25% off at Macy's

I know Macy's isn't the cheapest store, but they do have some decent home stuff.  Below is a friends and family coupon code for 25% off and it doesn't carry as many exclusions as Macy's coupons typically do.  I went into Macy's tonight and was VERY tempted to get some things for the house, but all I walked out with was a bridal shower gift.  My husband would be proud.

Code for Macys.com:  MACYSFF

A Couple New Additions

I'm so thankful I have a day off today.  There is just way to much to do.  I'm in charge of a big Family Literacy event at school in two weeks, so that will pretty much consume my life for the next 14 days.  So, I'm thinking we'll do pretty much nothing to the house. 
Last weekend my husband installed the new faucet for the powder room.  Nothing fancy. but definitely a step up from what we had...

Before

After

Thanks to Thrifty Amy's info about the Pier 1 credit card and the points you accumulate, I decided to go ahead and get the bench I've been wanting for the mudroom.  It's the perfect size.  My husband likes that we didn't have to mount anything on the wall, but he thinks it looks like it should belong in grandma's house.  I disagree and am very happy with it.  I have other ideas for this room, all I have to do is put them into action.  It's pretty sad that my mudroom will likely be the first finished room in my house.

The driveway is almost complete and the sidewalk looks great.  They still have some painting to do around the windows and the pillar on the front stoop.  I cannot wait until we get grass!

There were workers here yesterday and they'll be back today to finish some items from the 30 day inspection.  New kitchen counters are installed, electrical issues are resolved, a couple cabinet problems are fixed.  All that's left is fixing the uneven floors in the kitchen and morning room.  That should be interesting.

Oh, I almost forgot.  We had heavy winds the other night and our shingles were flapping in the wind and we even lost a few.  Our PM said it's because they were put on in the winter and the sun hasn't had time to really "melt" (for lack of a better word) them on yet. 

This picture doesn't do it justice.  They were flapping like crazy!

The good news is that they were up on a ladder the next day fixing them.  So far we've been really happy with our repairs but I wonder how long it will take once there's not contractors in the plan every day - which won't be too long.  There's only 4 lots left!

Have a great weekend everyone.  I'm hosting my first holiday on Sunday :)

Randomness

Now I understand why bloggers post less and less after they move into their new house.  I have been so busy.  In fact after having a little meltdown last weekend about not having enough time to do all the things I need to do I made a new rule for myself - no blogs or facebook until right before I go to bed.  On one hand this has been good because I've been able to accomplish a lot more - school work, house work, exercising, etc...  but on the other hand I'm way behind on these blogs I love so much.  I have so much catching up to do.  While I'm usually able to read most posts, I don't always get to comment.  I know that I won't stay awake long so I want to make sure I at least read everything.  Plus, there are so many blogs now it takes a lot longer to get through.  But I feel like I'm really out of the loop, so I may need to adjust my new rule.

The sidewalk is finished and looks great.  They graded the driveway and lawn today.  The driveway should be in next week.  I am beyond excited about this.  It will be such a relief to have it in.  I'll post pictures once the driveway is in.

Blinds.  Nothing too exciting, so I won't bore you with countless pictures.  Just an idea of how they look in the morning room, dining room and a bedroom.

This is the oddball window in the big bedroom.  It's growing on me.  When it's actually time to decorate this room, we'll see how much I like it.

I finally found candlesticks I like for the fireplace.  I bought them last week at Pier 1, but thanks to Thrifty Amy, I bought another set and returned them and saved $10 bucks.  Thanks for the tip, Amy!

My husband and I have a running joke.  Until we get more to dress up the mantel (including a mirror) I just have flowers and a wedding picture.  My husband thinks the dog should be front and center so whenever he can he switches the wedding picture and the picture of the dog.  I told him the dog picture might soon disappear completely :)

We got a new towel bar, toilet paper holder, toilet handle, and faucet for the powder room to replace the horrid faucet we have.  My husband has all installed but the faucet.  That's this weekend's project.


We're at a standstill for furniture.  After measuring we realized that the furniture we wanted for the family room is too big for the space we have, so we're back to the drawing board.  We looked again at Sheely's last night but there wasn't anything I loved.  So we'll hopefully look at a few other places this weekend.  I know I'm being picky, but if I don't love something I don't want to buy it.

The trip wasn't a total waste though, we've got some ideas for the morning room.  We found a line, Canadel, where you can customize your pieces from the type of table, to the type of legs, to the type of chair, seat color, body color etc...  I like things to match and this would allow us to get bar stools for the breakfast bar and island that match the morning room table chairs.  Plus there's a lot of options for a buffet.  It's perfect....for the person who can easily make decisions.  But for me, it's pretty much torture.  I'd love to do something light and bright maybe antique white, but my husband isn't up for that.  We looked at doing all cherry and still may, but we're afraid it will be too dark next to the cherry wood in the kitchen.  After playing around on the website last night, here's what I'm thinking.  This way we bring in the cherry and also keep it light.

