Spring

The first mow of the lawn!  March 19.

I'm 5!

Whew

We are in!

Two weeks of box moving, carrying, unpacking and sorting and we are mostly finished.  There are still a few zones that need attention but we are living in the house very well at this point.

The beautiful shutters were installed yesterday and we are thrilled.  We are feeling zero guilt about the mix-up and will claim them as our own from this point on.  How they came to be in our lives shall never be spoken of again. 

My office is a happy place to spend my day.  I've got two desks side by side and now my home computer is farther away from the work computer which gives me more work space and less distraction from the duties at hand. Heck, maybe I'll get more work done. 

I have a view from my window where my work desk is of the three homes that are under construction across the street.  It has occurred to me that instead of picking the color of your own house, home buyers should be allowed to select the color of the house(s) that they have to look at the most.  My fingers are crossed that these three beauties will be nice to look at.  We purposely selected a house style that didn't have a heavy stacked rock facade and the house that I can see out the window will be covered in brick or rocks.  I'm hoping for brick.  No matter what, I love my bright place to work.

We broke up with the gym because we never visited, even when we lived at the other house and used part of our furniture budget to purchase the one workout machine that we used when we did go to the gym.  This morning, I took Lucy to day care came home had my morning meetings, then zipped down to the basement and jumped on the elliptical for 25 minutes.  I showered at my lunch break and I think I'm in love with the new routine.

Terri

No-man cave

  Jason's land of the big tv and big couch.  Sadly, during the super bowl party all activity took place upstairs in the tiny tv land.  His wounds were soothed by a Bronco win.

Super!

Toothless luc

Fancy!

All the waiting for the fancy stove and my first meal is a grilled cheese sandwich.

Wait...what?

Ok, now the shutter saga is getting shadier, pun intended.

So, it appears that our builder feels bad about the window treatment order being messed up.  I don't think they can be held responsible for the one shade that arrived broken, but it also seems that they failed to order the shades we paid for on both back doors as well as the large window in the princess bathtub area.

To make things right, they have offered to upgrade the treatment on the door on the main floor to a shutter to match the other two windows (only one of which we have installed.)

This is a VERY pretty option and of course we said yes, but I'm still in awe of the earlier mishap where the windows were measured for the wrong type of treatment.

We will wait in anticipation of when these items will arrive, we have not yet heard a timeline, but I do know that one of the reasons these shutters are so expensive is that they make them custom to fit your exact window.  I don't imagine they have a warehouse of doors and window shutters just laying around.

These lovely things will not be in by Friday.  So, to use the master bathroom we will have to install a lesser temporary solution.  Jason says we should just tape a blanket to the window.  We have this extra one - classy?

Four sleeps until the house is ours.

 

Final kitchen

Stairs

So much for not popping over to look

I was 100% serious about not dropping over to the house to look at the progress, but that evil Jason made me go last night.

I'm so happy we did.

The detail work is happening now.  They are installing the closet and bathroom fixtures.  Our sod has been rolled out and the yards look amazing.  Our front yard is still extremely tiny, but now we could bury at least three people where as at the other house it was a single body yard.  The back yard is by no means expansive, but it is large enough for croquet and I love it.

There were workers in the kitchen installing our crown molding and the posts that will support the overhang on the island.  When selections of cabinetry and crown molding were done we did not have the benefit of having examples of all the other finish work that was standard to the house (posts, doors that sort of thing) and I think our selections look great!

There have been some drawers and pieces with our cabinets that have not been finished and last night we were told that some of the pieces arrived broken and had to be rebuilt.  We had ordered pull out cabinets in the island and in one of the cabinets flanking the stove.  It turns out pull outs were ordered for all the cabinets (which would be one extra) but one of the sets came broken.  The installer was in the kitchen mulling over how to custom build the pull outs and asked us what our preference was.  We made his day by saying we were happy with the one set that was already installed and that he didn't need to rebuild anything.

