Five days late and counting

They did not complete the house within schedule so the question now is how late are they going to be. We have extended our financing out until 9/20 in hopes that they can finish it by then. Yesterday we signed the papers to make it ours now the only thing that needs to be complete is the house. We are completely done with everything on our part. Now the waiting game starts.

This past weekend we went to check on the progress. It seemed like no work had been done on our house in about two weeks and there was no way they were actually going to get to the house done by the 10^th. Nothing had changed when we went out there but we saw work being done on a house that was purchased after ours and it looked like it could be completed before ours. I was mad and I think D was too. I was so mad that when we left our development I was talking to D about having a real estate attorney look at the contract and find a way out and get our money back. We even stopped to look at other new construction homes in Maple Valley. Looking back, we over reacted a little but we were angry and upset and not getting a reason for the delay. All we wanted was an answer to why we were being pushed out instead of not knowing and being pushed out 3 times. The good news (maybe great news) is that when we were looking at the other homes nothing came close to ours. That could be that we are in love with it but I was so angry that I really wanted to just walk away so maybe it is but that much better. After that we stayed away for the rest of the three day weekend. We thought there was no way they were going to be working on the holiday.

We were wrong! On our way out to the house after the signing I got a message from one of my new neighbors. We had been venting to each other about the lack of progress on our houses in the past two weeks when she mentioned that they were working on painting it yesterday (labor day). I was beyond excited. The thought crossed my mind that they might actually finish it on time, at least the new on time! When we got there sure enough it had been painted and they were working on the outside trim work! The house looked amazing and we were super excited. The best part was that as we were showing up the crew was going to lunch and the foreman let I go inside and look at the progress. No much had been done, if anything but he told us what happened and that he was doing his best to meet the new completion date of 9/10 but it was going to be tight. We thanked him for being honest and doing such a great job on the house. He also said that the concrete was going to be laid tomorrow (today) and they were going to be painting all the inside trim work tomorrow too!

 What happened you ask? The builder promised 10 homes to be completed in August. This was a very unrealistic number considering they had only completed a max of three any other month. He also said that some contractors were not keeping their dates which added to the problem. They actually completed 8 out of the 10 homes which is not bad in my opinion. The 9^th will be complete today and the 10^th ours will be done early next week!! See how far a little honesty get you? Two very happy people! The worst part is the listing agent emailed us saying that the date may be pushed out because the exterior part took longer than they expected. Really? Not less than 3 hours ago we talked to the foreman and he told us the plan. I wish she would have just been honest with me! I am really starting to not like her! Hopefully in a week from today we will be or have done our walk through and be getting out key by the end of next week!!!

In other news, we got a puppy. Yes, I know that I am crazy but she was perfect and perfect for our family. She loves both the boys, maybe T more than A but loves them both. She is doing great on potty training and gets along with the other animals, well except Shelby but Shelby will just have to get over herself. The best part about the puppy is she had convinced T to start potty training. It started with us taking he out to go potty and T asking if he could go outside too. Of course we said yes and he started trying to go every time we took her out!! I was so exciting. Over the three day weekend we really pushed it. I put him in big boy underwear and he only had a couple of accidents. When we would put him in a pull-up (only because we were going out) we would tell him Lighting McQueeen will get sad if he loses his number (or tire if that was the dry indicator) and he kept it dry! I was amazed. Last night, day 4 of potty training T finally started telling me he had to go and would actually go when I took him to the bathroom. The BEST moment of the four day weekend was when A woke up and I had to go to his room to calm him down, when I came out T was in the bathroom sitting on the potty going potty all by himself. I don’t think I could have been prouder than at that moment. My baby is growing up.

MIL came home from being on vacation for a week and was her normal self. You would think that being away for so long you would at least come back somewhat relaxed but no not her. Maybe it was the puppy but whatever, FIL says that it is fine and that is all that matters to me. She was not even back 3 hours and she already irritated D and I. T asked for milk, we are trying to get him back on cow’s milk so there was no soy milk in the fridge so Mil asked me where his milk was. I said “ he is drinking what A is drinking, but he does not need any milk right now”. You would think that would be the end of the story, right? Nope, she goes out to find D and ask him if what I said is true. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I am his mother of course what I say is true. D of course backed me up and told him that I am his mother and what I say goes. I expect a 2 year old to shop for answers but a 56 year old, no way. I think the real problem is I have started cooking “clean” and she does not think it is healthy or something because she keeps going to the store and buying “crap” and trying to feed it to D and the boys. Whatever. As soon as me move she will not be able to do that anymore.

Last but not least, today is T’s first day of Montessori School. I can’t believe that my baby is starting school. I packed his lunch and got him supper excited to go. I am glad D is the one taking him because I just want to cry. Where did my 5lbs11oz baby boy go? Let’s hope today goes well for him!!

