Has your house settled like mine?

I knew my house would settle but I'm a little surprised at how much.  In the winter we could hear lumber popping multiple times a day and just the other day I found some drywall on the floor which prompted me to look up and see a big crack.  All of this will be fixed at my 10 month, but it's a little unsettling...pun intended lol.

Crack between formal living and hall

Biggest crack between hall and family room

Fireplace grout line cracked and fireplace wood separating

Nail pops and drywall tape visible

Nail pop in bathroom downstairs

Crown moulding separating where the curtain rings are, and separating at the seam 

Crack at bottom of stair well looking up

Not sure how visible this is in the pic, but two drywall seams showing on stairwell

Nail pops up the staircase

Grout has shrunk-guest bathroom sink

Grout shrunk at all door jams that meet hard floor

Master bath sink-grout shrunk

Master bathroom tile grout cracked

More time grout that's cracked

More shrunken grout (never mind my dirty floors lol)

Cabinets are separating

Even the doors have separated/cracked a bit

More separation

Sliding door...not sure what's going on here.  A leak perhaps?

Another area where a crack is

I don't think anything is majorly alarming but I'm glad all this is getting fixed before we have company next month.  It just makes the quality of the house seem not that great...

In other news, we planted a tree:

It's a river birch.  My favorite tree.  And it will be growing in the only spot where we have a neighbor that will eventually be able to look right at us, so we are going to block them out :)  It may take a few years though haha

We also finished the side of our house, we hope to do this with the other side as well in the coming weeks.  Definitely gives it more of a finished look!

Would love to hear how your house is settling!

energy efficiency breakdown

The sales person at the model home has been asking me for different information for prospective buyers, and one thing buyers are always curious about is how energy efficient the home really is. 

As in, let me see some bills and verify!

I know I felt that way too, they SAY it's energy efficient but how do you really know until you get a few bills?

I am 9 months in and I must say, I'm happy happy happy.  My electric bill (above) has never been over $100.  And really, that September was our first full month in the house and I'm sure we had the A/C cranking while we were unpacking.

The gas bill on the other hand has been fluctuating much more, because we used our fireplace like we depended on it to keep us alive.  That thing ran non-stop...and we definitely paid for it in February with a $131 bill.  However, in the summer, our gas bill was a measly $18!  The good thing about having both gas and electric is that when one goes up the other goes down, so the month our gas bill was highest, our electric bill was very low and vice versa.  

My gas company didn't have a cool little table but here is Sept thru April:

Sept   $20.63

Oct   $18.10

Nov   $57.64

Dec   $81.46

Jan   $93.43

Feb   $131.14

Mar   $70.57

Apr   $44.15

The cheapest month looks like October when I paid $18.10 for gas and $70.04 in electric for a total of $88.14!

However, that was a beautiful month with 70 degree breezes and our windows were open!

After looking at all the fluctuations, I have decided to sign up for equal pay so I don't have months that are like February where I owed $131.14 plus $59.37 = $190.51!

Now we will be paying a cool $75 for electric and $49 for gas on equal pay which is $124 per month and I never have to worry about those months where the bill spikes.

So tell me, have you been pleased with the energy efficiency of your home?

New mulch

Out with the pine needles, in with black mulch!  4 bags for $10 at Lowes! 

We added some lavendar and knockout roses for color.  We are also putting some shrubs and mulch along the side and the river birch tree in the backyard.  Its looking fab!

10 month inspection is scheduled, crazy how time flies!

flower beds and deck

Well hello there strangers :)

My husband has been gone for 3 weeks and he will be home Saturday and a project on our list is to do a flower garden.

The thing is, I'm scared.  I can't keep anything alive.

And while I can only dream it would look something hearty and beautiful like this...

In all reality it could end up like this...

So anyone out there with a green thumb want to chime in?  

I'm thinking of going along a portion of our fence like this...

I would love to plant some veggies or something too but our yard is just really not that big and I'm not sure how much usable space I want to take up with a garden.  And really, don't flowers only bloom in the spring/summer?  Would I have a big dead dirt patch other times of year?  Help!

One other project we want to do that will take up more yard space is to deck over our completely crappy concrete slab.  We paid extra to get 10x19 but it is sooooo rough that walking on it barefoot is pretty much not the way to go...as well as the rug I have out there never can get dry.  We want to raise it up and do a pergola like this (minus the hot tub and fancy rail things) and do a semi circle around one end for our firepit.  And obviously not this fancy, but I think you get my drift.

Just overall wanting to improve our outdoor space so we can go out and enjoy more than we currently are.

What plans do you have to spruce up your yard this year?