Making his day made all the workers happy and we got a high five.  Then I walked over to the fireplace to look at the paint job on the tiny and super wrong mantle and the lead wood worker called across the room to me and said "we're going to fix that, you'll love it."   I said "it was supposed to have an overhang right?"  He said something about the paperwork being confusing, but that he was still working on it.   I don't have many expectations as to what it will look like, but I'm hopeful that it will not look like a mistake and be reflective of the other amazing finishes in the house.  He said "trust me, you will love it."  All the other guys were all "he's the best, it will be great,"   I can live with that.

We get to do the formal walk thru tomorrow.  That leaves them with three official work days to finish it all up.  We sign our paperwork on the 20th or 21st.  Money transfers happen on the 21st and we close on the 22nd.

Lucy is holding it together pretty well.  We are being very lenient with attitude and making sure to focus our family time on playing with her.  She's ready for normalcy and I can't wait to give it to her.  She is a champion.  Leniency does not mean that I'm letting her get away with barking orders at me "Mom, I'm HUNGRY.  Juice, Toast!"  That is not how I roll.    She crossed the line this morning and we had a talk about it.  A calm, low toned talk.  Those are scary.

We are letting some rules slide because of the changing environment.  She gets to eat her breakfast in our room until we move, and I'm allowing her to watch the movie in the car on the way to school.  Once we move, our room will be a food free zone and the commute to school will be so short that we'll be back to no movies.  Right now, these are small accommodations and we've already talked about the new rules at the forever house.

Nine days

The Princess Tub

  Can you see it?  My favorite spot in the house will be this six fool long bathtub.  Yes, we had a tub in the old house, but this one is designed for a solo soak. 

It was hard to focus at work yesterday after seeing all the exciting changes in the house.  I stopped by after work and found that the carpets were fully installed, the mirrors in the bathrooms have been placed and all the shower doors are in place.

The under cabinet lighting seems to be working, and Jason's speakers were finally finished.  

We are getting right down to it and the time is going fast, and super slow at the same time.

We have our walk thru Friday, and I'm going to try and stay away until then, so that there are surprises when we do it.

Imagine the soups I will make on this cooktop!

New Photos

The progress last Friday was disappointing and Jason came home from the inspection deflated.  His faith that they would get everything done was diminished.

However, here we are just three and a half work days later and whamo!  It is starting to look sexy as heck in our new house.

I snuck in at 8:00 am this morning and snapped some pictures.   The top pictures shows the under-cabinet lighting and the progress on other electrical requirements such as plugs and switches.  The vent hood is in progress and the oven is ready to go.

The second picture is the nook next to the refrigerator cabinet.  This will be our coffee zone.  Cups up top, and coffee fixins in the drawers below.  

Looking across the room to our sink you can see how bright our kitchen will be even with the counter tops covered.  Jason assures me that he will install a dimmer for the under-cabinet lights so it won't always be as bright as an operating room, but we'll have the option if we want it.

coffee zone

bright kitchen

shutters

office

The last two pictures are the window treatments in the main living area, and then my office.  The Office picture has funky lighting because the walls look yellow when in fact they are grey.

I was thrilled to see that window treatments were mostly installed and that the carpet men were putting down the carpet pad and working on installation.

At a friend's urging we upgraded the carpet pad to the best they had to offer and I don't think we'll regret it.  The warmth, softness and durability will add to the longevity of the carpet (also an upgrade from the standard offering.)  We did learn from the builder grade carpet in the other house.  GO BIG because changing carpet is hard.

I imagine they will be done with the carpet by tomorrow.  I wasn't able to get upstairs because of the carpet install, so all my fun finds were on the main floor.

In addition to what you can see, they also installed the shower door on the main floor.  Because the tile goes all the way to the ceiling, the standard height shower door looks dwarfed but I think I will be able to get over that within about 4 minutes of moving in.

They haven't painted that bathroom the custom color yet, but they will.

