Late third year review! Our house continues to be a source of pleasure and a place of joyful living. Please read to the end for all comments, which may be helpful to you. Our first new home has been a learning experience, so learn from our mistakes!

Writing about house after sharing a HORRIBLE experience with a Hogan sectional sofa from Ashley furniture, real lemon, scant concern from the company in spite of repeated service visits, rude service rep lady and one scary repair guy! Cost $2K, is poorly and cheaply made - NOT in USA as their ads led us to believe, only ASSEMBLED in USA. The underside of the second (replacement for the first damaged one) wedge was literally falling off. Also five in-home service calls in less than a year to repair (almost all w/ a staple gun)! Fabric falling off plywood it's made from, many sharp jagged wood edges underneath, and a recliner mechanism the repairman said was incorrectly installed at factory. We have to live with it. You don't, so be aware! We won't buy a stick of furniture from Ashley again no matter how good the deal seems... but on to the HOUSE:)

1. The most annoying new item is: some carpet in the big great room was laid going in the wrong direction and a large seam is now obvious, made worse when a chair got caught on it when moved, resulting in a tear. This wasn't initially apparent when the house was new. It took awhile to see it - now it's impossible to hide - walk into the room and there is clearly a SEAM unless we vacuum every day, which also loosens it. (Who has time for THAT)? Lol. It started to pull away from the flooring, so tried to fix with carpet tape, glue. Results not great. There's no hiding it, so check that out yourself before you lose the opportunity to have it addressed. This fell within a 30-day period to report "cosmetic" issues, but there was no way to notice this in just 30 days unless we had gotten down and examined all the carpet seams. Maybe you should, because now it's a permanent eyesore, too big to cover with scatter rugs and too expensive to replace. The carpet should have been running the other way, same as the rest of the house, with no visible seam. IMPORTANT NOTE: this particular area of carpet was NOT installed at the factory - it was done on site by a worker after the house was set. So - I suggest you check your carpet seams well and if you find something you don't think is right, speak up!

Number two - ongoing annoyances with sink stoppers/drains. The master bathroom sink as well as the garden bathtub often don't hold water till you mess with the drain stoppers. Not a major issue but annoying. One shouldn't have to mess with the stoppers frequently when using the sink/tub.

Three - several areas under the kitchen cabinets have sharp nails protruding clean through the wood, not visible unless you get down and look underneath. Discovered some the hard way when I ran my fingers under there while cleaning.

Four - I end with my personal favorite gripe, the vertical blinds at the sliding glass doors, which I hope to replace this summer with something more sturdy. Super flimsy, doesn't take much for that little plastic top piece to snap off and down comes the blind. Six or seven are now missing, so at night, from outside, it looks like a jack-o'-lantern with missing teeth. No privacy there! I genuinely despise those blinds, I tell ya... lol. FYI, Lowe's and others sell inexpensive little bags of small plastic tabs made specifically to slide onto the top of each separate blind and reinforce it. Well worth it to get those when your blinds are new and snap them on the tops, so you save yourself having to replace them all a few years down the road.

And that, happily is IT. Nothing structural, nothing major. Hope you find my reviews helpful and that you enjoy the privilege of having a home; God bless our new year.