We headed out Friday afternoon in rainy weather and ran into a few traffic jams on the way (seen in the first picture)—plus a detour OFF the highway due to a HazMat cleanup. Since we were so excited, we drove straight to our house (taking a back way we discovered, which saved some time). It was dark by the time we got there, but the electricity is connected, so we had lights. We loved it. Everything was perfect! Or so Tom thought until he saw the carpet.
He was determined it was the wrong color—it looked too light. I was sure it was right, but we decided to check it out anyway. Then I checked out the countertops—which I had been VERY worried about…and they were good! They weren’t as dark green/teal as I had been afraid of and they didn’t look bad at all. Truth be told…if I had it to do over, I would probably go with another color that more closely matched the floor. Also, I would go with beige or almond appliances, to also more closely match the floor. We only spent about 20 minutes there, because we knew we’d be back the next day for a more thorough inspection. We were also hungry and tired!
Saturday morning we went to Furniture Fair to upgrade our range. Our contractor agreed to switch ranges and credit us what he paid—we just had to find what we wanted and pay the difference. The range that was included was nice—but it was electric. And I decided that if I had to continue to live with an electric range for the next three years, it was going to be a flat-top (I HATE THE COILS!). But, since we had time, we first made a detour through the living room furniture to see if I could find some high back chairs that I liked. Not that we were necessarily going to buy any, but I just had to see if I could find chairs similar to those our friends have—they are the MOST comfortable high back chairs I have ever sat in and I would buy them if I could find them (except they were 20 years old). So, in the process of sitting in chairs, we ran into a minor snafu…as I got up out of a chair, my jeans were snagged by the chair in front of me—there was a wire sticking out! We called a manager over to show him, and they are replacing my jeans (well, sending me a check). So, although we were upset at ruining a pair of jeans, it was very cool that they’re taking care of it. So back to range upgrading.
Front Load WasherWe headed over to the appliances—but before we got to the ranges, we saw that they had a washer and dryer on clearance for $850. And it was a front-load washer like we wanted. So we looked at it, hmmmed and hawed (I wanted to run to a computer to check it out online), and thought we really wanted it. But we weren’t there to buy a washer and dryer—we were only there to upgrade the range! So we moved on to the ranges, saying we’d think about the set. There were only a few ranges in our price range (meaning cheap) so it didn’t take long. We debated over two ($50 difference) for about five minutes and ended up choosing the exact same range we had but in the flat-top. Then it was back to look at the washer/dryer set while the salesman did our paperwork. We looked more and talked more and decided what the hell—we needed a washer and dryer so why not get it now when it was on sale??? So, that was more paperwork. But then we noticed that they were running a “12 month/No Payments/No Interest” sale for purchases over $1000, so we had to add something else (the upgrade didn’t count). They had garbage disposals…so we added one and there we were! Now we have a year to pay for it all.
Then it was off to lunch (Texas Steakhouse, which I’m THRILLED with because they have my fried chicken salad that I miss from a restaurant in Lansing) and then to Sherwin Williams to check on the carpet. They looked it up and told us Pewter was installed and then showed us the samples—and it was indeed Pewter. Phew! Then it was off to our house. The first thing I did was to go outside to take a picture of the whole house. After the first shot, I saw a girl across the street, and we both yelled hello and then just walked to each other and started talking. She introduced herself and her husband (Brittany and Joel) and one of the first things I told them was that when we were deciding which house to buy, it was either ours or theirs and I really liked theirs for the inside washer and dryer and the master bedroom/bathroom (jacuzzi tub)…and her response was that they really liked ours because the washer and dryer were in the garage and they wanted our screen porch! Then Tom came looking for me and came over and we all chatted for awhile. We mentioned our mutual friends Heidi and Neil, who live down the street a few houses (Tom and Neil are classmates) and they said they knew their neighbors (also military) and they were already dog-sitting for them!
Then it was back to our house to do the unofficial walk-through. We told our realtor that we just wanted to see the house with everything done—but really, we wanted to do a walk-through on our own without the contractor there. We thought we’d be able to take more time and do a more thorough search for problems without him watching us and hovering over us. And there were problems. The only major thing was the shutters and front door—they are supposed to be hunter green but they are brown. We’ve already told him this and he was going to change it, but it obviously slipped his mind. The other things are minor, but there are lots…dings/scrathes/gouges in lots of the walls, mismatched fixtures (both silver and gold in the bathroom), misplaced fixtures (a light not centered over the mirror where it should be), drawers that didn’t sit right, carpet not installed nicely, painting errors, etc. I have about five handwritten pages to type up and fax to the contractor. I’m assuming (hoping?!) they had already planned to fix most of the obvious things (the huge dents in the wall). And, of course, we took loads of pictures.
