We have grass!

So the following Monday after my husband pulled the weeds, we received a letter from the HOA basically saying "hey, we know you took care of the weeds, but you still need to lay grass seed." Somebody must have called about the tall weeds in our yard, but we were annoyed that HOA was telling us what we needed to purchase/do with our own money. We get it - HOA's contract says to maintain a nice yard, but come on... Give us a chance to first! Maybe our grass would've grown the first time we laid seed down if they wouldn't have left behind so many huge rocks, wood & garbage! *End rant*


Well my husband did end up laying more seed and fertilizer. Our yard looks amazing now! There's still a few patchy spots in the backyard and side yards due to all of the rocks, but we've been trying to dig those out as we see them. We're also still finding hay where some of the grass isn't growing. He raked up straw and loosened the soil for 2 days before laying the seed.  He used Scott's Turf Builder - Sun & Shade mix for grass seed, but I don't remember which fertilizer.


Now for pics! (Sorry about the shade - I took the pics in the evening).

No more weeds!

Quick update - my husband went out and cut the weeds this weekend and now our yard looks twice as big! We're hoping to lay grass seed and fertilizer next month since Fall is the best time to do that.

7 month update

We have grass! They finally laid our sod in the beginning of June and I'm so happy I was on maternity leave for it. I got to watch them lay it down and I was home to constantly water it. (Be prepared for a high water bill. Ours was $150, but some other peoples' were $300+!) It has been tough for us and our neighbors (on one side) to get our grass to grow in the back yard because the direct sunlight hits it. There are also tons of weeds! Our neighbor on the other side has more shade in their backyard, so their grass is growing a lot better. Both neighbors have laid seeds down twice since it was laid the first time by the landscapers and we have laid seed down once. I keep hearing it is best to do that in the fall when it rains a lot and when it's cooler outside so that the seeds don't dry out.


***Side note: Make sure that the landscapers cut your sod properly! They left sod overlapping our driveway and sidewalk. It looks awful. I can literally pick up about 3-4 inches of sod. There are also big chunks of sod missing in between some of the strips in the yard. When I put the service ticket in for it, a lady called and told me just to put grass seed down in those parts. I wouldn't have to do that if they would've cut the strips properly. Also - I heard that the landscapers were supposed to come back with a big roller to "flatten" the sod down, but they never did that. You have to stay on top of them.




We have also been putting in a lot of service tickets for little things to get fixed. For example:


-Separating of some of the vinyl flooring in the kitchen/bathroom
-Window not opening/closing properly
-Sod not cut properly
-Crooked drawers




In a couple months, Ryan homes should be coming back out to fix more things that we haven't put in service tickets for. (Nail pops, cracks in wall, etc).


I'm hoping we will install our patio in the spring. We've been told that it's best to let the ground settle for about a year before installing a patio/deck.




Now for lots of pictures :)

So in love!

Storm door from Lowes

Starting to lay sod

Our neighbor's house sits a little closer to the street, so their sod stops further up

All done!

Not a fan of the bushes - we'll put something better down in the spring

After they put down the grass seeds and hay in the back yard

 

                                               Right after I laid the grass seed down again

 

                       What our back yard currently looks like (my neighbor took these pictures for me)

Side yard

Weeds galore!

This is the same type of grass seed that the landscapers used

New table

                                                Right after my husband installed our ceiling fans

Nice size space in the basement (7 ft. trampoline is where the morning room extension is)

Neighborhood pool (stole this pic from our neighborhood FB page lol)

4 month update

We've been in the house almost 4 months now and we still love it just as much as when we first moved in. We finally put up some ceiling fans, had the yard pre-graded for the sod, and the front porch walkway/steps redone. The front walkway was starting to tilt, so they replaced it and went ahead and redid the steps while they were at it. Several more houses are being built on our street and two lots have sold across the cul-de-sac from us. The neighbors have been awesome and I love that there are so many kids around the neighborhood. Ryan homes started building the pool and pool house a little bit ago and they're both pretty small. But at least the neighborhood will have one! 

I can't get over how expensive it is when moving into a new home. All of the little projects like screen door, blinds, ceiling fans, furniture, etc. all add up very quickly! Our neighbor even said that if they spend one more penny on getting the house together, she's going to go crazy. Lol

We haven't noticed any cracks in our walls yet, but we have noticed nail pops here and there. Ryan Homes came out after I believe 30 days and fixed the nails pops we found then. There have also been the occasional scrapes and tiny dents in the wall from living here and from moving furniture. They're supposed to come out several months from now to do one more drywall touch up, so we're not too worried about that. After that, we'll hopefully paint! We are also going to hold off on putting in a patio because the ground will continue to settle even after the grass is in. They're supposed to lay sod around the end of May. 

We do recommend getting a dehumidifier with the hose connection so you don't constantly have to empty the bucket. We have the house going into the floor drain by the furnace. I would also suggest to buy 4 or 5 filters for the furnace because it'll need changed every month or two. 