Stress

I am at stress overload. The house closing date has been pushed out twice. Once to September 7^th and now again to September 14^th ish. It is so frustrating. I have been living by the date of August and now it is not going to happen. It is like someone took something away from me and I just can’t shake it to get over it. I really want my own home again. I am sick of this whole living situation and need my space.

To top it off my MIL has been promising to take T with her to the cabin over the holiday weekend. Then she changed it to the weekend before and then yesterday she said that she did not think it was fair to make him take that car ride for one day. So he is not going. I feel so bad for him. I don’t understand how you bring something up to a two year old and then just say never mind and expect them not to be disappointment. I guess that is something I have to deal with and not her so it is no sweat off her back. Irritating. My mom would give anything to get a weekend with the boys and it is an inconvenience for her to take one for a weekend. Whatever.

Finally, the stick in the mud is my father is in the hospital. I have mixed feelings about it. He has not given two $hit$ about me or the boys in years so why should I care but on the other hand he is my father. Maybe him being in there he will finally get the help that he needs because he can’t seem to accept it any other way. Oh well, there is nothing I can do from 1200 miles away.

Typing that all out does not make it sound all that bad. What’s a two week slide on the house in the whole scope of things? And her not taking T, we will do something special with him and he will forget that she ever said anything to him. And my father, whatever happens there will be for the best. He has made the choice to be the way he is and I can’t change that, if something happens he made that choice because he is selfish and no longer the man that was my dad. Now if I can only keep reminding myself of that everything will be great.

Optimism VS Pessimism

Usually I am the pessimist and D is the optimist, so when he became the pessimist I got concerned. On Tuesday, D told me that that he thought that at the houses current state there was no way they were going to finish on time. I told him he was crazy. All they really had left was tile work, molding, bathroom fixtures, some light painting and carpet and in my mind they should be done with that stuff with time to spare. Well I slept on it and needed to know who was right. Not that it really mattered but I needed to be able to prepare myself for the extra wait, reschedule ALL of our deliveries (Refrigerator, bed, POD’s), reschedule the fence install, and reschedule the play date and my vacation I had set up, so I emailed our agent. *Side note: She is awesome and I would recommend her to anyone looking for an agent. She has jumped through all the hoops that we have thrown at her and is totally on top of the whole process and not afraid to ask questions! I am going to out her information at the bottom of this post just in case someone wants it, she is wonderful!!* Angela emailed me back within 10 minutes and said she would contact the listing agent and was going out to the house to see what she could find out from the foreman and look to see that they were being honest to us about the current state of the house.

This was the next email I got:

“got this this morning from Amber, but I am still making a trip out there today to check on the progress.   See below!

Hi Angela, 

I will have an update for you today or tomorrow on our estimated closing date. We will be scheduling our walk through which is where the buyers will walk the house with the superintendent and put blue tape on any marks on the walls, cabinets, etc.. where there is repair needed as well as to get their home book with warranty info. 

Once the walk through is completed and the list of repairs, as well as the certificate of occupancy is in from the City of Maple Valley, we will be able to close. As with all new construction, there is not a "set closing date" until these things have occurred. So, the closing date is a bit of a moving target. I would encourage them not to schedule their move until we get closer. 

I will be in touch with you today or tomorrow with where we are at for the walk through.”

My heart sank and this was my response and then hers:

From: Me
To: ANGELA.MATTOX
Subject: Re: House Update?

Just so you know, which you might already, our financing is only good through Sept 10.

Thanks!!
S

---

From: ANGELA.MATTOX
To: Me
Subject: Re: House Update?

Oh, crap, we need to get moving!!

Angela Mattox

It made me laugh but it also go the phone calls started. We ended up meeting Angela out at the house after T’s school interview, which by the way went awesome after two prior not so good ones AND D even said that he loved the place!! Not something I usually hear from him!! We went inside to see where the house was. I was surprised! The tile work was in and just needed to be grouted (with the current heat wave it should be dry already and should be able to grout today, the counter tops were in, the flooring in the laundry room and boys bath was done, the fire places had their tile work done, and 90% of the trim work had been done. It was amazing to see all my color choice put together. We also decided that because all the trim work that needed to be in to measure windows was in we could measure for blinds and because they don’t work Sundays that would be a perfect day to do it. On our way our Angela asked the foreman “You guys don’t work Sundays do you” and his response was “No, and we don’t want to either, why?”. It made me laugh. She just explained that they were at a point that we could measure for blinds and would like to do it when they are not working on the house to avoid holding up progress.

While we were looking at the house we got this email:

“Hi Angela, 

I just met with the superintendent and as of now the house is scheduled to be cleaned and ready for the walk through on August 31st. We are then expecting that we will close by Friday of the following week which is 09/07. 

