful part of house building - the last month where everything comes together (or doesn't come together). Steven still thinks we can get in by the end of the first week in November, but we'll see. Some things will still be unfinished, but if we can get to the point we can actually move in before I have the baby, I'll be thrilled.

I won't get into too much because I'll start getting pissed off again, but some of the headaches:

• Island was built such that I only had 15" of leg room on one side of the eat-in table. It's fixed now, but getting someone to commit to fixing it was a process I should NOT have gone through.
• Wrong size decorator doors were applied to the island on the sink wall - still debating with Kiva (the cabinet vendor) on who will pay for the replacement doors. It's obvious to me that I should not have to pay.
• The backsplash tile that was supposedly "in stock" and available immediately was actually back ordered. It's custom-made to order and the manufacturer was not able to get the materials. We placed the order at the end of August, and now we're looking at the first week of November for delivery. My builder says he can work around this. He'll paint over the backsplash and return to tile when the material is available. Since it's glass tile, it's less of a messy installation and that works in our favor.
• We're running a week+ behind the post-Ike schedule. A week doesn't seem like a long time, except when you're scared you're going to deliver early.
• The upper balustrade arrived yesterday. It doesn't look like the rails we designed; it looks like the previously design we discussed. We still need to discuss this with the builder. I vacillate between being supremely angry on principle (um, what's the point of a custom order if it's not going to be what you want?) and just taking it in stride. I actually like what they delivered (it's very similar to the final design and obviously one of the designs we considered), so I'm trying to let go a lot of the anger I have because of "principle". If we had more time to move in, I'd probably demand they redo the rails on principle, but this one isn't worth pushing (at least today).
• They delivered the wrong stonework for the house and had installed 80%+ of it before I caught it - it's been removed, but the replacement stone is still not on.
• The standing seam roof is still not installed (it covers the roof line over the dining room). Because it wasn't installed, we had water damage during Ike. Until they install it, they can't re-sheetrock, so they can't paint that room, blah, blah, blah...

This last point alludes to what keeps me up at night. Some issues may seem minor, but there's such a domino effect when you're building. I've also been pretty busy running around meeting vendors - working with the landscaper on the design, finalizing the light order, selecting/ordering the remaining pulls/hardware for the house, tracking down the right slabs of marble for the kids' bath, and meeting the shutter folks to choose style and have measurements done.

I know it'll be worth it in the end, but it's such a headache right now. I'm mostly a bundle of negativity, but I do see how things are going to come together. I love the kitchen cabinets despite my overwhelming non-love for the vendor. My frustrations with Steven are tempered with acknowledging why we chose to use him again - we couldn't afford to build a custom house of this quality with another builder, and he's a great overall designer. I guess there's also something to be said for him taking my abuse (although he shouldn't put me in a position to want to abuse him!). I've had friends where their builders refused to talk to them after a while and completely ignored their requests.

Even with all the headaches, I already know we'll go through this again. It's hard for me to move into a house where I didn't choose everything. Even with the spec house we built (where I did select the finish out but kept it more neutral to for mass appeal), I would have changed out half the things we did had I actually had to live there. Maybe I'll get less picky as I get older… or having two kids destroy this house will reduce my need to have everything "exactly like I want it", LOL.

A few teaser pics. Hopefully I'll be able to post pictures of the final product in the not-too-distant future.