SNOW!

This is really why I love it here! A beautiful snowfall with beautiful scenery!

Back corner of the yard/ back side

View from the front of the house

Home Sweet Home!!

Doesn't get much better than this!!

I disappeared... I will come back!

I did it, too. Disappeared! Life is nuts!

Just wanted to give a quick update and will post more when I have a chance.

Turns out a bunch of HVAC systems in our development were not measured correctly and almost everyone building around when we did got units that were too small. This explains some of the inconsistent temperatures, especially upstairs for us. So, SURPRISE! We are getting upgraded bigger units upstairs and downstairs! A bunch of our neighbors got this or some variation and said things run much better now. It's like getting a new house all over again! Well, sort of ;-)

Other than that, things are going smoothly and we continue to love our home! Our development is about to release the last section of lots, all premiums ones (beautiful views of the woods and sunsets!) and then will stop until 2015. We are so amazed by how many homes are being built. Almost all of the lots are sold and building is well on its way! The prices continue to increase and we love being in the green as opposed to the red like we were with our townhome!

If we could do this again we would. What a great adventure it has been. We love our neighbors, who are now our close friends, and our kids love to play all the time outside with their new friends! We are sneaking up on our 10 month (CRAZY!) and need to get moving on what fixes we want. I will post that when we have the whole list together.

Any tips from other 10 monthers out there?

Hope everyone is enjoying their homes and home building!

Lot pics as promised!

Better late than never!

View from the front of our house up the shared driveway, main street at the top.

View from the top of the shared driveway down to our house and our neighbors' (ours is on the left at the bottom)

View from the patio of the back and side yard

View from the front of the house to the side yard

Another view heading down the shared driveway

Other side of the yard

Our house :-)

Another view of the back/ side yard in the corner

Patio and backyard view

Top 20: #3: YARD and LOT 15!

Growing up I did not have a backyard and our townhouse had a very small yard, which was mostly pavers. Now we have a BEAUTIFUL backyard and a huge side yard that ends at the tree line.We weren't expecting such a huge side yard! The kids enjoy the swing set and all the room they have to run. Luckily we are good friends with the neighbors whose yards are near us, so all the kids in our little section play together in the combined yards. It is so beautiful and peaceful out there, I could stay outside for hours. It is so nice to just let our kids go out and run around and not have to worry about them running into a street.

Out lot is tucked back off the street. It is like having your own little private driveway and cul de sac. We share the driveway down to the houses with the neighbors across the street and it then turns into our driveway with a little turn around at the end. I will have to take a picture of it tomorrow morning to better explain it! It is great because the kids can walk out the door and we don't ever have to worry about cars since it is just us and our across the street neighbors! It also makes it super peaceful and private. There are only 2 shared driveway areas like this, 4 houses total that get these lots. They are also significantly bigger than the others. With the trees and the view of the (water retention) pond, it is PERFECT! The best part is we got all this with no lot premium! Couldn't be more pleased with the lot we chose!

Here's the plan when we bought our lot. You can kind of see the set up. Lots 10, 11, 15, and 16 are
all shared driveways. We don't face the street, we are turned to the side (our house faces lot 16's house face).

Top 20: #5 and #4...

I know I am a slacker, but here we go...

#5: The Space and Open floor plan. We had NO space for anything in our townhome. We even kept strollers in the dining room! Here everything is so nice and open and spacious. The kids can play in their rooms if they want and have SO much room in the basement to play. I love how the kitchen, morning, room, and family room are all open to each other. I just LOVE the feel of the house.

#4: The Morning Room. 'Nuff said. This is my favorite room in the whole house. I am sitting in it right now as I type this. I love looking out onto the backyard and the trees on the side. This was the best thing we could have added and I feel like the house would be incomplete without it.

I will try and keep up now... :-)

Top 20: #7: Trees and Nature; #6: New Patio

#7: Trees and Nature

These are the trees in our side yard. Forest preservation area, so they are staying!

We have beautiful trees in our side yard, but our whole neighborhood is covered in trees. It is absolutely beautiful. On top of that there are families of deer and tons of bunnies always running around. Sometimes I feel like I am in a fairy tale! There are lakes, hiking/nature trails...it's just wonderful. 

#6: New Patio

We have a fire pit near the sitting wall (these pics are not updated yet!)

Grass has grown in since this pic was taken :-)

We love being able to sit outside, relax, and listen to the nature sounds. I am so happy we could do this so soon and we have really been taking advantage of it! The kids love having a direct route to their play set outside, too! The neighbors come over when they see us out there and it has been great! So happy we have a yard big enough to do this! One day we'd like to expand it around the back, for now, we love this!

Top 20: #9: Kitchen, #8: Floors

#9: Kitchen- 'nuff said.  I love it. I love the color of the cabinets, the space, the stainless steel, Santa Cecilia granite...love that my kids use it as a race track! It's a amazing! We chose not to do the gourmet island since we could both picture our kids bashing their head on it while running around! I am glad we did that since it gives us a lot of open space between the kitchen and family room.

#8: Floors: Love the darker floors! They shine and I am happy :-)

Top 20: #11: Having a Garage and #10 Cascading steps to the 2nd floor

#11: I have NEVER had a garage. When I say never I mean not growing up, not ever! So having a garage is pretty awesome, especially with 2 kids and rain. Plus, you can store whatever, whenever!

#10:  The cascading steps on the Victoria Falls Model was a big selling point for us. They are just so beautiful...