I could see that the shutters in the princess bathtub area had been installed on the back side of the house. but not on the window facing the neighbors.  The blinds on all the main floor windows were in with the exception of the door to the deck and the second main living room window.

So...here's a story.  We really wanted the wood shutters on the windows in the main living area, they are beautiful, but super expensive - like $600 per window expensive.  So, we opted to do little shutters on the two windows flanking the fireplace and do the faux (fake) wood blinds on the large expensive windows.  Our logic was, we'd likely never have the little windows open, so the shutters would let in light but be very pretty.

We made our selections at the design center and months pass.  As I'm walking thru this morning I see that one of the two main windows has a shutter on it.  A SHUTTER.  The two little windows have faux wood blinds.  HOLY HECK!  Did the person that came and measured the windows mess up?  We are hoping so.  We won't know until Friday, but keep your fingers crossed.  This would be the first error that has worked in our favor.  The only downside of the shutters is that they can never really be open - we can tilt them, but a clear view of the back will not happen.  But, if you need a clear view of my trees in the back, put your shoes on and go stand on my giant deck!

Bouncing Girl

18 days

In drawer trash bins

My little carpenter

Fireplace!!!

We are getting right down to it.  The tile is installed in the kitchen and in most bathrooms.  Grouting still needs to be done and there is some finish work to be done in our master bathroom.

The fireplace tile does not look like I expected but after seeing it on the fireplace, I rather like it, which is good because it's too damn late to do anything about it now.  Once the purple spacers are removed and the grout is in it wont look so pink.  I wish the mantle was more ornate - or that it matched the crown molding that is in the kitchen.  I'm going with the flow on this item, because when the room is put together a traditional style mantle might not be the right thing.  We will see.  (I also think that with a checkbook, a topper could be added.)

Our hardwood floors are in, the cook-top is installed, but not connected, the stove and microwave are onsite ready for installation.

We have sinks, faucets and working toilets in all bathrooms, but they installed the wrong toilets so that has to be dealt with.  We paid extra for "comfort" height toilets and they installed their standard toilets.  Had they not charged us extra then it wouldn't be an issue, but they did and we want the right items.  $460 is nothing to sneeze at, or piss about.  ha ha.

We have been delayed a week, which is awful but not the end of the world.  We were able to quickly reschedule all of the deliveries and child care plans.  We were adamant that the toilet problem should NOT impact the delivery date - we will allow the plumber access to the house after we move in if that's when they need to swap out the toilets.  Delays at this point are costing us money and we're already living in a state of boxes, so no more delays!  Damn it.

Kitchen

I can see it better now!

a few months ago

Exterior

It's really starting to come together.  The paint job looks great (from here) and I love the trim.  I think we'll end up with less junk in the garage, but I understand this is a work in progress.

The girl

Siding done!

We have a due date.

January 18th.

This is a mere 97 days away.

In that time we have:

• Terri's annual trip to Phoenix (4 days)
• A concurrent visit from the in-laws 8 days)
• Book group (gotta get reading!)
• Halloween!
• Dinner party with friends on 11/6
• Veterans' Day (Lucy has the day off, so she and I are going to take the bus to the aquarium)
• A San Jose trip (3 days)
• Thanksgiving
• Another book group
• The Renton trio (that's us) annual dinner and night out to snow flake lane
• Tree decorating
• Christmas
• New Years
• Undecorating
• Then 18 long days of packing and purging

House things that we have to do:

• lock in the mortgage rate (anytime after 11/18)
• schedule delivery of appliances
• schedule apartment pack & move date
• schedule delivery of new furniture
• schedule delivery of items in storage
• Schedule delivery of ikea things (or get them ourselves)

1/18/2016 seems so super far away, but it will go fast and I'm happy to have an actual date to plan.  Sadly, the 18th is a holiday, so we've asked to move the final close up to the previous Friday so we can use that weekend, but we'll see how that works out. If we absolutely cannot get into the house before the weekend, we may borrow a gigantic car (truck with a lid) and head to Oregon to pick up the fancy tv that Jason has picked out for his basement oasis. I'd rather things of that value just magically arrive at the house because I'm not keen on lifting and breaking such things, and I seriously doubt that the tax free nature of purchases in Oregon will offset gas and impulse purchases/

The front

All closed up!

