Trim Installed: Trade Deadline Looming

They say life comes at you fast, and they are right. I went away for a week to California (it rained in southern California--Toni Tone Tony lied to me!). Ryan homes, to their credit, has adhered closely to the notional timeline they advertise. Right now, we're in about week 10, which means they've finished drywall, ceramic flooring, and they are about to to the second stage of paint.

I'm feeling extra lazy, so I'll just throw these pictures up of our latest foray into the house and I'll maybe organize them later. But do note, the bathroom tile is looking AMAZING!!!! And I'm going to pat myself on the back because of the "few" interior choices that I made, getting floor to ceiling tile was my idea. And I think it looks, you know, amazing!!!!!

Elevation and Rate Lock

I spoke with our loan officer today regarding our 30 day rate lock, and as usual, the conversation and communication was A+. I point that fact out because in all of this process, namely, the homebuilding process...communication is so crucial! But I digress, first things first, we locked our rate (yayyy!). But on the other hand, thanks to our closing occurring post-election, the rates now are higher than they were pre-election (boooo). Regardless, our LO discussed what options we had to achieve the monthly mortgage estimate we originally were sold on, and the convo went well. We're scheduled to close in mid-January, so we'll see how that goes!




For those that have been through this process, or considering going through it, one of the MANY "gotchas", when it comes to building your house is choosing your elevation. According to http://homeguides.sfgate.com/house-elevations-39208.html

Elevations are architectural drawings of a building's exterior. In architectural drawing terms, house elevations are two dimensional pictures of the façade of a house or interior features that have faces projecting from a flat, solid background, like cabinetry, fireplaces, niches and elaborate wall designs.

In this case, when it comes to say the Avalon, there's a myriad of options to choose from. I'll include a few just to give you an idea. 



So here's the thing. You don't "have" to pay for an elevation. Your house will come with siding or wood or brick or stone water front etc., But I like to think of the elevation as a crucial part of making your otherwise cookie cutter home, look distinct and personal. For instance I once read a blog where the writer noted how somewhere around 25% of the homes in their development were X (I forget what model they mentioned, maybe it was Dunkirks? or Victoria Falls? I don't recall, I'll find it later I think and link to it). 



To be clear, Ryan Homes tries to enforce some sort of model and elevation diversity in the community. For instance, if our neighbor across from or besides us had an Avalon, they could NOT have the same elevation as us. 

The thing is, as one would imagine, elevations can be expensive. So if you are OK with the default vinyl or plastic or whatever siding, you're good to go. However, if you want stone, or brick, and depending on where you want stone and/or brick...things get expensive really quickly. Ranging from 0 (default) to $20K! In any event, I pushed for brick (and the aforementioned hip roof), because I think curb appeal goes a long way, and to be quite frank, I had fell in love with red brick some time ago and knew I wanted it. 

Ryan Homes has a nice fancy color visualizer, that allows you to select your brick and trim colors (this comes after you select your elevation with the sales rep). Ours came out like this:




What's interesting is, first, our windows are not that nice looking (boooo!!) and second, our elevation doesn't really look like that at all. You can be the judge, but here are some pics so far:

Cabinets and railing update

We couple of weeks ago, we noticed that Ryan Homes had stored all of our cabinets and railings and doors and trim in our garage. Very exciting seeing that stuff of course, albeit it, just sitting there dormant.

Bedroom wet bar

Well after stopping by a few days ago, we've reached the stage where Ryan Homes is installing cabinets etc.,! We didn't stick around too long, since, they were in the middle of painting and it seemed rude (and dangerous) to kind of go roaming around through the heavily fumigated house and all. But here's the pic or two I managed to snap before we vacated.

Editors note: Ashley took some pictures late one evening, when it was getting dark, but I'll post those too.

Stairs leading from morning room to ground level

Ryan Homes elects to not build leading from your morning room door to the ground level, as mentioned here for example. That makes sense on some level, because they don't know what your backyard plans are and such, but it would also make sense for them to offer to provide some sort of stairs option.

Notice the wooden security rail preventing exit

I think this will be one of the first projects I tackle (as this Siena homeowner did, along with others), as backyard access is always preferable to have and not need, rather then to need and not have. I suspect that thanks to Home Depot and the internet, this will be a relatively easy (and inexpensive) project to hang my hat on and begin my homeowners project career!

Some wood, some concrete, some nails, and a power saw

Drywall: A Post-Thanksgiving Update

Ryan Homes has finally completed our drywall on our Avalon. Or so it appears, after several trips to the home site, including one that a certain person whom I love and names begins with "A" decided to leave her fingerprints in the mudding on a pillar.

You'd never guess who couldn't follow the "look, but don't touch" rule

I think I've mentioned this before, but I recall when I first began this blogging process, after combing through Ryan Homes blog upon blog, and noticing how most bloggers start off strong, and then tend to trail off. I was never quite sure why, as in, was it just slow progress during certain stages? Did real life kick in and time become scarce? etc., Obviously, after home completion, I can see the novelty of blogging wearing off (although I want/plan to continue), but still, I wasn't sure. In any event, I've noticed that I think the lack of posting often times is just (duhh, this should have been obvious to me) a combination of things. Ranging from slow progress, to no progress, to life picking up, to just lack of interest in posting pics and typing at times. So since I haven't posted in a while, I'm going to try to work myself out of the Thanksgiving malaise of too much food, and talk about what's occurred recently.

This guy gets it!

At this stage (rough timeline), they've completed mechanicals, insulation, and it appears most of the drywall! At this stage, seeing the drywall up gives a much better feel and visual for how the house looked. There's not too much detail to go into, so I'll just throw the pictures up and keep it moving. Oh, and we got garage doors!!!!

We've got garage doors

Add caption

Add caption

Upstairs

Kitchen looking into morning room

Dining Room

The giant scaffold they needed for the family room

Random closet

First floor bedroom closet

Family room looking into kitchen

Entry way stairs

Curious as to what those concrete patches are

Living room that will become my study

Dining Room

Tray Arch ceiling in master bedroom

Master bedroom

Karmen's room

Giant heater that keeps the drywall, well, dry!!!!