10 months inspection tomorrow.

Our 10 month inspection is scheduled at 11 a.m. tomorrow. We haven't heard any feedback to the check list that we had sent to Ryan Homes.  As our list is very small, it should be taken care of in couple of days time.

Update to my last post : The common area on the left to the house has been sodded. And we even have 4 pretty red maple trees on the border of our lot and the common area. It all looks pretty now.

About the Poison Ivy patch at the back of our lot, I think we have to lodge a formal complaint to the HOA as we didn't hear anything from the developer and he is about to handover the community over to the HOA.

Newly sodded common area. I don't have the "before picture", but there was nothing but rocks and was a barren land.

10 Months inspection in Oct. last week.

We received the letter from Ryan Homes stating that our 10 month inspection is going to be in the last week of October. It's been almost 2 weeks since we got the letter and my punch list is not ready yet. We have to send this list to RH ASAP now.

       Speaking of the list, we have two major issues to tackle and both of them are regarding landscaping.  I am not sure if it should be included in the 10 month inspection list or not. But then again, this will be our last chance to get it settled before the developer hand overs everything to the HOA by te end of this month.
    Our lot shares the boundary line with common area from two sides. Left side of the house and of course from the backyard side. We have a thicket adjacent to our backyard. Thorny bushes and it's thorns always creeps up on our backyard. And it makes mowing very difficult from that side. but that's not half the problem. My main issue is the Poison Ivy that's thriving in the thicket. And every now and then it creeps up on our land. And hubby has to take care of it. Last month while doing the same thing, despite of wearing gloves, he came into contact with poison ivy somewhere near his elbow. Long story short, one ER visit....one week of steroid treatment for severe poison ivy rash.... not to mention the throbbing pain in this entire arm for 10 days. So coming to the point, we requested our developer to come up with some kind of solution for this. I think if they clear the thicket for at least a foot or two from our lot, it will give us some relief form these issues. Please let me know any other possible solution for this problem. TIA.
              The developer emailed us back saying he is going to send his landscaper this week to review the situation. 
     Other point is also regarding the adjacent common area on the left side of our house. we were told early in the building process that the area  is going to be sodded along with some tree planting by the Sept. end. Nothing has been done in that huge empty area and there is nothing but rocks and weeds. It's been such an eyesore for us for 10 months now. Ryan Homes developer is going to hand over our community to HOA soon and I want to tackle these two issues before that happens, so that I don't have to deal with the HOA later. Again the developer's reply is that they are going to sod the area soon and he is looking if he can arrange and plant a tree or two in there.
        If any of you think that these are not the points that I should be including in our 10 month list, let me know as well.

Other than that very few # of items to go on the list that are from inside the house.
Creaking floors in family room and master bedroom, loose floorboard, nails pops, a few cracks.

I will certainly keep you posted on these matters.

UPDATE :  The common area on the left side of our house has been sodded this afternoon, just 2 hrs after this post.
Still waiting for the developer to come up with some kind of solution for the thicket problem. 

Life in our new Rome.

 After closing and shifting was done, I was anxious as to how are my DD(s) were going to adjust in new school with new friends. But thankfully on that  front everything went smoothly. They made quite a few good friends in the neighborhood and in the school.

   We had very few issues for our three weeks inspection.  Small issues (like powder room mirror was loose, kitchen island support was loose, minor imperfections in color.) were taken care of asap.

The only thing that took time (3 weeks.) was Trinity security alarm. Because of faulty wiring, alarm wasn't working. It took several phone calls to Trinity before they fixed that.. But they had provided a temporary alarm in the basement till then.

There was a noticeable dent on cooking range. PM ordered that part and changed it at the time of three week inspection.
  
Other than that we are thoroughly enjoying our new house. And look who showed up in our backyard  on a sunny hot day !

Eastern Box turtle.

So far we have enough furniture that's necessary. Five, out of eight ceiling fans are up and running. We have installed pendant lights over the kitchen island.  And now here comes few snaps.

Living room.

Family Room. 

Family Room.

Dining Room.

Kitchen

Temporary set up till we get nice furniture for the morning room.. Right now it's all mish mash of fabric, leather and metal.

Basement.

Loft furniture.

Ceiling fan in the loft.

DD's room ceiling fan.

Ghosts from the past?

Well friends .. It was a toilet issue. Just after 2 days of use our powder room toilet began to clog. Trying plunger N stuff  didn't work. Thank god it didn't overflow. But we were scared to use upstairs bathrooms too. 

      When the plumber came the next day he tried to flush whatever it was. He started to flush from upstairs bathroom and had to use the hose that went all the way up to the basement plumbing before it could reach  the blockage. It was something hard like concrete or stone etc.  So long story short, his guess was something might have fell down in the plumbing pipes in the construction process. And then I remembered that after our plumbing was done those pipes in the basement was not covered with plastic plates for like a week or so.  That time I had to remind our PM to covet it asap. 

         After this my ever restless soul  was still not sure that everything is alright. So we did the snake plumbing sewer camera inspection. And it didn't show anything in the pipes this time.

    All is well now !! 

   

Life after closing !!!

It's been 12 days since we close. Closing was like a walk in a park. Went very smoothly.
And after closing life is crazy busy. It's funny but I am missing the days before closing when I used to come and take a look at the progress N stuff. But now since I am actually living under the roof, life is crazy busy. But I am loving every minute of it.  My daughters are the happy as they finally got their own rooms.  So here is a quick recap of the things got done since closing.

We closed on 29th as scheduled.  Some minor things (  paint touch up, rough spots on steps handrail etc) that our independent home inspector pointed before final walk through with PM , were  taken care of before we came back with THE keys.

Movers came on 3rd January.

Lowes installed the blinds. We chose Levelor in white and Levolor custom top down/ bottom up  blinds on some windows.

Verizon Fios services are up and running.

Trinity wiring crew came and activated the service. The security alarm on the upper level is  not working and there is a possibility of faulty wiring. So the trinity electrician is scheduled for tomorrow.

Washer dryer from Best Buy  and new mattress got delivered.

As for me... I was busy prepping the bathrooms and kitchen.  Sealed grouts in morning room and kitchen. Sealed all the granite. After a week of eating outside and carry outs I finally started cooking since yesterday. Lucky me as my brother and his wife lives close by so we could go there even unannounced at times for quick snack breaks and even for lunch or dinner.  I was able to pack the boxes much more quickly as daughters were staying with them for couple of days.

Girls are making new friends in new school and getting used to school bus timings.

In the decoration department, nothing has been done yet except some beautiful vases on  fireplace. We are overwhelmed with our home and not sure which project we should do first. Very hard to prioritise as I want everything and want it ASAP.  I will start with pendant lights over kitchen island and at least two ( out of 7 in all ) ceiling fans. And will leave major projects like painting the whole house for later, although I am getting very tempted  after reading all the blog entries about painting.

Sunrise from morning room. Isn't it beautiful !

From masters bedroom.

From side window of masters bedroom. 

First snow of the season in our backyard.