Excuses excuses

I already talked about how hard it's been to get a mailbox and the same crap is still going on - KB points the finger at the post office and the post office points one right back at KB.

The real kick in the mailbox situation is that they have put in mailboxes about 1/2 a block from our house. We thought ours would be part of it. Nope! Those are apparently for homes they have not even built yet! It didn't occur to anyone that people living in their houses already might like a mailbox.

I gave up arguing with our sales person (she has her commission, what does she care?) I called the local KB main office, asked for the person that deals with mailboxes, and let's just say I think Dan wasn't very happy he picked up the phone. He had an excuse for everything. "The post office put those boxes in so I'm not sure why you don't have a mailbox in there. Oh wait - we put those in? We're just working through a list and reviewing all the slabs and posts that have been put in. Oh wait - you don't have a slab or post yet?"

It just went on and on.

At least now I have the name of someone who I can bug repeatedly and become the squeaky wheel in his day. Bet he's gonna be sorry he gave me his direct line and email address.

We should have been more specific in our prayers

We have a mailbox.

We don't have a key.

Apparently the key will take another week.

Our mailman asked us if we wanted him to start delivering mail to it.

My response "Um. No (you moron - that part stayed in my head). We'd prefer our mail not sit in there for a week + while you guys figure out how to get the keys ready."

So for now...more trips to the mailbox.

No mailbox yet

Who knew getting a mailbox was going to be harder than getting a house? We're going on 32 days in the house, and all we have is a slab down the street where the mailbox will go. Our community has the big group boxes at the end of each block instead of the individual ones. I'm fine with that. But I just want a mailbox.

The post office says it's KB's fault.
KB blames the post office.

Apparently ordering the box was very low on their list of priorities. I guess they think we just love going to the post office to pick up our mail on a regular basis. Who wouldn't love multiple trips to the post office right before Christmas?

They should bring all perspective buyers out at sunrise

Check out the view this morning while I was letting the dogs out. They should bring all the buyers out here and have paperwork in hand because it's the most amazing selling point.

Finally...some pictures

I'm sorry it's taken so long to post these, but it wasn't until last night that the house was ready for photos. It's been two weeks of boxes and junk sitting everywhere. But with the arrival of family for Thanksgiving, it definitely lit a fire under our butts to get the place looking beautiful (not that it didn't already).

Sorry that most are of the living room and dining room. Bedrooms are hard to take pictures of because there was no way to get distance to get a sense of the whole room.









I have always loved these oversized clocks, and this one was a steal at Kohl's.


The guest room.


The guest bathroom.


My cute shoe ads designed by some friends made perfect wall art for my shoe-themed bathroom. It's a set of 3 with cute sayings like "There was an old lady who lived in a shoe - lucky bitch." They make me smile and they are so chic!


There used to be 4 of these plates but one fell off the wall at my old apartment. Oh well - now they fit in one plate rack.


There was just no way to get a good pic of the master bathroom. I couldn't get an angle that would let me get a full room shot.


And my favorite place in the house...our big comfy tub.


The pics just don't do it justice, so feel free to come visit when you can!

We're still settling in

I haven't posted any new pictures because I want the house to be more put together. Right now there is still stuff kind of strewn about and random boxes sitting around.

It's been a long week, but it's so wonderful to come home each night to this beautiful home. We can't wait to fill it with our family for Thanksgiving.

I do have this one picture to share. It struck me as funny. Brian is sitting in the middle of what would become one of our two beautiful new bookcases.

Lessons learned from building a house

I thought I'd share some of the things we've learned during the building process.

1) Write EVERYTHING down. I wish I'd kept a more detailed log of all the calls that were exhanged and the results of each one. I kept good notes, but I think this would have made things a little easier when it came time to solve some issues.

2) Ask questions. When it's time to pick out your options, ask lots of questions. Don't assume anything. Example: We were asked if we wanted to pre-wire our den for a ceiling fan. We said no. However, we weren't told that not adding the pre-wire meant we wouldn't get a light in that room. We fought it and got our light, but it would have been a lot easy if we'd asked earlier on.

3) Get a realtor. I know it sounds strange to have a realtor on home you're building, but it helps. Their fees are paid by the builder, so it doesn't cost you anything and it gives you an extra set of eyes for inspections and an extra voice when you need it.

4) Don't pack your financial records when you get ready to close. The day of closing, they asked for a bunch of stuff that thankfully was easily accessible, such as copied of the cancelled checks from the earnest money (the money you put down to reserve your lot), a current bank statement, etc.

5) Verify how they want the closing costs paid - i.e. cashier's check. This was dropped on us a few hours before closing. It would have made life easier to know a little earlier.

6) Visit your house - often. We caught several things by visiting every few weekends (such as a widow in a closet). I took lots of pictures which helped when we were trying to work with the builder on certain things, such as an outlet that they couldn't seem to get in the right place.

That's all I can think of, but if anyone is thinking of building and has questions, let me know!