Going up!

We are really moving now!  We talked to the PM today ( who is amazing!) and were told that our footers were done, foundation was being worked on, lumber should be delivered Monday and framing should start Tuesday.  Hopefully, this continues to be the plan as the week finished out.  When we went by the lot tonight there was a lot of action going on.  We couldn't go on the lot because they were hard at work but were able to get some pictures from various places around the lot.

We also discussed fencing and possibly getting someone in there to clear the rest of the lot ( not the big trees just brush and other stuff) so that we can continue our yard and really get the most of out of our big lot.  This might not happen right away but we will need to shop around and get some estimates.

We also saw that the right side has quite a bit of foundation going up since it is the low side of the lot.  We knew this was going to be the case but it is always hard to picture it in your head.  We were very pleased with the brick and they way things are taking shape.  We are excited to see how much leveling will have to be done for the driveway or how that will turn out!

Here are a few pictures of what we saw tonight!

This is from the front right side:

 Facing the right side of the house:

Looking at the back:

ALL CLEAR!

We stopped by our lot today on the way to the pumpkin patch and saw that it had been completely cleared!  We are so pleased with our lot because what we wanted the most was a fairly private lot and that is what it us turning out to be.  Here are a few pictures of what we saw!


This is taken from the back left corner of the lot

 A little farther back:

Middle of the uncleared section in the back:

 Right side near garage:

 Looking to the left side of our lot.... hubby over by the lot line in the woods!:

View from the end of the driveway:

 /
Looking from the front left of lot:

And so it begins....

Yes, I did a little "site stalking" today and to my surprise they had started to clearing process.  The front section looks cleared and I think they still need to clear some in the back.  As you can see, we will still have plenty of trees due to the easement surrounding our lot.  Here's a quick pic!

TIMBEEEERRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep! You guessed it!  We had our pre construction meeting today and are jumping with joy about getting started.  We sat down with our SR and PM ( which we love both) and went over everything about our lot and house selections.  Everything there went smoothly and it seemed they had all their ducks in a row and were ready to get started.

We then ventured over to our lot with the PM and saw that they had staked out our lot.  We were able to walk it and see actually where it starts and stops.  Before, we were just guessing where we thought these points were.  We discussed where the driveway would be since it is in the cul de sac, how the house would sit and be positioned toward the street, where the lot would be cleared,  and then what tress would be left, etc.  We were very pleased when we left. 

When we go back over for a "drive by" we hope to see some trees down!  We think this will happen within the next couple of days( or sooner) but the PM needs to have someone come out since our lot has an easement on the right side and back that is protected and you can not "clear by using machinery". He wants to double check a few trees to see if they can be taken down or not. So.... with that said we have a nice buffer around most of our lot which we are pleased with! 

They hope to buy the lot and get everything started as far as building soon!  We are over the moon excited and can't wait to see the progress.  Next time I'll take some pictures to post!

Happy Fall!

Getting Anxious

We finally have our pre construction meeting set for Wednesday!!! We are very excited to sit down with our SR and our PM and finally get the ball rolling ( with progress we can actually see).  Yes, we have enjoyed picking things out but we are now ready to start to see some action on our lot!!!!

Last week when we talked to the SR he mentioned that they were still waiting on some permits to come back but they wanted to go ahead and start to take down some trees to get ahead since there are soooooooooo many of them.  In the end, this did not happen( which we are kinda glad) because everything came back the next day and he said it could wait until this week to do. :)

I took a ride over to the community today, knowing that there would be no progress, but I am more excited for this to start than a kid on Christmas Eve.  I went by a few lots to see how they were coming along.  Two houses in particular were actually moving along faster than I realized.  The one house that we snuck a peak in was actually done and they had the owners there( I am guessing this had to have happened within the last week or so) and the house next to it looked almost finished.  It is amazing how quickly things are going up and I am sure ours will be the same way ( fingers crossed).

