Week 4 Wrap-up

Not much to report this week.  The roof has shingles, the basement floor has been poured, and the plumbing has started.

Our pre-drywall meeting is scheduled for this Friday.

Our tentative closing date is May 29th.

Week 3 Wrap-up

Our house is framed!!!!!!!!

We knew the building materials would be delivered this week and that framing would start but we couldn't have imagined that it would be completed.  We were shocked and very excited when we heard the voice mail from our project manager last night.

So far I am very impressed with our project manager and his team.  The site was also remarkably clean.

Our Venice

Week 1 Wrap-up

We have a foundation and maybe a buyer for our current house!

In the beginning....

There were big piles of dirt.  Construction on our new home started on Monday; I'll be posting pictures of the progress on the Construction Pictures page.

It's a very exciting time but also a little never wracking since we haven't sold our current home yet.

We have a tentative closing date in mid-May but the end of May beginning of June seems more realistic.

Pre-Construction Meeting

Today we had our pre-construction meeting.  First we met with the project manager who seems like a really nice guy.  He was the project manager on a friend’s house and they have nothing but nice things to say about him so I think we are in good hands.  We reviewed our selections for accuracy and then walked our build site.  The surveyors had just finished staking the site; it was really exciting to the outline of our future home on the site.

Next we meet with the electrician who also seems like a nice guy and is definitely very patient.  This was the most stressful part of the day because we had to make decision on the spot.  In the scope of building a house these decision are quite small but you just want to make the right decision all the time. 

Total time at the meeting – two and a half hours.  We did ask a lot of questions.

Apparently our future neighbors have a large dog.  I say "apparently" because we didn’t see the dog just his calling cards. 

Why? Why? Why?

Why we are moving

My wife, son, and I currently live in an eleven hundred square foot ranch home and the walls have been closing in since his arrival.  Now that we are expecting our second child it’s time to move. 

Why Ryan Homes

We started off by looking at existing homes in the fall of last year.  On our list of must haves was an updated kitchen, open floor plan, four bedrooms, a laundry room on the first or second floor, and a good school district.  All of the houses we found in our price range would require a kitchen remodel, didn’t have four bedrooms, or were not in a good school district.

So we started looking at new construction in areas with good school districts.  The only builder in these areas that was in our price range and met all of our requirements was Ryan Homes.   An additional bonus was that Ryan Homes are Energy Star certified and the development we are building in has dedicated green space behind our lot. 

Why we chose the Venice

The first time we walked into the Venice we knew it was our future home.  The first floor has everything we were looking for.  It has an open floor plan between the kitchen and family room.  The gourmet island in the kitchen gives you a lot of extra counter space and additional storage.  The optional morning room gives you a dining area right off the kitchen.  There is a mudroom off the garage; something you need in upstate New York.

The second floor has four large bedrooms; this gives us an extra bedroom for guests or office space or both.   There is also a spacious laundry room upstairs; no more trips to the basement!  The walk-in closet in the master bedroom is huge, plenty of space for all of our clothing.