8/19/15 - Two Quick Pics

Finally getting things settled in so I thought I'd post a teaser picture so everyone  see what we're working so hard on.  

8/16/15 - Two weeks In!

Sorry everyone for the lack of posts, between work and all the settling in I haven't had much time for anything else. It's pretty crazy to me that we've already been here two weeks, time really flies.  I wanted to make a post about where we're at with everything and what our impressions have been so far.  There will be a future update with pictures once we get a little more done, so check back for that a little while later.  

First things first, the progress we've made. 

We plan to pretty much paint the entire house so that's been the big priority at the beginning so we can get the paint down before everything is in the way.  So far we've painted (including the ceilings) the foyer, powder room, hallway, great room, morning room, master bedroom, master closet, laundry room, the kids playroom (basement exercise room) and the kids bedroom.  Next up is the office and then most likely the basement.  

More or less all of the furniture is setup in those rooms as well.  We've followed the paint, clean, then furnish approach.  We'd already purchased new furniture for some places so that was on hand and ready to go.   Setting up the kids play room was a ton of work between the video games and toy organization and all the other stuff, but we had family and friends over this weekend to celebrate his birthday so it was a pretty important priority to have that done in time. 

We've managed to unpack around 75% of our stuff too which has freed up the garage enough that I was finally able to park in it tonight, which makes me very happy.  The majority of the stuff still in boxes is either office/scrapbook room stuff which still isn't set up and clothes which will be gone through once the rest of our custom closet is finished.  We designed a very nice layout through easy closets and had Ryan leave out the wire shelves so once that's all done I'll do a short write up about that. 

We've also installed a lot of different things that we bought before closing, from the storm security door and window blinds and shades, different light fixtures and ceiling fans to different door knobs and hardware and the camera system.  Every day has been a long list of projects and we aren't even close to finished yet.  Once more is done I'll post a huge update with pictures and some write ups to show all our hard work off.  

And now the observations and realizations we've had in our first two weeks in our new Ryan home. 

Far and away the biggest thing here is the size of this house.  Coming from our townhouse which was 1250sqft of which 250+ sqft was the finished room over the garage that was my son's room we knew it was going to be an adjustment but we had no idea just how much of an adjustment it is.  From having everything on a single floor to now having the house spread over three floors it's so hard to get used to.  I know there are many of you that have even bigger houses and I'm sure in a year we won't feel like this, but for the three of us, the move from our townhouse to this 3400sqft house is just crazy.  We sit and talk about what we're going to do with all the space and I've yet to figure it out lol

Secondly I have to say that I'm impressed so far with how solid the house feels.  I think that's a big testament to our PM for the quality control, but the house feels very well put together. No squeaks rattles etc and no real complaints with fit and finish either.  I'm sure as it settles in things will come up, but so far so good 

Lastly I have to say that I seriously under estimated the amount of work it would take to get settled in here.  I knew it would be a challenge but man it has sure worn us out. 

Stay tuned for more to come.  Once we get some of the decorating done I'll get pictures up for everyone!

8/2/15 - 2 Days in and Tons Left to Do

Phew.  It's been a crazy couple of days.  Before I go any further I have to give huge thanks to my friends Sam, Meghan and Paul for helping us move yesterday. It was most definitely back breaking work and we couldn't have possibly done it without you guys.  

So the last couple of days have been a whirlwind.  For those that haven't been following along, my wife and I had crammed most of our worldly possessions into a 15x25 storage unit because we were subletting a small apartment to cover the time between selling our old house and closing on this one.  So for the last month and a half we've been living in about 900 sq/ft with only the bare necessities and not a lot else.  The storage unit was completely full and what wasn't able to fit was stuffed in the apartment along with our two beds, desk, sofa, and all the random stuff we'd bought for the new place. 

To give you an idea of what that looked like:

We closed on the house Friday and had to be completely moved out of the apartment by today and as an added constraint, our storage unit's rent renews Tuesday at $275 for another month so we really wanted to get everything out of there to avoid having to pay another months rent for it to sit empty.  Oh and did I mention that we planned to paint

A good bit of the house too?

So after renting a u-haul (which was a disaster) and calling in favors with some friends from work, we dove in.  The nice thing was that the storage unit was only a mile and a half from the new house so the many trips it took didn't take all that long.  The bad thing was it was very hot and the apartment was on the second floor and of course the house is three levels so it was grueling work. Oh yeah, did I mention we had to move our front load washer and dryer upstairs too? :(

As of tonight though, I'm happy to say that were all moved!  The apartment is clean and empty and so is the storage unit!

We are no where close to settled in and it will no doubt be a while before we are, but the hardest part is over with, it's all moved (and all in our garage lol)

I managed to get this whole upcoming week off of work so I plan to hopefully get a lot of the settling in completed.  We've already starting painting too, so stay tuned for the pictures that will be sure to follow!

8/1/14 - First Night in Our New Home!!

I'm far too tired to write anything meaningful here, but I wanted everyone to know that tonight will be our first night spent in our new home!!!