Another week down...

Unlike their mama, Jackson, Aida, and Ivie can never get enough of Lowe's. I took this picture on the trip we finally scored (I should say agreed on) a refrigerator. Now a few people said to stay away from Frigidaire, but I looked at Consumer Reports and the ratings were pretty good, so that is what we ended up with. It wasn't our first choice, but our first choice was $600 more.

Today Scott and I finally made it to the house together so that we could measure the windows. Now I get to order blinds! The carpet is installed and everything is pretty much ready to go except for finishing touch ups. The carpet we chose is cheap, cheap, CHEAP, but really it is ok. We purposely chose the cheapest carpet knowing that three kids will destroy it in the next three years. But boy does it look cheap!

Ok... so other bloggers, family, friends...please tell me does this look right??? Clearly the faucet is in the wrong place, right? We think so. We'll see what Ryan Homes says about this.

Here are the rest of the pictures from our visit today: Pictures

This week flew by, as does every week. I am SO busy with school. I remember this point in the semester last semester: I am overwhelmed and tired, but still have eight weeks to go.

The kids are doing great. Jackson received his report card today and is either meeting or exceeding in all areas! Aida is still enjoying her school and had a chance to listen to her heart this week with a stethoscope. It was very entertaining to hear her version of what they did and how she heard her stomach and heart. Ivie is really developing. She is still doing her pimp crawl (one legged) and is so curious about the world and her brother and sister. Scott is also doing well. I am proud of him for making it through our unnecessary "Welcome to Ohio horrible winter."

Ten days until our final walk through, twelve days until closing and fifteen days until moving day!!! Oh and eight days until the Weidners come to visit!

Sherwin Williams Visualizer

I came across this website tonight: Sherwin Williams Visualizer

Now I may be the last new home builder to find this handy tool, but nonetheless, I find it to be probably the best thing since DVR (with DVR I can not only fast forward through the commercials to get to my slutty, totally superficial reality shows faster, but I can watch it at odd hours without the ridicule of my husband...hard to beat that).

You can upload a photo, i.e. your new home, your existing living room that desperately needs remodeled, or soon-to-be-nursery (no I am NOT pregnant), and "mask" off walls to get a very precise idea of what colors to paint the walls of your home. You can get as detailed as you want. For example, in our new family room I plan on having an accent wall where the fire place is located. With this visualizer you can paint the walls different colors, cut in around the fireplace, AND Sherwin Williams gives you a color scheme to aid the process. Genius! As much as I like to think of myself as Martha Stewart, truth is, I sometimes get a little "confused" when selecting colors and decorating schemes.

So anyway, I thought I would share this wonderful product that just saved me $75 on an interior designer.

We have toilets

Well, my obsession with our house led me out there again today (I mean seriously, it's not like I am in law school or anything). Nonetheless, I not only made a trip to our home but also the model home.

Link to Pictures

I included a few pictures of the model to show friends and family what the house will look like.

So...a post by M.Weidner wouldn't be complete without some complaint; this time it is the lighting (kitchen and foyer).

I thought the dishwasher looked cheap, well the lights have nothing on the dishwasher. Again, probably our fault, but it would have been nice if someone would have told us to upgrade. Like "Hey, Megan, Scott, I know you are on a tight budget, but serioulsy, the $400 for recessed lighting in the kitchen is well worth it...".

I know that you can upgrade and then find yourselves $30,000 over budget, but a few extra hundred to make a nice kitchen even nicer would have been worth it. For anyone who is considering a Ryan Home or in the process of making their selections: invest in lighting and as I think of other necessary "upgrades", I will post those suggestions as well.

Refrigerator:

Never knew buying a refrigerator would be so complicated! Five trips to Lowe's and a Consumer Reports' subscription later, still no fridge. Maybe we can just bury our food in the snow outside until we make a decision. Living in Ohio has to be good for something...right?

Night ya'll (see still have my Southern influence).

A few more house pictures

A few more PICTURES.

The electrician and heating/air guy were at the house today finishing up. We should have lights tomorrow.

Making Progress

House Update:

We have cabinets, countertops, and vinyl flooring! I went by today to look at the progress and the painter was finishing up on the trim. All of the doors were hung. I love the cabinets, countertops and flooring. I think we chose great colors. I have a couple of concerns:

1. The french doors to the office don't have glass. I don't know if this will be changed, but it looks cheap. No one ever said what kind of french doors we would have or showed us a picture, so I guess its our fault for not inquiring. I hope the glass was just covered so the guy could paint.

