Water Deduction and extra info....

We finally received the Water bill deduction!  It was $124 which was an amazing Christmas Gift.  Our bill for two months is now $33.75.  Wooohoo.  So for those who were hesitant about having the bill adjusted. Go ahead and try for it!  What do you have to lose?  I will warn you though.  It is a pain and you have to call a few times.  

FYI on Dehumidifiers.....

We were gifted a dehumidifier from our PM at closing since we have a basement.  Friday I had Ryan homes contractors out fixing the baseboard issue I spoke about earlier.  The gentlemen unplugged our dehumidifier and said to make sure it wasn't one that was recently recalled for catching fire.  THANKFULLY, our model was not recalled.  But I just wanted to give everyone a heads up who recently may have purchased one.  There were tons of them on the list.  So be sure to check it out.  

That is all I have for now! I hope you all enjoy you're Thanksgiving Holiday!

Baseboards...

Just wondered if anyone else has noticed this. Our baseboards at the seam where they meet are separating. I am sure with the settling of the house.  It really is an eye sore in some areas though.  Is this something I should bring up to my PM at the 10 month inspection?  Or is this something to be expected in general?

Also, the trim around my entry door from my garage has a lot of defects and the door seems too as well.  The paint job actually seems to make it worse.  Is this something you would deal with or have them fix?  Sometimes I over react so I want to make sure.  Please be honest HA!  Our garage door is missing paint in several areas from where it has peeled and chipped.  I just feel like after 3 months it should still look "new."

:) Thanks for your help in advance!

Hello Energy Efficient Home and Trees!

Really loving the energy efficiency of our home.  The gas bill was so low this month!  We ran the heat basically all month.  Our gas bill was about $27 and we are on budget bill so I actually pay $37.  Also, our electric bill was so much lower.  I do however wish I could say that about our water bill.  It is averaging about $70/mo.  We really aren't home enough to justify what much.  Our Sewer is actually more expensive than the water portion.  Our last home our water bill averaged $107 quarterly and for bi-monthly here it is $150 this month.  Crazy.

I am getting anxious to decorate for the holidays.  I think I may decorate early!  I have been doing some crafty burlap wreaths for the holidays.  I posted my first creation on my facebook and ended up having people wanting to order them!  So now I have yet another side business to add to my 10000 other things going on.

We had some random purchases this weekend.  On Friday a gentlemen came by our door selling peep holes.  If you have the door like ours it has a window at the top.  But really there is no way to see who is there unless you look through the window.  That was the quickest sale I have ever been apart of.  He told me about it.  I turned away to answer my sons question and he was already drilling! AHH  needless to say it is a convenience to have that nifty hole there to see who is knocking.  But now I see how he makes his money.  Lastly, our back yard came with no trees or plants.  Our neighbors have been planting which prompted us to look as well.  My husband was doing some yard work and a gentlemen rolled up to our house with a truck bed full of trees!  So now we have a Red Maple and Red Bud Tree in our back yard. The Red Bud they placed by our morning room so hopefully it will be pretty to see in the spring time.

I hope you all are enjoying your homes.  I really love reading all of your posts.  Sorry I don't leave as many messages.  A lot of times I check my blog while I am on break at work.  So responses don't happen as easily.  Hope you all have a wonderful week!

The Red Bud we planted by our morning room window.

The Red Maple near our property line

Energy Efficient

Last month we were able to go without using air a few days.  Also, we signed up for the energy savings program.  All in all we saved almost $100.  At least $50 of it was due to the energy savings program.  I am super excited for the coming winter months.  These bills are much better than what we had in our previous home which was a ranch.  Now we are cooling/heating 3 levels and still manage to have a smaller bill.

We don't really have any hiccups to report.  Other than our garage outlets don't work.  I also noticed a punctured spot in the garage door from the inside.  I am not sure if it is from pre-move or post.  It's more of a cosmetic thing but it does bother me.

Our development is moving quickly.  Our street is almost complete.  Which is really exciting.  My car is always covered in dirt.  One other thing I noticed.  Our home faces away from the sun so it is much harder to keep plants alive. HA! My poor mums are struggling.  I love the fall and all the decorations.

Hope you all are enjoying your new home.  If your building I hope your process is going smoothly.

Until next time....have a great week!

New Homes need yummy smells...

