Air Force Reserves Keeping My Husband Out of Work

So this post it completely unique to the posts I typically publish on this blog about my home buying process and subsequent rennovation. BUT I'm really mad and I feel compelled to share that anger and frustration with as many people as possible. My husband was in the Army for 4 years. After 4 years he decided to get out so our kids could grown up near ther grandparents and extended family here in the DC Maryland VA area. He found a job quickly working on a program with the Air Force and during that time he made the decision to join the Air Force National Guard. He submitted his paperwork in April. In July the program he'd been hired to work on ended somewhat unexpectantly but he was able to secure a position working another effort prior so there should have been no lapse in employement. He was offered and accepted a position sometime in June which required him to be a memeber of the Air Fource National Guard. At that time his paperwork was still pending (from April) but he was told it would be put on the "fast track" so that he could start working soon. For the next few weeks we were told "next week" and then "next week" for when the paperwork would be processed. My husband has been technically without a job for over a month now. As the primary breadwinner the absence of his paycheck is severly affecting our way of life and if it continues may impact our ability to keep our home. It is beyond my comprehesion how it can take over 4 months to obtain a few signatures for an indivudal who's already served his country and has already been hired to work a position for the organization. And it's not as if my husband has not communicated to various individuals throughtout the process the impact this delay is having on his family. We've essentially been blown off and told they are working on it. No sense of urgency on their part. The only thing I can think is that the Air Force needs to hire about 50 more employees to handle their workload, fire the unproductive employees they have working this department or amend their snail like approval process which requires about 50 signatures each taking a month to get. My husand has begun looking for other positions but in this economy we all know it can be hard. I'm just so dissapointed in this process and how little it seems the Air Force cares. I work in Governent Contracting so I know all about bureaucracy and red tape but I also know with hard work and persistance you can push anything through especaily with over 4 months time.

Backyard Renovation

So my husband and I (mostly my husband) worked very hard over the past couple of months to add a couple of patios to our backyard.  Our yard wasn't that big and we are right next to a huge green space next to the community center so we thought to maximize the entertainment potential for the yard.  That meant less green space but we were fine with that.

Most of these materials came from Lowes. Some of the pavers came from Home Depot. Furniture came from Target.  The pergola was from Lowes.

I cant say it was easy but the process of doing the patios was not difficult just time consuming. Same with the flower gardens.  We are very happy with how it turned out and I think we saved a lot of money by doing the labor ourselves.  

Some before and afters below. : )

Kitchen Remodel

We finished the kitchen. Pictures below. All together we
-bought new stainless steel appliances
-painted cabinets white
-added hardware to the cabinets
-put in new countertops
-put in new undermining sink and goose neck faucet
-added backsplash

It looks like a totally different kitchen lol. We love it. Places where we saved some money were in painting the cabinets. All we had to pay for was sanders, paint, and foam brushes (already had the rollers).  Prolly cost total of $150 at most.

Also I put in the backsplash my self with SimpleMat.  Great product. Very easy to use. I did the whole thing in one night. The tiles where the mesh back kind and we used the hand held tile cutters. Whole thing was about $500 tiles and tools included.

More Updates : )

It's been about 2 and 1/2 months in the new house and we are still happy with how things worked out. We've made a lot of changes so far including hardwood throughout the main floor, painting all the walls, painting the kitchen cabinets white (not fun), adding new hardware, updating kitchen appliances and buying a lot of furniture/decorations. The main projects we have left on the main floor are to update the kitchen countertops, add the backsplash and put up crown molding. At our 30 day the PM was shocked at how different the house looked. So much so that he went and got the SR to let him see the house as well lol. Speaking of our 30 day I'm a little bit disappointed with how that went. I was told to place blue tape on all the cracks and bumps etc and that it would be addressed. The day of I marked the house up as requested but the people that came only fixed 1/3 of the places that had tape on them. First they arrived around 1 when they were supposed to be there first thing in the morning. Then when they got there they took a look around and said they were going to lunch and would come back to start after. There was a major crease in our ceiling in the dining room that required them to re dry wall the ceiling. They spent most of their time doing this and then left basically. So I still have a bunch of nail pops and cracks!!! I will definitely make sure these items get addressed in the 10-month. In the meantime I thought I'd share some more pictures of our progress so far. I took them for a contest lumber liquidators is having for before and after pics but I mise well share. Happy Home Making :)

 

Living Room - We used Kobra bamboo flooring from Lumber Liquidators.  When we first moved in I really wanted to get built ins all the way up the entertainment wall but that was like $5K and I just couldn't bring myself to spend that kind of money.  So instead I found these bookshelves at target for $160 each and they fit perfectly in the space.  They even kind of look like built ins.

