Things are happening!

Stopped by today to turn in the rest of our 5% down and check out a few Calvert's that are closing soon. We wanted to see what it looked like with some of the options we selected, like the luxury master, no morning and room and flipped floorplan. I'm super excited about the master upgrade. The bathroom is awesome and the tray ceiling is surprisingly grand. They put the molding around the bottom of the tray with an outlet so lights could be installed to light up the tray. We think that could be a cool idea, especially with using Philip's Hue, but it could get pricy. The other thing I was curious about was how the double shower head in the master shower was dealt with. There are separate valves for each shower head. I think we're going to install a hand shower for the other side. Sorry there are no pics, I got so excited to see I totally forgot (doink!)

We found out we should know our dig date tomorrow and will be setting up our pre-construction meeting! FINALLY!

There was even a little bit of progress on our lot. It was staked out and there are utility meters!

A Quick Non-Update

The last several weeks have certainly been a test of patience. Which I have none of.

All our paperwork is done. Our mortgage has been sent to underwriting at NVR (anyone know how long that takes?).  All three units in our building have been sold, so they're wrapping up that paperwork. I know we're next to be built, but would love to know when they're going to get started. This radio silence is killing me!

Could also use a good kick in the butt to get our current house on the market, hard to stay motivated when everything seems so up in the air, not to mention I don't want to move twice - but maybe not as much as I don't want to sell our home in time. Anyone looking to move to Northern Kentucky??

#whowantstobuymyhouse

Appliances

Had some time to kill this evening before meeting family for dinner so we did some refrigerator research. We considered buying through Ryan, but it was way overpriced. Originally I had planned on getting a GE Profile with the cool slide out shelf and Auto and Precise Fill functions. Looking at different brands and models tonight though, we really like the layout and look of a Samsung. My concern is what if Samsung's stainless is different than GE's stainless and the fridge clashes with the other appliances that are all GE. Anyone have this combo and know it matches?

Here is the one we liked: Samsung RF28HFEDBSR/AA

Here is the GE I originally thought I wanted: GE Profile PFE28RSHSS

GE Appliances we're getting through Ryan:

RANGE: GE PROFILE™ SERIES 30" FREE-STANDING DOUBLE OVEN RANGE WITH CONVECTION PB950SFSS

MICROWAVE:
GE PROFILE SERIES OVER-THE-RANGE OVEN WITH ADVANTIUM® TECHNOLOGY PSA9120SFSS

DISHWASHER: GE® STAINLESS STEEL INTERIOR DISHWASHER WITH HIDDEN CONTROLS GDT580SSFSS

Super excited for the double oven and a dishwasher that might actually clean dishes! The microwave is a bit much with the Advantium stuff, but the hubby likes it and it ended up being a really good deal. Adding all the appliances to my cart on bestbuy.com including the hoses and cords and stuff you're required to get, it was much more expensive than the upgrade price. I believe it was $3000 for the appliance upgrades with a $600 credit for the standard ones you receive.

Guardian

Right after our meeting with NVR we met with Guardian. Guy was very nice and walked us through their services. Home security is their bread and butter, or Life Safety as they like to call it. Sounded like a nice system. Talked us into the extra fire protection. Then dropped the $45 a month for 60 months bomb on us. Bleck. He did mention that if we moved during that time, they'd install a new system for free in the new house - guess that's an okay deal.

Went into home automation, all the data ports, surround sound etc. Poor guy didn't know what he was getting into with my husband and I being tech savvy and already having a pretty good idea of what we wanted and how we wanted it to work. Data ports were fine. We pretty much put one in every room and did the mounted TV stuff above the fireplace and in the Master bedroom. We added some sort of wireless thing in the upstairs hallway (I must have zoned out during this conversation, but apparently I said we agreed we should do it and it was supposed to be an extra $200 or so).

