Wow....I remember reading the other blogs out there and people would say how busy they were with moving and life and how they never got to the blog. Well, I am in the same boat. It has been awhile.
We have shown our house to family and friends about a hundred times, but I never got pictures of when it looks really nice and showcase ready per say. Since building, we had a great summer working on the lawn, putting some landscaping ideas together, and built a shed. I believe one of the pics shows the shed.  Then this fall, we really got down to entertaining.  We had a housewarming party mid-November, Thanksgiving for my side of the family, my son's birthday party, a cookie exchange party, Christmas for my  husband's family, and we are now hosting a New Year's Eve sleepover for friends and kids.

It has been nothing short of an domestic adventure. We have met a lot of new people. Our son, Quinn, has met several new friends.  There are constant conversations at the bus stop, which happens to be my driveway. Seeing neighbors at the park, and walking around the community. And lots of conversation with those around us who built at the same time. It was fun when we could all grab a drink together with out immediate neighbors and talk about the Christmas decorating adventures. Trying to figure out what could be decorated on this house but couldn't be on our old house, i.e. garage, was fun.

My husband and I love our new house, and still waking up every day, it really is a dream come true. If you could have seen our old house, this house seems so much more, almost tripling in size although this house still is not considered huge at 2700 sq ft.

From the pictures I will post below, you will see that there are several rooms we have not yet decided what to do with. Unfortunately, that means they have kind of turned into playrooms. Our basement will eventually be an adult hangout area with a bar, but for now, a disaster of a playroom.

Here are some pics below.

Our house decorated for Christmas - yes, I think my husband will one day want to compete with Clark Griswold

Here are the remaining pics. I forgot to get some of the second full bathroom upstairs and the garage. Hopefully I will actually remember to get some good pics once the house is picked up. My son is enjoying the full range of Christmas presents by taking over a few rooms. But....I would never deny him the enjoyment of his toys and Christmas break.

 Just a random pic of Thanksgiving counter :)

We are moved

Not sure how much energy I have to really be detailed oriented in this post. No pics until we are completely unpacked and settled.
Here is some info about the last few days.

Thursday, June 12
Pre Settlement Demonstration
Garrett, our project manager was awesome as usual.  He met us at our house and talked about a bunch of stuff that I honestly don't remember everything he said.  I remember all the warranty info about appliances and shingles, and the sort.  From there, he gave us another huge Ryan Homes book that honestly, I haven't even taken out of the drawer he put it in. He did take us room to room and review everything. It took about an hour and a half.

Friday, June 13th.
Home Depot is ridiculous.  We bought our washer and dryer over 4 weeks ago asking for us to get the first choice delivery. We said afternoon of June 13th as we have closing at 10am on Friday. The rep said, yep, no problem, I will note it that you can't take delivery until the PM of June 13th. Right, if it was only that easy. We get a call on Thursday and the guy was a real rude saying if we were not available for delivery between the hours of 9-1, then they could deliver it next week and no sooner. To say the least, we were not very happy as we explicitly asked for afternoon delivery a month ago. Luckily, Garrett being awesome was able to let my mom in at 9am so she could wait for the delivery while my husband and I went to closing.
Closing wasn't anything spectacular.  We were there an hour and a half, had to pay $10 for parking, and the lawyer we met with was very nice in explaining everything. Then NVR had to review the docs. They were good, and we were handed the keys to our new castle.  Exciting!
Unfortunately, I had to go to work. My husband however, was able to start moving things, picked up the UHAUL, waited for the furniture delivery people for some new furniture, time warner to install internet, and did some basic unpacking. I got out of work at 6:30, got my clothes from the old house and transported them to the new house. We were there unpacking until 9:45. We went home, and started packing more items until 11:30.

Saturday, June 14th
I had to work, again.  My husband and friends started really loading things from the old house and bringing it to the new.  They worked hard. I got out of work at 1:30, and immediately came to help out.  Of course, we also received a 4 hour window of 12-4 for DIRECT TV to show up and install our new system.  Don't you know, they did not even call that they were on their way until 3:40. So frustrating.  Anyway, they showed up, installed everything, and really did a fantastic job. Although, they were complaining they didn't even know they had our job until it was paged through to them at 3:30.  I also booked this a few weeks ago, May 29th to be exact, and they had no idea they were supposed to come here.   

At 6pm, everyone was exhausted from all the stairs. This is the downside from moving from a ranch home. Actually, I have never lived in a house with stairs. This will take some time getting used to, but love it so far.

The only other issue is my cat. She was not happy with the move. We went to pick her up around 9 (after the friends and us were done with dinner). She seemed to be going a little nuts in the car. We get out, and she goes to the bathroom all over me. The first time in 14 years. Ah well. She has been relatively low key since then. She has been trying to explore little by little, but really hasn't left my side.  She hasn't even wanted to go outside, and she is an inside/outside cat with spending most of the day outside. Poor cat.

Sunday, June 16th
More moving, and scrubbing our old house clean.  There is nothing worse than wanting to be in your new house settling in, and scrubbing your old house clean because the inspector is scheduled to come to your old house Monday at 9am. It was kind of fun though. I bought the old house when I was 21 and single. I haven't seen it so empty since the day I bought it. Bittersweet. Although, being able to clean everything without having to move things was awesome!!! Another day spent moving, packing, unpacking, and cleaning.

Monday
I went to work nice and early, and now here I am. Exhausted.  Moving is exhausting.  Vacation starts Friday, June 20th, then I don't go back to work until the 30th. Can't wait.


Total timeline:

Walked into a Ryan Model Home, December 28th. Signed official paperwork January 26th. Move in date: June 13th.

More pics.....

Here are the rest of my pics for those that like to see the layout. I tried taking as many angles as possible. Too bad I didn't think to do a video recording and walkthrough the house. Maybe later.

                                                 Here is standing straight at the bottom of the stairs looking to the back of the basement. The Egress window is on my left in this photo and the storage door is on my right. On the back left, the first door you see is the future half bath. The second door on the left is the electrical utility closet.

                                                            Rough in for half bath in the future

                                                   Electrical utility closet they put in for us

                                               This is something our project manager did for us. We asked him to put a door in underneath the stairs for extra storage space.  He did this at no additional cost due to the electrical closet taking up space in our finished basement.