Just wanted to share with all of my new home owner friends.  I am a consultant with Gold Canyon Candles.  As my new neighbors have been moving in.  I have been giving them a mini candle or tealights.  We have a scent called "Warm Welcome."  Which fits the situation perfectly.  But I have also been giving Pumpkin Patch.  Which is the scent of the month for October.  You receive 10% off anything Pumpkin Patch.  Large, Medium, Small, Mini Candles, Tealights, and scent pods for your warmer.

Large Candle 200 hours of burn time 19.57

Medium Candle 140 hours of burn life 15.08

Small Candle 65 hours of burn life 11.48

Mini Candle 30 hrs of burn life 7.88

Tealights (these are large tealights) 20 hours of burn time each 8.08

Scent Pod (warmers) 20 hours of burn life 5.38

Burn life means the life of the scent and the wax.  It burns ALL of the wax and the scent lasts until the wax is burned out.  

Perfect gifts for new Neighbors :)

IF you need extra cash or just love candles shoot me a message and ask me how to join in this exciting adventure.  And earn a FREE all paid vacation.

sperkins0306@gmail.com

Click Here  to visit my webpage and browse our scents and specials

Virtual Catalog  click here to view the Fall Catalog

Coyotes and yard...

Good Morning All-

The last couple of nights I have been awoken by howling and barking/yapping.  It does not sound like a house pet either.  At one point I heard a horrible screech.  I am thinking we have coyotes since we back up to a field.  Last night was the worst.  Our "Doodle" had her head in the window growling.  I really hope once they they build up behind us.  It pushes them back.  We have a small shitzhu as well.  I worry for her being outside at night if those are roaming around.

As for the yard fiasco.  I am not sure if I touched base on it too much.  I advise everyone to make sure your land is correctly graded and fully utilized.  After we moved in we noticed that our yard seem smaller than what we were thinking.  We had some taller grass and water setting areas behind our house.  My husband went back and walked through that tall area and seen our property line markers.  Which were not included in the grading and seeded areas.  There was about 5 extra feet missing.  Being that we have two pets and want to install an invisible fence. We would like to utilize this space.  I pointed this out at our 30 day.  And they said when the homes under construction next to us get graded they would do ours.  After about 30 more days the homes were finally at that stage.  Well guess what............they graded ours but left it a dirt pile?!?! Really?  I even asked if that would be seeded since it should have been from the beginning.  I emailed the PM this weekend about it.  The neighbors already have grass peeking through.  He says they will take care of it this week.  I sure hope so because my dogs and kids are really wanting their fence and play set.  I don't want to install something that could be ripped up.

After that is finished we are golden until our 10 month!  Here is to hoping for no more hiccups =)

More Pictures...

Here are a few photos in panorama view from my iphone.  So some of the rooms make look squeezed together :)

First things though....we have had some crazy spiders around us!  I think due to the dirt and construction.  I found one in my basement last night!  I am thinking because the last week I have had the windows open enjoying the cool weather.  They may have snuck in.  We will be spraying today and the windows will be closed. ICK

Basement-- as you can see I still have a lot to do :)  Our TV is mounted on the wall though.  It is not in view.  Behind me, in the unfinished portion, is the laundry room.

This is the front room when you come in the main entry.  We made this a study/sitting area.  In the main floor plan they have it as a dining room.

This view is standing in the morning room/dining into the kitchen.  The accent wall is called "Peppery"  I can't take credit for my color combos.  I took them from a sherwin williams magazine.

Another from the morning room. 

This is standing in our main living area towards the kitchen.

Our main floor living room

Our main level living.  Our dogs even have their own sitting space ;)

This is looking at the stairwell to the front door.  The stairwell/ front room wall is also a grey accent wall.

Our Master Bedroom Still working on it!

Another view of the master

The hallway upstairs--I am standing in my daughters bedroom to take this picture.  So in total we have 4 bedrooms upstairs.  You can see my goldendoodle too :)

So there it is! Still working and have many things to complete and decorate.  I haven't even started on our guest bedroom. All I know is I am in big trouble when the new HOMEGOODS opens :)

SOD adjustment

I completly forgot to add!  For those of you watering the heck out of your yard.  We just got our first water bill.  We are billed every two months.  Our bill was $225 for water and sewer.  Which is HIGH to me.  I was dreading this bill.  Inquire with your water department about a SOD adjustment.  Our water company said that our county will give adjustments for new built homes who need to water their grounds for obvious new landscaping.  We are waiting for them to get back to us on the adjustment amount.  I just wanted to share :)

Life in the fast lane....