I can't think of anything else right now, so I'll try to update after the grass is in!

2 week update

It has already been 2 weeks since we've moved in! All of that waiting and anticipation and now we still can't believe we're living here. We have settled in very nicely and we love the neighborhood. A couple neighbors have moved in and the house on the other side of us looks like it's close to being finished. 

One of my neighbors and I are friends on Facebook and she told me that she was told that Ryan Homes was going to cut down some trees behind their house so they can put a drainage pipe in. I contacted the PM and he called my husband. He said that there was a misunderstanding and that the trees were cut down before they moved in and the pipe is already there. Hopefully that means they won't be cutting any more trees down because they add some privacy and peacefulness. Plus we paid extra for those lots/trees. 

Guardian has been a pain in the butt! First, they didn't do something with the global source where you could listen to different music on different floors. A guy came back and "fixed" it, but all he did was put something on the wall. Then another guy came out and said the first guy didn't do any of the wiring he was supposed to. And some of the initial wiring wasn't done right in the first place. He had to come to our house twice and for several hours at a time. He also had to cut 3 holes in our basement ceiling. Talk about anxiety! But Ryan Homes came back and patched them up to make them look like new. Then a couple days later, we realized that one of the speakers doesn't play when it's playing the sound from the TV. But it's weird because both speakers play when music from our phones is playing. So they have to come out AGAIN. 

We've been putting blue tape on things that we see through the house that needs fixed/touched up. One of the slats to our kitchen flooring is raising a little bit, my OCD noticed that my master tub handles weren't installed evenly (one is higher than the other, hard to explain), paint defects, etc. Nothing big thankfully. 

Otherwise, everyone in the neighborhood seems great! They all wave with big smiles and are so welcoming. Ryan Homes has also started forming where the new street and houses will be. I wish I would've taken a picture because it looks pretty cool. They also started adding trees along the whole neighborhood. It looks very nice!

New year - new home

We're finally in our house!!! We officially moved in yesterday and we're so in love with it! Our refrigerator and our dryer were delivered yesterday. Closing was pushed back a couple of hours on Tuesday, so we had to cancel cable, which in turn, we had to cancel Guardian. Cable will be installed tomorrow, so Guardian will come after that. Another hiccup was that Best Buy didn't call to tell us that our washer wouldn't be delivered on time until the night before since it was on the recall list. They said it MIGHT Get delivered on 1/20, but that wasn't a definite date. I marched my butt up to the store and ended up getting the next level up washer for the same price as the original one and it'll get delivered on Friday. I'll take a couple days delay to save over 50% on it!

4 things that went wrong yesterday/this morning:
-When the fridge was delivered, the water line apparently wasn't included with it. The salesman never told us that, so make sure to ask if you have to order one. Also, I didn't check before the delivery guys left, but the doors and handles are crooked. One of the Ryan Homes workers told us how we could fix it, but we haven't done it yet. We're scared of breaking it. Lol
-The main floor thermostat wasn't working yesterday. It stayed at 65-ish degrees and it was freezing, especially with the movers keeping the door open to bring everything inside. We called our PM and he sent someone over right away to fix it. There was a part that went bad, so the worker had to drive somewhere in Kentucky to get it. Once he fixed it, the house warmed up immediately.
-There was a water leak in the powder room. Luckily we were still awake because it was around 9:30 pm. I was sweeping the kitchen and my husband was in the fridge when we heard a hissing sound. We could've easily been asleep by that time, which means it could've been a LOT worse if we didn't catch it right away. We turned the knob to stop the water flow. My husband said they just had to tighten something and it was fixed.
-This morning, the master shower stayed freezing cold and wouldn't warm up at all. The worker said that the plumber switched the hot and cold, so they just fixed that. (I don't know how that passed inspection?)

I don't want to upload pictures of most of the house or the personal things in our home, but just know that you'll need a lot of furniture to fill the Landon up! Our house looks so bare since we came from an apartment to here. And be ready to spend a small fortune on blinds/curtains! I wanted curtains that go to the floor, but we would have to of custom order them. We just don't have that kind of time because we wanted our windows covered right away. So before you move in, take measurements of the windows and pre-order the curtains if you want them to go to the floor.

For the family room, we got 4 panels at 84" long. I didn't pay attention to the width. They go from about 2 inches above the window sill to about 3 inches below the window sill. The curtain rod had to be at least 112" wide. Same with the morning room windows. For the morning room doors, we got the faux wood blinds. I was stuck between getting white or brown. We ended up getting brown and hope that it doesn't make too much brown in the kitchen (between those, the floor, and the cabinets). Those were 21 1/8" wide and 63" long. In the dining room, we got 4 panels - same length as the family and morning room. The curtain rods had to be somewhere around 45" and 50". I can't remember exactly.

We can't wait to see how our first year in the home goes. We are so happy this whole process is over and we can finally enjoy this place!

Now for the pics: (Ignore the bar stools - they're temporary).