I would like to schedule a tentative walk through with you on 8/31 sometime between 11-3pm. This would be with the buyers. Can you please check with them to see when it would work that day to meet? This is subject to change due to any delays or unforeseen events. I will keep you posted if there are any delays.”

So I am not sure how I would like to proceed. From everything they have done there is no reason they can’t finish it on time but if they are saying the 31^st then I have to go with that right? I think I am going to wait until the 24^th to reschedule everything. The hope I have may be false but I don’t want to reschedule and have the house close on time and not be able to get my stuff for another week.

Getting near the finish line

This weekend we snuck into our new house. The neighborhood only has two homes left so there is no longer a site agent there to give us permission to go in and I really wanted to see the paint color. When they first sprayed the paint it looked a little dark. The garage doors were closed (which are wrong but we are still not sure if we should have them changed or not) and the front door was closed so I went around back. They STILL have not installed the man door into the garage. I could not believe it a door WIDE open for anyone and everyone to go in and look around. You would think they would want to keep everyone out because they are installing the cabinets and lighting and staging all the mill work and appliances but I guess not. Let’s cross our fingers that nobody steal anything! When I walked into the house it was HOT. I understand that it was almost 90 degrees but it had to be way hotter than that in there. It was like a sauna. When d went in and came out he said that the heater was on. At least it is working, right? To my great surprise the paint color looks amazing!! Not too light and not too dark. I am so happy that I can actually pick a great color from a 2x2 sample in a showroom. It gives me a little more confidence in my color choices for the flooring and countertops. I can’t wait to see those get installed! Maybe by the end of next week!!

I really believe my MIL is bipolar. After living with her for the past five and a half months I really believe she is. She has major up and major downs. Currently she is in an up period which makes these last couple of weeks a little better. I really like these up periods and wish she was like this all the time and from my nonscientific math, she should be in this up swing for another week or so and then she will be going to cabin for a week until after the Labor day holiday. Which means, until we move things should go rather smooth. Let’s just hope I am right.

I went out to the house again last night and there was a table saw in the garage and they were cutting something. I am not sure what but something. My guess is either that mill work or flooring. Either way they were working on the house! 22 more days, that’s all. I can do this! I really just want to be in my own home! I never knew how much I would miss that!

It's finally August

We got an email from the listing agent that said: “It appears as though we are on track to be completed near the end of the month. We will be contacting you to schedule your walk through in a couple of weeks. Then, when any items you find on the walk through are completed, we can close.” REALLY?? A couple weeks?? That mean we could get in early!! Like a week or so early!! I can’t believe that it is August and we will be moving this month!! We also got an email from our agent backing that up: “A is checking to see if the mill work has been completed and will be dry before we come in on Saturday. I'll let you know.” We may actually be out of hell this month! The worst part is I have been out to the house every day this week. Can you tell that I am excited?

Our plan is to go to the house on Saturday, if everything is dry, and measure for blinds. This will be the one time I would not care if we could not go in to see the house, it means they are getting it done! Once we measure I will order them and have them delivered so we have then when we close. We also plan to see if once the house is complete but before it is legal ours, if we can go in and install the garage door openers, the child proof latches on the cabinets and have the fence installed. The builders contact says that it is possible if we ask and get permission so we are going to ask. It will be much easier to unpack if when we put something away it stays away.

I have also planned my first event at my new house! It will be the second weekend we are in our new house. I am taking the week we move in off so it should be easy to get unpack and ready for a party in 10 days, or more if we close early! It is my turn to host a play date for T and his friends. He will be so excited to have his friends over to play. I have also taken the opportunity to invite a couple of friends without children over too. They love to cook and can help me prepare dinner in my new kitchen. I think it will be fun to “break in” the kitchen with a couple friends! I am so excited. My husband is going to love the fact that I invited so many people over our second weekend in the house! No matter how much I don’t like my new job the people are WONDERFUL and I am so glad I have met them all!

Let’s hope that this month goes by quick! With all the things I am planning I am sure I will have the keys to my new house before I know it!

The Weekend

Every time I think of how long we have left until our house is done I cry. I am so excited and ready to be in my own home again I just can’t help it. I will finally have my own shower, bedroom, a playroom, a kitchen and office that I can keep my stuff in and have everything I want. No to mention refrigerator space. I will be able to buy anything I want and have space in the refrigerator to put it. I will be able to make my lunch for work at night and just grab and go in the morning AND make my husband’s lunch again which I actually kind of miss doing. I will be able to hit the snooze button in the morning and not lose the bathroom for a half hour. I will be able to sit in my backyard while the boys play and read my book without get nasty looks like I ignore them. I will be able to get the boys back on a schedule that works for us, not other people. I will finally get to start potty training without “help”. I will get to do my laundry whenever I want. The cats will finally have space to run and play without being told not to go somewhere and Shelby may actually eat again. I can make dinner without having to please anyone and if I feel like cereal or sandwiches for dinner that is what we can have. I can do the dishes whenever I want. I can stop having to worry about the boys getting into something they shouldn’t because everything will be out of their reach. I can park in a garage and leave sleeping children in the car for a minute while I unload the car and not have to wake one up because I can’t carry both of them at once. We can finally get the TV out of our room and in the family area. Those are just some of the things I look forward to being able to do.

