Flooring Showroom- Counters, Cabinets, Flooring and More

First of all, let me say, thank God I went into the showroom beforehand to look at all of our options. It allowed us to have a chance to talk about what we wanted in each room and to do some research about what would be best in our home. For example, of course we love the look of hardwood floors throughout - I freakin' hate carpet - but with dogs, having hardwood floors is not the best option. It's a very expensive upgrade and I don't want it to look ruined a year after we move into the house. I even entertained the idea of putting doggie socks on our pups (yes, they do exist) and then realized how ridiculous that idea was.

First Floor

The kitchen is probably the most important room in the house for me and Scott. We love to cook. When we have people over we usually gravitate toward the food and wine, thus the kitchen. So this is where we started. We decided in the beginning with our builder that we wanted granite so we had already placed that upgrade in. We just had to pick out which one we liked. For some reason I just don't love most granites. They're beautiful when I see them in kitchens but it's extremely hard for me to visualize the finished product. Scott and I originally picked out the Maple Espresso cabinets for the kitchen but did a lot of talking after that first appointment and decided that we would have our white kitchen like we had always wanted. When we finally decided on a granite - Santa Cecelia was the only one we both liked - we took the slab over to the cabinets and didn't love it with any of the ones we originally liked. It actually looked really beautiful with the Cherry Java cabinets (what do ya know... another upgrade!) We had the options of picking out a backsplash but didn't even entertain the idea knowing that we could install this on our own for less. Our showroom consultant just said to tell our Project Manager to "lightly glue" the 4 in of granite on the wall so we could remove it to place the backsplash. 

Since we had the cabinets and the counter top we had to find a floor that would work. One of the hardest decisions for us was to figure out what flooring we wanted for the majority of the first level. Since the Dunkirk is a pretty open floorplan, we wanted as few flooring breaks as possible. As I said, we would have loved to have done the manufactured hardwood throughout but we had to come up with a different plan. A week before when I went to the showroom I saw this tile that looked like wood- literally, I had to touch it. It was beautiful... and it was the most expensive tile option they had. In my head I could hear my mother saying, as she has been for years, "Champagne taste, beer bottle budget!" This is me in a nutshell. So obviously we had to go with something else. Looking at some of the other tile options, we found a few that would work. We put everything on the floor together so we could see. We ended up going with the Heathland Raffia tile for the foyer, kitchen, morning room, family entry and 1st floor powder room. With this we chose the bone grout. It's going to be a lot of tile, and I'm kind of nervous that the house is going to feel cold but with some area rugs and the gold hues in the tile hopefully it isn't too bad.

Santa Cecelia granite, Heathland Raffia Tile, bone grout, Cherry Java cabinets, Hickory Deep Java hardwood

One thing we found interesting/annoying at our appointment was that Ryan Homes automatically sets what will come standard in each room. If you want something else, even something that is a cheaper option, you have to pay more to have it. For some reason they have carpet standard in the dining room. Yes, that place that your entire family goes to eat. Who the heck would put carpet in there?!? I'm 26 years old and I still spill my food on the ground from time to time. Anyway, we talked about putting laminate in there (ew, I know, that would have been a horrible choice too) but that would have been an upgrade! So we decided on some manufactured hardwood, which I absolutely LOVE! I would have this throughout the entire house if A) we were rich, and B) we didn't have dogs. It is the Armstrong Hardwood, Rural Living, Hickory Deep Java, 5" planks.

Armstrong Hickory Deep Java

For the great room (living room) Scott and I originally talked about having the manufactured hardwood but our realtor made a good point- how many times do you grab a pillow and blanket and lay on the floor to watch a movie? With our kids, we do it quite often. The family room also converts into a wrestling ring when my husband and the kids are feeling rowdy. With that, we knew the hardwood wouldn't work. We decided to go with carpet (which Ryan Homes sets for this room) but upgraded to the 8lb pad and Shaw Simple Touch Capri. When I saw this carpet I instantly loved it. It is called a twist design and is kind of two-toned, which in my mind means that it will hide any stains better. We also did this in the home office, which we will be converting into a playroom for the kids (yay! for no more toys permanently in our living room!)

Heathland Raffia tile next to Shaw Capri carpet

Second Floor

On the second floor, we decided to go with the standard carpet, color- Thornwood, with an upgraded 8lb pad. Our flooring showroom consultant and our realtor made a good point- why pay the upgrade for better/prettier carpet when the majority of your guests are going to be downstairs in your home? I say if it is that big of a deal to you, got for it, but for us it just wasn't worth the money. 

In the kids bathroom we decided to go with the Bright White counter (which came standard), the Cherry Bordeaux cabinets and Armstrong vinyl- Mocha. We also carried that vinyl flooring into the laundry room and did a Formica Matte White counter.

