Update: Two weeks from move-in

It's been two weeks since we moved in and so far progress in the house has been a little slow. Both hubby and I have been swamped at work and have upcoming deadlines. Plus there are also a ton of work that needs to be done in our other home before tenants move in. Some things have been accomplished in the new home though. Our garage floor is awesome (Armorseal is great)  and so is the silent garage door opener that hubby installed.

First coat

Some good stuff

Blinds have been installed throughout the house. Hubby also installed a ceiling fan in our master bedroom. (Our master bedroom is still filled with boxes so no pics to show yet). I bought this two-blade fan from Lowe's.

Choosing ceiling fans has been a dilemma for us that's why we only have one installed so far. We paid for some ceiling fan rough-ins, each was $100 more than the light rough-in, so that we could have separate switches for fan and for light. However, all the ceiling fans that we like already come with remotes and only need one switch in the wall, thus the fan switch that we paid for will be useless. We would like to be able to control the fan and the light separately from the wall. Sure there's a way to do it but we could have just added light rough-in and provided a sturdier bracket (easy to do).  For those still choosing your options, that might be able to save you money.

We also have under-cabinet lighting in the kitchen.

And we have already installed an island!

Island planning

LOL! Just kidding :) Husband put together these boxes with the dimensions that we would like for an island. I have to get used to the space and make sure it's the kind I want before we build it. A big part of the reason we did not go for the Ryan Homes gourmet island is that we did not like the shape and it's just so overpowering. The other (non-gourmet) island on the other hand seems very small. I have a nice good-sized kitchen island in my previous home and I want something similar to that. So we will probably build a 54" square island something like this (but more modern looking):

This is not my photo and I just saved it from the web. I acknowledge whoever this pic belongs to :) Thanks

I already got a quote from the Timberlake cabinets distributor in our area. I would love to get a contrasting color of island cabinets, so I might get the dark Java or Espresso of the same Sonoma shaker design and then put white quartz countertop. But then I change my mind sometimes and think that I should stick with the same white cabinets but with a butcher block countertop. Your thoughts?

Basement update: Our sump pump and Zoeller pump have been replaced by brand new ones (we insisted). Problem is not totally gone though. I called PM when the sump pump was making loud noises, sounded like pebbles grinding. When he got to our house, the loud noise stopped. I showed him the video but he couldn't say what was wrong with it but he's confident that the pump is working well. Anyway, it rained yesterday and I'm happy to say that our basement stayed dry. However, there was water in the exit stairwell drain, which tells us that there's a clog somewhere in the line (draintiles) going to the sump pump.

Flooded drain

Oh, and hubby was in the attic last weekend and he noticed that some parts of the attic have less than the required 14" spray insulation. I have mentioned this to PM and he said that he's going to take care of it.

10" insulation

Well, I could say that PM is really working hard to address the issues in our house. We are still waiting for other things to be fixed but so far he has done a good job. He also gave us a nice little surprise. Remember our safety railings in the morning room?

It's now gone. Well, we asked for a simple walkout (like the garage steps) so that we could access the backyard from the morning room. But instead he gave us this:

Not quite a full deck but enough space for a few chairs and small table and has steps down to the yard. This would do until we build a much bigger deck in the future. Thank you PM for this :)