Added the surround sound, which was like an extra $2,300 but weren't positive where we wanted to put it in the basement - not sure how we're placing furniture yet. Did not go with the home automation as you have them install the equipment into your Life Safety system to control from the app (which didn't look too bad) and bumped the cost up anther $5 a month. Didn't do the whole home audio, didn't even price it out as we required it could handle streaming Google Music from our phones and it could not. Not worth it when there are so many wireless systems out there these days I think.

TIP: Get an itemized list of everything you added and what it costs before you sign, after you sign, and before you finalize with Ryan.

We ended up with a lot of questions and the Guardian guy was very responsive as we had three days to cancel. I never felt comfortable with the $45 a month contract. We wanted to do some cool home automation stuff ourselves with Smartthings and discovered it would not integrate with their system, so we decided to go with that exclusively and drop the Life Safety from Guardian. We considered letting them install the system and canceling the contract later and just using it as a passive system. The guy had originally told us, if we did that, we'd only have to pay the $200-ish install cost and like 10-20% of our remaining contract. I could stomach that, but when I asked for that in writing, all they could come up with was we'd have to pay the entire install cost $1000+ and 20% of our contract. Not taking that risk.

We ended up also canceling the surround sound. Found a sweet Sony sound bar at Best Buy and I'd feel better about something like that than the full loudness of a regular system in a townhome. I want to be a good neighbor.

So we ended up just doing the data and cable wiring and that stupid wireless thing that ended up costing over double what he quoted, but we only realized after we signed all the paperwork since that's when we finally received an itemized list. (See tip above).

We ordered our Smartthings hub (on backorder) and a sensor to start playing with it. Plus, the hubby wanted an Amazon Echo so until we get the other stuff hooked up, Alexa is just playing music and reading us the news until she can turn the lights on and off.

NVR

Had our first meeting with NVR last week. I have to say, the gentleman we've been working with has been very nice and accommodating. I feel bad for giving him a bit of a hard time. Unfortunately, anyone in that industry, anyone taking that much money from you, and the comments I've read about NVR have my guard up. But, like I said, so far, so good. Fortunately, I think we're a pretty easy situation, traditional 15 year mortgage with 20% down and good credit.

Took an hour or two gathering all our paperwork. Pays tubs, W2's etc. In the process we realized somehow one of my W2's (changed jobs mid year) went missing and the income never got reported. It was a crazy year.

I was able to track down a copy as NVR caught it immediately and needed verification of my employment. We also had to send a letter in regarding a business charge card we have and waiting for a gift letter to be signed in case our current home does't sell in time, we can still put down the 20%.

Sounds like they're working on wrapping that up and then hopefully we'll hear something soon!

Couple of to-do's for us to look into still:

• Homeowners insurance. So far we've not gotten a straight answer if our townhome is they where you own only the inside or everything. We also currently have KY Farm Bureau so no matter what, we have to find a different company (bummer).
• Title Company and Insurance. This one is all new to me. I think we may do some shopping around on this one. Seems like NVR gouges you a bit. Not to mention I hate the type of insurance you have to get for the very rare, but just in case's. Like when you by a TV or a car...ugh. 
• Comparison Shop. We're working with our current bank on getting a quote. They're actually coming in slightly more expensive than NVR, but it would be way more convenient if we could end up going with them.

Grateful

I wanted to pause for a moment to set the record straight. We've made it through the flooring together and still have to walk through the Guardian (wiring) and floorplan selections. There will be some gripes there too. I always say, nothing great comes easy. I'm super excited for our new home. I think it's going to be amazing and I can't wait. Overall, I don't have an awful opinion of Ryan Homes (just have to get to know 'em). We all know this isn't an easy process, and I just want to highlight some of the challenges we've come across, and will work on doing a better job of highlighting the positives as well. Is it time to close yet?

So Many Choices (but not really)

One of the main differences between Ryan and M/I has been choices. M/I's mantra is, if we have it, you can pick it. If we don't you can pay for it. Ryan's way is, here's what you get, that's it, except in this room.

