housewarming gift

Merry Christmas Eve!

I opened a gift today that was a belated housewarming gift from my sister-in-law and it is crazy how much I love it!  What a cool idea!!

You all know how obsessed I am with my front door :)

She hooked me up with this awesome door knocker from Pottery Barn, engraved with our last name initial!

I never would have thought of something like this, so I was so excited and though it was just perfect!!

I'm going to have my husband mount it so my wreaths will go around it.  Here's a few ideas I saw:

And seriously...how fabulous is that WREATH?  I think I need to make a super big one like that too :)

Have a wonderful Christmas!

RH appointment

To update:

Regional RH guy came.  They fixed a couple floor pops/squeaks which I appreciated.  He looked at the dishwasher situation and told me that the parts are on order and I already have an appointment for the cabinet people to fix it up on January 2.

The stairs.

Oh the stairs.

I made the house completely silent before I asked him to go up them.  And sure enough, as he goes up them, every single stair sounded as if it was bending/cracking under his feet.  It's not super loud, but then again it's not silent.  It sounds as if they are under stress.

He said they are totally level as they are made in a factory so he doesn't think they have fallen forward, just that the padding and carpet are matted down.

As he assessed them I was fully prepared for him to tell me it was normal and to wait it out...

But he thought they were somewhat strange too and decided to call and schedule a crew to come out and pull up the carpet.  They are going to nail down and GLUE every single stair topper thing...what ever it's called.  That ought to keep them quiet :)

I'm happy with this resolution.  I don't want 80 year old stairs in a 4 month old house.

He looked at my list of issues I've been writing down and everything else is stuff for the 10 month fix, and the drywall fix at 1 year.  They also fixed my driveway where it had crumbled.

Happy camper!

Living room/office...more good stuff

So I loved my office as it was but to take up some more space, we decided to add a L to it and have a laptop workspace for the hubs.

We have a bit more trim work to do but I am loving it!

My hubs built a simple frame and then used a hand scraped pergo flooring as the top.  He also did a backsplash to take up the space to the chair rail.  He broke apart my existing Walmart particle board desk to use as support.  We took my son's bookcase cube thing out of his room and put it under the desk with Wicker baskets for storage and bought him a taller one for his room. We purchased two extra dining chairs when we put the leaf in our table so we use them as office chairs.

And the latest addition are these fabulous blinds.   They are just 3" faux wood blinds from target, $18 each!  I chose espresso because I wanted a richness and I think it will look great with a gray paint we have chosen for in here.   We love them so much I think we are also going to put them in our family room since we have a lot of trouble with glare on the TV.

This whole project was less than $160, not including accessories/decor.   That is just the desk.   Not too shabby!  

Trying to decide if I should put a little conversation chair by my guitar and leave the other chair at the desk or move it away when not in use?  Suggestions?

appointments made

Cabinet people can't come until the 2nd to install my new wood filler pieces on either side of the dishwasher.  I'm not too concerned since we'll be gone a week for Christmas anyway but I'm definitely bummed it's taking so long.  I can't even open the dishwasher without both drawers sliding out, it's tilted pretty bad.

I knew I would get the "the stairs are level, the carpet can make them look un-level" from the regional buy but I am telling you when you step on them, they feel like they tilt down a bit.  Who knows but I did manage to get an appointment with him for him to see and hear them for himself.  He says no matter what, it's been documented and they will continue to fix it even after my warranty is up.  So that makes me happy.

Our winter to-do list is loooong and I can't wait to get started.  One of the first things I want to do is paint all my interior doors black...ooooooh I can't wait to see how that's going to look!!!  I'm dying to paint in other rooms too but I am seeing nail pops everywhere and now that they are starting the house next door, I was told they may get worse due to the ground being messed with...oh joy.  It's killing me to wait but then again, we've already been in 4.5 months so it's not too much longer.

Stairs. Again.

They sent the RH regional guy today.   Except it wasn't him.   It was someone else because he was sick.  

He first tried to act like they could just re-screw in the dishwasher and it was all good.   No.   The cabinet piece needs to be replaced on the right side where its split and it needs to be secured on the left side where its loose.  Had to push and then they agreed to call the cabinet people.   Now I'm waiting for a call back.   I'm glad though because there are a few areas where the seams are coming apart and I want them to see if that's an issue they can address.

Then.   The stairs.

I go up and down then multiple times a day.  When my husband comes down them it is even worse.

This guy went down them once and said they would get better over time.   That it needs one whole year to go through the seasons.

When my warranty is up?  No.

After he left I got out my level and sure enough just about every other stair is tilted forward.   The carpet and padding could be accounting for some of that but I doubt this much.  My stairs have settled and they are not handling it well.

I emailed my PM even though I am way out of my window but he is the only one I can trust. He can pass me on to someone else or give me advice.   But so far I'm not impressed with the RH number.   13 days and I'm still dealing with a broken cabinet and loose dishwasher.   PM would have had it fixed a day or two after it happened.

Hopefully we will get resolution soon.   In the meantime we are enjoying the Christmas season!!

formal living room office

So a month or two ago, my husband found this picture online and we both just loved it.  I thought it would be great as my desk in my formal living.  

Cue this past weekend when I went out of town, and got stuck in a snow storm on the way home with my 3 year old and we had to sleep in the airport and wait it out...well my husband said he had a big surprise for me when I got home...

After 24 hours of travel, my son and I made it home and I got to see my beautiful new office!!!

He built the desk using wood and pergo flooring on the top, and he broke apart my old desk to use as the support.  He took off the top of my old desk and mounted it as a shelf...he even did all the decorating you guys!  Down to the cute little lamp!  He rocks!  He knew I wanted some pink in my office :)

Guess I should go out of town more often, stuff gets done (without any effort from me!)!!

I think we are going to add another extension off to the left under my picture wall.  And eventually paint this room.  Probably a charcoal gray two tone or something fun!  Then we are going to get a couple little chairs for the right side, and a little table.  I love all the workspace I now have!

appointment made

The regional guy never called so I called in again, and he called like 20 min later.  Why can't they do that the first time?

He will be out on Wednesday to look at the dishwasher.  I'm sure he's then going to have to line up a cabinet guy to take a look.  More annoying appointments.

I have to say I am really displeased with my staircase.  I have complained a ton on here, has anyone else experienced cracking, creaking stairs?  I want them to pull up the carpet and replace the top boards.  Going to have to fight for this I'm thinking.  Also when my husband walks around upstairs in our bathroom, and I am downstairs in the living room, there is a lot of noise, like creaking and cracking.  Not sure what they can do about that since it's all tiled in the bathroom but they are for sure going to hear my complaint about it.  I don't want to feel like I live in an 80 year old house that is only 4 months old.

Not impressed

I called on Thanksgiving about my dishwasher, left a message with the RH number.   Tried to submit a request online, says my address in invalid.   They called back the next day and took my information and said the regional manager would call within 1-2 days.   Here I am at day 10 with no call.

Dishwasher is not even connected to anything.   Cabinet is cracked.   Emailed PM to mention how long its been.   We will see how much longer they will make me wait.