Broke ground today.

We were so excited to see our home excavated and was so disappointed when we got there.  We saw the house next door excavated and a big pile a dirt on our lot.  Well, it turned out we were always on the wrong lot the whole time.  The signs were in the wrong place!  Anyway, we drove back and got quickly acqainted with our new lot.  We were in shock for a little but slowly got used to it.

Breaking Ground Tomorrow!

Just received an email from the PM that they'll be excavating in the morning and finishing by the afternoon.  The footings will go the day after.  Heard the build process is fast so will finally see with my own eyes.  Pretty excited, hope all goes well!

Pre-Con

Well, today was the pre-con finally. Took care of the flooring and structural wiring already.  That was relatively painless. I was surprised how short the pre-con was.  I was expecting two hours based on everyone's experience.  Took only 40 minutes and didn't have to write a single note on the back of the checklist.

Getting ready to break ground.

We found out our house will have the first of many options in the neighborhood. First Elevation N, first Wyoming Square Cherry Java, first master tray ceiling and first to get solid wood stairs!  For those of you who've spoken to the sales rep about getting wood stairs the SR is trained to tell you Ryan Homes doesn't do wood stairs.  I guess we got real lucky with Version 5 of the Rome which offers a double oven option, master suite tray ceiling and wood instead of carpeted stairs to the second level.  We are extremely happy about this change because we were planning on taking the carpet out upstairs and installing wood flooring. For those of you who don't know about the cabinets, you have to get Wyoming and higher to get real wood cabinets.  Anything lower gets you a veneer.

One thing we took into consideration was solid wood flooring vs engineered wood.  Engineered looks really nice but with having so many young kids we opted for the solid wood flooring just in case we had to refinish it.

Panoramic view of the front.  Basketball court and recreation field across the street.

A couple other changes we did which weren't widely advertised were adding a couple gas stubs on the outside of the house.  This will give us an unlimited supply of gas for our grill and the one below we might hook up to an outdoor gas fire pit someday.  We really wanted to get outlets under the eaves for Christmas lights but went way over our budget so something had to give.

Panoramic view of the rear, slop allows for walkout basement with a relatively flat yard.

Anyway, breaking ground next week with a pre-drywall meeting setup for early October and a pre-settlement meeting close to the end of November.  Now that's really fast.  We were also told by our SR that she can take pictures of the progress for us so we didn't have to make frequent trips to the site.  Pretty good customer service.  It seems like this is where customer service really kicks in, during the construction phase.  There's a survey at the end where the PMs would like straight 10s and would like the courtesy of knowing if they weren't giving level 10 support.  I think that's fair enough. Can't wait till the break ground so we can put everything on auto pilot.  Hard to believe we'll be moved in before we know it.

Rome is where the heart is...

Wow, our SR wrote back and they're backing off on the Pisa Torre.  We are so excited because there was no way that house would have worked.

Through a couple weeks of negotiations we finally settled on a Rome, Elevation N.  One thing I didn't realize was the different elevations allow or do not allow for more room in the upper bedroom/loft area.  Some elevations will give you two extra feet in the two bedrooms and some in the loft.  There's an elevation that allows for half the loft to be expanded.

Although the most expensive option, Elevation N gives two extra feet in the loft area and one extra foot in one of the bedrooms.  The extra foot will come in handy because we're going for the extra bathroom upstairs.  The extra bathroom allows for the conversion of the master sitting room into a nice large closest.  Now we'll have a nice his and hers closet.  There was really no need for a sitting room in the master. Another nice feature of Elevation N is you get a front porch as well.  Truly a beautiful elevation.

Elevation N

We heard from another blogger that it might be possible to convert the living and dining into an extra bedroom so we definitely looked into that.  It really is a nice option if you don't really need a formal dining or living room especially if you have a morning room.  The first floor bedroom option makes for a nice in-law suite or for those guests who are less mobile.

First Floor Bedroom Option

Another benefit is you actually get a nice sized pantry.  They're unfortunately not able to build this version in my community because they pre-file their floor plans with the county and adding this one would add cost and time.  The plans are actually available in Southern Maryland so maybe someday they'll make it down to Virginia.