This past weekend was ugh. It was my Friday off so we were able to get our errands done and not take up our weekend which is nice. Saturday we got up early and went to our dentist appointment. I am so proud of T. He lets them clean his teeth without a fight. Such a big boy. After the appointment we took the boys to the park. T is learning how to ride his bike to we took him on about a mile loop to give him some practice. He did so good. His confidence is getting much better on it. After that we went to my family day for work. The boys had a blast. They both liked the hay ride and carriage ride but loved the train ride. When we got in the car to go home we realized that they got some sun. It had been an over cast morning and we forgot to pack the sunscreen (not that I can find in in the house anyway). So we stopped and got some aloe vera for them on the way home. It was not a bad burn but we did not want to hear about it when we got home. The first thing we hear when we walk through the door is about the sun burns. D tells his mom we know and will take care of it. I put the aloe on them and it shuts her us pretty quickly. Do you really have to rub in our parent fail for the day?

Sunday was not much better. T woke up and wanted to spend some time with Grandma. No big deal. We said we would run to Home Depot and be back in an hour and then we would take him with us on our other errands. When we got back they were gone. We found out that they only went to the grocery store so they shouldn’t be gone long. When they got back we were informed that Grandma had invited I, a cousin, over for a play date. I was so mad. First, I dislike his mother. She is a drug addict and I don’t like her around my children. Second, that means our plan was not going to happen. We decided to just take A and do the rest of our day. This upset me. It is nice to have one on one time with each of the boys but when do we get our one on one time with T? All the one on one time is with A. Not that I don’t want that time with A but I miss T. After we move there will no one on one time anymore so I guess I am going to have to put up with it for a couple more weeks. We had a great afternoon with A and got a ton accomplished.

Six more weeks

42 more days, six more weeks!! Drywall has been taped and is done. Now we are left with all the finish work! It should be easy for them to get it all done in six weeks, right? Both pictures where taken by T, and believe me he really wanted to go inside and get more for you to see!!

Now is the time that the inspection can be done. Our lender told us that as soon as drywall was done to call him so he could schedule the inspection! Yea!! At that point everything on our part will be done and it will all be in the builders hand. I think once the builder sees that we are waiting on him than they will speed the process up a little so he can get his money, at least I hope that is what will happen. We NEED them to finish by 9/10. We locked in our interest rate and if we close after that date we will have to start over again on the financing. But from the sounds of it we will be signing the paperwork on 8/24 and getting the keys on 8/30!! The best part is I took the week of 9/3 off to get us moved in as quick as possible. I want to make sure that we stop living out of boxes ASAP. I am so done with boxes. I want my stuff back so bad. I did a horrible job packing. For some reason I forgot about the season change (summer) that was going to occur while we were living in boxes. All my summer shoes and clothes are packed away. Major fail on my part. Oh well. At least it has not been too horribly work yet this summer. I am so excited that I have already scheduled to have our stuff delivered. I can’t wait! It will be so nice to have OUR stuff back. The boys will have so many “new” toys that they will not know what to do with themselves.

Yesterday MIL’s house go too small. The boys were in a real boy mood and wanted to get into everything. MIL decided when we moved in she did not want to kid proof the house at all. The only part of that that has changed since we moved in was the china cabinet, the chemical cabinet, and the bottom knife cabinet. Other than that there are a ton of non-kid friendly things in their reach. So last night they kept getting into EVERYTHING that they know that they should stay away from. The elliptical was a jungle gym, picture frames where made for hitting on tables, you name it they wanted to do it. In my house when mood like this I just move them to a different room in the house. It was usually up or down stairs depending on where we were. Out of sight, out of mind. Well in MIL’s house that is not possible you can see every room from just about everywhere. So I spent a good hour trying to distract with little success. My only successful distraction was when I asked T to let the dog out of the crate. After T got back this was our conversation…

Me: A!

T: He’s in the dog crate.

Me: Did you lock your brother in the dog crate?

T: Yea.

Me: (trying oh so hard not to laugh) You better got let him out before I see him in there or you will be going to the no-no chair.

T: Runs and gets him out and brings him to me as quick as A will let him.

Have I mentioned I LOVE my boys. They may make me want to pull my hair out and cry sometimes but they can always make me laugh too. I really am not looking forward to the day that they are too cool to give me a kiss and say I love you.

I am so hoping that after we move in we will be able to get back to normal in a month or so. I need a normal life again J