Choices, choices, choices....and more choices!
So, tomorrow is a BIG day for us! We will be meeting with our SR for a Selections Meeting. Truth be told, this is our second attempt at a Selections Meeting. We met a week ago and were so undecided with all of the additional choices and optional upgrades, that we bailed after 3 hours and decided to "try again" after we had some time to really think about what we need vs. what we want vs. what we don't need or want. Fortunately, I had scheduled that first meeting early enough that our deadline for structural selections isn't for another few days.
We live rather far from the model of the Lincolnshire, so it makes it a little difficult to get back and forth often enough to really visualize what would look good in our home's layout.
We did go by the model again this weekend and came up with our tentative game plan to expedite tomorrow's meeting. Feel free to give any input - it will be interesting to see if we actually stick to these decisions tomorrow when we have to put them in writing.
Did anyone else have any trouble making decisions during this phase?
OUR GAME PLAN
STRUCTURAL DECISIONS:
Upgraded Owner's Bath with Roman Shower (struggling with the idea of not having a soaking tub, but I've literally taken a tub bath once in the last 8 years and the roman shower is slightly larger with two shower heads)4-foot extension in family room and basement
Bonus room
Gas Stovetop
Extra second floor bathroom (Jack and Jill style, for our twins to share)
Elevation A - full front porch, all siding. Comes with a metal roof over the porch.
Finished basement rec room + full bathroom
NOT finishing the extra rooms x 2 in the basement (one is a "media room," the other is a gigantic "Home Office" - we will finish these on our own)
FINISHING UPGRADES:
Fireplace Granite Surround - Venetian Gold
Kitchen Cabinets - Maple Espresso
Kitchen Granite - Santa Cecilia
Interior Hardware - brushed nickel
Owner's Bathroom Cabinets - Maple Espresso
Owner's Bathroom Counters Granite - Santa Cecilia Light
Secondary Bathroom Cabinets - Tahoe Cherry Bordeaux
Secondary Bathroom Counters - White cultured marble
EXTERIOR HOME COLORS
I can't even begin to describe how difficult this choice is for us. The color that our neighbor has is a very light, grayish color, so we can't choose that. However, it seems like there are a billion color combinations of siding, shutters, door, and brick choices that we can choose from. Very overwhelming! We narrowed it down to a combination with Navajo Beige siding and another combination with Khaki Brown siding, but that was at the end of the long meeting and I think we were just ready to go. So, tomorrow, I will start the siding decision all over again.This is what we narrowed it down to:
My only suggestion, and this might be regional, is find out how much it costs to have granite done by an outside contractor compared to what Ryan charges. Ryan wanted to charge us $5600 for granite kitchen countertops and we can get the exact same one after we close for $3200. So we're having laminate installed and ripping it out the first week. Saving $2400 upfront and over the life of the mortgage is well worth it.
ReplyDeleteGood idea, James! We are trying to do that with the carpet w/ Rite Rug too. That meeting is in a few days. I am hoping to have a local contractor price out an estimate for us tomorrow so we can take it with us to Rite Rug and compare the cost of getting good carpet from them vs the contractor. Are you guys planning to paint after you move in?
ReplyDeleteBy us (again I know prices vary by region) there was no savings going with the included carpet over paying the upgrade. Our upgrade was $2300 for upstairs carpet and that's what all local places would have charged. I think Ryan by us have the base house price bumped higher and the markup on upgrades lower to entice you to upgrade. We'll paint after the 30 day because I know my wife will go nuts, like the Shining, with white walls. I know you should wait until the 10 month, but I don't mind painting. So whatever touch ups happen with the drywall, I'll just prime and repaint the spot.
DeleteCongrats on your new home! We're in the process of building as well (our preconstruction meeting is on Monday). One tip I have for you would be to check fans in the master bath. I would make sure you have a fan in the main area of the bathroom as well as above the toilet (in some homes they only include one above the toilet - it's on of the things that annoys our friend the most about his Ryan Home). I have a more detailed post on it on my blog ( http://palermonewbeginnings.blogspot.com/2014/05/fan-location-in-master-bath-tip-from.html ) if you're curious!
ReplyDeleteJame is right about the granite though. That is one of the things we will be doing later on our own because Ryan Homes charges way too high of a price. When I calculated carpet though it turned out that the deal with Ryan Homes was cheaper than ripping up your old carpet and having new carpet installed (This is once we calculated price of labor to remove the carpet + charge for them taking and disposing of the carpet + the carpet price + install of new carpet).
Thank you so much for the advice! I will definitely check on the bathroom fan situation and look at the post! You all were right about carpet. We had our Rite Rug meeting yesterday (post to come) and we ended up just getting that carpet level that we wanted through them. It turned out pricing was more unpredictable (and possibly more expensive) with the outside vendors we investigated. So - Rite Rug wins again! I will post our selections later today!
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