Here's the link

Ranney's video finally posted this afternoon. Here is the link:
http://rochester.singliketaylorswift.com/video/rayanna

I don't think there is a limit to how many times you can vote, so vote early and vote often.

Thank you for your support.

Ranney is entering a contest

WBEE-FM 92.5 is running a Sing Like Taylor Swift contest and we just submitted her video tonight.

I will post the link when it gets posted to the radio station's web site. In the mean time, here she is:

Impressed

On the rare occasion I am impressed I like to share it. Today I want everyone who reads this blog to know how impressed I am with Lee, Gail or any other name you wish to call her. There are a few countries she may have been to, she may have an alias. I still contemplate the chance she maybe under the witness protection plan and Ben maybe FBI. But hey! Who am I to judge?

Today I want everyone to know how amazing a person she is. Smart as hell. Classy as can be. Funny as the day is long. Did I mention beautiful! An all around great person who I am proud to have shared my life with.

A birthday may come and go but a memory lasts a life time.

Her dad picked out the picture from the stack of photos. A picture that means the world to him. Two of the things he loves the most. Of course there was a story of the Lee and the cat. As we all know Gordy is a great story teller. He loves you very much and was afraid your card would not arrive on time. We decided to do something better.

Happy Birthday ...you have been posted!

Ben once again thank you for closing the curtains! You are the man!






I am just grateful her hair grew in.

Happy Birthday, Lee!!!!!

If you see Gail Lee Arnold around Bremen, Germany, wish her a happy birthday!

New house

Okay so, Dad hasn't had much time lately between building amazing bookshelves and helping paint, so I'll post what's going on for all of you.
We've been in the house for about 7 weeks. And for those of you who haven't been reading my blog, we didn't have telephone or internet for a while. We STILL don't have cable, or satellite. It's all decision making now.
The security guy came.
This is the completely dry, simple and short version, when he gets some time, he'll right more about it.
Thanks!
~Rayanna~

My New Post......going postal (Day 153)

I have never seen a company that does this everyday for 60 years be so disorganized: A company that closes on several houses everyday across the nation. On a traditional build, they say three months. Thursday, the day we were expecting to close, it will be five months. Aside from the small things our project manager is dealing with, it is mostly finished and has been for a couple of months. You would figure there would be no hesitation in closing. WRONG!

NVR, the company we will have our mortgage with, dropped the ball on getting the VA appraisal done. They say we can not close on Thursday. The woman actually played excited when she called me and tried to set me up with another date. I told them they can take the house and shove it as far up Ryan Homes' ass as they can get it. Duh.. you still don't have the appraisal done. I told her I am not setting another date until they can get their collective ass's shit together. The lack of communication is utterly astounding. This is only surpassed by their ability to play stupid. I feel like I am on Gilligan's Island with no way off. Quite frankly, everyone wants to get paid. Great! Here's a thought.... do your job. Instead it is a baseball game of who's on first, what's on second, and I don't know is on third. I spent several hours on the phone trying to find someone with a problem solving skill in their head...UGH...Got nothin'

Finally I said, "Here is a thought: How about calling and seeing if he had any cancellations and can come out all the way from Bloomfield (which I can practically see from the second floor of the house I don't live in). This was responded to with, "We gave him the phone numbers for your salesperson and the project manager today." Yes today. Isn't that perfect? They may be so stupid that they don't even realize what they just said to me was the confirmation that they have done nothing for the last three weeks. How did they expect the appraiser to appraise the house with no one to let them in? X-ray vision I am sure. Here's an example of the help wanted ad for that job:

Looking for VA home appraisers. Must have mind reading abilities, x-ray vision, and tape measure. Lock picking skill a plus. No need for phone.

I was so angry today. I do not even remember when I was this angry. I just want to go home. Maybe this is just a game. Each person in the list has to thoroughly piss me off. Only one person at a time, though, so each one gets a chance. Hoping in the end, I'll be too exhausted to fight anymore. Only at that point will we be allowed to move into our beautiful new home. What's next?

John feels the same way but added something about no lube that I am choosing to not include here. I am a lady-ya know. A lady who had to threaten them with stealing the toilet seats out of the Porto-potty before I got decent toilet seats.

We have been keeping in touch with a future Ryan home owner from Ohio and heard that the developer was not paying someone and they put a mechanic's lien on the property. I guess I should consider us lucky. At this point, if I can hold off closing another eighteen months I can qualify as a first time homeowner and get a government kick back. Tax free, like Obama said. Well, since I am not closing on Thursday, maybe I will go and sit at the model and greet prospective Ryan Homes customers and share with them my wonderful experiences.

On the other hand, I did get excellent topsoil. It's full of shit, too.

Day 116

Here we are at Day 116. Thirty seven days overdue, but who's counting?

The good news is that we finally locked in our interest rate back on Monday. We got 4.5% on a 30-year VA loan. We had to go with a 60-day lock, which cost us a few bucks (compared to a 30-day lock), but we didn't want to take a chance on rates going back up. Nice thing about that rate is that it really cuts down our chances of needing to refinance any time in the future unless rates get down to 2.5 or 3%. I don't see them going that low, but a lot of people didn't see mortgage rates going down to 4.5%. Time will tell, but that is one load off our minds.

