Let the madness begin!

A lot has happened since my last post. We sold and closed on our previous home. We have moved into my mom's house.  We had our pre-construction meeting and they have dug & poured the footers.

Now to discuss our backyard....We knew we were going to have a small back yard.  But we were not prepared for how small it is going to be.  We expected the house to be a few feet closer to the road.  Of course it depends on how they grade it , but our back yard is going to be miniscule.  Now,  I have to keep reminding myself that we wanted a smaller yard.  Our last home had a relatively large yard.  And my husband spent his entire summer trying to keep up with it.  Here in south western PA it is hard to find a flat lot and our's was no exception.  It was a PITA to say the least.  So now we have the exact opposite.  We may have 10 feet off the back of the morning room if we are lucky.  It is going to take some getting used to.  But in the ling run it will be for the best.  We will have lots of free time to play instead of take care of the yard ...right??

This pic is the back of our lot.  We have a walk out basement and there is going to be a hill behind our house (mostly our lot).  Our lot goes most of the way down the hill.  The hill is not seeded with grass.  They plant Crown Vetch or something to that effect-(not quite sure how to spell it.) There will be a house down below at the bottom of the hill behind us. The back of the morning room is in the middle of the image.  The black fence is not the back of our yard .The black fence is already a bit down the hill below where the end of the grass part of our lot will be.  I expect the back of our grass to be where the tire tracks are.  Yikes that is small.  well, our friends at lot 109 will have a big yard.  Looks like they are buying jacuzzi and fire pit are for their yard!

The Pool Controversy

We drive past our lot every day.  They are still moving dirt around and there is always heavy equipment sitting there.  But they don't even have the lot plotted out yet.  But yet we go there everyday to see if something has changed. No such luck yet.  Our pre-construciton meeting is scheduled to happen on May2nd (tentative date) and they are scheduled to start construction on May9th.  That puts us at an early August closing!  WoooHooo!  I can't wait for some progress!

So today while we were on our daily visit to our pile of dirt, we met some neighbors who already live in the neighborhood.  They were trying to figure out where "the pool" is supposed to be built. We showed them where we were told it would be built.  In my opinion, the area hardly looks big enough for a pool and clubhouse and parking.  I am very skeptical that this pool will be built.  I have heard many stories about developments that were promised a pool that never came to fruition.  Our SR tells us that Ryan has nothing to do with the pool because the developer builds it.  We were originally told the pool was scheduled to be built this summer and will be ready by July 4th.  There is nothing even started yet.  The neighbors that we met said they have heard it is pushed back to September. ??? Who knows.  I just assuming we will have no pool and will be pleasantly surprised if we actually get one.

Has anyone built in a plan that promised a pool?  Did they actually build it?

Our future neighbors

We are building in a plan that is about 5 minutes from our current home.  We will stay in same school district but my son will be switching elementary schools. Luckily,  our great friends are building in the same plan.  In fact , my friend Kelley has started her own blog.  You can find her here Building a Naples in PA
Our sons are three days apart in age and are the best of friends.  They can't wait to live on the same street, 5 houses apart.  My son is a little nervous about the new school, but his buddy Connor will be with him so that helps a bit.

Here we are at Disney last summer.  My son and I are on the left, Kelley is on the right with her son.

Also, when we were at the Ryan model filling out some paperwork, my husband ran into one of his friends.  We found out he is building in the same plan.  In fact, he bumped us from our first lot because we were on contingency. LOL!  He will be two doors down from Kelley's  family.  We are looking forward to our new neighborhood and lots of get togethers with our friends.

Upgrades and Selections....

I was taken aback by the amount of upgrades you have to choose and pay for to make the home to be what I consider livable.  I think it is ridiculous that you have to pay for an overhead light rough-in.  I just assumed that things like that were included.  Obviously I was wrong.  The house we live in now is very dark.  We have very little overhead lighting and I HATE IT.  So, that was one of the things I toiled the most over...the lighting.  We bought lots of it!  So here goes-our selections and upgrades.

Ravenna-Elevation B-partial stone

stone bucks county- siding Stone Mountain Grey (I don't have pictures).
3 pc bath rough in in unfinished basement
1st floor bedroom and full first floor bath (for my mom).
Finished Bonus Room (upstairs above the garage)
Morning Room
Basic black appliances (We plan on buying our own stainless appliances-and selling these basic ones)
Wyoming Cherry spice cabinets
No island-(We are putting in our own island-my husband will install it. I want it to look more like furniture and I want the microwave built into the island.  My cabinets for island will be similar to the Rushmore Maple Cream colored Ryan offering).
Hardwood floors in kitchen, Family Room, Morning Room, Foyer. Yorkshire Oak Umber" 31/4 inch wide plank.
Reccessed lighting package in kitchen.
Ceiling fan rough in in Morning room
laminate counter tops ( can't remember the color name I think it is called Butterum??-its the darker color on the image below.  We will buy our own granite and have it installed). 