Get your clothes on!

  Things are moving along.  This picture was taken yesterday and doesn't show that the entire back of the house has been sided.

Rain is on the way, but we are 80% happy with how buttoned up the house is.  I will sleep better knowing that water can't be dripping on my installed can lights or the power outlets.

I have a hope that by tomorrow afternoon when Jas & I get to go through the house that it the siding will be finished.

It is groovy to see all the electrical action that will be tucked behind the walls.  This house is going to hum.  The downside is that any errant heat seeking missiles will probably hone right in on our happy little house.

One of the upgrades that we opted for was the Holiday Lighting Package.  The WHAT?   Well the description wasn't clear, but we made an assumption that it meant exterior outlets along the top of the house.  Well, wouldn't you know it - those outlets are going in.  Last night as Jas & I were talking about how nice it will be not to run extension cords from the house we realized that we have a two story house without a simple way to hang lights.  I guess we'll have to finally break down and hire the lighting people to come.  Jason will be so sad to have skip the hanging of a ladder in the crispy wind, or the removal in the rain.

In other exciting news lot 60 (the house that is closest to us in timing had their drywall delivered today.  So once this angst over the siding and closing up the house is done the next phase is right behind.  woo woo.

To pass the time I'm planning spaces and in our entry hall this is the bench that I think could work for us (in white):

A basket for each of us, a durable cushion to sit on while shoes come on and off.  Tidy and useful.  The store it comes from is having a sale on their in store display items and I have a vision that the piece we want will be for sale and we'll get it at a bargain.  Either way, it's worth a trip in.

Lucy's hanging with a babysitter Saturday afternoon so we're free to shop at our leisure.

Damn Rain

I may be the only person on the west coast not wishing for rain.

Today - inside work only no siding.  We still have a big open hole in the wall.

Grumble.

Siding!

 

The sod belongs to the house next door, Eric and Tammy who are cute as a button.  Their kids were out and about in the neighborhood playing so we didn't meet them when we rang the bell to introduce ourselves.  They are taking possession of their home in a week or two.  They seemed nice and it was great to finally look a neighbor in the face.

Now, onto the mansion.

The house has been wrapped in the vapor barrier and on the front with the three little windows the solid siding has been partially installed, they will come back and add the decorative strips before installing the fancy woodwork and shutters.

The remainder of the house will be covered in traditional horizontal 5-ish inch strips.

Without really trying or planning it seems that Jason and I picked the same house design as the rendering on the Toll Brother's brochure.

From the brochure

Our front door will be a maroon red kind of like this -> THIS.  Pretty eh?

The last couple weeks have been rough because work has been off and on at the house but mostly off.  We had a conversation with the builder last week and they did say that their construction schedule has us taking ownership in the first week in January.

We're ok with that, and have started our mortgage shopping and paperwork gathering.

So, things were going glacially slow, like one week it seemed like all they did was frame in the bulkhead in the basement.  Then yesterday BOOM - the fans in the bathrooms were corrected, the light fixture housings have been installed on the main floor, and the upstairs area.   Today when I cruised by and saw that the scaffolding was going up and dudes were cutting siding I could also hear the happy sound of banging and nailing from inside the house.

We still have hope that we'll be able to close on the house before the end of the year, but we're accepting that we'll have a tiny Christmas in our little apartment and officially move in early January. We'll be able to take more time off and simply get ourselves settled.

Having the house for a few days before we actually move will allow some painting to occur.  I do have designs on an accent wall or two.

I know, I'm repeating myself in these posts, but the waiting is hard and planning is helping.