 

 

This was the kitchen when we bought the house....pretty blah

 

 

Another picture of the office with the curtains open. I love having an office!! It gets a lot of use, as you can see. Sorry about the mess.

 

 For some reason this wall color always comes out looking very green in pictures but its actually a teal color made by Valspar called Bella Grove Spruce.  All the furniture in this room came from Ikea except for the chairs.

 

 

Morning Room which we use as our dinning room. Chairs from Ikea. Table from Pier1.

 

 

The kitchen after the cabinets were painted and handles added. It came out really good but it took forever.

 

 

Another picture of the living room.  This is my favorite room in the house. It feels so cozy, especially with the fireplace going.

FLORENCE Progress...

So here is our progress so far compared to the house when we got it...still work to do but I'm happy about where we are

Surprise Ending

So a lot has happened since my last angry post. As I mentioned before we live out of state so without a place to live in Md  my husband could not start his new job that started in December.  This info was communicated to my new SR who said Ryan could put us up in an apartment in Md during the delay for FREE since the inconvenience was due to their construction delays. Although not desirable, it was a workable solution so we agreed.   However in November when it came time to make moving plans, Ryan could no longer do it for free. They could only do one month free and our house  wasn't going to be done for another 4 months if weather was good thru the winter.  We would have to pay for all other months we had to stay. This didn't work for us since our rent for a townhouse in AL was half of the rent the apartment we would be and we would have to also pay for a storage bin.  Not to mention the fact that we are a 4 person family and they were trying to put us in a 2 bedroom apartment.    Obviously we were upset at this last minute change and so we were offered a different option....

To purchase a spec home ready for immediate delivery in a different community in southern md.  We were in AL so we had no way of physically seeing the house but we sent some family over to check it out. It was a bigger home with significantly more space. More like a sf attached unit and the price was only $5k higher. We were told we had to act quickly so we sent a note saying we wanted to purchase right away.  We were told paperwork was being overnighted and house was ours.  Then that same night I recieve an email saying the original owner of the house all of a sudden got an approval and so we could no longer purchase the house. So Ryan sold us a house that wasn't for sale.....

The good news is this story still has a happy ending.  When the first spec house fell thru our SR told us about another spec house that was actually a true sf on a corner lot in our original neighborhood.  Because of a special loan program NVR was doing for specs our monthly payments would be about equal to what they would have been for our th despite the $25k jump in sales price and our closing costs would be covered.  We closed on this house last Thursday and we love it!!!!!

So I guess it was all woth it. Pictures of the new home to come soon.  Its a Florence but right now its just a mess so I will upload some pics once we've gotten things put away.

Happy holidays everyone and good luck with your builds!!!!

Long Time No Blog ....So Disappointed

So its been a while since I've updated this blog but I am so disappointed I have to warn others.
When my husband and I signed our purchase agreement we had an estimated start date of mid August and completion mid November.   So far theres been extremely little communication from our SR. No timeline. No indication of when important documents are needed.  Then randomly we get an email that says were starting Sept 23 but since we didn't know the timeline we haven't yet procured our UW approval. SR tells us if we don't get it asap we are out of our house and in the next group scheduled to deliver in Feb.  I kill myself (and my LO) to get her the commitment letter. No response. My husband and I call her cell and leave voicemails. No response. We live 12 hours away so my husband sent his mother (who lives 10 min away) for a face to face. Apparently our SR quit. We have a new SR but he's been too busy to contact us. Oh and our house.....waaaaay behind. The city won't allow the start of any new houses until Ryan creates a new entance to the development. Also contrary to what our old SR told us, we still need two houses to sell in our row. Our revised date for completion is beginning of Marchish.

When was anyone going to tell us any of this??????

I would caution any first time home buyer looking to do new construction.  I was optimistic that things would happen  according to the schedule we were provided and we would recieve adequate service.  Not the case and no matter the difficulty or inconvenience Ryan's mistakes cause, you are on the hook to purchase a house from them or forfeit all ure deposit money. 

Pictures: our STILL naked lot and looks like a pond (maybe?) across the street.