Well its been a few months since we posted and a lot has happened.
Double mortgage free - we closed on the old house about a month ago. What a wonderful feeling that was. The closing went well and the new homeowner was a nice young man that we know will take good care of the house for many years to come. Maybe he will be as lucky as us ... and meet his future partner and start a family. Also, he is a cop...so we hope he continues the fight with the neighbors to clean up their yard/houses.
Driveway - This past week RH stopped by to put the final top coat on the driveway. We looked into extending the driveway (20x20 area), which would allow for additional parking. However, they wanted an additional $3500...we said no way. That was highway robbery. We plan to eventually put in a concrete driveway and we will extend it at that time.
Landscaping/Grading - We submitted a service request for the poor landscaping/grading. Finally, we had someone stop by this week. We have several swampy areas and grading issues that is causing standing water. All of these issues that RH and the Project Mgr were well aware of in the Fall prior to closing, but we were told they would handled it in the Spring. Also, a lot of settlement around the house where they will need to come in to add additional soil. We expressed our disappointment with the quality of the grass seed, but were given the standard ... this is part of the basic landscaping package. They did agree to come out to add seed to the areas where the grass didn't take. However, they said since this is the busy time of year, they couldn't guarantee a when. I suggested by mid-June; he said it is unlikely. This makes me very angry because we are holding off on planting additional flower/shrubs in the beds until they provide additional topsoil/mulch.
2 of the street trees that were provided/planted by the township are not doing well either...RH told us that we have to take up the issue with the township. We plan to talk to other neighbors who seem to be having the same problem with the street trees to see if we can go to the township together.
We haven't started painting because we have been so focused on trying to get the outside work done. The weather has been so nice that we couldn't pass up spending the time in the yard. However, we just recently found out that we are expecting our 2nd child (due Nov 21st), so we have to at least address painting the bedrooms. The plan is to create a Tinkerbell fairyland room for our daughter in what is currently the guest room. Once she is transitioned, we plan to make her old room the nursery and the playroom will become the new guest room. The playroom is being transitioned into to the finished basement. After all of that, we will focus on the Master bedroom/bathroom.
So much to do...so little time. Until next time, happy building...happy living.