In fact, while we can't make any decisions until we see how bright the master bathroom is, I have two/three decorating ideas for our ensuite.  If the bathroom is really bright my princess tub area may be painted with the pretty dark peppercorn color, but I'm loving the light blue and considering the green, but it seems a bit BRIGHT.   I ordered some washcloths in the colors we're considering so that when we have walls, and tiles that we can make a choice.  It's fun being a mini-designer.

Honest Blue

Peppercorn

Watery

Raaaarr

Apartment Christmas

So, we've had some good news and some ok news. Frankly, the not knowing is worse than news I didn't want to hear. We will most likely close the first week in January.  I had hoped to move in in mid December and be ready to rock and roll by Christmas.

the dream

But the logistics of that scenario are staggering.  It can be done, but it involves a precise scheduling of furniture, appliance and box delivery that all could be upset by weather or bank delays.

The January timeline will mean that we have a quiet Christmas and save our vacation time for the move.  The very good news about this plan is that Lucy will have consistent day care and Jason and I can work hard for a couple weeks (together) to put our home together.

Unlike, when we moved into this apartment we'll both have time off so we can decide where to put things as a team, and we can do double duty on certain tasks. The new house doesn't have to sit empty with no work being done while one of us is here at the apartment with the movers.

Work at the house is moving again.  There was a delay with HVAC inspections and lack of a siding crew, but tada siding is going up.  Once the house is "buttoned up" electrical can begin again.  After the electrical is signed off by the city, then they insulate, inspect, and drywall can go up!  

Once the drywall goes in it's all finish work.  Painting, flooring, cabinets, connecting the plumbing, appliances, millwork, tilework, a final painting, inspection and then KEYS.  The finish work will only take two months.

The onsite manager said that the current calendar is pretty firm, but they'll let us know if things slip or speed up.  I don't have much faith that all of a sudden everything will go better than expected.  But, I am starting to trust the timeline.  Even with all the little issues (framing!) they are true to their original timeline that they talked about.

I'm just ready.  I need a long soak in a HOT deep bathtub.

If only...

If only we had money to burn we could get Lucy a bed that she would 100% hate but that would be fun for us.

Calgon Take Me Away

The waiting is getting to me this week. I think I'd be in a better place if there was steady progress, but things start then stop then nothing really happens for what seems like days and days. Since we last posted the HVAC system has been installed (which is no small event) but the vents in the bathrooms are still incorrect. We have gas lines, but the electrical work is still at a stand still. The neighbors at lot 60, the house that is about a week ahead of us in the schedule, have had their siding delivered and it is being installed. That means we should be next. We have a garage door finally but we still have an odd open section on the upper floor on the south side of the house. I'm not sure why it hasn't been sealed up. The HVAC stuff went in thru the garage and up the stairs. I know they will seal it up when the siding comes but the gaping hole is odd. We did get a chance to walk thru the house that is next door to us and it is coming along VERY nicely. They have all the flooring installed with the exception of the carpet, and their cabinets, counters and tile is installed. They picked a similar bathroom countertop to ours and it was nice to see it installed. So far, I like the finishes they chose best over all the other houses we've walked thru. I'm still so in love with ours which is a good thing.

I'm just ready to be done with this project. We have hopes well, the desire to be in the house by Christmas, but my hope is fading with each day of little to no progress. It's disheartening to drive by and see no one working or to walk thru at the end of the week and see that they've made one or two changes. This last week they framed out the bulkheads in the basement. oooh. So, the awesome news there is that the ceiling height in the basement is about 9 feet tall and the massive bulkhead on the one side only drops the ceiling in that section to about 7' 6". We'll put in a tall storage cabinet and it will be perfect. PERFECT. Still - I miss having space that feels like mine. This office feels like a dumping ground for all the random things in our world. Maybe I need a nap, but what I really want is a soak in my princess tub. Oh, speaking of which - I noticed the tub is facing away from the window with the view. Sigh. There isn't anything to do about it now, it's been plumbed so when I lay in the tub I will face a wall. I guess a fabulous piece of art will be in order. UPDATE: A quick check of the inspections with the city shows that there has been a delay due to inspections. BUt, as of yesterday the HVAC and Mechanical systems have passed their inspection and the rough in electrical inspection has been scheduled - so I'm hopeful that after this next inspection the crews will be ok to start working in earnest again.

