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Monday, August 29, 2011

We snuck in, FINALLY!! :)





Matt going in through the garage :)

pretty door handle lol

front door

front door looking to great room/kitchen

fireplace!

looking back to front door

food pantry 

going to basement

guest br 1

guest br 2

upstairs!

CLOSET :) I guess i forgot to take pic of actual master br lol
We finally had a chance to walk around the inside this evening. It feels so real now that we have immersed ourselves into the space for a bit. I love having doors and windows and stairs! We didn't really see anything that needed to be brought to our PM's attention, which is always good. There were notes written around the house in permanent marker for things that needed changed or done, assuming it was the PM keeping an eye on the building process. It is good to know someone is double checking the work :) Also, today we got a new couch to be delivered at the end of October! Yayaya!! I can't wait to be able to decorate :) Well here are a few pictures from our adventure tonight.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Day 3!

Once again, the amount of progress in such a short time caught us off guard...It is always fun to turn the last corner and see our lot, and today when we turned that last corner our mouth's dropped...attention e-community/ryan homes family.. we have a house!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woot Woot!!!! We have a house!!!!!!!! We stayed around today and enjoyed watching the men work, we even went out and got them Gatorades. It is amazing how fast they move, and how precise they are... also how dangerous they are!! As a nurse, I cant help but cringe when they throw electric saws up to the next level.. plugged in electric saws..all I see is missing limbs lol. But they manage, and they just keep working. We were hoping to catch them as they were leaving so we could get into the house and walk around.. but even after we left for dinner and came back they were still there (7:30) So no luck, but maybe this weekend we will be able to get in and get some cool pictures :)


An Idea of our yard, back of house to woods (and about 15 feet into the trees )


My Husband and I


 

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Day 2!





NOT our house.. but this is what it will look like shortly!!! We drove around another Ryan Homes neighborhood today and found it :)


Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Day 1 of framing!




me in the Kitchen

Eating in the dining room lol
My husband and I stopped by around 4pm, just as the plumber was leaving. I cannot tell you how exciting it is to drive by the house every week.. it's like Christmas morning..EVERY time :) Here are a couple of pics, unfortunately my camera battery died, and so these are off my phone, but I am an idiot and had my finger over half of them.. cuz it was bright and I couldnt see.. but oh well, you can get the idea!

Monday, August 22, 2011

Lumber has arrived!

Got an email from our PM today, after we emailed him for updates. (might I add that I am a little annoyed, he has not contacted us this entire time, unless we contact him first... but hopefully it will get better as time goes on. He is at least a nice guy.)Anyways, he said that lumber arrived today and that they will begin framing on Wednesday  finishing by Monday! So excited!!!!!!!!!! I can't write much now, getting ready for work, but thought I would add a little update.. We will stop by lot on Wed and take pictures to post!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Do the "worker bees" work the weekends?

Everyday I wake up ( at 2-3pm b/c I work night shift in the ER) and all I want to do is drive to see the progress... especially this early in the game because I do not want to miss anything! My question is if they even build on the weekends or not?? It is about a 15-20 min drive one way from where we are living now, to our new home.. and I guess it would be worth knowing if there is any point in going today. I have not gone out there since my last post... so I will go today just for fun heheh :)

Thursday, August 11, 2011

We have a basement!!

SURPRISE!!! We had no idea it would be this far along in 2 days!!


We cannot wait!!!!!!!!!!


Ace and Addie, our dogs, enjoying their new home :)


Our neighbors on one side is actually an equestrian farm, so pretty!


We stopped by the house today, just for fun to look at the dirt, etc... and what do we find?? A basement!! So crazy how fast they work!! It is no longer just our imagination hehe, now we can visualize everything! 

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Selections!

So today was the big dig day, now everything is off and running!! Can't wait to watch the progress!! I would like to begin this post with an update on the fence dilemma from previous post. The surveyor came out and remeasured, no change there.. I secretly was hoping he made a mistake. Our PM said he would write a letter with the surveyors drawings and mail it to the neighbors.. hopefully things are resolved without much conflict...
Anyways, I thought since I really do not have much of an update on the house, as they just broke ground, I will write a post on the selections we chose the last 4 months.
When choosing our model, we walked through 3 different models. First was the Florence, then the Venice, and finally the Sienna. Our favorite was the Venice, but it was too much space for the two of us, and also we would not be able to do many upgrades. One of the selling points for my husband and I was laundry on the same level as the bedrooms, which the Florence did not have, and so we decided to go with the Sienna as it did have the laundry room on the top floor and we would be able to do all the upgrades we wanted! It also has room to grow, but we are not planning on starting a family for a few years, so it is a  perfect fit for the two of us :) And so to the selections!!!


