Weekend Updates and Pictures

Our weekend has been jam-packed with meetings for the new home, as I mentioned, as well as our home inspection here yesterday afternoon.  It's been a fabulous past three days and Kevin and I are getting more and more excited about everything that is transpiring!

I've already shared everything about the Guardian meeting.  Since Thursday afternoon we've visited the Florence model two times.  Glad we did.  We hadn't thought about the furniture arrangement in the living room on the main level and quickly realized that where we planned to have our television mounted wouldn't work - we'd need to switch walls.  Not a big deal, but something I needed to let our sales rep know asap. 

Upgrades
We finalized all of our upgrades.  It feels SO good to have everything decided upon and signed off on.  We decided to take full advantage of the building experience and go ahead and upgrade to a granite countertop in the master bathroom as well - something we hadn't planned on doing originally.  We decided on a few other things here and there and signed off on the final papers.

Also, since our house has officially sold, we signed papers to remove the contingency agreement with Ryan.  We're now in the full-sold mode!  Should something happen - God forbid - that we not close on our current home, then Ryan Homes would just stick the contingency agreement back on our purchase - but we don't foresee that happening.

Home Inspection
We had no intention of being at our house during the home inspection, but ended up returning to the house to the inspector and buyers still here.  Kevin came in to ask if it were okay if we came back early - no one had any issues with it.  I am glad we did.  I got to meet the buyer and let her know that I'd be leaving her all the names of the paint colors in the house, the company that services our furnace, as well as the installer/servicer of our A/C.  She was very nice.  It was funny to walk in to the house and see she and her fiance sitting downstairs on the couches, watching the Cavs game.  I had the strange feeling that I was intruding on their home - while it is still actually ours.

The inspector was super nice.  He noted on his report that especially given the age of the house, it is in excellent shape and has been very well upkept.  That made us proud.  We haven't heard the official report from our realtor in regards to what the buyers want fixed, but if they want everything that was noted, it will simply be installing four GFI outlets and fixing a gas leak in the basement (something we're fixing regardless, for our own safety, of course).  I am SO relieved to have that all over!  On to the next steps to take us to our May 10 closing!

Colors Meeting
We had our 'colors meeting' this evening.  This is where we finalize our cabinets, countertops, siding, brick, shutters, and fireplace.  We do all of our flooring and stain options tomorrow at noon.  This was a really fun meeting and made the whole thing seem super real.  Here are some pictures to illustrate:

This will be our siding color - "Hudson Bay" - with black shutters.  Our front door will be black and we'll have almond color trim and garage door.  Our exterior will also have brick, and it'll be the brick color shown on top of the picture - it's a brownish tone brick.  It's going to look SUPER sharp.

This is our exact combination in the kitchen - this granite, "Cherry Spice" cabinets, and stainless steel appliances.  It just so happened that the newest model in the neighborhood (not even open yet!) has the same exact combination, so we were able to step over and snap a pic of it!

Here is an upclose shot of the stone color that we'll be using for the fireplace.  Again, super handy that the new model had that exact same color stone for their fireplace, so I was able to get a picture of that entire thing, too!

Oh - and the most exciting news of all?  We're actually on Ryan Homes' schedule - slated for ground breaking to be June 2nd ... and we are scheduled to close and take possession of the house on August 11th!  That sounds so close to me!

It Gets Expensive Here ... and FUN!

I am a few days late on this, but I wanted to provide a look into the upgrades that we are currently planning for the new house.  I do have pricing and would be willing to share it with you if you're someone considering Ryan Homes in the same area ... that way you can have an idea of what to expect (although I understand their pricing could change rather frequently, so only use this as a guide). I am going to keep that out of this post otherwise.

This is certainly where things add up and add up fast, but it is also the FUN part! We could possibly add to - or remove from - this list during the time between now and when our house sells, but from what I understand from our consultant, once we sign papers to start building, we have 14 days to lock in all of our upgrades or we then incur a fee for each change made thereafter. This is another reason I wanted us to start talking about this stuff NOW - it gives us a lot of time to go back and forth on decisions and really get a grasp on what we truly want for our new home.

