I'm so excited & I just can't hide it!

I won a $2,000 gift card for living room furniture from Rooms To Go!!!

We visited their grand opening a few weekends ago & entered our names in their grand opening prize raffle. My name was drawn & the store manager called me today. I never expected to win & totally forgot about it.

That's one room down!! Woo hoooo!

Mannnn!

Reading your blogs make me realize how many things I missed.  i.e additional outlets, what type of doors we're getting in the basement ( I assumed sliding came with the rear masonry wall) & not negotiating for something else since I couldn't have a morning room  :(

I'm gonna make sure I put in this "infamous" survey that I felt rushed and now my home is lacking because of that :)  j/k (But I really did feel rushed through the selection process.  How can you really tell what your getting from the MSS?)

A little frustrated that I didn't think of EVERY thing. 

Ohhhh, the Agony!

Waiting to hear back from NVR is so nerve-racking! Today makes the 8th day that the loan has been in underwriting. How long did it take before you received your official approval?

Floors and Tile and Carpet, Oh My!

Today was a pretty good day.  Got word that my loan has been moved to underwriting and also had a meeting with Creative Touch Interiors to choose our flooring options.  .

Let me just say that I am a very, very indecisive person.  I make technical decisions year round at work  but when it comes to something that directly relates to me... I need some help when deciding.  I went in feeling confident that I would stick to the budget and have a good idea of what I wanted but that quickly changed when the Representative pulled out the floor plan and options.   The representative, Ali, was AWESOME.  She had a great sense of style and easily nudged me in the right direction when color choices just weren't matching up.     With lots of help from her, here is what I chose:



Kitchen Cabinets - Tahoe Cherry Bordeaux
"Faux Granite" Laminate Counter Tops - Antique Mascerello
Kitchen Floor Tile - 12 x 12 Russet
Grout - Earth

 

Cherry Hardwood Floors in the Foyer, Powder Room & Mudroom leading to Garage.

   

Master Bathroom

Vanity:  Maple Espresso

Shower, Bath & Floor Tile:  Fidenza Caffe

Listello:  Stone Radiance, Morning Sun, Tortoise & Mushroom

Grout: Earth

9'' Corner Shelves

Kid's Bathroom

Vanity: Maple Spice

Vinyl Flooring:  Intiator 66204 (will be in the 2nd floor laundry too)

Bath Walls:  6x6 Artic White Ceramic Tile

Standard Carpet & Padding
(Left)  White Fox for the Great Room & Basement  (Right)  Wool Skin for the Dining Room and Second Floor

And we're off... (to underwriting)

I got a call from my Loan Processor (LP) on Wednesday (9/19/12) asking for additional documents & information.  I thought that I was pretty thorough in providing just about everything during the loan application but I guess not.  She requested letters, more tax documents, my 401k plan statements & my position's salary key to verify my income with a service called "The Work Number".  I spent most of the day trying to recount reasons for deposits and writing explanations for those deposits.  Most of which came from selling things via Craigslist :) 

I also had to write explanations for a teeny-tiny derogatory item on my credit report that was paid off sooooo long ago.  I couldn't wrap my brain around why it even mattered at this point.  But none the less I submitted all of those documents a few hours after her request. 

I submitted the loan application on September 4th so I was a little disappointed to learn that 2 weeks later we were still so early in the process. 

She emailed me this morning to say that my loan has been moved to underwriting and that generally it takes 7-10 days for approval.  I hope so!!

I Love Thrifting!

Pinterest has become my best friend when it comes to looking for new DIY ideas and home furnishing tips.  I've always been rather crafty when it comes to putting things together and doing things myself so I think that I'll try and do a lot of that in our new home. 

via Heart Tree Home

   

I fell in love with this chair via Pinterest and have been on the hunt to find something similar that I can refinish for my home office.  I visited a couple of thrift stores over the weekend but had no luck finding a chair silimar to the style but I did get away with some other great items.

I own a small event planning business and I'm always on the hunt for things that I can use for display and decor.  I found 3 great trays that I'll add to the inventory.  I purchased all three trays for $5 (SCORE!)

Also found eight mustard colored plates at the Goodwill that I'd like to use for in our new home.  The color would be great for a fall themed dinner and I'm already looking for napkins and rings that would compliment the dishes.  They were half off so I purchased the set of eight for $3.75 (SCORE!)

On top of those great deals, as I was checking out I found a bag of Beer Bottle Caps.  Immediately my mind jumped to the Basement and the bar area that I'd like to build.  The Basement will be the area of the house that we spend the most time in since we love to entertain.  I got the entire bag of caps for $2 and will think of some funky idea to incorporate them into the bar area.  Whether it be framed, in a vase, or some other idea like this bottle cap table top for example.  I'm sure I'll think of something.  If not, they will most definitely be used at the next male centered event I plan. 

Cable & Wiring...

Met with the cable & wiring folks at Structured Cable on Friday (9/14) & the meeting went much better than I expected.  I expected to be bombarded with High-Tech features and over the top prices but the prices were reasonable (in my opinion).  I took a good friend with some knowledge of the industry to the meeting & he would probably beg to differ. Most of the things I wanted to add he'd shake his head at and insist that I would come out a lot cheaper doing it myself.  Luckily, I have a week to finalize my options but so far I think I made good choices. 

I've included the prices in case anyone in the local market is curious as to how much these options run. 

The Standard Package includes 4 single port jacks of your choice in any location.  I chose the following:
 
3 cable jacks (Master, Bedroom 2 & Bedroom 3)
1 phone jack for the 1st floor office

Extras:

• (3) Additional Cable Jacks for the Family Room, Basement & 4th Bedroom ($149 each)
• Basic Security System with 60 Month Monitoring Contract ($299 installed and $26.50 per month for 60 months)
• The Security System includes 1, Master Control Panel, 1 Interior Siren, 1 Standard LCD Keypad, 1 Motion Detector, 1 Smoke Detector with Monitoring. 3 Door Contacts & 24 Hour Monitoring via a land line. 
• If you don't plan on having a land line there is a $175 fee for adding the GSM (radio)monitoring and the monthly fee increases to $38.50.  This is a cool feature however because you have the ability to add the Total Connect Service which allows you to control & monitor the system remotely from your smart phone or computer. 
• Prewire for 5.1 Home Theatre Speaker System ($595)
• Media Closet  in Basement ($895)
• This includes a 50 foot HDMI Cable, Infrared Sensor Kit w/ 3 Flashers, 1 Multi-Media Jack & a 4 Shelf Audio/Video Rack.  I like this feature because it allows us to mount the television and have all of the "tv equipment" out of sight.  
• (2) HDMI Wiring behind the TV to below for the Living Room and Master ($165 each)
• (3) Power surges behind the TV's in the Master, Family Room & Basement ($75 each)

Other fancy features that they offered where a central vacuum system for around 3k, intercom system throughout the house (didn't inquire about pricing), music throughout the house around $2,300, upgraded options for mounting televisions and tricking out your security system. 

They will even mount Televisions that you own ($465 if you don't have the mounts) and you can purchase TV's and Theatre Systems from them directly. 

Another "decisions" appointment down, One more to go (flooring).