Lessons learned

If I were to do this all over again, here are ideas where money could have been spent wisely.

1. Pay the $100 to have the interior color be something other than STARK WHITE. Looks OK in the day, but at night it looks like an Asylum.
2. Get the carpet pad upgrade. Dear lord it is like walking on office carpeting bare-foot. My feet are so sore right now I can barely walk.
3. Counter tops that are not made out of chalk or soap or whatever that stuff is. I am guessing that it will need to be replaced before we retire because it appears to lack any durability.

Coming home was nonetheless a bummer and it won't be for another month until we can get back. Some pictures are loaded into the Beach Place Story II. We really didn't take all that many this weekend either because we were too busy, too tired or too messy to want evidence. I need to start a 2008 folder for pictures too.

We're here!!!

Yesterday was move-in in day at the beach. Thursday night we loaded up my truck, my Dad’s truck and Kristi’s car so we could get an early start. I got to Ocean Shores around noon on Friday and started the walk-through. We found a number of cosmetic things besides the fireplace. Nothing earth shattering though: a couple of tile chips and a mirror needing replacement.

Dana and Diane Detray, the owners of Detrays where we bought our home, stopped by and said “hi”. Diane and Cindy, our sales person, left some nice dolphin knick-knacks on the mantel for us which was very nice. Apparently by moving in before our walk-through with Skyline upsets Skyline somehow, but as long as any to-do’s make it on Detray’s report we should be OK.

So we unload everything. I was so busy with everything yesterday, I didn't even get the camera out let alone take a picture.

My parents picked Emily up at school and then drove out here with the last load of stuff. We went out for dinner last night (seafood of course) and they spent the night. This morning we all went for a beach walk and then out to breakfast. If that doesn’t sum up why we bought this place, I don’t know what does.

They just headed home, so tonight we are on our own. I will upload pictures when I get home (the cell card isn’t fast enough to be worth it).

Inside at last

So we went out to the property today. The outside looks good. The only odd thing was the mountain of wire for the phone and cable in front of the power box and the back faucet is kind of cheesey. I am hoping someone cleans these up.

Poking around we found a key! Amazing, but it worked on the locks on the doors. I wouldn't have guessed it was there, but since we found it we went inside. YES!!! Inside at last!

Inside still needed to be cleaned as there was a lot of carpet fibers and construction dirt around. We got a good close up of the fireplace and it is very pretty, but the surround came loose from the wall, the firebox is off kilter leaving gaps between the sides and the back and the mantle corners do not meet flush. Ummm...spent over $2,000 on that fireplace so they need to fix it. The only other big problem was the accent tiles in the kitchen are the wrong color (looks good really, but definitely not what we ordered) and are missing altogether from the master bath. Since we paid extra for those tiles we either need a refund or they need to fix it. A refund would be preferable really. The top of the dishwasher has a rail that is not on the guide wheel, should be an easy fix.

Overall we are pretty happy with it, only one major problem and a couple minor ones. The final walk-through is Friday (when we are supposed to point these things out). Once those are fixed we should be in good shape.

Nope...

...next weekend. I think we are going to be doing our walk through on Feb. 22 and they will give us the keys then. Three day weekend next week while we move in (kinda)!

When we put money down in December, I predicted President's Day weekend and I was off by a week. Not a bad guess.

Could it be this weekend?

I spoke with the site contractor (the guy who does everything to prepare and connect the house, but nothing to the house per se). He said the power is in, the skirting is on, the ground has been final graded, bothersome trees removed and he is taking some of the extra money we have in our loan to fix the driveway (it got pretty chewed up). He is all done.

So now it is up to the team at Detrays to finish it off. We called them tonight, but they didn't get back to us. What is left to do???

Grumble...

We were planning on heading down to the beach place to see what is new and exciting. Unfortunately, we cannot go inside alone because it is still under construction and there are liability thingys that we could violate if we hurt ourselves inside unsupervised (who are we going to sue...ourselves?). Thus, with nothing new to see (with the exception that plumbing is all in), there is little reason to drive 4.5 hours.

I guess Axel Rose is right: just a little patience...yeah...yeah...