A tale two kitchens

We've spent time in a few of the homes that are our floor plan to get a good feel for what we want and what to expect. During these visits to other people's not quite finished homes we've learned that we wanted a different cooktop, we wanted the expanded master bath option, and a larger deck. We've taken photos along the way and it's been helpful to review these from time to time to not only pass the time but to trigger questions for the builder.

Lot 44

We have a weekly call with the project manager, but this week it was cancelled due to his being in meetings all week. Since they asked we fired off a few questions such as is it too late to add a nickel covered power plate in the floor in our giant open space? Since the electrical hasn't really started we're hoping it's still a possibility. I also followed up on something we noticed in "lot 44".

They also opted for the cooktop and wall oven configuration (likely for the same reason we did, we saw it in Redmond and LOVED it.) But when we were in lot 44 we observed that the height of the vent hood was very low to the point that it may impede Jason's joy of cooking. We can't have that, because I miss his shrimp scampi and he is far better at eggs than I am.

Redmond House

I reviewed the photos of lot 44 and Redmond and thought I saw that the countertops in lot 44 did not extend out over the cabinet box. I studied the photo and was 100% sure that it looked wrong. Before I fired off a friendly but nervous letter to the design center contact to determine what was standard for our builder, I researched the standard counter depth overhang. It is amazing what you can look up on the Internet. My extensive research (10 mintues) tells me that a 1.5" overhang is standard. That is enough to cover the depth of the drawer and door fronts that are added to the cabinet boxes.

I hit send and seconds later Jason finally replied to an earlier comment I made to him about the issue. He said "Study the other pictures, this one seems like an illusion. I think the overhang is there." Well shoot. I went back and looked at the other photos and sure enough - overhang. I recalled my question and have a bit of egg on my face.

 Two reminders: look at all the other photos you have and be thankful you weren't a jerk when you asked your question.

 

our cooktop

Now, onto other things we noticed about the two kitchens. The Redmond kitchen has a bit more color with the grey back splash and the darker countertop.  Lot 44's cooktop is top mounted which is fine - but we loved the look of the kitchenaid in the Redmond house, so that is the one we ended up ordering.   I truly believe that Lucy has passed the age where the knobs are toys.  I also think the stainless look blends more with the over all look.  Without putting any thought to it, our fridge and cooktop are from the same line and will look superb together.

The folks at lot 44 spent far more $$ on their built in wall oven/microwave oven thing.  It's beautiful, and a part of me wishes I could have it, but the idea that one part could fail and you'd have to replace it all hurts my soul.  So, similar to the Redmond House pix above ours will be two separate systems housed together.

our selections

Personally, I think the Redmond kitchen is more interesting than the lot 44 kitchen, but when I look at the things that make that kitchen seem more interesting I'm worried we made mistakes.  Our tile is WHITE, our countertop is WHITE.  I hope the style of the tile and the darker grout provides enough pizazz to keep it from looking like a hospital.  Our cabinets have a different profile than either of the other kitchens, so I feel confident we haven't selected a cookie cutter kitchen, and I am over the moon in love with our flooring.  The hardwood is fabulous and will warm up the space quite a bit.  See, as I write, I'm talking myself back in love with our selections.

