Month: March 2021

Be grateful for the home you have, knowing that at this moment, all you have is all you need.

– Sarah Ban Breathnach

LIFE IN 2020

The year 2020 certainly brought changes for everyone, and while we still have a long wish list of projects, we made some progress in this crazy year.

The biggest project we tackled was our deck. We used Hen-House Decks for the build and I recommend them to anyone in Northeast Ohio. They were reasonably priced (we got three quotes) fantastic to work with and their work was excellent. They even submitted our deck to the Trex-Pro competition and won first place for the category- pretty exciting!

We ran into some issues getting the deck furnished due to backorder and delivery issues during the pandemic, but a few pieces made it at the end of the season. We’re looking forward to this season to make the space really comfortable. The next big project will be a paver patio and fire pit off the walkout basement.

We crossed a few smaller projects off the to do list too. We worked on the landscaping some more and added outdoor speakers, security cameras and outdoor smart-lighting. After a lot of researching and recommendations, we went with Bose outdoor speakers, Wyze cameras and Phillips Hue spot lights.

We also got our one-year Ryan Homes touch up so we started painting and adding color inside and finishing touches to the walls. We waited for a long time for that one-year touch up and had high hopes for what they would do. In the end, we probably put more faith in that process than it merited. They did light touch ups which quickly deteriorated. In hindsight, we would have been better off to do the patches ourselves and paint as we were ready, opposed to waiting that whole year for what I would call a quick, bandaid patch-job.

We love our home and haven’t had any major issues. We did hire a home inspector just prior to our one year warranty expiring for peace of mind and a final check. He reported the house is solid and well built. It has been a blessing to be in our home through this crazy year.

I’ll continue to post as we finish projects, and please leave us comments or contact us on the contact page if you like our page or if you have questions about our experience.