3 Weeks After Move-In

I wanted to post some pictures since we've moved in.  I followed a lot of blogs while I was building, and it always drove me crazy that once the people moved in, that would be the end of the blog.  What's up with that??!!!  I want to see some pictures!!

So I'm going to post some pictures, give some updates, and heads up- I plan to continue to post about our experiences with Wayne Homes.  I figure our experience with Wayne Homes isn't over once we get our keys-in fact, far from it!  We have quite a bit of "stuff" that has to be taken care of in the spring since our build finished in the winter, when it was too cold to do some stuff, and then there's the warranty, which we may or may not have to use...

I'm sure there'll be a lot more to post about, and I plan to keep you posted!

But first, here are some pictures...

Living Room

 Sun room- We LOVE this room, best money we spent!  I eat breakfast every morning in here, while my puppy sits on my lap and I look out across the yard.  It's so relaxing!

This is also where Andor and I eat dinner most nights.  The other night we saw five deer looking for fallen apples under our apple tree.  We bought a block of food for them today at Tractor Supply.  Hope to see them more often!

 

Our bedroom is HUGE!  Look at all this space!! Bella LOVES the floor space!

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Still wish we had noticed that there weren't doors on our walk-in closets.  Andor tried to add them during the build, but it did not work out.

On a brighter note, we have a TON of space in our closets!  I love that we each have our own.  We designed that ourselves, and it  didn't cost us a penny, but we lost the closet doors.  That's one lesson we learned.  It's best to stick with the original plan Wayne Homes gives unless you're really confident that you'll be happy with your changes and not leave anything out.  Remember the problem we had with the loft window being too close to the book shelf for there to be books on it?  That cost us money in the end.  Also, we changed up the location of the washer/dryer in the laundry.  We found out the washer/dryer we ordered would not fit the way we now have it and had to order smaller ones.  We love our laundry room, but had we kept it the way it was in Wayne's prints, the larger ones would have fit.  Wish when we were planning these things out, someone from Wayne could have led us in the right direction or even explained why things were where they were/notice potential issues.  It happens though.  At least we had complete say in where everything went, not every builder does that.  Now just trying to figure out how to finish the basement.  We had NO IDEA what we were doing when deciding where water treatment goes, future shower/bathroom goes, and living space goes.  Now that we're in, we realize it could have been better arranged.  We should have brought someone who knows about this stuff with us when we planned it all out!

Our master bathroom feels like we're on a fancy vacation.  It reminds me of the spa at our honeymoon.  I've taken more candlelit bubble baths in the past three weeks than in my entire life before this house.  I have to pinch myself that it's actually MY bathroom!  Ahhhhhhh!!!!

Notice the Pinterest wine rack towel holder??  I love Pinterest!!!

And everyone told us that we should get two sinks, for resale value, if for nothing else.  We are so happy we didn't!  We never brush our teeth at the same time, so really there's no need for two sinks, and look at all the counter space I have now!  Also, the one sink gives us the perfect spot for our hamper under the spot where the second sink would have gone!

We wondered what the shelving in our closets would look like, but Wayne Homes didn't have anything that allowed us to really "see" what it would look like.  Here's ours... 

And here's the upstairs hallway linen closet.  It's just outside of the main bathroom.

And this is our pantry in the laundry room. 

ADVICE:  Buy the faux wood blinds from Home Depot.  We shopped around extensively, even online, and theirs are the cheapest.  We had Home Depot measure all of our windows and install them.  It was so affordable, it's unreal!  We had blinds professionally installed on every single window, even the six in the sun room, for close to $1,000.  We had it done the day we moved in (windows were measured by Home Depot prior to), and that was one of the smartest things we did!!!  We've not had a chance to shop for window treatments yet.  Andor was in Canada for a week and New York another week, there's been NO time to shop for and hang curtains.  The great thing is we don't have to because we have blinds!  Now we can take our time and pick exactly what we want or even wait for sales and not have to worry that people can see in our house.  I did make the box valance to match our shower curtain.  They make these kits that are so simple!  I made this out of a shower curtain!   

ANOTHER TIP: Resist the urge to turn that loft into a fourth bedroom (Jamestown Model) unless you NEED the bedroom.  We didn't need it and we're SO HAPPY we kept it a loft.  Look at this amazing space we have right outside our bedroom!  This is another space we spend a lot of time in.  The picture looks really scrunched, but this space actually is perfect for watching tv and hanging out.  I can see Andor watching tv with the dogs here while he waits for me to get ready for dinner.  (He actually did this the other day, and he didn't mind the wait one bit!)

I still can't get over how much space we have in our bedroom!!!  This was one of the reasons we chose the Jamestown Plan.  It's like our own private retreat!!!

I love how the landing at the top of the steps has a place for our table/mirror.  It's so open upstairs!!! 