A good thing in the last couple weeks is that I got some pictures that were requested by Ram, our Ohio reader who is doing the Bainbridge thing, too. Sorry it took me so long to post them.

This is looking down the stairwell from the door to the 2nd floor bathroom.

This is looking at the laundry room and master from the door of bedroom #4.

This is standing just outside the laundry room door, looking in.

Lastly, this is the overflow/drain tub. Notice that it is to the right of where the dryer goes.

Right now, our project manager is trying to find out if we can get a wider overflow pan, so that we can reverse the washer and dryer.

We are now hoping to close the first week of May. Here's to hoping.

Day 104

The bad news is: we don't have a closing date yet. We are still waiting on the sewers. It will probably be somewhere around Day 150 before we can close. What happened to 79 days? I know schedules get mucked up, but come on, people!

The good news is: we know more now than we did a week ago. As of last week, the developer said they had about 2 weeks to go, weather permitting. The nice thing is, the weather has been fantastic; maybe a little cold, but clear and sunny for the most part. If we assume 2 weeks, that means they will be done with the sewer around April 1. Great! April Fools' Day. That's not the best part. After hearing this news from Ryan Homes, I spoke to the town Water and Sewer Superintendent, then the Code Enforcement Officer. It pretty much comes down to this:

To close with the mortgage company, we have to have a Certificate of Occupancy (aka C of O).
To get the C of O, the sewer needs to be certified.
To be certified, the sewer needs to pass a mandrel test to make sure it hasn't collapsed or separated.
To run a mandrel test, the sewer has to sit for 30 DAYS!

That puts us at May 1 (Day 142, if I'm counting correctly) before they run the mandrel test. They probably won't give us a closing date until the sewer passes.

Hopefully, we can close by mid-May. We better, because I promised Buddy we would have his b-day party at the new house. His b-day is at the end of May.

To Ram, my reader from Ohio: This is VERY IMPORTANT!
At the pre-build meeting, tell your project manager to make sure the washer is left of the dryer, especially if you have a front loading washer. I'll explain:

The Bainbridge was originally designed to have the garage on the right. When you have a reversed build (like we do), they don't do new prints: the contractors just reverse everything. I haven't looked at the prints for the 2nd floor laundry room, but I would bet the washer/dryer are oriented properly on the prints. The plumber probably looked at the prints, measured the washer drain from the front of the house, and ran the drain there. Unfortunately, that puts our washer to the right of the dryer. That means you need to pull the clothes out of a front load washer, lift them over the washer door, then throw them into the dryer. I'll take pics the next time I get into the house. I was there today, but was too well dressed to go inside.

To get around this, we have to find a right-hinged washer. The only ones I've found so far are Miele (start around $1,900), Speed Queen (not sure on price here), and Electrolux. The Electrolux is unique because it is the only front-load washer on the market that allows you to reverse the washer door. Any way, this oversight will cost us about $400 - $500 more than we had planned to spend on a washer/dryer. Aarrgghh!!

On the brighter side, we are getting better toilet seats! Long story for another post.

Day 096 :-(

Here we sit 17 days (and counting) overdue. We are still waiting on the sewers to be connected. As of this evening, we have no estimated date of completion.

On the bright side, they turned on the electricity last week. I took this picture last night.

This afternoon, I stopped by the property and ran into the project manager, Trent. He had just finished installing the gas meter. He then went inside and turned on the furnace. This means that the propane heater can be turned off. The significance of this is that now we can get carpet and final paint done. Carpet should be done this week, per Trent. It hasn't been done before now because the carpet will pick up the odors of the propane. The propane will also slightly yellow the paint.

Interest rates are currently around 5.0 to 5.5%. I'm hoping the payoff to all of this waiting is that the interest rates will drop down to 4.5 to 4.75%.

I'll post again after carpet.

Day 73

According to the original build schedule, we should be having our pre-closing walk-through next Friday. The house itself may be done, but the sewer connections are another story. They have a whole lot of work to do and I don't think that they are going to have it done by next weekend. Consequently, our closing may be put off until late March. That really sucks because we planned to use most of March to paint and get the house ready to move in. Now, it looks like we may have to move everything in pretty short order then work around it to get things painted.

But, on to happier things....

Things don't look a whole lot different outside than they did last week, so I will share pics of what the house looks like on the inside.

Last Saturday (Valentine's Day), the carpenters were in to install the kitchen cabinets:

They didn't put in the counter top because the wrong one was delivered. The correct one was delivered later in the week and should go in this coming week.

The carpenters also installed the bathroom vanities,

doors,

and banisters.

The plumber came in during the week to install the toilets, sinks, and faucets.

This is the sink and mirror in the powder room.

The electrician was also in during the week to install lights and outlets.

These are the lights over the sink in the master bathroom.

The mason was also in to pour our porch.

The forms are still on it, but boy, does it cut down the step into the front door. Then again, the step up from the ground is a bit of a hike. I'm hoping they fix that.

It has been a very productive week. They delivered the correct kitchen counter as well as the stove and dishwasher. I would include pictures of those, but I don't think you want to see pictures of 2 different size cardboard boxes.

This coming week should see the rest of our lights and outlets go in. They should be installing our kitchen counter, range, and dishwasher. There are also several problems that need to be fixed, but they should be fixing those sooner rather than later.

That's about all I have for my (apparently weekly) update. I will let you know more later in the week. It will probably be next weekend.