Tuesday, November 22, 2011

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     Today we had our pre-construction meeting. This was a very long meeting. If you are ever going to have one, make sure you eat breakfast. And possibly take lunch. Maybe a couple light snacks. Anyway, our project manager, who I'm going to call "Ben" ('cause that is his name) went through the construction process with us. He shared all kinds of information with us. Lots of it was stuff I had never really considered. We are fully confident in his ability to create our lovely home.

     From now on, we wait. I hope I can take it.




Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Oh Hungry

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I just got a chance to tell about my favorite Thanksgiving dish and a chance to win a prize over at these blogs:
Eclectic Recipes.
Real Mom Kitchen
Taste And Tell
Reluctant Entertainer
Buns In My Oven

Sweet potatoes covered in tiny marshmallows - I'm already dreaming!

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

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     I thought I would share a few things here about the Ravenna we are buying from Ryan Homes.

  • Our sales rep worked hard to get me the oak stairs I want. The final price for those is $1350. It's worth every penny.
  • We changed the laundry/master closet configuration. The cost for this change is $25. 
  • We asked for a dedicated 220v for our current electric range in Harry Potter's room in the basement. It made sense to quit crying over the double oven they will not do in the Ravenna model and just put the range I already have in the basement for an additional oven. It costs less and allows me to not heat the main floor in the summer.
  • We added a dedicated circuit in Harry Potter's room for the extra freezer. 
  • We got pricing for laminate flooring upstairs in the hall and bonus room.  ($1050 hall, $2185 bonus room) We then changed our mind and went to hardwood floors. Pricing for the upstairs hardwood to follow.
  • We asked for a dimmer switch and it was explained to us that they can't put a dimmer switch in with the energy saving bulbs. No problem.
  • We asked for the storage room in the basement to be finished. It came back at $4150, but the wall/door was missing and it was all one big room. We sent it back to them for pricing adding the wall and door. They came back at $4550. This includes the recessed lighting and carpet and padding choices we made. We also needed to add an egress window in the room because we plan to use it as a guest suite. The egress window is $1290. The room came without a closet, so we are asking for a closet as well. I'm expecting it to be around $400 -$500 since the one in the bonus room is $400. We shall see what happens.
  • We requested an extra 'lane' in our drive to the side of the house. They added an 8 foot apron. The cost of this is $1265.
  • We added a recessed light in the big hall closet upstairs, and another one in the nook of the bonus room.
  • We added an outlet in the garage, the master closet, and above the cabinets on the tiny side wall. I asked for the one above the cabinets to be on a switch. I plan on throwing some rope lights up on top where nobody will see them, but we can enjoy the glow in the middle of the night. It will also be fun for Christmas decorations!
  • We are doing something special with our landscaping as well. We haven't turned it in to them yet, but one of our wonderful sales reps is helping us get what we really want!
We might be changing our granite. We will find out about more about this Monday or Tuesday.

I just spoke to Gary, who says our lot is staked now! It's exciting because it means something is starting to happen!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Many Meetings, Cont.

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     We have had a ton of meetings in the last few weeks. It feels like the house meetings and preparations for these meetings are taking a lot more of our time and attention than we had expected. We went to Rite Rug again and choose hardwood flooring. We met with Guardian again and finalized with them. We added the central vac and surround sound in the basement and family room. We also got a couple of speakers outside. (Now I think there needs to be an option to sound proof the Master bedroom so I can have some peace while everyone is making noise!) Who's with me?

     We did not have our walk through with the project manager yet, since we were changing flooring. Because we are doing hardwood upstairs as well, we have to get non standard pricing for zone 2. (Zone 2 really just means upstairs) There is another meeting with the sales reps where we finalize everything, which they say they want to do this weekend. I guess we'll be doing the walk through with the project manager later this week. Maybe. Who knows?

     We're waiting to hear about closet upgrades. Our sales reps have never had anyone ask about it before.  There are quite a few things we are doing which nobody else has even asked to do before. I'm either very strange or very clever! Or a bit of both.

    
    









Saturday, November 5, 2011

Halloween Is Over, But I'm Still Scared

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     It takes a lot to shock me. The other day I came out of my doctor's office and on the way to the car in some landscaping thingy in the parking lot I spied a giant pair of granny panties. Who does this? Who tosses their giant butt-covers on top of wood chips and doesn't look back. It's haunting me.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Stairway To Heaven

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     Our wonderful sales rep strikes again! I swear, if you live in the area you definitely want me to hook you up with Gary. He has gone above and beyond trying to get me the house of my dreams. Are you old enough to remember "Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders don't upset us..." from Burger King? Gary is like House King. He has tried to get me all the non standard options I have wished for. He's had pretty good success at it, too. The stairs are one of the most important non standard requests I've had. 

     At first the powers that be came back with a 'no' on the stairs. But Gary didn't take that lying down, bless his heart. He went to the project manager, shared the blog I showed him, and got the wheels in motion so I could have the stairs of my dreams. After all the machinations, I got a 'yes' on the stairs, And a price. $1,350, baby! I am all the way happy about my stairs, which I will be dressing up in all sorts of ways. Like Sara's Halloween stairs or the stairs of wisdom  or some amazing book stairs. Tomorrow we meet with Guardian and have another meeting with Julie. Next week we have our pre-construction walk through with our project manager, Ben. Bayberry Estates, here we come! Hooray!