On a different note, after reading some blogs about the master bath shower we have decided ( if it is possible) to go with the corner shelves for the soap, shampoo, etc.  We did not realize that the soap holder would not match the tile that is in the shower and since it has a glass surround I did not want that to be a sore to the eyes.  So, we spoke with the company and she hopes that this is possible because they are not sure if our appraisal has gone through yet or not.  We might be able to do it, we might not.  Either way we will not have the soap "thingy" installed and have to come up with some other solution but we are hoping to get the shelves. :)

Until Wednesday.......................

A few selections

So, as I mentioned in my earlier post we have already made all of our selections for the house.  We actually finished doing that about 2 weeks ago since we are about two and a half months into this whole process.

Some of the easier selections included upgrading to all brushed nickle hardware and lighting and also upgrading to the darker cabinets (in the kitchen and in the bathrooms).  Our morning room, hardwood floors, granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, backsplash, gourmet island and hardwood floors were part of our incentive package (YAY!)  We were really excited about this because it makes the whole area more open and feel much nicer.  We knew we wanted all of those things but were not sure if that would be something we could have done if we had to upgrade it on top of everything else.  We are very pleased that we did this because we actually walked through a house that was under construction and did not have those things and it was not a lot of extra space.

So, here are a few pictures of what we selected

 This is a close up of the espresso cabinets with the granite and back splash laying on the hickory floors.  We are very excited/anxious to see how this all comes together!

 Here is a bigger shot of what the hardwood will be in the foyer, hall, hall bath, kitchen and morning room!

This is what we chose for the master bathroom.  Again, we have the dark cabinets with the cultured marble white counter tops.  The accent tile will be in the shower and around the tub and the other tile is for the floor, around the tub and the shower.

Finally, here is what we picked out for the guest/kids bathroom upstairs.  Again, dark cabinets and cultured marble white counter tops.  The white tile is for the shower and then the darker floor.

In the family room we did opt for the 4 ft extension ( it felt pretty small without it) and we are doing a stone fireplace.  I am SOOOO super excited for this because it will be a great focal point for the space!


This is all for now.  Hopefully, when we get back from the beach, we will have our pre construction meeting and finally break ground and let the fun begin!

Just getting started!

Hello All!

This will be the first post of many in our adventures of building our new home! We are very excited to be starting this process and can't wait to share all of the details to come!

Here is an update so far on how things have been going.

We have decided to build a Ryan Home.  We couldn't be more happy with the neighborhood and house that we have picked out.  As for the neighborhood, we knew we wanted something that had a real sense of community and something that A. and our other future children could grow up in and have neighborhood kids to play with.  With that being said, we also wanted to make sure that we still had a nice size lot and a good school system.  After looking through a lot of neighborhoods we fell in love with this one and are really excited for our kids to grow up here!

As of right now we are waiting on our pre construction meeting to break ground!  This should all get started by the end of October with a tentative move in/done building date to be around the beginning of February.  We have already gone and picked everything out ( which was harder than I thought it would be).  We even had to go back and repick our flooring, countertops and kitchen backsplash! Anyhow....here are a few pictures of our selections so far:



This is a model of our house.  Our elevation is similar but does have a few differences.  Some of those are:
-  Our house is opposite of this with the garage on the right
- Instead of two windows on the front porch there is one circular window in the center
- We only have two eaves in the roof line not three as pictured above
- Our garage has another floor above it ( unlike what is pictured) and therefore has a double window like the other side ( this is where the bonus room is located)

We wanted to have this hunter green siding but it was not available.  So instead we went with a dark tan siding and ledge stones with black shutters and white trim.  We had a hard time choosing this as well because it was difficult to get a feel for the true color based on the small sample we were given to look at.  We were able to drive around and look at the different color combinations but we had to be careful what we chose because we could not have the same color for siding/stone as any of our neighbors in a certain amount of distance. ( which I can appreciate)

Here is a picture of our SOLD sign and the inside of the model with my two loves :)

 In the above picture you can see the kitchen from standing in the living room.  To the left is the morning room and back of the house and straight through the door is the formal dining room.  We actually chose these cabinets ( for those close to me know how much I love my black and white!)

Anyhow, we are excited to share with everyone our process and hopefully it continues to be a smooth one!

Thanks for reading!