Bright White counter, Cherry Bordeaux cabinets, Armstrong vinyl- Mocha

Next was the master bath. We originally planned to go with the soaking tub and shower but saw pictures of them and didn't like the look of it. So in our bathroom we were designing an upgraded shower that had a tiled seat and two shower heads. Our Sales Rep, Rob, showed us a master bathroom combination at one of our first meetings that we loved. It was the Sandstone granite and the Maple Espresso cabinets. Carrying those pieces around we found a Level C (upgrade) Heathland Edgewood tile with Marvel Gemstone accents that we loved. We chose the chamois grout (upgrade) to go with it. We also decided for $250 to carry the tile in the shower all the way to the ceiling so we don't get moisture on the wall. All in all we are so excited to see the Master Bath when it is completed!

Maple Espresso cabinets, Sandstone granite, Heathland Edgewood tile with accent row

Close up of the beautiful accents

I actually feel more worn out after typing all this up than I did after the actual appointment. Just have an idea of what you want before going into the appointment and it will be a lot less painful. It can also prevent those really embarrassing couple arguments that I'm sure they deal with frequently in the showroom. We can't wait to see it all come together!

Waiting Game...

So this is the part that really sucks- waiting.  We signed our contract with Ryan Homes 12 days ago and it seems like nothing is happening (my husband and I are very impatient people!) In our little perfect world we would have signed the contract and they would have started digging the next day.  I realize that can't happen but that doesn't make waiting any easier.

We broke the good news to our kiddos and took them out to the lot yesterday. No lot sign, no sold sign. Sad face. In the process of trying to find our property lines, my husband and step-son got to meet a super sweet neighbor who told us to just "keep an eye" on Ryan Homes. A man down the street had built with them and apparently the county inspector said there was a pipe under the driveway that wasn't laid correctly. The mistake was fixed but I think it pushed things back a little. However, we're still really excited to get things started and I know once we start seeing progress my husband and I will be there frequently. While Kolt and Daddy enjoyed walking back in the "woods," Emme and I had fun throwing rocks around the property. We walked abound the cul-de-sac and looked at the other homes being built. Three different foundations were started so I'm sure when we go back in a couple of weeks we will see a huge difference. The kids were both really excited about the house, which made us happy, and then to top it off we saw three deer on the side of the road when we were leaving the development. Kolt loved this and asked if we could shoot them haha. We definitely have a country boy on our hands!

Tomorrow things will get better I'm sure. First thing in the morning we have our flooring appointment and then we have a follow up meeting with Ryan Homes to talk about our two week changes and stuff for Guardian. I'll be back with all our color choices!

Sneaking Into The Showroom

Ok, Ok, I guess I didn't really sneak in considering I called ahead of time to ask if I could come. But no one at Ryan Homes lets you in on this little secret. This is one of the very important lessons I learned- take things into your own hands! Scott and I were under the impression that there would be very few choices for us when it came to countertops, flooring and tile because the Decoration Center in the basement of the model home didn't give you very many options. Well I was wrong! After we signed our contract we were told to call the flooring showroom to set up an appointment. I read in some other blogs that people felt rushed and chose things because they had to and then later regretted it. Um, I'm sorry but if I'm paying this much money for a house and it is being built from the ground up I want to walk into it and be HAPPY!

So after our appointment with NVR I called the flooring showroom and asked the operator (I left a message on the showroom's answering machine and didn't hear back while I was still in the area) if I could stop in to take some pictures of our options before our set appointment. She said that was no problem, however I couldn't ask any questions because I would be taking the sales rep away from their set appointments. Totally understood. Well, lucky me, when I got to the showroom Mary was there and her appointment was running a little late. I asked her just to show me all of our options with Ryan Homes so I wasn't falling in love with something we couldn't have. Boy, was I totally wrong- there were tons of options! However, can you take a guess at how many times after I said, "Ooooh I like that," that Mary said, "Yes, it's beautiful!.... And that's an upgrade." So I took tons of pictures and set up an appointment for my husband and I to go back. Looking at the pictures I now have no idea which things she said were an upgrade but at least we know what some of our options are before going into this appointment. Below is a small sampling. By no means represents all that they have.

Granite Countertop Options

 

Laminate Countertop Options

Laminate Flooring Options

Laminate Flooring Options

Manufactured Hardwood- so in love with this!!

Standard (no upgrade) Carpet Options- minus the one my hand is covering

Some other carpeting options- There were 5 or 6 other towers like this one

Tile Flooring Options- standard is laid as a square, upgrade for diamond lay. Keep in mind standard grout is white, upgrade for colored grout.