This is our second bedroom/computer room.  All the bedrooms are HUGE!  We still have to bring in the chest-of-drawers, but we love the versatility of the space.  So does our dog, Katie!  Did we mention another thing we loved about the Jamestown plan is that each bedroom has a walk-in closet?!!

The colors in our house really came together.  We are happy we stuck with neutrals for everything, it allows us to bring in any color/pattern, and it'll work with what we have.  Here is our main bathroom. 

 

We love the fireplace!  Just wish it didn't fog up every time we turn it on.  Our field manager told us that's the cleaning solution they used to wipe it down when they installed it and that it'll have to burn off, but we've already used it for several hours, one night it was on for three hours straight, and it STILL FOGS UP every single time we turn it on.  Every. Single. Time.  It only takes about a minute or two to go back to normal, but I've never seen a fireplace do this before.  Hope the cleaning solution wears off soon... Update: It still does that, but we don't mind.

 TIP: If you add a sunroom, it's worth the money to open up the space below it in your basement.  We're using that space for all of our holiday decorations.  Can you tell how much I love to decorate???

Welcome to our chemical treatment plant!

This was another $$$ concern.  Because we were responsible for getting quotes for well/treatment prior to securing our loan, it was hard to estimate the well because you're not sure how deep you'll have to go and once you get water, how you'll have to treat it.  We thought we had plenty of cushion, but we still went over.  Bad news: The well was 180 feet deep and had to be treated extensively.  Good news: We have AWESOME water now!!!  Honestly, I was worried about switching from public to well, but now that we have it, it's unreal how tasteless our water is!  And I was worried about it changing the texture of my hair or drying my skin out, but no problems whatsoever!!!  Just wish it hadn't cost so much.  We originally thought we had about a $10,000 cushion that could be used for installing a driveway, fence, deck, or landscaping in the spring (all things we'll be paying for ourselves,) but with the excavating and well, we're not going to have any leftover for those things.  It's smart to have a comfortable cushion for extras and overages when building, otherwise you might end up having to go without a few things.  Landscaping, grass, driveway, deck (our first floor is about ten feet above the ground in the back of the house so we can't walk out our sliding glass door in the sunroom until we have a deck) those are all musts, but Andor might be waiting on a shed, and the dogs might not be getting the huge fenced in yard we promised for a little while longer...
Update: We put in the fence $12,000 and Andor built his shed $1,500, and we even put in a poured concrete patio with sitting wall/lighting (Andor did the sitting wall), but we had to wait one year to put on our deck- $17,000.  Andor is building it himself (with the help of family and friends.)



Yesterday was our first Valentine's Day in our new home!  It's so amazing that we're in it after the long journey of deciding to buy vs. build, shopping for a builder, picking a floor plan, finding land, selling our townhouse, picking out every detail for our new home, living with family while our house was being built, the roller coaster of building (I believe this happens no matter who you build with), and FINALLY moving it- it's just so amazing that we're starting to make memories in OUR HOME that we helped design and plan every single little detail.  Someone asked me if we had the chance to do it all over again would we still build and choose Wayne as our builder, and I said, "yes."  It was a roller coaster, not for the faint of heart, and there was WAY more work involved than I ever expected, and we're not entirely done yet, and finances were a little scary at times, but in the end we're happy with the product we got, and we're happy with Wayne's customer service.  They truly have worked with us through all the bumps in the road.  When building, you can't anticipate all the bumps in the road ahead, but Wayne Homes has made good on their promises and the journey has brought us to a place better than we dreamed.  We LOVE our house!

Tomorrow our field manager, Brant, is coming out to follow-up with some things that we noticed after we moved in.  It was reassuring to know that after we got our keys, Wayne Homes would take care of anything we missed prior to moving in.  Here's the list of things we want to go over with him.


* Our master bathroom and main bathroom showers aren't working like they should.  When taking a shower water still pours out of the lower bath spout.  We spoke with our plumber about this and he said it's because they are the cheapest ones you can buy.  We talked to our field manager and he said this is a common problem with them that they all do.  I never had this problem in my other homes, though, so I'm hoping it can be fixed.  I want ALL of the water coming out of my shower head when showering, not SOME of it.  Update: No longer an issue.  Fixed.



* Lots of nail pops.  They already came out to fix several before we closed on the house.  Now, Wayne Homes will come out once more, only once, within the next two years to fix any more that pop up.  We figure we'd better wait until the end of the two years.  Andor and I hope that our walls don't look like they have chicken pox by then, but if Wayne will only come out once, we'd hate to have them come out this spring or summer and then have more nail pops.  Andor can't figure out why they nailed the drywall instead of screwing it in with screws.  Time saver to nail versus screw maybe???  Update: Waiting for our two years to be up so they can come to address this.



