Final Changes

We have finalized all of our changes over the past few weeks.

Our changes included:

• New Caledonia granite counter tops ($4.5K). Our cabinets are Maple Cognac and the hardwood floor is Gunstock Dundee. I would have liked to gone darker on the cabinets, but most blogs I read hate the dark dark cabinets.

• Third car garage ($12.5K). Yay!!! I get to finally park inside.
• Additional cable and data outlets. Our package included six cable/phone outlets. We added two additional cable and two data. We decided to only have one phone outlet as we have not used the land line in our house now for 2 years; we only have it for the discounted cable rates. I believe the charge for all 4 was around $400.
• We passed on the security system as I did not want to sign a contract for 3 years. The $250 installation charge was appealing, but an additional $45/month for 3 years was not something I wanted to add at this time. I know it's not a lot, but I just wasn't comfortable increasing our monthly expenses any more just yet.
• The only remaining item is to finalize our carpet color. Currently we have, Shaw Favorite Choice in Light Aspiration. We are second guessing ourselves and want to make sure it is not too dark. Hopefully we can take some carpet samples from Rusmur floors this week and compare to the carpet we have now in our rental.

After we drop off the remaining money for our Good Faith deposit this week, we won't have anything going on for another 2 months until they start building. They have started on 4 of the houses in our phase over the past two weeks. Fortunately, our phase is the final phase in the community so the construction will not last for too long after we move in. I am hoping by Spring/early summer 2014 all construction will be complete.

I guess I can always start shopping for the fridge, washer and dryer that we need to purchase for the house. That should keep me busy until July when they are scheduled to start building. I could also go crazy on furniture, but I want to wait until we are living in the house to see what we actually need and prioritize each room.

And it begins....

We signed our purchase agreement Easter weekend. I am so excited for this process; but not excited that I have to wait until July for them to start building our home.
I HATE waiting. I have always complained when vacations are booked for months in advance and now I have to wait for this!!! I guess it will be here before I know it.

When we first started looking at Ryan Homes we looked at the Ferncliff, Florence, & Venice Models.
I really liked the Venice model at the beginning, but thought "what I am going to do with 4 bedrooms?"
We initially started the whole process with the Ferncliff model. The monthly expense was well above our budget that we wanted to spend going into this.
We had changed our minds the day we were to sign the Purchase Agreement.
I think I was so excited about the home, I didn't realize exactly what I would be paying each month.
After talking with the Pittsburgh Sales Manager, she told us to price out a bigger house in Washington County. And I am glad we did. We gained 500 sq feet for $300/month less!

Our Venice Home will have the Elevation L. We will be picking our color scheme later this week. We found a color scheme we like in a neighborhood near my parents, but were told that they do not offer that color combination anymore.

We have currently met with Rusmur Floors for our initial meeting. I am debating on whether or not I put hardwood floor through the entire first floor.
Without the morning room, I thought that we may need carpet in the family room to breakup the rooms.
Good thing I have until the end of April to decide on this.

The First Floor will have Dundee Oak Gunstock 2 1/4" hardwood in the mud room, kitchen, dinette, foyer, powder room, and living/dining room.
Light Aspiration Carpet with 6lb padding in the family room and second floor.
The Second Floor bathroom will have Brixton Sand Tile on the floor and the Owner's Bath will have Brixton Sand Tile on the floor, shower, and tub. The shower will also have a glass mosaics accent border.

Seems like after our meeting with Guardian next week, I will be sitting back  anxiously waiting until our pre-construction meeting in July.