Requests Update

So after seeing the Savoy I asked Ryan homes if we could do anything about the small dinette and kitchen.  I also asked about expanding the garage.  Here's the outcome:

- We could only do a 4ft extension to the dinette and family room (for $8,000 and a late change order fee of $250), the kitchen could not be increased at all.  The reason we could not do the 2ft extensions like in the Savoy model is that the Sewickley model house is I think a foot longer.  We decided since we could not increase the dinette and the kitchen that the upgrade would not be worth it.  They also said they could not move the stairs level with the cabinets because of the clearance near the front door, which makes since.  So we ended up not being able to do anything with the width of dinette and kitchen.

-  We went back and worth on the garage and why they could not do an extension.  They finally said they could do it, but they would charge us a blueprint redraw fee ($3500) and late change order fee ($250).  We said okay could you price it out for us just to see.  Surprisingly he came back with a pretty cheap price ($4,000) and no fee, so we did it!  He said he told his boss that we were an awesome couple and they okayed it as long as we were okay with a 1 to 2 week delay in the house.  So now I get to have my mudroom, which I am super excited about!  Make sure you double and triple check on why they can not do the changes you request and you might just get an approval.

All in all we are very excited about the house, it is going to have everything we need/want.  The kitchen/dinette may be a bit small, but we will see.  Maybe I won't even think it's small when it's built it's just so hard to tell from the Savoy (with 8 ft ceilings instead of 9 ft in the Sewickley) and the piece of paper floor plan of the Sewickley model.

Next up is our pre-construction meeting on Monday!!  I'm so excited to get the show on the road!  I am also finally at ease and now excited about the house.  I have let my worries go with the thoughts of how awesome our mudroom/house is going to be!

Seeing the Savoy

So we got a chance to see the Savoy that we saw previously last Friday.  The construction quality seemed good, so that's good.  I also was able to get a better idea of the space of our floor plan because the Savoy is pretty much the same house with minor differences (same square foot though).  Here's a comparison:

Left: Savoy, Right: Sewickley

So the basic outcome was that I felt the dinette and kitchen space was a little too narrow.  I also did not like the stairs and wall (and closet for Savoy) blocking the view into the family room.  When I got home I checked online and the Savoy offers a 2 ft extension across the back, but the Sewickley doesn't.  It only offers a 4 ft extension on the dinette and family room, which is around $8,000.  I really like the idea of the whole back being extended, so I emailed Ryan Homes to ask them if we could do this for the Sewickley, seeing that the Savoy and it are pretty much identical.  I am still waiting for the response on this.  I'm really upset that I feel the space is small (and my husband doesn't), but I'm not sure at this point there isn't anything that I can do about it seeing how it's past the 30 days we get to pick things.  Anybody else think 14 days for structural changes and 30 days for non-structural changes is not enough?!  I really felt too rushed, I like to do research and think of options and I didn't have time to do this.

I also asked Ryan Homes about extending the garage to make it wider, this was also an option for the Savoy and not the Sewickley.  If we were able to do this we could build a mudroom in the garage and that would definitely make me happy!  I really think we could use a mudroom, especially for Ms. Daisy.

Overall we like the flow of the house better than the Palermo (this is good cause I was regretting not picking that floor plan especially since the prices went up and we couldn't change now even if they let us), which was the other option we were looking at.  On a side note, I just don't like the narrow kitchen/dinette and no mudroom.  I think the flow is the most important, so I think we choose wisely.

I am just hoping we can do something to make me feel better about the narrow space, either 2ft extension or maybe make the stairs and wall flush with the pantry and cabinets.  It might be too late, which is terrible because your spending so much money on a house and you have to think of every thing in 30 days.  Also in my case without even seeing the house or a similar house.  Hopefully we find out tomorrow if there are any options we can do or if it really is too late.  I really think changes right up until ground break should be allowed.

On a good note our house starting price has went up $8,000 since we bought it, so we just made money!!

Here's a picture of the inside of the Savoy we saw:

News, but still waiting...

Ryan homes has said the delay to starting our house was because of the extremely cold weather we have been having.  This is delaying foundations to be poured and that has caused a delay in the already started houses to 3-4 weeks, which in turn causes a delay to the houses that haven't started yet.  We are scheduled to start April 14th and should be in around July 14th (90 days from start they say), so it is a delay of a month.  I guess a month isn't too bad, I just hope we don't get anymore delays.

We are also looking at a the Savoy we saw without dry wall again next week.  This time it should have walls and be almost done.  I just hope the space is what we expect.  The floor plan is almost exactly like the Sewickley, so it's the closest we are going to get.  I'm just still very nervous about never seeing our houses floor plan in person.  I hope after seeing the Savoy I'll realize the space and can picture it better.

This sucks

So Ryan Homes said we were on the schedule to start building mid March, but since we got approved so quickly we might get moved up.  As soon as we got approved we emailed them and start we can't wait to start building.  They emailed us back congratulating us on our approval and said we are on the list to start mid April!  What?!?!?  How did we move back a month from what they said?  This sucks big time!  Looks like we won't be in our new house until August.  They told us June on our purchase agreement.  I am not looking forward to more waiting, I just can't believe this....  It's definitely a good thing we are on a month to month contract right now at our apartment place!