First, I was VERY excited to hear that 9' ceilings now come standard in the Florence model. This is an upgrade we had planned to add on anyhow, so knowing that it is included in the base price was very exciting! Additionally, it is believed that drywalling in the garage is included now as well (whereas otherwise it would be $450 to finish, and we'd just leave that as a project for Kevin to do at a later time).

Structural Upgrades

• Partial Brick Exterior
• Morning Room - This required no further discussion between Kevin and myself - we knew that this was a must for us. This includes the morning room itself plus two additional windows on the side (add'l cost for these) that would otherwise be a solid wall.
• Finished Basement - Again, no brainer for us. We come from a finished basement and it is a must. We couldn't do it by ourselves for the price, so we'd prefer it to be all done when we move in! BONUS ALERT - We're being given an incentive of a FREE FINISHED BASEMENT!! So this is now 'included'. Helllooooo savings! =)
• Full Bathroom in Basement

Kitchen Upgrades

• Gourmet Island
• 8" double bowl sink - Standard is 6" and I come from an 8" and must have it!
• 42" cabinets - Includes an upgrade to cherry cabinets. Currently deciding between Cherry Bordeaux or Cherry Spice, both dark. We could possibly downgrade a bit to 30" cabinets ... but I worry about how that would look with 9' ceilings.
• Granite Countertops - Includes granite on the gourmet island as well
• Upgraded Appliances - This includes stainless steel dishwasher, range, and microwave.
• Upgraded Refrigerator
• Gas Range Hook-Up

Main Floor Living Room Upgrades

• Marble Fireplace - We are still going back and forth on this. Right now we're also considering upgrading to a stone surround fireplace with stone hearth. Not sure where we'll land on this, so I am showing it as we first decided for now.  UPDATE:  We ended up going with the stone surround fireplace with stone hearth. 

Owner's Suite Upgrades

• Owner's Suite Upgraded Bathroom - This allows us to have a garden tub surrounded in ceramic tile, separate from the shower (with two walls of ceramic tile and glass walls).
• Added jets to garden tub
• Upgraded vanity cabinets
• Granite countertop in Master Bathroom

General Upgrades

• Garage door opener (seemed a bit crazy to me that this is an 'upgrade')
• Upgrade vanity cabinets in all other bathrooms
• Interior door hardware - All hardware will be oil rubbed bronze
• Recessed Basement Lights
• Recessed Kitchen Lights
• Floor drain in garage - Perfect to allow all that snow that falls off of our cars to just drain away. 
• Faucet fixtures in Bathrooms - All bathroom fixtures will be oil rubbed bronze
• Upgraded Kitchen faucet
• Utility tub in basement storage - I am big on having a place to rinse out paint brushes, wash the dog, etc.
• Pine Railing with wooden spindles on staircase
• Ceiling fan rough-ins (2) - Morning room and master bedroom
• Celing light rough-ins (3) - Bedroom #2, #3 and Dining Room

Additional Upgrades Not Yet Priced

There are still some things that we will be adding that we don't yet have prices for. This includes:

• Additional coach light on the end of the garage (only one is included and would leave it looking unbalanced)
• Special wiring for hung televisions and entertainment components (DVRs, etc)
• Flooring upgrades (hardwood in dining room, foyer, and main floor powder room; ceramic tile in kitchen, laundry, and morning room; carpet upgrades throughout remainder of the house)
• Customized finished addition in basement - We are still awaiting the quote on this, but are having it done regardless (we know the price range, just not exact number). When they finish the basement, there is a portion of it left unfinished for storage. There is quite a hefty amount of storage, and while I would never complain about extra storage space, we can use some of the area in a better way. So we're having a section off to the side be finished off, with glass French doors installed in the middle. Basically, one part of it will be a poker/game room and the other part will be Riley's play room. Once we no longer need a play room, it will most likely be converted into a workout room or office.