Wow.....I have been really wanting to be  blogging away lately.  Yet, I have been busy with starting a new job and the kids starting school.  Then to throw in our new home and organizing.  What a crazy hectic life.  Yet, I wouldn't change it for the world.

We finally had our 30 day inspection.  After two visits from the gentlemen doing the repairs everything is done until our 10 month.  Our list consisted of these items:

Master bathroom toilet made a horrible sound everytime it flushed (this took two times to fix)
Trim piece by the sliding glass door needed replaced.  It looked like they used beavers to cut it to size.
Our front door flooring trim piece was scratched up horribly.  So they replaced this.
The hall bath upstairs had not been sanded behind the toilet when they installed everything.  It was a mess.
Our master closet had a light moved.  So when they patched the hole it was not painted.
Stain was spilled in our hallway upstairs.  After two attempts it came out! Whew.  We were so worried we would have to replace it.
Settlement on the side of our home--We are still waiting for them to level out our 5 remaining feet of property/land.  They managed to forget!  Our dogs would not be happy if we shorted their invisible fencing :)

Really these were all minor things.  My poor neighbors dishwasher had been down for almost a month!!! Every time they tried to fix it they had the wrong part, wrong color of machine, or it didn't arrive.  I can breathe easily and say I could survive with the other things.  But not without my dishwasher HA!

Our street is really booming.  We picked a great lot and I am so happy.  Our house is on the end of our "section."  So beside us we have the much larger homes!  Which are so pretty, but the way we face our views are phenomenal and no one is in front or behind.  And no one will be in front or behind of us.  This is because it is breaking into the other development section.  Another cool thing we found out.  Our neighbors have quintuplets who are all the same age as my daughter! Plus they are all girls.  They also have two boys for my son.  Our yards back up to each other so it will be a backyard block party all the time.

I know I had mentioned I would post pictures.  I only have two for today!  One is of the new rug I got at Kohls for our dining room and the other of the picture wall I did in our basement.  I literally have only hung photos in our basement, bought two couches and mounted our tv.  I need to do so much more!  One step at a time....

Enjoy and hope you all have a fabulous week.  Also, fall season is here.  Check out my candle website to order some yummy scents for your homes.  I have been warming scents with my windows open.  I love hearing people walk by our home and say, "MMMMM something smells so good."  Plus their inexpensive.

www.savannaperkins.mygc.com

Energy Savings---and still waiting for 30 day inspections!

Energy Saving Program!

For those of you already in your beautiful homes and receiving an energy bill.  My husband and I were referred by our neighbor to this program. You basically at no cost can lock your KWH rate for as long as 12 months.  In our case our electric company was charging 9.7 KWH.  We were able to lock for 12 months at 6.29.  Which is a savings of 30-50/mo!  If you are interested visit this website and check your local rates :)

http://mbsy.co/chooseenergy/336947


Update on our home:

We are supposed to have our 30 day inspections this Friday.  Which is actually 45 days!!!  I had to email a few times about this.  Also, I did fill out my survey about our experience.  I didn't give all 10's.  I had a few 8's and 9's.  Only in areas with workmanship and carpet quality.  On our PM in communication I gave a 9 and listed beside in commentary.  That he was overall fabulous! Yet, I think they need someone to assist the PM's after closing with follow up inspection issues.  They have way too many other things going on!!!

Overall, I am still in love with our home.  It is so surreal to say my husband and I are home owners of a new space.  Getting back in the swing of bills though since we went 5 months without a house payment is not fun!! HAHA


Pictures soon I promise!

Ahhh craziness and our first electric bill!

So here we are almost 30 days into our new home adventure.  Things are going pretty smooth.  The major hiccups are over and we are now trying to settle in.  I am the type of person who has to be completely decorated and done the first week of move in. But since we came from a smaller house to a larger house that means more space to fill! The Interior painting and wallpaper is done.  Along with most of the rooms.  Now it's on to the crafting and building.  I have come to the realization though that I need to pace myself haha!! Especially with the holidays around the corner.  It will all come with time.

