Sunday, February 20, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Hold tight until they start...
I am going to get a few pictures up soon.But until they start building nothing more to really report.We do have our bank commitment(approval).Also received our buyers notice that they got thiers today as well.
Our Pre-Construction meeting
It didn't start out to well...I was told about 2 weeks ago that out start date was 1/24.Our first part of the conversation was about a start date of 2/10.ARRGGHHHH....Can't change that. We have had our date set for this meeting for about 3 weeks.So i have been on every blog possible just seeing what people have questioned and didn't like.Here are the most common issues.
*Vanity when not selecting the double bowl option(Our model gives us the single bowl in the middle of a larger cabinet.)
*Outlets in garage and walk in closets(1 in the garage and 0 in closet is standard.I have the phone number of our electrician to call and get pricing to do it while they will be doing the rest)-We will need way more than 1 in garage and the closet idea is i feel it's big enough to iron our clothes in it.
*Cupboard above the fridge(Ours will have one,check with your sales rep based on your home.They both(sales rep/PM) said some do not include a cupboard)
*With our upgrades we did NOT get a fridge but wanted our model numbers.Stainless steel varies from company to company..Too many people didn't get matching ones..(Our rep printed out a sheet with the model numbers on it)
*Other issues that may or may not pertain to other peoples homes.Drain in garage,location of furnace/laundry in basement,banister(what's standard per your model),sidewalk and driveway(what's included what's not),insulation used between garage and attached rooms(pantry,offices i guess temperatures vary quite a bit.
If anyone else had any other issues that arose please let me know.As I said I am very picky.
I think our meeting was more of me asking questions embarrassing my wife more or less.But overall it did go well.Best part was when our sales rep emailed her boss about the door in laundry room and he said no.THEN our PM calls him and gets it done.I felt good about that.Like he was working for our interest not the company.Other than that our PM went down the line with every option we have picked, he suggested a few things that actually saved us money on just so he knew what changes were made.He's getting 10's so far!!If you have done your meeting with them you'll know what that means.Few other things we walked out with so people don't get their hopes up.I forgot all about needing dirt to settle around house before putting concrete pad and such.I am the type of person that wanted the basement done,fencing,concrete patio all in right away..VERY IMPATIENT.However, we walked out with few things/thoughts we never thought of.
*Our PM suggested it will be next year before we do the concrete(ground needs to settle)This was a killer.We bought a hot tub in Aug and were very FIRM on taking it with us to new home.So now it will have to sit until we get the concrete work done.I did call my concrete guy right away when we left the meeting and he is thinking maybe August we should be OK.it will cost a bit more for some of the supplies but we will get it done and done right.
*Painting-PM suggested not painting till after the 10 month checkup.Only because if they need to do any repairs(cracks,drywall issues,etc etc.) the paint will all look the same.This is good for me, now I can relax a bit before the "wifey" goes paint crazy again!!
*BIG thing for us due to construction in winter is concrete work(sidewalk) and landscaping.Our home is the last in our subdivision with about 5 being completed right now.What he said was they will come in and do them all at once in spring.This could be good or bad.He wasn't sure if our sub-division would be first or last.But being that our house is last home to go up it makes logical sense to do our sub-division first in spring(Then Ryan Homes is DONE and out of there)We'll see though.
Bottom line was walking out of there we felt really good with him and what the plan is.This is good(Our sales rep is moving away closer to her family(Congrats)). Hopefully it will stay this way.
To go back a bit, we did our selection meeting on 11/30.Took us 30-45 minutes.DEFINITELY not the norm.Being we just redid our home we kinda knew what colors and what idea's we wanted for this home.From what I have saw online many people go back and forth 2 or 3 times to their selection site.So be prepared.I would say go to home depot/lowe's first just so you have idea of what to look for.
*Vanity when not selecting the double bowl option(Our model gives us the single bowl in the middle of a larger cabinet.)
*Outlets in garage and walk in closets(1 in the garage and 0 in closet is standard.I have the phone number of our electrician to call and get pricing to do it while they will be doing the rest)-We will need way more than 1 in garage and the closet idea is i feel it's big enough to iron our clothes in it.
*Cupboard above the fridge(Ours will have one,check with your sales rep based on your home.They both(sales rep/PM) said some do not include a cupboard)
*With our upgrades we did NOT get a fridge but wanted our model numbers.Stainless steel varies from company to company..Too many people didn't get matching ones..(Our rep printed out a sheet with the model numbers on it)
*Other issues that may or may not pertain to other peoples homes.Drain in garage,location of furnace/laundry in basement,banister(what's standard per your model),sidewalk and driveway(what's included what's not),insulation used between garage and attached rooms(pantry,offices i guess temperatures vary quite a bit.
If anyone else had any other issues that arose please let me know.As I said I am very picky.