Morning Room Chair




We're debating between  a round, oval or rectangle table.




Breakfast bar bar stools.




Kitchen island bar stool.

 I don't know.  I think I need to think about it for a few days.  If you're interested in the line just go to canadel.com

Since the weather has been so nice this week, I've had the chance to meet some more neighbors.  So far everyone seems great.  I'm trying really hard to remember names, but I haven't been totally successful :(  I'm so happy to be living here!

Catching Up

Wow!  I've missed a lot.  I've been busy with work and I haven't been keeping up with the blogs this week like I usually do.  This is sad to admit since it's a Friday night and all, but I've spent the last few hours catching up on the blogs and added 5 new ones that I've had to read from beginning to end.  And India was saying just last week that people weren't posting as much :)  Looks like people are stepping up to the plate, India.  I  really have to think of a way that I can get paid to write and read Ryan Homes blogs...

As far as my house goes, we've had a little bit of action this week.  Our sidewalks were put in and our blinds were installed today.  Hopefully I'll get pictures up this weekend.  Enjoy the weekend everyone.  We're looking at 80 degrees on Sunday.

Etiquette Question for Blind Installation

Our blinds will finally be installed on Friday.  It only took me 6 weeks!  I'm sure my neighbors will be relieved to not see the inside of my house any more (unless they're like FM's neighbors who would love a peek inside!).  Anyway, I know a lot of you installed them yourselves but was wondering if you could help with this.  Should I tip the installer?  He's of course getting paid through Lowes, but I'm wondering if I should tip him, too.  Thoughts?  Thanks guys :)

Problem Solved & Garage

Well, that was quick!  A contractor stopped my husband this morning as he was leaving for work and told him he'd be fixing the damage from last night.  It's already fixed!  I'm a very happy customer right now.  I thought for sure that Ryan wouldn't take responsibility for that.  Maybe it would have been different if they weren't still working in the plan, but I'll take it!  I'd give you the picture for proof, but it was too dark by the time I got home.

I've already told you how I'm a bit disappointed in the size and tightness of our garage.  It doesn't help that our garbage and recycling cans are huge.  We have to back a car out to get them in and out of the garage, plus it cuts down on parking space.  If I had to do it all over again, I think I maybe would have got the service door (although when we did our upgrades I thought it was ridiculous!) and had the trash cans on the side of the house.  I don't know.  I've got to figure out a better system.

On a totally non-house related note, I'm feeling so old!  After a meeting at work I met my niece for dinner.  She's a sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh studying chemical engineering.  Aside from the fact that I feel totally stupid when she's talking about chemistry or physics, I just can't believe that this little girl is no longer a little girl.  Before I know it I'll be helping her move into her new house!  I just want time to slow down a little.

The Good News and the Bad News

I'm a bad news first kinda gal.  We had a very brief, but very bad storm come through tonight.  Our house had a little damage.

The mailbox (which is in a block of concrete!) fell over as well.  Around the neighborhood some people had siding and shingles come off and we have a few small lakes built up on the streeet.  Thanks Mother Nature.

The good news is that I got to meet and talk to several neighbors.  Hey, if this is how it has to happen, this is how it has to happen :)

Furniture and 30 Day Fixes

What a busy weekend!  I can't believe it's over.  Friday night we went furniture shopping at Sheely's in Ohio, and I think we may have settled on living room furniture.  I'm still debating on colors and fabrics.  Here's what we're thinking of.  If we settle on this, we'll be getting a different color and won't have a pattern on the chair.  We're also going to do the love seat and ottoman for the chair.

When we were shopping I decided that I can't stand myself as a shopper.  I can not make a decision and I'll focus on the teeniest little detail of a piece of furniture that will take it out of contention.  I'm sure my husband was getting really annoyed with me, but I know we're going to have this furniture for a while so I want to be sure I love it.  We'll see if this is what we end up with.  The only thing I'm not crazy about is that the arms are harder than I'd like.

Thursday and Friday they came in and did some work on the house.  All in all we're happy with what they accomplished.  I was impressed by how they leveled the uneven floors.  They did lots of little jobs and they did a great job steam cleaning the carpets.  There are a couple of things we thought they'd do but didn't.  They have to come back some time this week to install the new counter tops.  We also discovered an electrical issue yesterday.  My husband turned on the light out back for the first time and the light switch sparked quite a bit.  We'll add that to the list.

I finally completed the survey from Ryan.  I'm sure you've all heard how important it was that they receive all tens.  We were really happy with our reps and our PM so we did do that.  I did add a couple of comments at the end about some things were weren't happy with including the brick "front" minus the wall on the front porch, the faucets, the required "upgrade" etc...  I may have also thrown in a line about how I was disappointed that we didn't receive any incentives.  I'm still not over that one!  :)