Bathroom update

Hi everyone!

So the new bowl for the bathroom was installed and that's a no go. They will be back next week to cut a hole in my master closet. The plumber said he has seen a problem with other RH that the vent is too short. So cutting the hole in the closet will allow him to view this and go from there. If that's the case, they want to connect that vent to the one with the master bathroom, so they can prevent going straight to the roof. I can appreciate this, I don't really want a hole cut in my roof during winter, or ever for that matter. Ongoing saga, but we love our plumber. His name is Randy, he's respectful that I work from home, nice to the dog and always takes time to just chat with us for a few moments. 

Have started decorating for the holidays! My mom will be out for thanksgiving but not Christmas, so I have 90% of Christmas decor up. Holy moly, we didn't have much and bought a ton, and it's still pretty sparse. Guess this will take years to gather over time. My husbands grand-dad always had a train set up in his basement, and now with our awesome new house, we have room! So he made a platform with train tracks on the perimeter and we are putting the Christmas tree in the middle! Will get pics once it's all complete, but so far it's just adorable.

*I'm gonna take two seconds to plug donating to the Salvation Army this season, so please ignore if you are offended. My grandfather was a prisoner of war in the Second World War. When he was released, he was put on a ship to come back to the U.S. On the ship was a Red Cross booth and a Salvation Army booth. The Red Cross booth had coffee and doughnuts, but they were for sale. Now, my grandfather was a prisoner for years, he had no money! So he went to the Salvation Army booth and they gave the POWs the money for coffee and a doughnut! He always told my mom to donate to the Salvation Army and she told me, and with modern technology, maybe I can help better a Vets life just by sharing the story to a larger audience.

Happy Holidays!

Fence and a few updates!

Hi everyone!

So clearly I am one of those really bad post build bloggers. I try to keep up and it just never works out! I guess better late than never...

Updates first! The leak from the morning room to the kitchen never came back. They came out and cut several holes in the drywall to see if there was any damage. There was none! So we didn't press to have it all replaced. The project supervisor was nice enough to do some extra holes in several spots to ease our mind there wasn't damage. They mudded and painted, can't even tell! While he was there, I showed him some of my beef with the finishing work- he agreed it was crap and they will fix it at the 10 month. He recommended to me that we make our drywall appointment before the 10 month inspection. That way, if anything was missed or not fixed to our satisfaction, they will fix it then. I really like this guy actually. He gives it to us straight and doesn't make promises he doesn't keep.

The bathroom. Ongoing still. We have a new toilet bowl sitting in the garage waiting to be installed. If this doesn't work, they start cutting holes in the wall. I'm not thrilled, but I want it fixed. So rip the whole bathroom out if that's what you gotta do! Again, the project supervisor told us this may take some time to fix, that's cool, as long as the end result is fixed and not "patched."

We are now going into the 5th week of not being able to park in our driveway or garage. Let me rephrase, our ENTIRE community cannot park in their driveway and we are all on the street, some for 3 weeks now and some of us for 5. They came through and ripped out all the aprons at the bottom of the driveway into the street and some of the curbs too. They replaced the curbs immediately, but the aprons have just been sitting there. So what a great time to go to an HOA meeting! I have to say, it was comical. At first I wanted to give the developer a bullet proof vest, but then he turned out to be quite... let's say smug (I'm being kind here). They went through and inspected what needs fixed before the final coat on the roads in preparation to turn the community over to the township and they felt the aprons and lots of curbs needed replaced. Hey, I like that they want it fixed and done right, but the time frame here is just not acceptable. We were originally told they do one side of the street and have that done in one week, then do the other- we were all dug up by week 3. Then they said it would be fixed by Halloween. Now it's next week. I'm clearly not holding my breath here. This is a developer issue, not a RH issue. But fun stuff I was absolutely CLUELESS about when I decided to build a home. The amount of money spent to fix things after the fact is insane!

OK, a few pics, nothing major. I love how our house looks with a fence. Pics aren't great, just used my phone and not my husbands camera.

Front of house with the fence, and much of it cut off, but you get the jist. I feel like we look comfy now. I want to put in at least one more flower bed. The combo of the flower bed and fence, it just makes us look a little "different" than all the other houses. Our community is Florence heavy since that is the model here, so I need to stand out a bit :)

The deck steps. Turned out great. We want to put a some type of trellis up there and something pretty that climbs without taking over. I'm thinking morning glory. Any suggestions?

This is the right hand side of the yard if you were looking from the street. Once it was all fenced in, we have so much more than we thought! Couldn't even get it all in the pic, the one corner goes way out.

 And this is the back. Again, more than we thought! There is still about 25 feet behind of woods that is our property. Continuing to work to clear out the vines and we will be planting some things to attract birds next year. It's a little bird sanctuary back there, they love it! Will be planting some veggie gardens about where I'm standing too.

 Here is a pic of the family room. We got new end tables, sofa table and TV stand. We had black before and it made the room WAY too dark. Liking the new look! End tables made out of old wine barrels, they are really cool! We found a place that has reclaimed barn beams down the road, we are really thinking of getting those and putting them in here. What do you think?

And Cassidy! Think she likes her Halloween costume? She has this look of complete humiliation and despair on her face. When we took it off the first time, she didn't "talk" to us for like an hour. But she warmed up to it and the neighborhood kids thought she was adorable.

So, I know I may be early to start asking about this, but please post pics of Christmas decor! I never had a good spot to decorate, just bought some Merry Christmas stuff and called it a day. Very excited to dress up my home with Christmas stuff!