Big Backyards

Since being sold on "3 acres", I've been pondering: What do people do with BIG backyards?

Sort of like this guy, but you know, less mathy!

It's my understanding that our patio door (the one leading out of the morning room) will be about 2-3 feet off the ground (which consequently forced us to get a welled egress from the basement, instead of a walkout basement).  Growing up where I did, I am accustomed to 0.25-0.333 acre lots.  My last home's lot size was around that, with essentially enough to have a deck, a little playground, and enough room left over for a reasonable sized basketball hoop.

Something along the lines of this

This time around though, I'm thinking:

• Basketball court
• Deck
• Stone patio
• ...*Draws blank*

Because I'm an avid basketball fan, and amateur player (whenever time permits), I want a real court. Ultimately, I'd love to put a half-court in the yard somewhere. 

Dream court!

And then maybe a deck (which RH charges about $45-48 per sq. ft)

Maybe not this elaborate...but hey, dream big right?

And of course, the stone patio idea:

Not exactly like this, but close enough

It's after the stone patio, where I begin to draw blanks.  Does anyone have other thoughts or ideas on what to do with a large yard space?  I've done some Pinterest searching, and I've come up with:

• Pool
• Garden
• Shed
• Playground
• Fountain

Anything else?  

Dream (basement) deferred...

After a lot of discussion and hand-wringing, Ashley and I decided to remove the finished basement. In our plan since Day 1, at a whopping $31K, it wound up being the only major ticket item we could finish later.

It felt like going from

Dream

To...

Reality

Ultimately, it made the most financial sense (can you hear me talking myself into giving up on the man cave dream?) to postpone that element of the dream home until a later date, and remain within budget.

Part of the problem was when we initially priced the house and got our Good Faith Estimate, we hadn't been to the other appointments (Design Center and Guardian).  Additionally, we overlooked two big ticket items: a walkout egress (~ $7K) and the Roman shower option ($1K) in the Master Bathroom.  So, with those additions, and other appointments, the basement was the easiest and most cost-effective casualty.

In hindsight, we probably would have budgeted differently and allotted enough money for a finished basement.  In particular, our elevation and hip roof was a big cost item (~ $27K) by itself.

Yet, the proverbial glass is half-full.  Thanks in part due to some other home bloggers who have shown pics of them finishing their basement, we feel confident that it's something we can and will do together (minus the drywall labor).  With careful planning, it won't be nearly as costly as RH quoted (though in all fairness, their estimate appears to be in the neighborhood of $30/sq. ft, which is what my amateur internet surfing says is about right)

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!!!