Here we go!

We're Building a House!

Wow!  Who would have thought that three years after moving into our current house we would be contemplating another move.  Well, that is the situation in which we found ourselves a few short months ago.  After looking at several existing homes that were around 20 years old we decided that building a new home for a little more money was a better choice for us.  We looked at a few different builders and communities but quickly decided on Ryan Homes in the Willow Brooke at the Estates subdivision in Mason, Ohio.

We first had a meeting with Ryan and met with Teresa to price our home.  Out of the four options available to the neighborhood we loved the Bateman elevation K.  (The kids and I call it the "Batman" house.)  The layout worked for us - 3 car garage, large family room, 4 bedrooms, second floor laundry, and no living room.  Ryan's offer at the time included the morning room, finished basement, brick wrap, deck and several other upgrades.  We worked with Teresa to forego the finished basement and instead build on the second floor bonus room.  This was very important to us as it is an addition we couldn't do ourselves and it gave us the living space needed for our two boys.  We came away from that meeting with a fantastic house for what was a pretty good price.

My best advice to anyone entering this process is to get a knowledgeable realtor.  Ours was invaluable in making sure we added what we needed and getting as many incentives as possible in our initial meeting.  When we were ready to sign she called Ryan and got them to throw in another extra toward our loan that saved us another tremendous amount of money.  All thanks to her for her efforts.

As the process moved forward we were quickly overwhelmed with material choices, upgrades, plan review, and loan administration.  There are a TON of decisions to make in the first few weeks - not to mention coming up with the earnest money and down payment.  Our advice when you're putting your house together is to get as many options included in the house and then remove items you can do yourself later.  Before our Rite Rug and Guardian appointments we added:

• Stone hearth with gas fireplace (if you want the blower make sure you ask!)
• Great room windows on the side
• Recessed lights in the family room and the bonus room
• Planning desk in the morning room
• Family welcome center off the garage
• Morning room hanging light fixture (it's not included in the base)
• Exterior flood light off the morning room
• Laundry tub in basement (for cleaning paint brushes, this will eventually be converted to a wet bar sink when we finish the basement)
• Moved the doorbell chime to a hidden location (so you wont be able to see it from the dining room)
• Basement full-bath rough in
• Gas range
• Ceiling fan rough-ins in the bedrooms and the study
• Upgraded to the Roman Shower (although I don't like the dual shower head layout)
• Kitchen and bathroom cabinet upgrades
• Hardwood and carpet flooring upgrades
• Ceramic tile master bath upgrades

Luckily my wife has an eye for the style and look that she wants in the house.  That leaves me open for the structural and mechanical decisions.  After a quick trip to the design center in the model she put together exactly what she wanted.  Of course these wouldn't be our final decisions but we had a general idea of everything going in to the Rite Rug appointment.

Rite Rug (where the husband's opinion doesn't count for much)

This is one where I was just along for the ride.  My wife was fantastic here picking out coordinating colors and styles that had my head spinning.  First up - flooring and cabinets.  

We wanted a dark hardwood floor with wide planks and my wife always wanted cream colored cabinets.  For the kitchen we decided on Rushmore Hazelnut glazed cabinets; Rural Living 5" wide engineered hardwood in Hickory/Deep Java; and Giallo Ornamental granite.

For the carpet throughout the house we went with Shaw Into the Wind Cloud Cover.  It blended some browns and grays and other things of which I had no clue.  My input here was limited to the upgraded pad.  Booyah!

For the kids bathroom we went with the Station Square vinyl flooring, Scottsdale maple Expresso cabinets and the standard white cultured marble top.  I'm told this blended the grays and dark speckles from the carpet.  OK. We went with the same flooring in the laundry room.

The master bath is where I finally had an opinion.  Originally I had just wanted vinyl flooring but after seeing the selections we went ahead and upgraded to ceramic - which included the upgrade in the shower at the same time.  We decided on Castillian Gray tile with a Soft Cashmere random block accent.

Our flooring appointment lasted about an hour of which I spoke for about 8 seconds.  This is the appointment where I realized I married the right person.  If she had allowed me much say in anything we would have ended up with selections that only the old Soviet Union designers would have appreciated.

Guardian (my turn!)

The one area of the house that is all mine is electric and mechanicals.  My wife doesn't want to know about it and doesn't care as long as wifi works and we can get Columbus Blue Jackets games on the TV.  This stuff is fun for me.

There are a number of blogs that discuss the Guardian appointment and compare it to a high pressure sales pitch for a new car.  Ours was nothing like that.  We decided early on that we didn't need the prewired surround sound, the whole house intercom, central vac, or pretty much anything Guardian offered.  The alarm system interested me but we didn't want a long term contract and the base package of the alarm was very weak.  We can do the same with SimpliSafe and for cheaper.

What we did want was a TV above the fireplace and as much ethernet wiring as possible.  Our project manager already had told me I couldn't run any wire myself so I had to rely on Guardian.  At $150 per line that adds up really quickly.  We (meaning me) spent a lot of time laying out where we wanted cable and ethernet wires and determining what we could do after we took ownership of the house.  Guardian would do everything we couldn't do ourselves.

Our meeting with Guardian lasted about 30 minutes and our sales rep didn't try to sell us anything other than what I had specifically asked.  Thank you Guardian, you're great!  What we ended with was an extra $895 and included:

• Recessed outlet above the fireplace for a TV
• TV connections including 1-ethernet, 2 HDMI, and 1-coaxial
• One coaxial to the attic for a future antenna connection
• One ethernet to the kitchen work center
• A six pack of cables running ethernet and cable to the family room, bonus room and master bedroom

Exterior Selections (wife's turn again)

When looking at a house there are only a few things that I really want - top of hill (so no flooding), as much brick as possible (low maintenance), and as little vinyl siding as possible.  Well, we got the top of the hill and a full first floor brick wrap but there is still a lot of vinyl siding on this house.  More color selections.  I swear I feel like an 8 year old going clothes shopping with mom.

Thanks again to my wife for having a sense of style.  We spent about 30 minutes in the model showroom looking at color samples of brick, siding, little tiny shutters and doors.  We would put them together and then carry them outside to see in the natural light.  My job was the carrying.  It was their idea of making me feel useful.

Our final selections included:

• Fireplace Stone Color - Sawgrass (need to see about sealing the stone)
• Vinyl Siding Color - Sandy Tan
• Vinyl Shake Color - Silver Mist
• Brick Color - Farmington
• Mortar Color - Gray
• Soffit/Gutters/Trim color - White
• Front door color - Roycroft Copper Red
• Shutters - Farmhouse Red
• Shingles - Black dimensional
• Wall paint - Shell white (lots of repainting coming)

Brick, siding, shutter and door colors (not blue)

Stone samples (Sawgrass is on the left)

One question I have for the stone that nobody can answer is if it needs to be sealed.  We have seen stone that once sealed has a very different color than any sample.  Guess we will find out in a few months.