* Window Screens- We didn't realize all of our windows would be full screens.  That means that you can't open your screen to throw a bug out the window, it doesn't slide up.  We definitely don't like this and he's supposed to give us the number for the window company for us to call and see about ordering the kind that slide up and down.  Hope that's not too much $$$... Update: 84 Lumbar is the only place around that can provide screens.  Looks like about $300 for the whole house. 

* One of the window stoppers in our sunroom is broken.  That'll need to be fixed. Update: Fixed. 



* We need a set of keys for the sliding glass door in our basement and the sliding glass door in our sunroom.  The last time we saw them was before the drywall went up.  They were hanging on a nail on the framing.  We haven't seen them since the drywall went up, though.  Guessing that was another "Oopsy" the drywallers messed up.  Hoping the keys are behind the drywall and not that someone took them cause that'll leave us wide open if someone took them with bad intentions.  With all the sub contractors coming in and out, it's a little unnerving that someone may have the keys to get in to our home!  My husband thinks I overreact, but you can't be too safe.  We're going to need that lock changed on both doors.  Update: Replaced keys, not locks.



*  Our powder room sink has a scratch going across the front.  It'll have to be fixed or replaced.  We tried to clean it, but it's not coming off.  Update: Magic Eraser is a miracle worker!!!

* There are several drywall issues that we didn't notice until now, and one was marked before we moved in, but the painters (and we) missed it.  The blue tape is still there, but this and a few others will have to be fixed. Update: Painters addressed issues.

  * There is a crack in the wall (to the left of the light switch) and some parts where the fireplace stone was removed (to fix the mantle issue) that now left a soft spot in our wall there, including some parts where there is open space.  The mason came to repair this after we moved in, and it looks much, much better, but it still has some issues that have to be taken care of. Update: Addressed.

* Our exposed block was supposed to be painted to match our siding, but they painted it (in the freezing cold hope that's not a problem) and it's cream, not at all close to our Tuscan Clay siding.  We're hoping that's just a sealer and that they're coming back in the spring (like we were told) to paint it to match our siding.  No picture right now, sorry!  It was 3 below today, too cold to venture outside for pictures!  Also, we're thinking they're not done, because whoever did it detached our corrugated pipes that Andor attached to the downspouts and never reattached them. Update: Addressed.



* The flapper that goes out of our master bathroom vent to the outside CONSTANTLY flaps!  It makes a ping pong tapping sound that is so loud it wakes me up most nights.  The other night Andor found me standing on the toilet with the vent cover removed trying to find a way to make it stop.  It is SO LOUD!!!  I'm hoping something can be done.  Even with the bathroom door shut, I can still hear it! Update: It was an installation mistake and has been fixed.  Thank goodness!



* The main hallway bathroom has a fan that is always on.  Always. On.  It has to be as per Wayne Homes and the warranty.  It's noisy.  Not as noisy as the flapper in the master bathroom, but why does this fan have to be on 24-7?  Our electrician said it can be turned off, but we don't want to void the warranty.  Maybe our electrician is wrong?  He said our fans couldn't be wired to run off of two switches because they came with remotes.  Remember, our fans accidentally weren't ordered, so we chose to pick some up at Lowe's and take the $84 credit per fan for them?  Well, the ones we bought have remotes and our electrician wired all the fans to run off of two switches- one for the light, the other for the fan.  Well, he ended up wiring both the light and the fan to the same switch, leaving one switch useless.  Andor, fortunately, is very handy.  He fixed every fan to run the right way.  Wish the electrician had done this though, after all, we did pay him to do it.  He also left off a dimmer switch, but Andor bought one and installed it himself.  We figured it's not a big deal since he didn't charge us to swap out the foyer light that we decided to replace (after seeing the original one that came with our package- okay in the picture we saw but UGLY in person.)  He had to bring in a huge ladder to swap the fixture out, just wish he hadn't cracked the original when he put it back in the box.  Not that we could have gotten much money for it- it was pretty unattractive!    



* Wayne Homes sent us a $500 check for going past our guaranteed completion date.  What an unexpected, happy surprise!!!  We were never told our guaranteed completion date, but we must have gone over it, or Wayne Homes was being very generous to us!  That was a big bonus!  We're putting it toward the laundry tub and cabinets Andor installed in our laundry room.

  Andor is working on a garage mudroom space.  I saw it on Pinterest!  I'll post pictures of it and some other stuff I left out soon.  We paid extra to extend the garage by two feed wide and two feet deep, but honestly, it's still tight.  Not sure how we possibly could have fit two cars in our garage had we not done this.  We'd have bumped doors every time we got in/out.  ADVICE:  Get a three car garage!  Oh, and upgrade your garage door.  We spent $$ insulating our garage ourselves for nothing.  When we had our guy come out to install the garage door opener, he told us ours is the cheapest door available, and he had to specially adjust the torque on our opener so it wouldn't rip the garage door off of it's hinges.  It does let a lot of light and air rush in through the cracks.  I guess that's not a huge deal though, after all, you don't live in your garage.   

To Be Continued...