Welcome Back! - Revision

It's been over 90 days since we have been in our NEW HOME and it's been an amazing journey to say the least.  First and foremost, I have not posted nearly as much as I have wanted too;  however, I welcome myself back to the BLOG!!  Welcome Back, Nadase!!  I want to thank DW and toureyes for sending me a shout out to come back to the blog!  The two of you inspired me to make the time instead of waiting for the time to blog!! 
Note: I added a picture of the cabinets below:

Press Play to Enjoy the Music!!

There is so much to post about that I am not sure where to begin...so I am inspired to create a post that ignited a fire in me from our Roman Country Woman, Asia from "Give Us a Home and Call it a Rome." http://finallymovingonup.blogspot.com/2013/04/love-vs-not-love-so-much-hate-is-too.html#comment-form She created a post centered around things that she love and things she don't like/love. Thanks Asia!  : - )

Here are the wonderful things I LOVE:

1.  I absolutely love love love our LOT!  As I mentioned earlier in my blog, I am from New York and living close to the city or in the city would have been fabulous; however, I wanted us to have more home.  With that said, I love the views that our LOT affords us.  It's crazy because when I am standing in the morning room facing the windows and look to my right I see lovely views of water that are foot steps away that makes me feel like I am on the beach, when I look straight ahead I see cows grazing in the grass across the street, when I look on an angle I see cars driving up and down Church Road which gives me that feel of being in the city especially at night when all I can see are head lights.  LOVE IT! Lastly, I am so grateful that our LOT is not too small nor too large because you must maintain the grass to keep it looking lovely (more work) or hire a landscaper (another bill).  It's the perfect size to maintain.  My husband planted some fertilizer when we first moved in and the grass looks lovely, bright and green.  I am so glad he did this because it looks gorgeous.  Our PM told us that it is definitely going to be left up to us to keep it green.  Even though it's manageable my husband still decided to hire someone to plant some colorful foliage.

2.  I love our cul-de-sac!!!  When we had my 50th Birthday Party with over 100 guests in attendance there was plenty of parking for everyone.  The cul-de-sac only have houses built on one side which leaves the other side free for plenty of parking.  Sweet!!  Our cul-de-sac remains free of the cookie cutter roll of homes.  We have the following homes in this order:  the one and only Oberlin, our Rome with with brick and front porch, Victoria Falls with a combination of stone and brick, red brick Milan, Rome with stone without porch, pink brick Milan, Rome with dull red brick (elevation A) and a white brick Naples.

3.  I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE our HOME!  We were able to re-create the space in the house to accommodate my 50th birthday party!! Check out my first guests on the red carpet.

My granddaughter and brother playing on the Red Carpet before the Party!

My Niece - she was on the Birthday Team for the Party!  First one to get dressed!  LOL

One of my husband and I's favorite couple!!

Me and Hubby celebrating my 50th!!

Partial View of Decorated Basement!!
I wish the photographer could have caught a panorama view!
It looked out a fancy lounge!
My BFF in New York and Her Daughter!

Kool-K Entertainment!
I had him set up in the living room which is still empty!
LOL

The Theme for the Party

4.  I love our custom closets!!  #girlsdreamcometrue
5.  I love our HUGE kitchen!!  For those of you who are not familiar with the ROME model, it does not come with the double ovens nor an option from the selection sheet because the bulk head in the kitchen is one inch shorter that the double oven unit that typically goes into most RH homes.  This is also true of the Florence, Venice, Milan and Naples models.  We put in a non-standard request to have the 97 inch double oven cabinet cut down to fit in the opening.  I also asked for additional cabinets on the side to complete the look that includes upper cabinets, counter top with lower attached cabinets. This worked out nicely because it gave me the extra cabinet storage and created a larger kitchen.
Here is a picture of the unit under construction:

New Picture:  Here is a picture of the Scottsdale cabinets that I did not WANT!!  I submitted the non standard request but they installed these and had to replace them.  If I did not have them on a change order and had paid for them in advance they would have not replaced the cabinets.  Please be certain all your change orders and requests are submitted accurately or they will tell you "NO!"
You can see the gap between the draw and cabinets!
Look at the picture below of the Rushmore cabinets and notice the tight knit connection.

Ohh well, it's a partial view!
 I was really capturing the Rushmore Espresso Cabinets in this picture which I later describe below.

5. I love our bay windows and columns in the living and dining room.  These were non standard requests which are not an option in a Rome model.  I did discover one community that offers the one bay window off the living room as a standard including the porch. Again, this is community specific; however, not standard for a Rome.
6. I love our two tone kitchen!!  The espresso gourmet island merges perfectly in color with the espresso hardwood floors.  I submitted a non standard request for the gourmet island to have Rushmore Espresso cabinets instead of the Scottsdale.  I wanted the gourmet island cabinets and the kitchen cabinets to be the same to create the same cohesive look and feel.  The Rushmore cabinets have a tighter fit between the drawers and lower cabinet.  The Scottsdale cabinets have at least a 1 1/2 to 2 inch gap in between the drawer and cabinet which would have made my kitchen cabinets mismatched. See picture above where the cabinets show a tight knit connection.  The Rushmore Maple Glaze Butterscotch are the only cabinets that RH offers with the tight knit connection between the draws and cabinet and wood front panel doors.  

