Special Thanks and Pics

My Ryan Homes experience has been full of ups and downs, but now that we’ve been in our house for over a year, I want to thank some of the people who really did an amazing job!  I’ve also added a few updated pics of what we’ve done in the house.  Enjoy!

First, our sales rep.  Chad was awesome!  He made the beginning of our RH experience very enjoyable and exciting.  He was patient and willing to work with us as first time builders.  He always answered emails, phone calls, texts, whatever.  He never tried to pressure us into anything.  He was always honest and up front with everything.  I can say without a doubt that if I were to call Chad today with a question, he would do anything he could to help us out.   If I could give Chad more than 10s on his survey, he 100% earned them.    If you are in the Richmond, VA area…..find Chad….he is the BEST!

Next up.  MIKE P!  I cannot say enough good things about my service manager and his assistant John.  I know they are so glad that we are out of our 1-year warranty, lol.   Mike is seriously one of the kindest and patient people I have ever met.  When we would be extremely upset, he would make sure he could do everything to ease our frustration.  I don’t know other SM’s, but I can say that Mike is one of the best Ryan Homes has to offer.   He is the #1 example of what a service manager should be.  He seriously goes above and beyond and we are truly thankful that he was who we worked with in our community.  John is one of the hardest working men!  I know that’s his job, but he did great work in our home.  I greatly appreciate being able to work with both of them. 

 

Here are some pictures….I feel like I haven’t posted any in a while.  I'm so excited we will be painting soon!  I can't wait to get rid of these flat paint walls.

Living room

 

 

Dining room

 

Family room

 

Loft/play room

 

 

My little DIY chalk board project!

 

30 days in.....

We had our 30 day inspection and overall I'm very pleased.  We had a very long list of things that needed to be addressed....some of which were on our list of things before closing. 

The carpet in our bedroom needed some work.  We could see the carpet pad at the edge of the carpet.  This was fixed today and looks much better.

The rails to our steps were replaced today.  We had a mini walk-thru before our official new home orientation.  During this time we noticed our rails were not the correct color.  They attempted to re-stain them and they just did not look good.  I'm very happy that our PM suggested that they be replaced.  They look wonderful now!

There was a hump in the landing at the top of the stairs.  They had the framers come back to repair this.  This was a very loud repair, lol. 

Our microwave has been a collector of drywall dust.  I'm positive that I've cleaned the microwave more than any other item in this house.  Every time we open it, there is dust.  I clean it and more dust.  So today they took out the microwave and found dust on top of it.  They cleaned it off and vacuumed behind the microwave and hopefully we won't have any more dust.

We had the crown moulding on one of our cabinets repaired.  During this, we discovered a hole.  Not too happy about that, but it was covered with the moulding.  I just think that some sort of patching should have happened before the moulding was put on, but that's just my opinion.   It was patched today so we are happy.

There were some other minor things like trim and paint and a tiny piece of tile, but nothing else major. 

In a couple of weeks there will be some more repairs.....

We have a crack in one of our cabinets.  Nothing huge, but its a crack.  Our PM has to order the cabinet and it will be installed along with the other repairs.

Our back yard looks pretty bad.  I know that Ryan isn't going to seed our entire lot, but we currently have nothing but mud and rocks.  Our PM is going to have the landscaper come back and rake the lot and put down new seed.  Hopefully we will have some grass in the upcoming weeks.

The exterior will be taken care of....it definitely needs some TLC.   There will be some painting and caulking and power washing.  It will definitely look nice when they are done.  The winter weather is to blame for this!

Overall our 30 day went well.  Our PM addressed every.single.item we pointed out.  He answered every question and we are very pleased with all the repairs.  I love our house!

Now for the fun stuff.  I'm definitely happy with the progress of our house.  We are down to very few boxes and are getting settled in quite nicely.   Hopefully we will get some curtains up soon!  We are trying to use a lot of the things we already had.  Of course I've purchased some new items and will purchase more at some point, but I'm trying to be thrifty.  We have a lot more space to decorate and we are on a budget.  I'm trying really hard to do one room at a time, but it's not working out so well for me, lol.  Here are some progress pictures....from my cell phone.

Dining room

 

Living room

Daughters room

 

Master Bedroom

 

Son's Bedroom

 

Kids bathroom

 

 

 

My picture wall....I'm very proud of this!

 

 

 

One room down!

We are slowly getting settled in our house!  I am so happy to have more space.  I keep trying to remind myself to take it one room at a time, but I've been all over the place, lol.

We have all of our blinds up.  I can't live without blinds....don't want people looking inside of our house.  We also had ceiling fans and lights put in all the rooms.  Ceiling fans went in the family room and our master.  The other bedrooms got simple flush mounts and the morning room got a "chandelier".  Here are a few pictures.

morning room

Fan in family room

Other bedrooms

We also have one room that I can check of the list.....the powder room, lol!  It's small and didn't take much to decorate.  I stuck with neutral stuff since we will paint it at some point.  Everything came from Target except for the scroll art work which came from Pier-1. 

We have also purchased some new rugs which I really love.  They also came from Target when they had a rug sale a few weeks ago.

I have such love for Etsy.  They have some really nice and unique things that you can't find at regular stores.  Since being in our house we have had a solicitor....which I really dislike.  I know its a new neighborhood and we will have them, so I went ahead and purchased a nice little sign in hopes that they will stay away.   I also love to have things in my house that have meaning.  So I also purchased a little something as a keepsake for our new house.   Here are some pictures from the Etsy shops.

We have a meeting with our PM tomorrow morning. to go over some things we want fixed in the house.....I'll go into more detail after our meeting.  Let's just hope it's a good meeting.

First "Big" Purchase!

Farm tables seem to be all the craze nowadays!  I love the way they look.  There are so many styles and I love them all.  I have been searching all over for a table that wouldn't break the bank.  I've looked in furniture stores, thrift stores, Facebook, Craigslist, and so many other local places.  I've talked to several people about making a custom table and trying to find out an option that works for my family.  With 2 young kids, I needed something durable and practical.  

Well last night I was looking on Craigslist and I think I hit the jackpot!  I found this table and chair set for *drum roll*  $110!!!  Yes, an all wood table and 6 chairs for $110!!  My hubby was skeptical, so we went to check it out today and we are now proud owners of our very own farm table and chairs!   While we were loading up the table and chairs, the couple that sold it to us said that they had a lot of interest in the table and that they priced it too low.  I agree it was a steal, but I'm super happy I found it!

Here is our wonderful purchase!

I think this might be one of my first DIY projects....or I might be getting someone to refinish it for me.  It needs a little TLC, but the previous owners definitely took great care of it.  I want to keep it white, but would like the natural wood color to be a little darker.  I'm in no rush to make this happen.  It will just be added to my long list of "to-do's" for the house.

Here are some of my inspiration pictures that I found on Pinterest.  I would love to get a bench, but the chairs will do for now.