I love where our house is and how it sits on the lot, so my next statement is just an "if only" type comment.  The Redmond House had the kitchen on the right side of the main room, and our house will be the opposite.  I liked how the Redmond House was laid out from that perspective, but on our lot and with our amazing trees in the back it simply wouldn't work.  It's funny that I feel so strongly about it, because the lot in Redmond was so small that they had to trim trees at the property line to clear for the build. Specifically trees that were growing at the edge of the property line were trimmed to remove any branches (and big ones) that protruded over the property line.  It looked kind of bad. We have trees on the back side of our lot, but they are far enough away from our useable yard space that they get to live on without impediment and we get to enjoy a reasonable outdoor space.

It has been hard this week because it doesn't seem like much has been happening.  I"m so ready to be planning the last piece of this project (the move in) that even a few days of little to no visible progress is frustrating.   This will all be over soon and the Apartlandia portion of our lives will seem like a sweet memory.  Or not.

My tub

  It's dirty, but it will be an oasis within four months!

Exterior (sept 2)

Cold Beer and a place to watch tv!

With our end of summer camping trip cut short due to terrible air quality conditions, we were able to send Lucy to day care Monday and spend the day finalizing decisions on appliances as well as do some shopping around for furniture. We sold our washer and drier as well as our refrigerator with the Hoquiam house. The new house also comes with a budget for these items and a new living room couch and a basement man-land set up.

We have all the funds set aside for these new items but we want to make sure we have most of our proceeds from the sale of the first house still in the bank for when the lender evaluates us for the new mortgage. Therefore, while we intend to spend the money on these items we don't want to do it before we close on the house. However, we also don't want to move in without appliances at the very least.

It turns out we aren't the only people in this situation and some of our local retailers have a plan. The store where we've purchased all of our other appliances let us put down a $500 deposit on a washer/dryer and fridge and will charge our card on the day of delivery for the remainder of the items. PERFECT. We can complete our mortgage transaction and have the appliances delivered and installed before we move in! Woot Woot. I'm super excited about the refridgerator. It will be counter depth and therefore flush with the cabinets. We do lose some interior space, but we intend to get a second "pop fridge" for the garage so we won't be sharing space with soda, beer or popsicles.

closed

pretty!

 Our salesperson suggested that we take a gander at their scratch & dent selection right before we have our items delivered.  This is an amazing idea.  This second fridge will live in the garage so it doesn't have to look perfect, it just has to work perfectly.

the couch in real life

So, with those items handled we zipped off to the Macy's Furniture store just to look around.  I had my design heart set on a sectional couch from Pottery Barn that I thought would look so amazing. Willingly I wandered around Macy's but was pretty sure I wouldn't find anything that ticked all the boxes that the PB couch ticked.  Well - wouldn't you know it, we found one.

It's a sectional with a corner wedge (check) in a dark grey (check) that has a comfortable seat (check) and low arms (check) and a straight back (check) and it was ten inches shorter on each side than the PB version.  The extra length is nice for when you have five people on the couch, but those moments will be rare and the extra walking space will make our room feel even bigger.  Oh and the Macy's couch was a thousand dollars more than the PB couch.

WAIT!? A thousand dollars more, are you STUPID?  Nope, I'm pulling your leg.  Our whole order was a thousand dollars more than the projected cost of the PB couch, but we also got a huge sectional couch for the basement with three seats that recline to snoring positions AND a very beautiful new coffee table for the main floor AND a leather side chair to complete the look upstairs.

The side leather chair

So with the light grey walls, the WHITE fireplace, the wall of windows and our dark grey couch & super comfortable leather chair our new living room will be soooo super pretty.

I have a similar rug to the one in the example photo picked out, but it won't be blue.  I have two samples and will be taking them to Macy's the next time we go visit our selections to determine if either of them work with the design.

In the basement, the cozy couch that Jason picked is brown and we'll be reusing the red wool rugs that we had in the other house.

The main floor will be comfortable and sophisticated and the basement will be super cozy and warm.

Macy's won't put the charge for these items on their card until they are delivered.  So, like the appliances we can have them arrive the day after our closing date and before our items are delivered by the moving company.

I have hope that our new home will come together quickly.  I'm tired of apartment life.

Lucy & Grandpa Dancing