We are still waiting to hear about our 30 day inspection.  Only a few things need attention.  Major ones would be a carpet replacement in the hallway.  Someone spilled stain and tried to clean it but did not do a good job.  And some trim for our flooring needs replaced due to Scratches and chips.  We have had a few nail pops but are waitig until the 10 month inspection.  Nothing too hateful.

I can say one thing I am a little disappointed about...our electric bill came this month.  It was double what we thought it would be.  It was $124 which we were told by Ryan it would be like 60-80! We have about 2700 sq ft of living space.  Compared to our other house that is pretty decent. Yet,  I kind of wish those numbers weren't shared with us.  Now I feel like we are over paying! Lol.  

Also, for all my scent and candle lovers.  I am obsessed with my home smelling delish.  Especially since we have two dogs.  I love it when people come in and the first thing they say is. Wow it smells amazing! If you are like me check out my website.  I am a consultant with Gold Canyon Candles.  They are made with food and vegetable based wax and have longer burn life and scent life than other popular candles.  We also carry Warmers or scent brix to melt in the Warmers.  I have allergies to certain candles and gold canyon is the only one I can use because of the type of wax.  I currently have an open party so take advantage of the direct shipping at a lessor cost! Feel free to ask me about my recommended scents.  Www.savannaperkins.mygc.com

Also,  for those who have asked......we did receive our incentive even though we used an outside company!!!  We fought tooth and nail but ended up getting it.  I know of others in our community as well who got it!!!

I promise to post pictures this week!

It has been over a week!

Whew!!!!!!!!! So I have been MIA!!! So much has happened since we closed on the 17th.  The painters managed to paint our whole house in 12 hours! We hired a moving crew to move us from storage to home.  Which took a total of 3 hours! Wow totally worth the money. Plus my in laws paid towards the move as our house warming gift so that helped immensely.  Everything was moving along perfectly until......our previous living room furniture was delivered. Mind you I based my paint colors off of our furniture.  I bought a new sectional from Ashley for upstairs and we were placing our couch love seat and recliner we just purchased last year in the basement.  News flash to us that our basement door was only 29 inches wide!!!!!!!!!! Our couch is 34 inches wide and 32 inches high.  No maneuvering what so ever! So as of now we are selling our couches to purchase something that will actually fit down the stairs.  Ughhhhh

After getting situated Saturday we started to hear a humming noise that had been going the whole time we were moving.  At first we thought it was the a/c.  After some investigation we found the culprit!!!  Our door bell had a short and was giving off serious heat.  In order to shut it off we had to shut the breaker off to the front room.  We contacted our PM and he scheduled the electrician.  Unfortunately, we couldn't use that front room at night or our powder room since the breaker was off for almost a week.  

Next order of business.  If you have a basement get a dehumidifier right away!!!!!!  Our PM had told us he was purchasing us one as a gift so we held off waiting.  Well it took about a week and they dropped it by.  Since we don't have furniture downstairs we really hadn't been down there.  Well shock of our life we go down to show our basement Find green mold/mildew on the baseboards!  I had to take a moment and breathe without freaking out on someone.  Our PM came over right away Monday morning and said it was a surface mold which is good.  It's caused by moisture and grows when there is no air flow.  Since we had the house painted and closed the door it caused the growth.  A little Clorox wipes and a dehumidifier did the trick.  I am so thankful for our PM and SR because they have really helped us with several things since closing.  We have had a few other issues not worth mentioning but they all have been resolved.  

Our neighbors are all so nice.  They always wave and say hello.  I am waiting for our pool key to arrive so we can take advantage of the clubhouse and meet more people.  I will attach some photos of that we have so far interior wise.  This week our blinds should be installed and we have invisible fence coming out to quote for our dog fence.  Since closing we have painted hung some photos.  And today the wallpaper installers came and finished our accent walls and bathrooms.   Thanks to my mom for the fabulous gift of wallpaper and the installation!! I love everything about my home so far. :)

Accent gray and main walls are green

Peppery (red/orange) accent in morning room

Fresh paint

The other accent wall

Movers :) aka my sister and her boyfriend 

My new sectional and the couch we have to sell lol

My son loving his room.  And having all his toys back!  His room is a blue :)

My first morning k-cup :)

Breakfast time :)

Some of my art selections 

Morning room

Main living area coming along...