Going into our flooring appointment I knew a few things: Gray. Dark Wood. White Tile. What we ended up with was mostly that. Wood floors were easy. I knew we wanted dark, wide plank, solid hardwood. There was only one choice that mostly matched the description.

Cabinets were easy too. Knew we wanted the dark modern ones. Countertops, not so much. Nine granite choices. That's it. None of which were what I was looking for, but was willing to settle with one of them. We ended up dropping the granite for the standard laminate (we'll get into that later).

Granite Choices (We were going to go with the one in the upper left...I think)

Let's see, what was next. Railing, easy. Dark stain.

Carpet, not as easy as I expected. Gray is harder than it looks. There are many tones and I didn't want the house to look cold. I also wanted a shaggier carpet since it just looks plush and comfy to me. All of the speckled shaggy carpets were brown or tan. I also heard this might be going out of style as well. We found a moderately shaggy carpet in a grey that felt warm and coordinated well with the wall color and wood floors. We also upgraded the carpet pad one level to an 8 lb. pad. Fairy inexpensive and makes a difference.

Now, dum dum dum... Tile. White tile and a gray color scheme. Sounds easy-peasy right? Let's just say the brown/tans again made themselves known amongst 80% of the choices. We found about three tile "packages" (floor, wall and accent) that could fit. We also found a strip of accent tile that we really liked and asked if we could switch it out. Big 'ole NO there. We somewhat settled on a gray tile floor, white tiles on the wall with a tanish-gray accent strip. We chose the same gray tile for the floor in the laundry room and the upstairs bath. We're just going to do the standard white tiles in the upstairs bath since I dislike those fiberglass inserts. Final question, what about our grout colors? This is when we were told there was only one color that everyone gets, Haystack. Just by the name I'm sure you can imaging what color it is. Tan. And not a nice tan, like dark tanny tan. Bleck. Well there was no way in heck that was going to fly. Let operation grout change begin!

Another flooring meeting, a week and apparently quite a hoopla on Ryan's end later we came to conclusion that the Haystack rule was wrong. Grout choices pre-selected for each tile and will match accordingly. Now, I have to say, that's a relief, but now I have to trust someone else picked the right color? I understand why Ryan has so many restrictions. They try to make it easier, and for those out there who struggle to make these decisions, I understand, its harder than it looks, I'm sure it helps. But I think they've surpassed the point where its become less helpful and more complicated.

Speaking of complicated, while finalizing our selections, we found out that the gray tile we selected for the master bath, laundry and upstairs bath could not be put in the upstairs bath. Wait, what? Like I said, beyond helpful... We ended up picking just a white tile, keep it neutral I suppose. We also found out that the grout chosen for the gray tile in the laundry room is different from the grout chosen to for the SAME gray tile in the master bathroom. Again, WHAT?? At this point, I surrendered.

We also switched our accent tile to a black, white and gray glass tile. Felt it was more modern and less tan. Almost put some pretty gray wide planked LVT in the "exercise room" but decided against it when we found out the price (which had to be custom quoted since the only option in that room was carpet).

Here is what we ended up with. Details below.

Our selections minus the accent tiles and LVT

Accent tile we actually picked

Hardwood

Kitchen, Powder Room, Dining Room, Living Room
Bruce Red Oak - Espresso - Dundee Plank 3 1/4"

Tile

Laundry Room
Floor: Parkway 13x13 with Oyster Gray grout

Master Bathroom
Floor: Parkway 13x13 with Winter Gray grout (double checking this one)
Walls: White (details to come) with White grout
Accent: Colorwave Evening Mixer Brick Joint Mosaic with White grout

Bathroom 2 (Upstairs)
Floor: White (details to come) with White grout
Walls: White (details to come) with White grout

Carpet
Master Bedroom, Stairs and Hall, Bedroom 2, Bedroom 3, Recreation Room, Exercise Room
Shaw Simple Times City Line
8 lb. carpet pad

Cabinets
Timberlake Portfolio Sonoma Maple Espresso Square

Countertop
Laminate (details to come)