About a week and a half passed since going to see the model, and I get a call from the SR. He asked if we made it down to the model and what we thought of it. I tell him we really liked the model, but were still undecided on doing new construction or buying preowned. He was very understanding and told me when we were ready to give him a call and we could build our new home on paper. A couple days later we were in the sales trailer sitting down to put our initial options on paper.
Some of the more obvious ones were easy, like the morning room and finished basement. Others, however, weren't so easy. Do we really need a fireplace, or recessed lighting in the kitchen? After the initial choices, we then were faced with choosing a lot to build on. We looked over the sight plan at the available lots and just couldn't decide where we wanted to be, so we went out and walked through the muddy lots that will eventually be our neighborhood. Walking through the lots seemed to help a little, but my wife was still unsure. She decided to take her mother over to the area to get some help. I get a phone call from her while I was at work saying she had decided on a lot. Great! We put our initial deposit down and started looking over the ten to fifteen page option list.
Wow! So many options to think about. The whole thing was starting to feel so overwhelming. Adding options means the price goes up, and wanting to stay within a budget only seemed to make it harder. To compound this my wife was having second thoughts on the lot we chose. Our current home faces east and after noon the place gets very little natural light, another reason for moving out. The lot initially chosen by my wife would have the house facing south. The design of the Florence would have us mostly hanging out in the rear of the house, where we would again get very little natural light. Back to the drawing board, or more accurately, the sight plan we go. After much debate we ended up changing to a lot with a southern exposure for the rear of the house.
Next step, we needed to start making our final selections.
Hey Frank! Congrats on you and your wife's new home! We're in the same boat too and had added soooo much extras. Everyday I keep thinking about whether we want this or that...It's the sucky thing about building a home from the ground up. But at least your home is your home to your liking.
ReplyDeleteThat is where Ryan Homes makes their money. The Options. It's always good to have the " must haves" and the "nice to have" lists ready to go, because the price of the house will add up quickly. Since I still own a home and mortgage, a morning room just wasn't in it for me this time, but we will eventually build a covered/screened deck off the dinette and a patio for entertaining.
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