Models. Inspiration. And Disaster Averted!

First, the disaster averted part...

At this stage, say, 8 or so days in, thanks to our SR, we've selected most of the options and things we think we want in our new home.  The thing is, in our particular development, the only model is a Jefferson Square--which to be completely honest, doesn't have enough in common with our Avalon to give us the warm and fuzzies.  Since we wanted to visit an actual model, 90 minutes away, we decided to combine the visit with a trip to Washington, D.C. since we'd be roughly half way.  Why not drive the extra 45 minutes to see the model in person?

It's here, with the keyword: model, where the author of this post almost went astray.  Simply because my original thought was to put a picture of a "model", somewhere here in this post, just plastered all big and bold.  And then when Ashley saw it, I'm sure her first thought wasn't going to be: How clever Walter!! So instead, I'll put a pic of us from DC instead.

My real muse and only model I need!

Now that I'm done avoiding that near blunder, and hopefully earning some brownie points...back to our model visit.

I've got literally dozens of photos of the model and it's various rooms from a variety of angles.  Rather then link them all here, I'll just publish the photo album and folk can view as they see fit. After all, a good bit of the model pics are available via RH's Ryan Homes Avalon Model website.

I will take this opportunity to point out some of the things we learned from visiting that model, beginning with the kitchen island. 

Inspiration Kitchen - NOT a Ryan Homes model

Avalon Model kitchen

Overall, not too shabby!

Moving on, the second, major feature that we fell in love with from the original home was it's walk-in closest, that became available if you selected the 3 car side loading garage.  Unfortunately, and probably for the best, I couldn't find any pics of that home's walk-in closet.  But trust me, it was cavernous-almost to the point of disgust!

The best I can do is post a pic of the floor plan and state that the "Walk-in closet" portion, extends over the 3 car garage, same as the Avalon. But it's ceilings are not slanted, and there's this like, entire bedroom area before you even get to the part that is over the 3 car garage!  We contemplated leasing out that space alone, sort of like Air B&B!!!

Dream Closet

Avalon Closet

Ok, so no more crying over spilled milk I guess.  These are first world complaints, griping over kitchens and walk-in closets! So I shall stop.  I'm just saying...

Ryan Homes Avalon closet

After taking a lot of super redundant pictures, we sat down and wrote a list of questions to ask our SR upon return to MD, such as:

• Will our selected trim look like the models?
• How many recessed lights are included in the kitchen?
• What flooring and cabinet choices come in the mudroom?

And a bunch of other things that were really, just stuff we wanted to keep in mind.  Such as: what size area rugs do we want, and how many will we need?  Should we add windows to the living room? And so forth.

It would have been nice if the SR on site had time to answer any of our questions (or the telephone when we called to ask if the model was indeed open that day...). However, our local SR back in MD accepted our e-mailed list of questions and responded back with answers to all of them!

Next-up, design center!!!