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Saturday, November 9, 2013

Selections, colors and upgrades OH MY!

Met today with our Guardian rep Debbie- we really liked her. She wasn't pushy but she gave us the facts we need to make sure we made the right selections. However, we did just review the documents we signed and NO WHERE on there states what we are actually getting, only the prices. And the $250 installation fee that was told to us will be waived was listed. I'm not happy with this, not happy with myself for not realizing it when we signed it and Hubby is sending an email as I type. Then we met sales rep Chris to go over our color selections, he helped us a bunch too. He has a keen eye for a guy!!

But wait... let's rewind to 6am. I woke up in an utter panic over linoleum flooring! I was reading (OK, maybe stalking is a better word) other Ryan Homes blogs and I saw a similar kitchen to ours with the linoleum I thought I wanted..... I initially chose a very light color and when I saw it all together, it didn't give me that "come hither" look that a warm and inviting kitchen should. I guess I knew it would look different from the model, which had hardwood, but I was shocked at the difference. To make a long story short, this resulted in a trip to Lowe's and 5,000 phone calls to SR Chris to try to get into the showroom NOW! Drama much? Hubby reminded me that the reason we were doing base level flooring was because hardwood was in our near future. Oh yea, duh, OK. Panic over followed by apologies.

So upgrades....

Guardian
  • Security system with additional sensors, additional keypad in the Owner's suite and smoke alarm communicator. We chose the Empower system- we can turn stuff on and off, like lights and other things with our cell phones, how awesome is that?!
  • Whole house audio with speakers- 2 room option
  • Coax and Cat-5 ran to 8 different places in the house including Family room, Living room, Loft, Owner's suite, BR1 and BR 2.
Outside
  • Elevation B with siding
  • Our lot is graded for a walk out basement
  • Deck- 150 sq ft
Basement
  • Gas water heater
  • Extended basement under breakfast room
  • Sliding glass door (came with lot- we still get one off the breakfast room too)
1st floor
  • Morning room with both additional windows (the deck is right off the morning room)
  • 42" Maple Cognac cabinets
  • Kitchen cabinet crown moulding
  • Kitchen Gourmet island
  • Recessed lighting in kitchen
  • Over the stove microwave mount with venting
  • 2nd level fridge- side by side doors with an icemaker and water (included was the dishwasher and stove) 
  • Gas range upgrade
  • Pine spindles and balusters (this will be on the lower level plus the upper)
  • 3 ceiling rough ins 
2nd floor
  • Upgraded owners bath with soaking tub and glass surround shower
  • Maple Cognac vanity in Owner's bath
  • Double vanity sink in Owner's
  • Maple Cognac vanity in other bathroom
  • Additional window in Owner's suite
  • And we selected the loft instead of the 4th bedroom- technically not an upgraded but nice to share
 All in all, we actually did really good. The two big ticket items were the morning room and the deck and those were the "penny" items if taking this particular lot.

And now colors with a few pics!

Left is the Maple Cognac cabinets, bottom is linoleum in Initiator, right is carpet in Wool Skin and the little piece in the middle to the right is the Formica laminate counter-top in Labrador Granite.




We didn't go crazy putting different flooring colors in different places- everywhere there is linoleum is Initiator and every place that is carpet is Wool Skin.

Below is some outside stuff. To the left are the shutters in black (sorry, no fancy name!), middle is the front door in Tricorn Black and to the right is the vinyl siding in Graphite Gray.



Some other stuff we didn't take pics of like the white tiles in the bathroom, chrome bath and faucets, nickel light fixtures and door handles, black kitchen appliances, cherry stained balusters and white spindles, the deck is composite in the color of weathered wood with white trim, the outside has white trim, garage door, soffit, etc and the interior is all white trim with white doors.

So from what I understand, we sit and wait... and then we wait a little more. As my Hubby says "hurry up and wait" so that's what we are gonna do! That's what he thinks, hehehe, I am already starting a list of questions for our PM. Fingers crossed we hear back from Debbie at Guardian ASAP- we only have 72 hours to cancel and I only have 5 more days until I hit the 21 day "grace period to make changes." So I will technically hurry up and wait after I hear from her!!

Hope this helps anyone contemplating buying into a Ryan Homes development, but I really hope my Mommy likes it :)





2 comments:

  1. I really like your options. We opted to pre-wire 2 speakers for audio, but decided against a security system. An extra $45 a month for 3 years seemed steep to me. We also wanted to get a Morning Room, but decided it was more economical to for us to just finish the basement instead, giving us more living space with our kids, especially for their sleep overs. By having the morning room, it only would have increased the unfinished storage space. To compensate, I think we might put in a big deck and patio later for summer time entertaining.

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  2. Hi,

    Just found your blog! We are in the process of building a Ravenna model and we selected the same cabinets and counter tops. You are ahead of us so I can wait to see what it look like. Thanks for sharing!

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