More Projects to Complete for Our Adair Homes New Build

We’ve been slowly settling into our new house. We have most the boxes unpacked, but there are still a few that remain. We’ve also been working on some small projects around the house to make it more functional for our family.

The first project we completed was changing some of the lighting. We did some of these before moving-in and then decided on more after. With some of the lights we wanted to see how all the finishes looked before deciding on what fixtures looked best.

I had a follower ask why we were changing out the lights ourselves instead of having Adair Homes do them with the initial installation. The main reason is that Adair Homes has limited options, and most of the upgrades are overpriced. By DIYing it, you’re able to put in sweat equity into the home. We still have a few light fixtures that we would like to upgrade, but haven’t decided on what we want to do.

Last weekend we worked on adding shelving to some of the closets. The closet in the mudroom did not come with any shelves, so we added two shelves and a closet rod. The kid’s rooms both have bypass closets in them and only one shelf and rod was installed in those. It will be a long time before our kids are able to reach the tall closet rod, so we installed an extra shelf and rod lower, that the kids can reach – no more excuses for not putting their clothes away 😉

Landscaping

Usually landscaping is the last thing you want to do after building. Our home was finished in the middle of winter and it’s difficult to grow anything at that time, so we’ve been waiting for the weather to improve. Luckily, we didn’t start too soon as the snow we had in February would have destroyed any new landscaping. With the sun finally starting to peak out we’ve started to do some planning on the landscaping.

I’m hoping we can do some ourselves, but we had a landscaper out to give an estimate on putting irrigation in and planting grass. Before we start on any of the landscape we need to have the back patio done as the equipment for the patio is most likely going to tear up the soil in the back.

We debated on a wood deck versus a concrete patio and decided that concrete is going to be less to maintain in the long run. We did a stamped and stained concrete porch out front, but want something that is a smoother surface for chairs and tables – nothing worse than having a chair or table on a bumpy surface. I spoke with the concrete guy today and we’re planning on moving forward with the concrete patio, but he was hoping to wait until the weather is a little less rainy.

Once the patio is completed the next step will be to do the rough grading of the yard, then trenching and installation of the irrigation, after that final grading will be completed, putting in grass and plants and last will be to put up a fence. I was hoping to put up a fence sooner, but the final grade has to be done before the fence is installed, so we’ll take it one step at time and get things slowly completed.

Laundry Room and Mudroom

The laundry room, butler’s pantry and mudroom all came incomplete on the standard package. We decided to have Adair Homes install cabinets in the butler’s pantry so that they would match the kitchen. However, we felt like we could do the laundry room and mudroom at later dates.

We haven’t decided exactly what we would like to do but in the mud room we’re thinking a counter area and cabinets above the counter. Also, we like a bench area with hooks or lockers where we can throw our stuff when we come home. One reason we really liked the Mt. Rainer plan is because of the mudroom area. In our previous house most of our stuff ended up on the island in the kitchen, so our hope is that we can contain most of our mess in the mudroom without spilling over onto the kitchen counters.

The laundry room came standard with an open shelf above the washer and dryer. We’re planning on putting cabinets all the way across the wall; and putting in a counter or tall table to fold clothes on.

Those are some of the main projects we’d like to complete, but with owning a home there is always something that needs to be done, so we’ll take one project at a time and slowly turn this new house into our home. Thanks for following along!