Better than expected / Pre-settlement / Agreement about Yard.

I bitch and whine, but ultimately our meeting today went better than expected. Words are nice, but until I see the execution of our agreement about the yard, I will be calling twice a day. 

So, as previously stated the pre-settlement meeting went better than expected. It might have been due to the fact that I was on a sugar high from these cupcakes Heartland sent to my Keller Williams office as a "Thank You" gift. Amazingly good freaking cupcakes. 

 When we arrived, the driveway had been paved, which was nice because it was due this past Friday. There's one tree that still needs moved in the  lot next to us, into our lot somewhere. This is just the first coat, there will be a final top coat probably next summer-ish.

We went through the house, pointed out issues that were affected but there was no blue tape. Nothing to mark the items with. Instead PM just wrote them down. I knew I should have brought my own. But, screw it. We discussed the hardwood flooring again, and the blue tape we had previously put down when we snuck in was still there. After explaining why they were there and what the issues were he realized everything we had been saying. So again he will have them come back out and take a look.

The screen door needs adjusted, this will be done tomorrow. The railing has to stay there until we build a deck. I'm ok with that.

 The sidewall of the finish cabinetry for the refrigerator was crooked. That would have drove me nuts, so - he will have them fix it, as well as adjusting several doors to ensure they are even and line up properly - and are tight. There was 1 door that the hinges are loose. The correct pulls are on order, and should arrive & be installed tomorrow. And I finally found the other seam on the granite. I didn't find it running my fingers along the dirty countertop (even after it was "cleaned"), I found it running my fingernail alongside the edge! Even then I had to look really closely to see that it was two pieces. If I had to look that closely, I'm ok with the fact that the seam is there. They did a good job.

 This "flat" antique white isn't going to withstand a damn thing from the kids. Why did it have to be Flat? So the nailpops don't show as much? yeesh. So I'm going to have to paint, ASAP with something that can be wiped off often. My little humans are girly, but they also love to get dirty.

 Asked that the railing be given another coat, and one portion of it sanded down and then re-stained because they lacquered right over pencil markings and that would have drove me nuts.

 Exterior painting on porch stoop and around door is on hold until spring. It looks like hell.

 The kick plate for the front door wasn't installed yet - I found it in a closet and since the door had been painted over this past weekend asked for it to be installed.

 The carpet with the exploded marker was removed and replaced. I can't find the seam so they did a really great job. I'm not certain if they replaced the whole hallway or what but it looks good. The carpet in the sitting room is still a different color, and will arrive & be installed the first week of December - I'm ok with that.

 I love my tub. I love this view. The only problem was we found something pushing or bubbling the sidewall of the tub. This may be due to the way it's seated or it may be a manufacturer defect. Either way, the punch list guy is going to have a look at it and work it out.

 Punchlist guy got rid of the rust, they think someone left a rusty screw or nail nearby and the cleaners just didn't try very hard to get rid of the marks of rust. They're all gone now though.

 The landscaping package was installed. Gotta say I'm not really impressed with it.

 This looks more brown than burgundy for some reason, but it's burgundy. Needs the kickplate installed but that's a 5 minute job.

There were other miscellaneous items like the brick gunk by the garage that I'd already pointed out to PM and asked to be fixed, the laundry over flow pipe, the garage door panel, a damaged window sash, plugs that aren't flush or level with the cover plates, some discolored trim, and a significant gauge in the kitchen island wood that some idiot tried to cover using the wrong color of touch up stain, Lots of caulking and touch up paint, etc ... all of which he said the punch list guy will take care of tomorrow and what he can't get done tomorrow, they will schedule another time to come do. Oh- there was 1 other item that was kind of big. The plumbers somehow managed to install the shower head pipe in the girls bath completely crooked. You can't notice it from looking outside the tub, but once your in it and look up, it's clearly crooked and by a significant amount.

Overall it wasn't too bad. He didn't really "demonstrate" anything to us, just showed us where the furnace filter was, where the humidistat was, and  let me pull my van into the garage to make sure it would clear without issues. Looked at the cracked concrete again and despite it being worse than before is still "within tolerance levels and will be monitored". Yeah, ok.

The biggest item was the drop off shown here. I let my husband handle this because he has far more finesse than I do. They/We came to an agreement that they would shave this built up hillside and use that shaved dirt at the bottom to even out the slope and make it graded much more like it was before - a gentle slope - aka safe for the kids. Since we don't know how far back our yard actually goes at this very moment, we are going to have Sperdute surveying come back out and survey & install pins in our property lines - at each of the corners. This way there is no question. But before we do that - Heartland has to request a final survey now that the house is completed which has to be submitted to the township.

The township inspector is due tomorrow to inspect and give the certificate of occupancy. Apparently he only comes on Tuesday and Thursday. (Facepalm).  Cross your fingers he doesn't fail us. If he fails us and doesn't give Certificate of Occupancy, we won't get it this week at all due to Thanksgiving.  The loan officer threw me for a loop with the exterior painting - which is not completed due to the weather, but will be completed in the spring. We almost ended up escrowing money for that, which would have been a bit of a mess but not entirely a bad idea. Whole lot of stress in that paragraph.

The loan officer also texted me to let me know they cleared all conditions on our mortgage except the final inspection by the appraiser. Once they get that, then we are clear to close. We should have it by noon-1pm tomorrow. Then we will get all of the final, official numbers, and go to closing Wednesday Morning. Before closing we have to go by the house, see that the punch list guy knocked out a huge portion if not all of our list, and the cleaning crew is coming back to do a deep clean of the house. I'm afraid I'll still need to clean it again after that, but who cares. At that point we will be "HOME"!