08/02/08
Nothing is sweeter than seeing something you've dreamed about finally coming to fruition. I visited my house today, and it was about 95% complete. All that is left is clean-up, some touch-up stuff, and my side gate. I spent several hours today taking measurements, and trying to figure out several tricky issues. The things I'm dealing with are as follows: Paint Colors - Picking paint colors is always a nightmare, and it's not something I'm particularly good at. I walked through each room, and also visited the model again, and came to the realization that I only know what I want to do with around 50% of the rooms, and I'm not exactly confident with those either. I stopped by home depot and grabbed some pamphlets that show all sorts of paint colors, so I'm gonna have to do a lot of thinking about what I really want. I'm probably going to need some advice from others... Speakers and Speaker Wire - In my great room, I have 7.1 speakers. I'm really struggling with how I should handle the rear 4 speakers ( 2 go in the back corners, but because of diffusion, act as side speakers ). I could hang them from the ceiling, but then I have to construct (translation: get my Dad to make) special mounts that can hang from the ceiling but support fairly heavy speakers. I also then have to run wires up the walls to the ceiling, and across the ceiling. This would still probably look better than option 2, which is to buy 4 special stands to put the speakers on, then run the wire across the carpet. While the speakers would look great on the stands, running wire across the carpet would look bad. The wire I'm using is a white, flat speaker wire that is designed to blend into white walls so that it doesn't stick out. Therefore, it would look fine running across the ceiling. Looks like I'm gonna have to beg my Dad for some help... Appliances - I've grown to really like consumer reports. They usually have really good recommendations, and when they are wrong, users usually point it out. I decided to sign up for a month to find out what the current recommendations are, and it helped me decide on the 3 appliances (washer,dryer, and refrigerator) that I'm going to go with. I stopped by Home Depot, and all 3 were available there (thank goodness), so it should be fairly easy to pick them up all at once with a 10% discount. It will still cost me about 2.2k though... Computer Desks - I want desks where there is ample room for the keyboard and mouse, and they have to be on a lower level, separate from the monitor. There also needs to be room for 2 monitors, as I can't live without 2 now. I didn't think it would be that hard to find, but I searched through local stores and didn't find anything worthwhile. I then went online and it was still really difficult to find what I wanted. I've finally decided on the A-Line Computer Desk, but it's very modern looking, so I hope it will look ok... I don't think I have enough money to splurge on two desks (one for my computer room, one for music room), so I might have to just settle with my existing desk for the music room, which is mostly ok. There's also various other stuff I have to worry about, like solar screens, fans, getting my music room set up, as well as the workout room, which needs a few pieces of equipment I'm missing, but I guess it doesn't all need to happen at once. I've figured out all the critical stuff except for paint colors and the exact type of wood to get for my music room. Moving is going to be a headache, as well as the first week of getting into the house, and turning everything on. I can't wait until I'm all settled, and I can just have fun with having a new house. Too bad I'm probably not gonna have enough money to get a lot of the fun things I wanted, but I'll just make do for awhile. Anyways, it's time to resume my cleaning and initial packing. Wish me luck on moving into the new house - I think I'm gonna need it 07/27/08
Link for house: New House Pictures Well I've uploaded all the pictures, and there is a lot to show. There is a really cool medallion in my entryway now, as well as lots of tile and granite countertops. It all looks really good (even better in person). I'm starting to get really excited about the house now, as I move in on August 21st which is about 3 weeks away. There is a lot of work to be done though, and a lot of phone calls to make. On a side note, people hear that John and I are both getting the same model, and they might think that the houses will be identical. If you look at the "Differences" link at the top, you will see that while the floor plans are identical (but mirrored), all of our selections and upgrades differ greatly. As for the barbecue today, it was a lot of fun. Alcohol got involved early, as well as rock band, so you can imagine the fun involved I'm pretty exhausted now, so I think I'm gonna pass out. Perhaps tomorrow I will begin the preliminary hunt for wood flooring for my music room, computer desks and chairs, and appliances. Too much fun... 07/26/08
07/12/08
Went to visit the house again today, and found out some interesting stuff. First off, all my painting was done, my garage door was up, my roof was almost completely tiled, and they had installed all of the doors inside. Pretty awesome. When I went to check with the builder's agent for my development, I found out he suddenly quit. Not cool 07/09/08
I finally managed to get the pictures from the anime expo up in the gallery as well as new pictures of the house. It took hours and hours, so I ran out of time and can't post about all of the fun over the weekend. I will try to write it all up tomorrow. Until then, follow these links for picture goodness. |
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11:45:11 pm, by mzuber23 
I have video of Lucija singing an Iron Maiden song on Rock Band (and an even crazier video when she was on Bill's karaoke machine) but I think she would kill me if I posted it. There was a lot of pool (John destroying me mostly), as well as card games that I didn't get involved in.
At least I'm dealing with Melissa now, who is an awesome person. Also discovered that the price for my house has dropped 17k, so I'm gonna get an even better deal (yay! 
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