Top 20 Things We Love About Our House: #13 and #12

Need to catch up, I am a major slacker!

#13: All the STORAGE! All the cabinets in the kitchen, the kitchen pantry, 2 linen closets, and the unfinished area of our basement. Not only that, but we have a "nook"/ bump out in the garage that stores the riding mower, extra outdoor chairs and more! Compared to being all smashed up in our townhouse, this is truly amazing! Of course we have managed to fill most of it thanks to our 2 little boys!

Along those same lines...

#12: His and Hers Closets!! One of the greatest features. My closet is so big and has a window in it. It could easily be converted into a study, but then I would lose my own personal closet space! I also really like that they are not in the bathroom. Don't ask me why, I just like them outside of there!

#14: Mudroom Space!

We didn't get the official mudroom with the extended laundry room upgrade, but we still have the mudroom space! I love having a designated area to put shoes and coats that is not the foyer or back door! I also love that it is our laundry room so that muddy clothes go straight in the washer. Great for the kids, great for the adults!

#16 and #15 Top 20 Things We Love About Our Home

I forgot to do one yesterday :-)

#16: Our brick, I LOVE it! I really love the detail above the windows. This is one of those upgrades I feel VERY good about!

#15: The natural light. We have so many beautiful windows that allow so much light that we often don't even need to turn on the lights in the house. I am a huge fan of this and am very happy :-)

#17 on The Top 20 List of Things I Love About My House

#17: All the extra little details: the molding on the tops of the cabinets in the kitchen, the tile in the bathrooms that go all the way past the top of the shower head, the "sunrise" window in the top middle of the morning room... just to name a few! Those little things really make a difference and finish off the house!

#18 of the Top 20 Things We Love About Our Home....

The lamp post that turns on automatically at dusk and when all the lights outside are turned on at night. The automatic thing really rocks and there is something about a house all lit up at night that is just beautiful <3

Some pictures as promised!

Here we go! I didn't get the kids' rooms and guest room, but will get to it when we have worked more on it (paint and such). Enjoy!

Family room

Dining room

LOVE the french doors into the master(view from the hallway)

Will never stop loving the kitchen :-)

Some master bedroom decor

Home sweet home---I think we are going to paint our door black eventually, but still on the fence

Favorite, morning room

Side yard view---LOVE!

The bathtub faucet I LOVE

Kitchen faucet

Excuse the mess, but I posted about what we did to the laundry room earlier.
This is how it looks with the W/D moved to the left far wall and added a bench and coat rack.
Works GREAT as a mudroom now with TONS of space! If you didn't get the extended laundry room, do this!

Living room

Kids' section of the basement

TV/ Adult section :-)

Hubby's bicycle room in 1/2 the unfinished space (other 1/2 has exercise equipment)

Patio Pics!

Here are some pics of our new patio! I LOVE having outdoor space and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE (did I mention love?) sitting on my papasan chair. I have wanted this chair for literally 20 years, at least! See, dreams do come true! They had to reseed the area around the patio, which is why there is hay (again) there, I have more house pics but for whatever reason I am having trouble sending them from my phone but I will get to them soon!

Enjoy!

Charlie the dog likes the patio also :-)

#19: The sink in the kitchen and all the faucets

I know, I know, faucets and sinks? But I love them! I love the double sink in the kitchen even though I am not sure what I use the one without the garbage disposal for really. I think the faucets are just beautiful! We upgrade the kitchen one, but the faucets in the bathroom and especially on the master bath and guest shower are really nice! I will take a few pics tonight or tomorrow and post them (along with updated pics!). It's those little details that truly make a house beautiful!

TOP 20 THINGS WE ENJOY ABOUT OUR HOME!

Thanks everyone for this awesome idea! I actually had to write everything out to make sure I could list everything I loved in the right place! It was tough! I have to say we LOVE LOVE LOVE our new home. Could not be more pleased with everything. I will put some updated pics up soon since we also disappeared with life getting in the way. Especially want to post pics of the new patio!!! LOVE IT, especially the outdoor papasan chair I got at Pier 1, can you say HEAVEN?!

Ok, on with the countdown....

#20: Having 2 HVAC units. May seem weird, but in our old townhouse the temps upstairs were WAY different from downstairs and varied drastically from room to room. Having nice consistent temps throughout the house and being able to keep the temps at 74 (thank you energy star) is WONDERFUL!


#19 tomorrow....

So fun!

A few pictures, finally!

Well, it is a work in progress, but here are pics of some of the rooms. Nowhere near complete! No pictures hung yet, but it will give you an idea! We STILL love it! Had our 30 day yesterday and it went well. Our PM even moved our swing set for us because it was in the way of drainage and they need to re-route the drainage due to lots of standing water and mud. Will post an update once the repairs are done, there were not many.

For whatever reason I forgot to take a good picture of the couches in the family room! I will update the pics tonight.

Enjoy!

Morning room

Morning room fan

One angle of my youngest son's room

Outside with shrubs and flowers

Another outside view (working hard on our grass!)

Side yard view

Family room, one angle (pictures prepping to be hung one of these days!)

Swing set and patio furniture (waiting on the patio); mud pit is where no grass is growing

Back corner of yard

Living room and our temporary couch

Dining room

Master bedroom with ceiling fan and things that still need to be unpacked

Guest bedroom (can't see the fan, but it's same as the kids' rooms)

One angle of my oldest son's room (temp shades, which are nice!)

Another angle of my oldest son's room

Other angle of my youngest son's room