Family Room

Same Hardwood as above

Brick Fireplace-side (brick= "croggy mountain)

4 Recessed lights 

2 recessed lights above fireplace

Ceiling fan rough in

2 optional side windows

Living room and dining room and first floor bedroom will have carpet. All the carpet in the house house is 6 pound padding and level 4 carpet"Siesta Twist Cookie Crisp"

Upstairs:

Half wall-(no banister)

Bonus Room -5 recessed lights and ceiling fan rough in

Master bedroom (optional side windows came standard with the 1st floor bedroom YAY!)

4 recessed light and ceiling fan rough in

Upgraded master bath with soaking tub (no jets)

Master Bath tile "Brixton Mushroom"

glass tile trim (not sure of the color name-see image)

Bathroom cabinets (all bathrooms)- Andover maple Spice

Standard white counter tops

Tile in all  bathrooms- the same as master bath-brixton mushroom

Linoleum in laundry room-laundry tub in laundry room

ceiling fan rough ins in all bedrooms

overhead light with switch in son's bedroom and 1st floor bedroom closets

carpet pic 

Guardian-we got the networking upgrade to all the cable /internet stuff-It was around $1100 .  (nothing else-no alarm.  We will install our own. )

We are still waiting on some pricing on other upgrades

*soundproofing between master and Bonus room

*soundproofing between mster and 1st floor bed/bath

*laundry tub in garage

*extra pad in driveway for third car

*sink drain rough in in unfinished basement fir future wet bar.

I'm glad all of our selections are made.  We are now in the "wait" part of hurry up and wait.

Our Ravenna Elevation-Almost

This is the Ravenna Elevation C -partial stone.  This is not our exact house but close. 

We have selected the Elevation B partial stone.  I could not, for the life of me, find a picture of Elevation B so this will have to do. Elevation B gives you a little roof over the front door with pillars.  I would have loved the porch but I already have to sell a kidney to afford this house.  So no porch for me LOL.  Also, we will have a front entry garage.  

I love the look of this house!  I also love the stone.  They just started offering stone in the Pittsburgh area and I am very excited.  We will be one of the first houses in our neighborhood with a stone front. 

Our colors are:

stone:Bucks County

siding: Stone Mountain Clay

Shutters: Brown

Door: Brown (there is a fancy name for it but I don't remember it. ) 

For some reason, I have no pictures of the stone or siding choices??? hmmm not sure why .  I could have sworn I took them. 

Funny story about the stone and siding choices-  We originally had picked stone color=Aspen and siding color Autumn beige.  I was a little concerned about them because there was a slight orangey hue to both.  My husband and I are sensitive to beige color choices because we always seem to pick out a "beige" in paint or whatever it may be...and then we get it on the wall and it is PINK.  We painted our entire basement family room in a  beige color-and it was baby aspirin pink.  We had to re-do the entire room.  

So after picking these colors, I saw someone's Ryan blog & they had been substituted Autum Beige siding (their original color was discontinued) and the siding looked PINK!!  Thank God I saw that blog post and we were still in our 2 week change period. If I had ended up with a PINK house I would have been devastated.   Why we always initially lean towards those pinky beiges is beyond me.  Thank you to the blogger who posted their PINK siding.  You saved me from a possible disaster!

Taking the plunge...

We are doing it.  We are selling our house and building a Ryan home. Wow, that sounds crazy to me.  We never planned on selling our home and building.  I thought we would be in our home forever, or until we followed our son when he moved away for college  LOL. 


A little background.  We are: Me (mom,wife,part time photographer-part time healthcare worker), my dear husband,  our 6 almost 7 year old son and my mom.  Yes, my 70ish year old mom is moving with us.  We are very excited to have her with us. She, on the other hand, is not as thrilled as we are.  But more on that later.  We have 2 dogs and will have two cats (once my mom's cat is added in to the mix). We live south west of Pittsburgh, PA.   Our new home will only be a few miles away from our current.  I am beyond excited about our new home and I can't wait to get started.


We are building the Ravenna with the optional first floor bedroom for my mom. I have been scouring the Ryan blog world for a few weeks now and I have learned so much.  I'm totally obsessed with the entire process and driving all my friends and family crazy! I hope to share much along the way during this process.