2. I think the same flooring from the kitchen was installed in the upstairs bathrooms and laundry room. This is actually a good thing, since we went with the cheap stuff in those rooms, but I don't want to get charged for someone else's mistake.

3. There was a small crack in the molding by the breakfast bar.

4. There looks to be a few shingles loose on the roof.

Besides these things, I am happy, happy, happy. I am so excited to get in this house and be done with the process. Again, I'm sure the end product will be lovely, but the whole process has been stressful.

Link to PICTURES:

Aida

Aida had a skating party on Sunday morning. Here she is working the floor: Video.

Weekend

We had a really nice weekend. Jackson bowled on Saturday. Sunday we received visitors: Nana, Nanny, Papa, Marc, Angela, and Amaya. We had a great time just hanging out and eating fried chicken. It's weekends like this that make me so happy to be closer to family.

Seriously...Can they move the Super Bowl to Saturday???

The Weidners were dragging today; all of us. Watching the Steelers lose just took it out of us (more on that later).

House

For those of you interested in the progress of the house and not so much about the daily grind of wiping noses and butts, here is a link to pictures of the house so you can bypass all the family stuff. The siding guys finished up the siding and shutters today. I think it looks great. And man those guys work fast. (I don't know about the rest of you, but I would NOT be up on those ladders.)


Super Duper Bowl


Let me just tell you how happy I am that the Steelers lost: I am SO happy that the Steelers lost. We watched the game at a gorgeous house with fabulous people. A couple I went to high school with invited us over to watch the game at their friends' house. Everyone was so welcoming and the kids had a blast. For four hours Jackson and Aida ran around the house with five other little girls aged ten to three. Here are a few pictures of our night:
Jay on the left, the home owner, grew up in Cleveland and is a huge Browns' fan, so of course he was going for Green Bay. On the other hand, Scott took Pittsburgh. It was nice of Jay to allow us to stay.

Jackson, Aida, and Ivie



I've kind of neglected writing about the kids. So here are the updates:

Jackson

We signed Jackson up for T-ball last week. He starts in March, which means the athletic season in our household will now make a dramatic shift to baseball. My living room will be transformed into a baseball diamond. The goal posts will be replaced with a homerun fence. The quarterback will be benched for the pitcher. The football helmets will be stored for the season. All right in MY living...am I lucky or what?!?! He is doing well in school and seems to be acting older each day.

Aida

Aida is still really enjoying preschool. She is getting bigger and more demanding (is this possible?) it seems like everyday. She still thinks she is a princess. Aida is Aida and has such a strong personality. I wonder who and what she'll become.Here is just a little sample of classic Aida. She swore she wasn't tired.

Ivie

Ivie is teething...dum, dum, dum.... Yes. It's been rough going. She's been cranky, snotty, and clingy (oh fun). She is also turning into a lightning crawler. You put her down, turn your back and she is down the hall. She has discovered that she can pull herself up, sit from laying on her stomach, clap, and sign that she wants a bottle. I can't believe she is nine months!



Well that's it. I need to get to bed since I have to get up early to take Scott to work. The Avalon is getting some much needed work. That car has 19o,000 miles and actually runs fairly well. Hopefully we can get about another 25,000 miles out of it. Good night!

Walls and Brick and Closing Day...Oh My!

Closing Day:

March 9th...'nuff said!!!
(The final walk-through is March 7.)

Walls:

The drywall is completed. We went by today and two guys were there "sealing". That is what they told me anyway. Since they were there, we had a chance to go inside and look around. Having the walls up made me even more excited about living there, since I could see each room.

Morning room to the left, kitchen to the right.

Soaking tub in the master bathroom. The bathroom looked really small to me.

Standing in the master bedroom looking into the massive walk-in closet.

The girls' bedroom in the front of the house.

Jackson standing in the foyer in front of the coat closet. Because of the office to the left, the foyer is pretty big. I think I'm really going to like it. It feels roomy and welcoming.

Standing in the foyer looking into the office. We will have french doors here.

The kitchen. The doorway on the right is the mudroom that leads to the garage.

BRICK:

The brick was the only casualty of the horrible/nasty weather we had last week. However, even with the setback, it is now completed. I was a little concerned about the color, but I love the brick and I love the way it looks. I assume the siding will be added next week.

The Weidners score a convection oven

Not too much to report on the progress of the house (or in life for that matter). After a frustrating trip to Lowes, we scored a stainless-steel-gas-convection oven with five burners for $520 (seen here) Nice! (...If I do say so myself...not that I cook or anything, but Nice! nonetheless. I'm sure it will cook my Ramen Noodles "real good").