7. I love the granite in the kitchen, St. Cecilia (medium), granite in basement, Ubatuba, and the Absolute Black in all our bathrooms.  The St. Cecilia coordinates perfectly with both cabinet choices (Rushmore Butterscotch and Rushmore Espresso).
8.  I LOVE OUR PORCH!! We waited two months for approval and so glad we delayed the building to have it and as some of you know, they loved it so much too that they decided to build it on the new Rome model in our community.  This allows folks to choose elevation C with or without the porch. 
9.  I love the double ovens, dishwasher and microwave from the Premier VI package!!  It is amazing.  I really love that the microwave serves as a standard microwave, a convection oven and regular oven.  I love the self cleaning button on the double oven.  Someone spilled food in the oven which left a burnt oven and I was horrified!  I turned on the self cleaning option and later the oven looked like it was never burnt or cooked in!!  Just amazing!!
10.  I love the two large basement windows (non standard request).  We asked for this to capture the pond view in the basement.  Otherwise, we would have been missing out on this lovely view and looking at a wall.  We have a table and chairs next to the windows and my husband enjoys taking his laptop downstairs to study, drink coffee and capture the view.  I actually decided to do this and realize I was missing out!!  Go figure!!  I was too involved with the rest of the house.  LOL
11.  I love the two entry ways into the kitchen/family room.  We can enter from the dining room or foyer.  This creates an open feeling.
12.  I love my study off the family room.  Again, the room gives the family room an open feeling since it's not enclosed.  I just love the open feeling on the main floor.
13.  Did I tell you how much I love the gourmet island.  It's HUGE!!  I am tickled pink to have plenty of cabinet space and counter space in our kitchen.
********I can go on and on and on and on because there is so much I love about our HOME! So let me keep it brief****
14. I love how we created a master suite on one side of the house.  The other side separates our master suite from the guest bedrooms and the loft.
15.  I love the LOFT!  I now have a location for ALL my 2000 books!  For now the library has a traditional look and feel to it; however, I intend to bring in some other colorful accessories.  In the meantime, check out this Club Sofa from the Edwardian Era that is still trendy that we purchased for the library.  It is 46 inches in seating depth and you literally sink into the seating it's so comfortable.

Our New Club Sofa!
It looks gorgeous in the LOFT with the espresso floors!
I have a few things left to do with it before I post my final design picture of the LOFT!

16.  I love the long driveway!
17.  I love our Wet Bar! 
18.  I love the laundry room in the basement!
19.  I love the converted laundry room into my lady lair (my lady woman's cave).
20.  I love that my husband and I found the perfect model to fit our needs and desires.
21.  I love our espresso floors!!!!!
22.  I love my BACKSPLASH!!  It really makes the kitchen pop and I have come up with the perfect color palette!  YAY!
23.  I love the double crown molding, chair rail trim package #3.  It really gives us a lovely entryway. I was told by our new SR that they no longer offering the trim package #3.  Hmmm...not sure why and neither does she????
24.  I LOVE HOW HUGE OUR NEW ROME IS.  It comes to 4600 square foot of livable, function, space.   It would have been nice to have a grand two story great room or hallway; however, I just found it to be wasted space.  This model is so perfect for us and I LOVE IT!!
25. I love our central vaccum system.  What would we do without it!  It has helped us maintain the hardwood floors and carpet.  SWEET!

DON'T LOVE
1.  The lack of insulation throughout the ENTIRE HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!
2.  The front of the house stays cold and the back is warm.  
3.  The cold air that creeps from under the door in the small storage room.  We need to get a weather strip to attach to the door.  Our PM recommended one of those thingies that you put in front of the door.  The name escapes my brain right now; however, the weather strip makes more sense to me.
4.  The basement is cold.
5.  The Hardwood floors are separating!!!  Ugghh!!

REGRETS! I AM STILL IN RECOVERY!!  
1.  Letting my SR talk me out of getting my 15 panel doors for the basement door and small storage room.  I was told we were getting the 15 panel door for my study!!!!!!!!  This was so misleading.  Had I known this from the beginning, I would have included it with our non standard requests for all three doors.  Now my husband has to install the doors.  He does not think it's a problem; but it annoys me because the 15 panel doors DO NOT hang the same way a non standard door hangs which means drilling in more holes to match the hinges or reframing the entire door to avoid the holes.  I have complete confidence that my husband will patch the existing holes nicely but this would have saved us a lot of trouble because the doors DO NOT come painted as well.   #stillpissed
I will probably be still pissed until I get my doors installed. ugghh  I must admit I am glad this is not a structural thing that I did not include because I would be at the highest level of pissiosity!!!!!!
2.  Installing the wrong damn garage door opener!!  After all that research, I recorded the wrong garage opener.  We currently have the Chamberlain which works nicely but it does not have the extra monitor or iphone app to alert you that your door is open which can be closed from your iPhone or Droid. Ugghhh!!
3.  I regret letting my SR, PM and DH talk me out of swinging my pantry door out.  They each claimed I would not have any space when I open the door.  This is not true because there is plenty of space.  Uggghh!!  We will get this resolved when I order my new pantry door.  
4.  Not having the option to select the ORB faucets, fixtures and hardware.  This was not offered when we signed our contract; however, the new Rome Model with front porch as all ORB faucets, fixtures and hardware.

***Excuse the typos and any grammatical errors -- I was trying to get this post out quickly instead of delaying it another day.***