Sealing Granite & Grout

Hello!  To the people who have already settled into their new homes, when did you seal your granite and grout in the shower?  I am not sure if we should do this immediately after closing?  Also - what products did you use and how long did it take you?  If you could let me know, that would be great!  Thank you so much!! :)

Horrible Surprise

First of all, we ended up getting carpet in the dining room after all.  We spoke to our PM on Friday afternoon and told him we feared that they were going to carpet the dining room even though we paid for hardwood.  He said he'd be sure to make a call and make sure it was hardwood.  Well, we were out of town since Friday, so we swung by today.  Well - the dining room is carpeted.  That was our first surprise.

The living room has carpeting down, and the steps to the upstairs have padding on them, and the upstairs has carpeting laid out as well.  The basement steps have padding on them, and while we were heading down to the basement to see if it was carpeted (it's hard to see because we do not have electricity yet and it's a rainy day here today)...John gets to the bottom and sees that we have carpeting.  He steps off the last step and got a horrible surprise.

**********SPLASH**********

Yea, no joke, between 4-6" of water IN the basement ON TOP of the CARPETING.  I cannot even deal right now.  With so much going on between the house and wedding and work, I do not even know what to do.  I seriously was about to cry.  Then, I just got really angry...we went over to our Sales Rep because the model home was still open. 

We told him what is going on and he said this is happening because we do not have electricity right now so the sump pump isn't turning on, and that the area around our house is not grated (sp?) correctly yet.  I really kind of don't buy this.  I honestly think it's just something that the buyer would want to hear.  I, however, was raised by parents who don't take BS.  I said to him - regardless of the sump pump, water should not be getting into our basement.  He said water would probably get in to the sump pump but that's why it's there.  I'm starting to really wonder if Ryan gives the buyers a sump pump included for a reason.  Are they taking short cuts?

I need your opinions.  I honestly don't even know where to go with this one.  He said they would replace the carpeting and cut out the drywall that was affected and make sure everything is fine.  What am I supposed to do, go and watch them do this?  How am I supposed to believe that they will do the right thing?  This is a finished basement, we are going to use this as living space, I have horrible allergies and if I have mold in my living space, I am going to be miserable 24/7.  We are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for this home.  Can you guys please help me on this one?  If there is one thing on my blog that concerns me the most - this is the post, and I REALLY need your opinions :( :(

Is this normal?

I went to the house last night, and we have our lighting fixtures now and they stained the banisters.  They also did end up painting the shutters and the front door the Colonial Red like they said they were going to...I was wrong about the color remaining the gray color!  What else...the porch was poured, and we have our sink and faucet...I have pics that I'll put on as soon as I get a minute to myself hahaha! 

Anyway - I have a question.  They have all of our hardwood done in the kitchen, foyer, powder room and coat closet.  We paid for hardwood in the dining room.  The hardwood has been finished in the rest of the house for over 2 weeks now.  Do you think they forgot to do our dining room?  Should I say something?  Why would they wait to do that room? 

Thanks!!

Locked in!!

Hey guys!  We are officially locked in at 4.25%.  We are happy to be there, since our initial cost calculation sheet was with an estimated 4.75% interest rate.  Already saving some money.  I know it's not much, but it means a lot to us.  AND, the cost was less than yesterday as well, so we really made out :)  We are going to the house tonight.  I have pics that I need to post.  We have our cabinets in, and our hardwood in the foyer, powder room, and kitchen.  We have our Vinyl in as well.  I will get some more pics tonight and post later!

Rate Question...HELP!

We are feeling clueless on the whole locking in on our interest rate thing.  I contacted our NVR Rep today and he let us know that the rate for today on a 60 day lock is 4.25% - cost .375%.  What does this even mean?  4.25% sounds appealing to me, but is there somebody on here that can help me with this a little more?  I'm assuming that tomorrow's rates may be around the same...at least I'm hoping because it's 4:30PM right now, and I could probably only lock this in until 5PM.  HELP!  PLEASE!

Thank you!!

Siding, Stone & Shutters!

 Took a drive by the house tonight to show my Dad around.  Much to my surprise, we had this:

I LOVE IT!  We are supposed to have Colonial Red shutter and front door, but I am hoping they keep the current color on the shutters because I like them better LOL!

Pre-Drywall

From Foyer

1 Guest Room

Master

Loft

Waterproofing the Window Frames

Our units together

Add caption

Selling lots of homes!

Flat Screen Cable Wires?

Family Room

Family Room w/Deck Door

Island

Sorry it's sideways! hahah

We had our pre-drywall meeting on Friday the 15th.  It was a fairly quick meeting, going through the house, checking the framing, electric, and plumbing along with all of our lighting placements and fireplace, etc.  Everything was great.  We didn't have an issue on anything - except for the fact that our finished basement doesn't have a window in the main part of it.  However, when we went downstairs with the PM that was the first thing he addressed.  They are putting a window in, as they misrepresented this to all of our neighbors, including us.  Of course we noticed this about a week before the pre-drywall meeting (b/c we were in the house hehe) and we didn't say anything, because we were going to bring it up at the meeting.  It was great that we didn't even have to do that though, because it's already being taken care of!  We also learned from our PM that most of our neighbors are young couples or newlyweds with babies!  So exciting!!  Projected closing date is 8/19, however we won't be closing until 9/16.  We are going to do the closing walk through and all of that on 8/19 (if this is the definite closing date), so that when we close about a month later, all we need to do is sign some paperwork and get our keys!  It'll be easier for the PM too, so that he doesn't have to come back for all of that.  I can't WAIT!  I have gone furniture shopping, and got a living room set, a dining table and chairs, I need a hutch or buffet server still...some cute lamps, and some really nice glassware to display.  I just can't help myself!  My new favorite store is HomeGoods - I just cannot believe the deals that they have at all times!  I bought 4 upholstered dining chairs for $60/piece!  And, I want to get two more for each end of the table, but I want them to be a little different than the four on the sides.  It'll just add to the room :)  Here are some pics and a video from about 2 weeks ago, lol!  First time using the camera as a video camera, so please don't mind me going in all different directions, I have learned better since this!