I think our meeting was more of me asking questions embarrassing my wife more or less.But overall it did go well.Best part was when our sales rep emailed her boss about the door in laundry room and he said no.THEN our PM calls him and gets it done.I felt good about that.Like he was working for our interest not the company.Other than that our PM went down the line with every option we have picked, he suggested a few things that actually saved us money on just so he knew what changes were made.He's getting 10's so far!!If you have done your meeting with them you'll know what that means.Few other things we walked out with so people don't get their hopes up.I forgot all about needing dirt to settle around house before putting concrete pad and such.I am the type of person that wanted the basement done,fencing,concrete patio all in right away..VERY IMPATIENT.However, we walked out with few things/thoughts we never thought of.
*Our PM suggested it will be next year before we do the concrete(ground needs to settle)This was a killer.We bought a hot tub in Aug and were very FIRM on taking it with us to new home.So now it will have to sit until we get the concrete work done.I did call my concrete guy right away when we left the meeting and he is thinking maybe August we should be OK.it will cost a bit more for some of the supplies but we will get it done and done right.
*Painting-PM suggested not painting till after the 10 month checkup.Only because if they need to do any repairs(cracks,drywall issues,etc etc.) the paint will all look the same.This is good for me, now I can relax a bit before the "wifey" goes paint crazy again!!
*BIG thing for us due to construction in winter is concrete work(sidewalk) and landscaping.Our home is the last in our subdivision with about 5 being completed right now.What he said was they will come in and do them all at once in spring.This could be good or bad.He wasn't sure if our sub-division would be first or last.But being that our house is last home to go up it makes logical sense to do our sub-division first in spring(Then Ryan Homes is DONE and out of there)We'll see though.
Bottom line was walking out of there we felt really good with him and what the plan is.This is good(Our sales rep is moving away closer to her family(Congrats)). Hopefully it will stay this way.
To go back a bit, we did our selection meeting on 11/30.Took us 30-45 minutes.DEFINITELY not the norm.Being we just redid our home we kinda knew what colors and what idea's we wanted for this home.From what I have saw online many people go back and forth 2 or 3 times to their selection site.So be prepared.I would say go to home depot/lowe's first just so you have idea of what to look for.
Our upgrades
I'm not going to list all of the small things.Just give you an idea of what we did.
*Jefferson Model-2 story foyer with 4 bedrooms/2.5 baths.
*Elevation B
*2 car side load garage
*Morning room w the windows on the side and a sliding door
*Cherry Bordeaux(?) cupboards with the gourmet island
*We did upgrade the counter tops but didn't go with the granite(can be done later date, felt markup was to high)
*Stainless Steel appliances
*Extended Laundry room(16 foot room,dogs cages will go nicely in there)
*Fireplace
*We upgraded the master bath to have separate tub/shower units.double bowl sink.
*Only did a single in the 2nd bath upstairs.
*Upgraded carpets and padding
*Tile throughout(hardwood with 3 dogs wouldn't have been wise-we saw a home built in 06 that needed to be resurfaced because of dogs)
Smaller upgrades we did like an extra laundry tub in basement(idea is to put wet bar down there),recessed lighting in a few rooms,fans,cased openings around some doors,added a few windows, and went with gas instead of electric for everything.
One thing we actually did add that i was surprised we were able to do was change a window to a door.We originally wanted a side door to let the dogs in and out of next to our garage door on the side.(In case they got muddy outside and such).Well come to find out,the only way to do that was to pay extra for the extension of the garage.I DON'T THINK SO.We actually took the window in the laundry room and asked that they make it a door.It wasn't until we met with our PM that we finally were able to get the green light.This is huge only because the dogs won't come through the house to get to their "bedroom".They will stay on the tile.
http://www.ryanhomes.com/findmodel.aspx?st=Jefferson
I was nervous about doing the single in the 2nd bath only because I have seen a few blogs where electing to do a single vanity you still have the double vanity with one a single cabinet.With our model doing a single actually will only give us a smaller cabinet.I am definitely not a fan of the storage space under the double sink.This is why I am doing this blog.I am very picky when it comes to this and have spent many hours on other blogs coming up with questions for our pre-construction meeting.
*Jefferson Model-2 story foyer with 4 bedrooms/2.5 baths.
*Elevation B
*2 car side load garage
*Morning room w the windows on the side and a sliding door
*Cherry Bordeaux(?) cupboards with the gourmet island
*We did upgrade the counter tops but didn't go with the granite(can be done later date, felt markup was to high)
*Stainless Steel appliances
*Extended Laundry room(16 foot room,dogs cages will go nicely in there)
*Fireplace
*We upgraded the master bath to have separate tub/shower units.double bowl sink.
*Only did a single in the 2nd bath upstairs.
*Upgraded carpets and padding
*Tile throughout(hardwood with 3 dogs wouldn't have been wise-we saw a home built in 06 that needed to be resurfaced because of dogs)
Smaller upgrades we did like an extra laundry tub in basement(idea is to put wet bar down there),recessed lighting in a few rooms,fans,cased openings around some doors,added a few windows, and went with gas instead of electric for everything.
