Our New House!

Took a panoramic series of pictures of the main floor and put them into a single, large image.  It’s a pretty large pictures, so it’s not dial-up friendly:  Main floor panorama

I also took a better picture of the exterior with full paint.  Of course, someone left a ladder here, but I’ll grab another picture when it’s down.  I may even take a movie series walking through the house.

Last night was our KB Home Workshop, an hour and fifteen minutes with two reps, Customer Service and Customer Care, to explain a little further about KB Home warranties, manufacturer warranties and how to enter claims.  It was a good meeting, but could have been two hours to cover everything.  We got a pack of things to take home including a maintenance checklist, contact phone numbers for various people, and a coupon for movie tickets and concessions as thanks for our time.  They also sent us home with a couple of 12″ x 12″ Corian cutting boards.  A good meeting overall.

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Yep, we have a new addition to our family.  Ann has been plotting for years to get a little shop dog she would name Henry and we have finally found him.  It all started a couple years ago when we puppy-sat for a friend who had a miniature chocolate poodle.  He was smart, cute and didn’t set off Ann’s pet allergies because poodles have hair, not fur, and so leave fewer allergens behind.  Since then, Ann wanted a little poodle or poodle mix of her own.  She spent months looking over all the small breeds and how they might cross with poodle.

Now, I’m a medium to large dog person myself.  The thought of taking a poodle for a walk would surely plummet my testosterone levels to nil.  This led to a long period of disagreement until we decided that Ann could have her ideal dog if I could find a more masculine breed of my own.  Continue Reading »

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Visited the house last night to find that the painters have finally completed the outside and a cleaning crew was there since before I got there at 6:30 and after I left at 7:45.  A team of 4 people were cleaning all the construction dust off of everything.  The yards have not yet gotten their final grading and I’m not sure when that’s supposed to happen.

All of the carpet, appliances and door hardware are installed, which means that everything is basically in place!  The next 30 days will comprise a series of walk-though inspections by a variety of groups and touch-up work as needed.  Tonight is the KB Homeowners Workshop at a hotel across the highway from us.  There we should learn what to expect at our Orientation and Closing meetings.

Orientation is scheduled for Oct 18 where we walk through the entire home with the builder and he explains how everything works and should be maintained.  This is also our opportunity to inspect for anything that needs to be touched up or fixed.

Our closing is scheduled for Oct 25 where we sign the final paperwork, hand over a check and get our keys!!!

Here are some additional pictures taken…  Continue Reading »

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Not a whole lot has been done in the last few days.  The plumbing trim included adding sinks, mirrors, toilets, faucets and the master shower doors.  Heater vents have been added and thermostat installed as well as attic insulation.  They even put in a basic doorbell for us.

The faucets all look very nice except for the kitchen sink, which is rather plain.  Of course, I’ve found out only too late that nice kitchen sink faucets run in excess of $180.  Guess we’ll have to plan for a later upgrade on that one.

Here are some pictures of all the new additions:  Continue Reading »

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Lots of new pictures here today.  They have mounted all but one of the countertops and put in all of the light fixtures.

I’ll start here in the kitchen.  The countertops all all set here.  It’s a standard laminate countertop.  Nice, but not fancy.  Corian and Granite are way too expensive but we did pick out a nice pattern that picks up all the colors of the house:  walls, trim, vinyl and cabinets.  It’s Formica called Sand Crystal with a matte finish.  Here’s a close-up of the pattern.  All countertops in the house have this same pattern (kitchen and two upstairs bathrooms).

The kitchen has 3 banks of recessed lighting (4 main kitchen, 1 over the sink and 2 over the Breakfast Nook).  The living room has one back of 4 lights around the circumference, 1 at the front door, 2 for the entryway, two for the stairs going up and two for the upstairs hallway.  Basically, the house is full of recessed lighting with soft flood lights, everywhere except in the bedrooms.  They were nice enough to also provide plain glass-dome lights in the laundry/mud room from the garage, in the master closet and Megan’s big closet.  Did I mention that she wants to put her bed in the closet?  It’s wide enough for her full size mattress.  And, even though it’s an extended length mattress, there’s still another 2′ of space at the foot.  Continue Reading »

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As promised, I have lots and lots of new pictures of the cabinet work.  All the trim has been installed and all doors, except the sliding closet doors, are hung.  I also managed to get a couple of good color-balanced pictures to show the actual color of the fireplace tile and all the vinyl.

I also found a few more things done:  the cable TV and telephone boxes on the side of the house are wired up and they shored up the slope on one side of the house with timbers.  So, on with the pictures… Continue Reading »

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Yesterday was the first of two days of cabinet and trim installation, so I stopped by to see the mid-completion stage.  The cabinets look great, the doors are hung and the trim is all cut but not yet installed.

The kitchen lower cabinets all have roll-out middle shelves and the tallest wall shelves are both 4-shelves high.  While I wouldn’t call it an insane amount of cabinet space, there is certainly enough for all the stuff we have.  Right now, we have lots of appliances and “stuff” on the top of our cabinets and refrigerator because we don’t have enough space.  So, the new ones should be just right for us. Continue Reading »

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Last Saturday, 9/9, was the scheduled day for vinyl and tile installation so we took a trip to see how that went.  The day before, they delivered the cabinets and doors and put up a primer coat of paint.  The paint is about 1/3 of our Kilim Beige and 2/3 plain white from Sherman Williams, the cabinets are Seneca Ridge Maple with Toffee stain from Merillat and the doors are all 6-panel, including the sliding closet doors, and the bannisters are all in separate pieces with the railing being cinnamon stain.  Continue Reading »

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I stopped off Thursday to find a new crew adding the deck on the back of the house.  This runs from the sliding door on the main floor dining room with stairs down to the back yard.  The deck is 6′ x 6′.  Enough for a very small 2-seat patio set or one very large BBQ.  Guess what my preference is.  Read on for more pictures…

Continue Reading »

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