Now we just need to pick our lot.  One of the biggest decisions we had to make when it came to lot selection depended on our preference for a walk-out basement or walk-up basement.  In order to have a walk-out basement you need a slight slope in the land so you'll enter the front of the house at elevation level.  Having the basement partially exposed in the back allows the water to drain better as well.  If you have a buried basement you'll need a sump pump to insure the water doesn't collect and seep through your basement walls.  For us it was a no brainer having a walk-out basement.

Another nice thing about a walk-out basement is it allows for the morning room to be elevated.  That affect is really nice when you're looking out of the morning room windows to see everything down below.  We can also add a nice deck exiting the morning room which provides shade for the basement exit.  From the basement exit you can add a nice covered patio.

Notice the slight slope in the front allowing for a walk-out basement.

Breaking point

I finally settled into my work and discovered several others had recently settled on their Ryan home.  Small world eh?  I actually met the one who closed on the Pisa Torre the day before I arrived.  We were just having a casual conversation on our lunch break.

The first thing he told me was that house would never work for my family.  The rooms were too small and the house was too small.  At first I didn't believe him because the Pisa Torre pictures said something differently.  He also complained about the small master and walk-in closet.  Knowing he came from Florida too just a year earlier I thought he was just used to the massive closets we had in Florida.

He ended up graciously inviting me over to his home a couple days later to see for myself.  Boy was I in for a surprise!  My first impression was having the feeling of being boxed in and having no where to move around. The family room was way too small and was in direct competition with the kitchen. There was no way to have the breakfast bar stools and sofa in the same spot even though that's where they'd logically go.  Then we moved to the master and it only got worse from there.  Even though he added the sitting room on the side it was barely large enough to fit our master furniture.  Finally he showed me the "walk-in" closet.  There was no way on earth that was going to fit any of our clothes.  It literally was a closet, not like the ones in Florida where you could actually make into another bedroom. The closet in my little 1100sf short term appartment was almost twice as big!

At that point I didn't know what to do, I was already locked into a contract.  I confided in him and he told me that I had to lookout for fy family and me.  The SR will tell you anything but they really don't care about you.  I've been through so many rounds of discussions already so how could I just walk away?  Plus I was locked into a real contract.

I ended up emailing the sales rep and telling her there was no way this was going to work.  I basically told her I was willing to walk and suffer the consequences.  Based on her reaction, I was going to decide where we wanted to go...

The truth is out.

Well, as time passed, we soon realize we may have made a mistake especially after we received a scolding both from our realtor and the Richmond American Homes sales rep.  I thought they were just trying to scare me but after a while, I realized they were telling the truth.

The first think I'd like to mention is never to listen to anyone except from those you trust, your friends, family or a trust real estate professional. The sales rep is the last one you should trust when it comes to your personal financial situation and overall well being.  One of the biggest things I had trouble with was how could the SR try to fit my seven member family in a 1402 base sf house?  How could that be her best professional advice?

After asking a few questions, I found out the SRs were not real estate professionals so it was no wonder. In Florida you had to be a licensed real estate agent but it was the opposite in Virginia where you were not allowed to have a real estate license (so I was told by the SR).  Needless to say we went through several rounds of discussions (negotiations) and finally settled on a price we could live with. Through negotiations we discovered Ryan Homes incredibly inflates their option prices. This differed greatly with Richmond's pricing model where there is very little room for negotiation. On the other hand, Richmond's option prices were very reasonable.

And the $20,000 grand opening incentive?  That was just a ploy to get you excited and in the door. Had nothing to do with the real pricing of the home.  Something that differed from Florida where we really did get something for free if they advertised it.  If we were offered a free pool it would literally be that much less which could easily be compared to the price of the homes without pools.  That made negotiations a lot tougher because you never really knew where you stood especially with the more options you take.

After a while it becomes a game of chicken with Ryan trying to price the house just right before you walk away from the deal and not too high so the house will appraise.  That's the one good thing about using VA 100% financing because the VA's looking out for you. They won't let you get into a house that doesn't appraise and they won't let you pay for overpriced options.

Heading to Virginia!

