Pre-Settlement Walk-Through: Check!

On Friday we went out to the house for our pre-settlement walk-through! We took the metro out and my grandmother/Realtor picked us up and we drove out to the house in the rain. Our great family friend, a business owner and architect, met us at the house to check it out with us. We're so grateful as he asked so many great questions that we would never have thought to ask. But the answers made us feel comfortable and knowledgeable too. Through Paul's questions and the information we received from Russel, our point person during the walk-through, we learned a lot about our house - where the different valves are for hot water, the furnace, what the switches, levers and other "stuff" is in the furnace room. During our walk-through Russel informed us of random things, and we kept saying "please tell us more stuff like this! We want to know." We know that we'll be finding out more about our house, the ins and outs, what to do/not to do on our own but it never hurts to get insider knowledge from the company itself.

Fireplace in our Living Room!
The only photo I took (and sorry it's from my phone)

We didn't quite know what to expect when we walked into the open front door (literally) of our house on Friday. There were no coverings on the floors, no tape on the appliances, the walls had been painted... this was our house. The house that we will be living in a week from that day. It was such a great feeling. It also helped put a very "homey" feeling to it when we walked into the living room and the fireplace had been turned on. The whole house was warm and it just felt cozy. I really felt at home already. I knew that feeling wouldn't last though as we started dotting the walls, baseboards, door frames, all in blue tape. We walked around and were told that any nicks in the walls, marks on the walls, paint on the floor, anything we saw wrong, mark right next to it with a piece of blue tape. And let me tell you, we marked up that house! We realized that we were just passing over things because both Mr. K and I were worried about being "too picky" but Russel reassured us time and time again, "we're here, and if you see it, mark it. They'll fix it." Russel marked things as well which was great.

There weren't any huge things except for the front door frame inside. It was way off so we're hoping that ripping down the dry wall and reframing it won't push our settlement time back. Drywall company comes today, painters tomorrow, so I'm hoping all can get finished by Friday morning. Also, we were informed that the kitchen cabinet hardware was actually the wrong ones but they wanted to put them in there anyways because the new/actual hardware wouldn't be in until Thursday, installed Friday morning (probably as we're doing our re-walk before settlement). It's funny because I didn't notice that they were the wrong ones (they had been installed when we saw the house a couple weeks ago). But when Russel told us, I immediately remembered what they were supposed to be, and I got even more excited! I think they're supposed to be a brushed bronze instead of straight silver.

I hope to get some answers today regarding what happens if they can't finish everything (aka the front door), will that push us back, will they just finish after we move in, etc. We have a good number of things to figure out this week, a lot of calls to make to ensure that our electricity and utilities are transferred, that Verizon Fios remains on our good list and doesn't charge us the higher rate to just transfer our plan to the house, order our trash & recycling bins, order washer and dryer (top loaders! That's for another post), new mattress (Tempurpedic), check in with the moving company to find out if we need any additional materials if it rains; especially to protect our floors and carpets.

We're so close to settlement and we're getting so excited! Our apartment definitely looks like SOMETHING is happening because it is a downright mess of boxes, newspapers, and just littered with stuff! Speaking of, we're trying to sell our dining room table & chairs, as well as our TV entertainment system. I've linked to the Craigslist add for both of them. Message me, email, comment if you're interested!