And I still have that pesky midterm tomorrow (not nice).

Just what the world needs is another lawyer.

So what does law school do to people that lawyers become so disliked? Well, for me, I now see negligence in every act by every person. Scott, you HAVE to brush ALL of the snow off of your car...the snow may blow off, impeding someone's vision, causing an accident and you will get sued for negligence. I know that if I decide to use my scissors as a can opener and cut myself then sue for products liability, I will lose. I read entire contracts: credit cards, HIPPA, insurance, doesn't matter, if it says sign, I read it - word - for - word. I spell out numerals, i.e., one versus 1. And, I just called the mortgage title company to inquire about easements. Really??? Who does these sorts of things? Attorneys and attorneys in training. Everywhere I look there is a potential lawsuit. So with this house, I needed to make sure that there isn't a sewer line for lot six running underneath our house. Now most normal people wouldn't think of such a thing. But after sitting through two classes discussing a case from 1938 where a homeowner didn't inquire about the plumbing and later had raw sewage backup in his basement, only to have the court say, "Too bad, a reasonable person would have inquired about where the sewer lines run. You have plumbing don't you?".

After class I asked my Property Professor if the inquiry notice would apply to modern day cases where we take things like plumbing for granted, because surely a reasonable person in 2011 wouldn't have to inquire about why their toilet flushes, right?. Well, like everything else in law school, I was wrong. It is my duty as a home owner to make a "reasonable inquiry". So that lead me to calling NVR to ask a ridiculous question about easements.

And attorneys wonder why the rest of world hates them.

I have a midterm on Friday in Contracts. Now most law school classes do not give mid-terms. In most classes the grade is based on one three-hour final at the end of the semester. Some might think that sounds awful and stressful and it is, but a midterm that is only worth 10% of your grade kind of gives you the same feeling as slow left lane drivers: Annoying. You deal with it for awhile until you can pass the driver. You know if you pass the driver, in reality it's not going to make your trip go any faster.

This professor in particular has been teaching at the law school for thirty years! He not only thinks that contract law is "easy", but loves the Socratic method of teaching and clearly midterms.

Weather:

Well, the rain/freezing rain mix hit Columbus early this morning. Jackson had a snow day....woohoo!!! As the temperatures drops tonight, the rain is supposed to freeze again. In addition to more freezing rain, snow is forecasted overnight. Maybe another snow day tomorrow?

So that is all that is happening in the Weidner household.

"Are we going to take the beds?"

After I picked Aida up from preschool, the girls and I drove out the house. Aida asked a million questions, ranging from "Where are the tractors?" to "Why is the road muddy?" My most favorite question was, "Are we going to take the beds?" (Imagine this in the sweetest 3-yr old girl voice). Apparently she didn't want to sleep on the floor in the new house.



We watched the insulation guys smoke and eat lunch for about ten minutes. I decided this was boring, so we left and drove out to the model house to get some inspiration and have a couple of questions answered. I drove an extra 10 miles out to the model only to find it locked, dark, and rep-less, even though the sign out front said "Model Open" and listed the hours as Monday 12-7 (the time was 12:47). PURE IRRITATION! I called our sales rep to see why the model was closed and he wasn't at his model either. Seriously?!?! All I'm saying is don't list your hours as open if you clearly don't plan on being open.



Later that afternoon Scott met with our PM (who again is the saving grace in this experience), so the kids and I drove back out to our house to take a few pictures.



I couldn't believe the smoking/eating insulation guys had finished the insulation! The house is really starting to come together. Tomorrow the county will come out and inspect. Thursday the drywall will begin and Friday siding will begin. In the past week, I have gotten so anxious for the house to be completed. I can't wait to move!

Pictures:

Scott, Ivie, and PM standing in the morning room.

Looking out the morning room windows at the backyard.

My office. Looking through what will be the french doors.



Looking into the kitchen. The mud room is to the right.

Insulation in the ceiling of the garage. This was one of my concerns since growing up I had a bedroom above the garage and it was always SO cold.

Front left side of the house ("The Vicki Window").

Garage.

A winter storm is heading towards C-bus: Rain, freezing rain, sleet, snow and thunder, yes thunder (I think the meteorologists throw out every possible type of precipitation and storm just to make sure they get it right...I know the tricks of the trade). I hope Jackson has a snow day or at least a late start tomorrow. If so I get to sleep in!!! Come on rain/freezing rain/sleet/snow/thunder.