Picture of our Pug

OK, so we packed the minivan up with as much stuff as we could fit and our little pug and started heading to Virginia from Florida.  We heard there was going to be a grand opening in one of the communities offering $20,000 in free options so we were in a hurry to both take advantage of the incentive and get one of the better lots.  We literally rolled in and went to the sales office a day early. Since the model wasn't ready in the new community we went to visit the sales office in the neighboring community, which happened to be a Rome.

My first impression was, wow, this is a pretty big house.  I loved the stairs located in the center which made it easy to go up and go down the stairs.  The morning room was awesome since it was elevated (walk-out basement) and the house was located on top of a ravine. So it sort of just stood on its own hanging off the house.  Another great feature, it had a small office tucked away with access from the family room.  Perfect for working from home.  The home is also energy star rated so will definitely help with the utility rooms.  The only drawback to that was not being able to get a wood fireplace and having a fan in one of the bathrooms turning on automatically because the home was so tightly sealed.  The fan didn't make a lot of noise so it was no big deal.

Picture of morning room and kitchen in the Rome model

After touring the house now it was time for business.  One of the sales reps was able to break away and help me price a Pisa Torre even though I was a day early from the grand opening.  I was also able to get the $20,000 in upgrades and pick my lot early, imagine that?  So we got down to business and started pricing it.  Unfortunately, I was unable to tour a model because they had just closed on one the day before we got there.  It was OK because I had seen plenty of pictures.  Now it was time to see how I could get this home to fit our family of seven.

Since we only had three bedrooms we added every bedroom option.  In fact we ended up adding almost every option available to have some separate living areas in the attic and basement for those ever so exciting teen years.  We'd eventually have four teens living in our home at the same time so we were planning ahead of time. Before it was all said and done, we went from the base price of $308,000 to a price of $478,000!  Say what?  How is that even possible. That was with the $20,000 incentive.  We ended up with $170,000 in options just so we could fit our family and live in a one story house.  Well, fortunately, the sales manager was on site which is rare from what I was told and was able t discount the house another $20,000.

Wow, what a deal, $40,000 off the price of the house, double the incentive for the weekend!  This is the point I really should have thought about it.  I was a day early, first time in the area, and missing my realtor.  Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.  But signing enabled me to check one more thing off my list out of the many things we still had left to do.  I mean, we were living in a hotel at that point so had to do something.  Reflecting back on this decision, it was almost the same as going to a new car dealership in a taxi.

Anyway, we signed and the sales rep insisted we could work on the price a little throughout the process so I put a great deal of faith in her (mistake #2).  The other odd thing was as part of the requirement, we had to apply through their mortgage company.  I didn't feel threatened by this because I was not obligated to finance through them and the extra inquiry wouldn't affect my credit score because I had already pre qualified before I came and it was within 30 days of that inquiry. Also it makes a lot of sense for two reasons, the builder will have more confidence that the deal will go all the way through completion and also the closing is guaranteed to be on time since they both fall under the same company.  That actually adds a convenience factor because most lenders won't do a full application until way later and they are famous for delaying closing.

Welcome to my blog, where it all started!

Well, here goes, the beginning of my Ryan Homes Experience and in particular the building of the Rome model.

First, let me take you through a little history on how we got here.  We just moved up from Florida on a job transfer so the goal was to get settled into the new area as quickly as possible.  As with ever decision in our lives we didn't do much research before finding a home.  We had just come off of new construction in Florida.  We built a beautiful two-story Mediterranean home which completed last August (2012).  So we were a little experienced now than when we built our first home.  Although they say you never get it right until you build your third home.

 Having said that one of the first things on our list was to never go to two-story again.  When we built in Florida we sort of went against the grain building a two-story home which we found out later was definitely not as practical as a one-story.  This is true especially with the generous lot sizes, relatively low construction prices and resale desirability.

Having done some minor research on the Internet prior to arriving in Fredericksburg (VA) Ryan homes offered at least three one-story models.  Based on the floor plans and the pictures you could see on the Internet, we fell in love with the Pisa Torre.  This was a really neat looking house.  The morning room was an especially nice feature.  You definitely have to get the extra windows in the morning room to add in the extra light.

Pisa Torre

It was time to hit the road and get talking to a sales rep (SR).