Our house is almost our home....

When you're two weeks away from closing and you really get that first extended walk into your house, it is an amazing feeling. We had the keys today, giving us an extended day to really look at our new home. We had seen it briefly Monday with our PM Abe, but today we were able to spend a couple hours just walking around and soaking it all in. This house will be our "forever" home, the home that Lauren and I will spend the next 30 years together in (sorry Lauren). :) We've built it with the future in mind, and we could really see that future when we walked in today.

They put up the number for the house. It's such a small thing, but in many ways it is a big deal. 

A good peek at our guest bedroom downstairs, with French doors at the entrance. For those who don't know, this room and the guest bathroom replace the living room and dining room downstairs (and also makes the pantry enormous - 4 x 8 feet)

The guest bathroom. This bathroom is basically identical to the secondary bathroom upstairs. 

A view from inside the guest room, showing the French doors and how the hardwood complements the carpet.  

Here's the morning room with the flooring. We opted to skip the optional windows due to the heat of North Carolina summers (and after the temperature reached 104 Saturday, we are thankful for our decision).  

A good photo of the stairs and spindles. (it's amazing the pictures you can get from a phone nowadays).

The powder room downstairs. 

The glorious kitchen, with the stove and microwave installed. We think having black appliances will reduce fingerprints and also help to pull all of our colors together. 

The refrigerator isn't quite in yet - unless Abe is trying to say he likes it better in the middle of the walkway. :) But you get the general idea of the kitchen with the crown moulding above. 

Our kids are so very excited. We spent three hours at the house today, but we would have been there even longer if it had electricity. (that's coming in the next few days, so maybe we'll bring sleeping bags). :)

Spending so much time at the house also gave Lauren and I the chance to really comb through everything. We found around five things that we would like our PM Abe to fix, including some creaks upstairs and a bit of minor damage to the kitchen floor at the dishwasher. But he has two weeks to fix those things and just touch up the rest of the house. We think that should be plenty of time for him, because the next two weeks will feel like a month for us.