Kitchen

Another view...

My daughters room and her accent wallpaper wall...I love!

So cute!

She picked her colors

My powder room wallpaper. It is a shimmer pattern.  So pretty! I love animal print

Our master bath.  The wall paper is coral! It is sooooo pretty In person. 

We are still working on other rooms so I will be sure to post =]

WE CLOSED!!

Yesterday, at 3 pm we finally started signing papers for closing.  After 100000000 documents we are officially the owner of our home!! The exciting news for us is that Chase will actually be servicing our loan.  Which we bank with them so that put me at ease.  So thankful we were able to lock at 3.375 and receive the lender credit.

We basically found out the evening before what our amount to bring with us to closing would be.  It was $300 less than they estimated since we found a cheaper homeowners insurance.  Well sure enough 4 hours before closing the title company received a call from Ryan homes saying they noticed a $200 required survey fee was not included in the FEES!! So the title company searched the contract and found wayyyyy in the back a small section that says a $200 land survey is required.  Which our bank does not require that since you pass all other certifications.  So sure enough we had to bring more money to the table for closing.  It was still $100 less.  But a survey fee is kind of annoying if you ask me!

We took the kids last night for the first time since they seen the framing of the home.  They were so ecstatic running around screaming and flipping through the house.  My 3 year old and the stairs will be very interesting.  He already is acting like the HULK jumping off of the 4th step.  The basement has become his wrestling zone. 

The painters arrive this evening to start painting and hope to be done by tomorrow evening.  The interior design lady will arrive Friday to measure the rooms we are doing the accent wallpaper walls in. We have the moving crew set for Saturday.  Along with the cable company arriving on Saturday evening.  Things are starting to move along.  I will post pictures of our accomplisments after this weekend.

Tomorrow is the day!

Today we had our pre-settlement walk thru!  It was absolutely amazing and almost a tease.  I can't believe how fast everything has went these last few months.  I am so thankful for our families who have really went above and beyond letting us stay with them.  Our closing is set for tomorrow at 3pm!  As most of you know we went with an outside lender and we were able to lock our rate at 3.375!  We also received a lender credit of 1.7 which almost picked up all of our closing besides our HOA fees!  We still haven't heard what our exact number was to bring to closing.  So hopefully today we will get something.

Our walk thru was  fairly simple.  Our PM had already went through and marked the walls with blue tape.  When we went through we only noticed two other places that needed a touch up.  I am in love with our appliances.  We chose the black.  Which really look nice with our kitchen cabinet selection.

I took a picture this morning...the sun was so bright you really can't see the pretty shutter color.  More pictures to come tomorrow.  We are handing the keys over to our painter in the evening tomorrow so they can start our paint!

Quick Note-  Make sure to shop around for homeowners insurance! We got a great deal with our Friend through Meridian Insurance.  Our yearly premium is $300!! Which is $25/mo.  We originally had $45.  We compared the deductibles and coverage and they all were the same if not better. It's also a great way to save on the house payment!  We did have to combine our Auto insurance to get this deal.  But we were still saving tons.  Our previous car insurance was through USAA.

Best piece of advice I have on this whole is experience is to shop rates and never settle for something because you think you got the best deal.  Sometimes investigation and a little bit of research can go a long way.  We have really enjoyed our experience and would do it again!

Green grass grows all around...

And our house is now ready for walk thru!

5 days away!! Tomorrow is Appraisal day!

So here we are 5 days away!! Wednesday we had some strong storms that slowed our siding landscaping work. My PM told our loan officer that he would have everything completed by Thursday night for the Appraiser to come in the morning Friday.  I was really getting nervous since Wednesday we barely had siding.  Not to mention our yard/mud/rock pit had no leveling what so ever.  So my husband went by today at 2pm and sent me this...

We have our shutters and siding!!!

Around 5pm our PM called and informed me that our landscaping was in place.  Our siding and shutters were complete.  Now we were waiting for sod to arrive this evening and it would all be set tonight!! Wow!!! One day can make a huge difference.  I went by at 6.  Still no SOD but I did see our landscaping and seeding in the backyard. 

It is hard to tell but our shutters are an eggplant color and our door is called marooned.  They both have a deep purple hue.  Reminds me of wine :) I really love all the colors we picked!