Wood Looking Tile Flooring- I literally had to touch it

Bathroom Tile Options- Matte tile on floor, gloss in shower with accent row

Bathroom Tile Options

Bathroom Tile Options

Bathroom Tile Options- I believe the lower tile is what would be on the floor- the texture of it was awesome

Things start to get fuzzy here but I believe this is the standard backsplash option

Backsplash Options

Backsplash Option

Backsplash Option

Meeting With the NVR Loan Mortgage Officer

A couple days after we signed our contract with Ryan Homes, we made an appointment to sit down with NVR Mortgage. Due to my husband's work schedule we had to meet before office hours and they didn't have any issues opening the office early for us. Two weeks prior we sat down with another mortgage company and got pre-approved so we could start looking for houses. Ryan Homes makes it very clear that you do not need to finance with NVR Mortgage but, for us, said that they would cover a certain amount of the closing cost if we were to use NVR. Now understand that NVR Mortgage and Ryan Homes is the same company. I have read many things online where people are complaining about using NVR but honestly my husband and I didn't see why we shouldn't use them. We were still able to use a VA loan, still got a great interest rate and then we don't have to pay closing costs... sold! NVR sells the loan to another company after 6 months anyway.

When we signed our contract with Ryan Homes we were given information on what documents NVR would need. A couple days before our meeting Scott and I sat down and got everything together. It made things at our meeting go much more smoothly. The loan officer took down all of our information, looked at our Good Faith Estimate from Ryan Homes and gave us our debt to income ratio. Again we signed about a million papers, were given a big ol' folder and were sent on our way.

In the folder we were given "The Road Map to Closing," which outlines the financial piece of things. After our meeting, all of our information will go to the underwriters and then we will (*hopefully*) get our loan approval. She said that this process can take 30-45 days. After the loan approval we will have our pre-drywall metting with Ryan Homes. The loan will then have to be sent back to the underwriters for final approval, it will be cleared to close and then you go to closing on your home. This process takes about two months.

I am still a little amazed (and slightly skeptical/terrified) that it takes such a small amount of time to build a home. Guess I'll have to update this blog again in 10-15 years and let ya know if shit is falling down around us :)

We Did It!

My husband, Scott, and I have been looking at houses for some time now. We have been renting a townhouse for about 2 years for $1000/month and frankly we have just been unhappy! We need land, painted walls, a fence, a place that is truly our own. We happened upon a listing for a "Home To Be Built" in this beautiful neighborhood with, wait for it.... river access! Ahhh, we were instantly in love! We went to drive around and stopped into the Ryan Homes model and were amazed that this option was even in our price range. We looked around and decided that we needed to make an appointment as soon as possible. The sales rep got us some materials to take home and we made an appointment for the next day.

We were so excited when we got home! We began studying the floor plans, researching Ryan Homes, talking about what was best for us as a family, and honestly, seriously talking about what we could afford. In my typical fashion I took to the internet and started bookmarking blogs of people who were building with Ryan Homes. I had about 17 tabs open on our iPad and I couldn't stop. At like 11:30 (our bedtime is like 9 o'clock people), Scott reminded me that the blogs would sill be there in the morning and we went to bed. Now did you think we could sleep?!

In the morning we headed back to the model and sat down with Rob. Scott and I knew that the Dunkirk was the right model for us. It has 4 bedrooms (which was necessary for our family of four with plans to add in the future), laundry is upstairs (if it's closer to the bedroom I'll be more likely to do laundry.. right??), it's in our price range and there are two HUGE walk-in closets in the master. IN LOVE! Rob showed us the different elevations and I was absolutely swooning over Elevation L. My response was, "Okay, if we're talkin' dream house, this is it!" So that's exactly what we did. We went through most of the upgrades, decided what we did or didn't want and then added it all up. Surprisingly, our final price, although way over the price range we were actually looking in, was still affordable monthly for us. So that was it. Since then we haven't looked back.

Dunkirk Elevation L

We made another appointment to sign all the important papers and took our realtor with us this time. We wanted someone there to solely represnt us, someone that had our best interests in mind. she helped us to narrow down which upgrades were a good idea and which ones could probably wait till a later time or be done ourselves. We were able to pick out our lot at this time and knew exactly which one we wanted. Our lot is in a cul-de-sac, is 0.66 acres and has a tree line between our backyard and the lots behind ours. It will be much nicer looking into trees as opposed to someones windows. After all the paperwork was signed we went downstairs in the model and chose just our cabinets. We originally picked Maple Espresso for the kitchen and master bath and Cherry Bordeaux for the upstairs hall bathroom. At 9:30pm this was an extremely quick decision and we have second guessed it every day since then. First lesson learned in the home building process (Day 1), take initiative and don't make rushed decisions. You are paying a lot of money for this house, and especially for some of these upgrades. Make sure it's what you want! After looking at our options again we have decided to upgrade another level to either the Linen Painted Maple (my choice) or the Hazelnut Glaze Painted Maple (Scott's choice). We have always loved a white kitchen.

We left the model that night with all kinds of new reading material and a joy that I imagine will last a really long time.  Hopefully you'll follow our journey and see this thing through with us. We can't wait to share our dream home with you!