  • Model: Sienna, Elevation B with partial stone front (Aspen stone I think), grey exterior color with white trim, black door, and dark grey shutters.
  • Kitchen: Scottsdale Maple Cognac cabinets, Uba Tuba granite,tiled backspash stainless steel appliances. Crown Molding around cabinets, recessed lighting, upgraded 8in sink with pull out faucet and we added the island. 
  • Flooring: Carpet in the living room, foyer, basement, and upstairs. Vinyl tiles in mud room and bathrooms, Wood in kitchen, dining room, and morning room. 
  • Additional Upgrades
    • Finished basement, no additional powder room, simply a storage closet
    • Morning room with both optional windows, ceiling fan fix in.
    • White cabinetry in bathrooms, standard counters.
    • Fireplace with Uba Tuba granite
    • Garage with additional side entry and garage door opener with outdoor keypad.
    • Fan fix ins for all 3 bedrooms as well as the dining room and morning room
I am probably forgetting something, so if you have any questions just ask!! Also, if anyone has the granite/cabinet that we selected and would like to share pictures.. I would love to see :)






Monday, August 1, 2011

Dig Date is Set for August 10th!


Wow, where has the time gone? Last April my husband and I started looking for homes to buy, just for fun really. We drove by a few homes, but never set up appointments to walk through them as we were afraid to get our hopes up. We are in a rental home now and back in April we knew it was too early to truly start looking into homes we would want to buy. One of my husbands co-workers at the firehouse is also a real estate agent and she mentioned Ryan Homes to us. One thing my husband and I both wanted was a yard for our dogs to run around in, and a nice home to grow into. We were amazed to find that one of the Ryan Homes communities near where we were looking offered both of our requirements. After talking with the Sales Rep we realized that this was an option that could be too good to be true for us. It would give us time to save for a down payment, it would give us peace of mind to know where we would be living after the lease was up, and it would give us something to look forward to! So, that week in April looked something like this. Monday: spoke with Realtor, toured 3 model homes, and spoke with the sales rep in our community. Wednesday: meeting with sales rep, picked out our lot and model, set up the beginning of financing to see what we could afford Friday: wrote a check to save lot while we talked things through with family, friends, and each other.We waited 1 week before we signed anything official. 
And now here we are in August.Since then we have picked out everything from the elevation plan to the cabinets and flooring, down to where we want every last outlet. We have scheduled meeting after meeting, picking out one thing or another, and have even changed our minds a couple of times. I have signed one too many papers, and we have even locked in our loan ( we did it early just in case this debt ceiling thing doesn't get resolved)!! We have been very happy with everyone involved thus far. We had our pre-construction meeting last week, and will begin digging August 10th, set to close October 27 th! As 24 year old's, we never dreamed we would be able to own a home, let alone have a new build with all the upgrades we wanted! We are very blessed and thankful, and pray that the rest of the process goes along this smoothly.
 The only obstacle we have come across that I am having a hard time wrapping my head around is one I would appreciate feedback on. Last week during our preconstruction meeting our PM took us out to our lot to show us what the  land surveyor had staked out as our property line. The back of our lot has a small wooded area with another neighborhood behind the trees. When we were walking our property lines we were surprised to find that the surveyor measured our lot to be about 8 feet beyond the "backyard neighbors" fence line. So basically 8 ft of our property is fenced off into their backyard and they are using it as their own. Did I mention that on this 8ft section of property lies beautiful, mature trees? Ryan Homes said that the law is in our hands and that it is up to us to tell them what we want them to do. They said they could just knock the fence down and the neighbor would not be able to fight us about it or anything....we do not want to make any enemies and so obviously we would never knock the fence down without notice..We need to do something, as we are paying for it and one day if we resell that 8ft will be important! We are just unsure of what to do and how to go about doing so. We asked the surveyor to come back out and remeasure, so nothing will be done until then... Tell me what you think, we would love feedback!! I will let you know more too once we know more, and I will be updating with pictures etc once the ball gets rolling next week :)