One thing we actually did add that i was surprised we were able to do was change a window to a door.We originally wanted a side door to let the dogs in and out of next to our garage door on the side.(In case they got muddy outside and such).Well come to find out,the only way to do that was to pay extra for the extension of the garage.I DON'T THINK SO.We actually took the window in the laundry room and asked that they make it a door.It wasn't until we met with our PM that we finally were able to get the green light.This is huge only because the dogs won't come through the house to get to their "bedroom".They will stay on the tile.
http://www.ryanhomes.com/findmodel.aspx?st=Jefferson
I was nervous about doing the single in the 2nd bath only because I have seen a few blogs where electing to do a single vanity you still have the double vanity with one a single cabinet.With our model doing a single actually will only give us a smaller cabinet.I am definitely not a fan of the storage space under the double sink.This is why I am doing this blog.I am very picky when it comes to this and have spent many hours on other blogs coming up with questions for our pre-construction meeting.
To Begin...
My wife and I live in Western New York and have recently decided to build w Ryan Homes.Since we got married in Aug 10' we have gutted our current house and now decided to go bigger and newer.The process since the begining hasn't been the greatest(We have had our hearts set on a few different areas and lots to find out there was 1 issue or another.)It's about 2:30am so I figured what better time to start this process than now.I think we started the process of finding a new somewhere back in October.We actually we looking at homes in a development that were finished back in 05/06.Some were very basic and 1 we actually were under a contingent(sell our home first) contract.We lost that home to a cash offer and then started to look into just doing it our way and building.We have added a few thousand(alot of a few) to build but bottom line is it's our way and only ours.Kinda like the sound of that.
After looking at about 8 homes all built in the past 5 years and redoing our home this past year it really made us value certain aspects of what to expect on our "next" home.The way people took care of things.(My wife is a neat/clean freak).So after looking at these homes we were up in the air about whether we were just going to stay put or actually build.I wasnt happy about the extra costs of landscaping,fencing(we have 3 dogs), a concrete patio, finishing another basement etc etc etc...BOTTOM LINE-We are building.Not sure who pushed who.Anyways,i think we started pricing out lots back in October.Based on the area we wanted to buy in there really wasn't a new development that we would have prime lot location.That didn't help.So our Sales rep gave us a few different lots.One closer to my wifes work(too busy of a street) and another which was a different builders development.We actually spent a hour walking the lots,deciding what we liked and made our decision.Not so fast, the developer wouldnt sell for whatever reason..(This didnt help the situation,was building really for us..or just wait).Our sales rep came back one last time in a development a bit further than we would have liked with one last lot that became available due to a buyer not meeting requirements.DONE DEAL.We set the price,made our changes/upgrades(I will list them in a later post).Signed our contract late November.I'm in the mortgage business so we did not use thier mortgage lender.Not a huge deal but definitely ran into a few snags so far(Wording of our approval letter and such).
To sum up as of today we have sold our home.Close on that end of MARCH.We met with our Construction Manager and Sales rep this past Wed 1/19 and he gave us a anticipated start date of 2/10.He said it should take about 60-70 days from there start to finish.This is defintely NOT going to be fun.We have to discuss our options over next week or so and figure out our plans.(3 dogs doesn't help in finding temporary housing).
After looking at about 8 homes all built in the past 5 years and redoing our home this past year it really made us value certain aspects of what to expect on our "next" home.The way people took care of things.(My wife is a neat/clean freak).So after looking at these homes we were up in the air about whether we were just going to stay put or actually build.I wasnt happy about the extra costs of landscaping,fencing(we have 3 dogs), a concrete patio, finishing another basement etc etc etc...BOTTOM LINE-We are building.Not sure who pushed who.Anyways,i think we started pricing out lots back in October.Based on the area we wanted to buy in there really wasn't a new development that we would have prime lot location.That didn't help.So our Sales rep gave us a few different lots.One closer to my wifes work(too busy of a street) and another which was a different builders development.We actually spent a hour walking the lots,deciding what we liked and made our decision.Not so fast, the developer wouldnt sell for whatever reason..(This didnt help the situation,was building really for us..or just wait).Our sales rep came back one last time in a development a bit further than we would have liked with one last lot that became available due to a buyer not meeting requirements.DONE DEAL.We set the price,made our changes/upgrades(I will list them in a later post).Signed our contract late November.I'm in the mortgage business so we did not use thier mortgage lender.Not a huge deal but definitely ran into a few snags so far(Wording of our approval letter and such).
To sum up as of today we have sold our home.Close on that end of MARCH.We met with our Construction Manager and Sales rep this past Wed 1/19 and he gave us a anticipated start date of 2/10.He said it should take about 60-70 days from there start to finish.This is defintely NOT going to be fun.We have to discuss our options over next week or so and figure out our plans.(3 dogs doesn't help in finding temporary housing).
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