The Guardian Appointment

My husband met with Guardian last week.  I did not go, but we both looked at the electronic brochure that they sent and talked about what we might get.  We kept it pretty simple. We bought the Smart Connections package that gives you a multi-media outlet, 5 additional outlets for cable, phone or data,  "centralized" Wi-Fi, and a "Smartbox" in the basement.  With Ryan Homes only providing 2 phone and 2 cable outlets standard you are almost forced to buy this Smart Connections package - although you can buy individual additional cable and phone jacks from Guardian for about $95/ jack (that's the cost in our area).

We also bought the wall t.v. pre-wire package so we can put a television over the fireplace in the family room.  Finally my husband also got a two room audio package for the family room and the basement.  I'm not sold on this, because while I love to listen to music I know we don't all like the same music at the same time, so I'm not sure how much we will use it.  Plus with the availability of bluetooth and a Beats Pill I'm not sure hardwiring this type of stuff into the house is necessary.  And given the way technology changes it sort of feels like anything we choose may be obsolete by the time the house is built and we move in.  Lol!

The Design Center - Part 2

So after giving it some more thought and looking at lots and lots of pictures of master bathrooms, I decided that I needed to make some changes to our selections.  I know, kind of crazy - but since Ryan Homes allows us to make changes to interior selections until the end of the month I might as well make sure I'm happy before I make a final decision.

But with Ryan Homes you can not just show up to the flooring center on a weekend and revise your choices.  You must make a new inconvenient week day appointment.  So I had my appointment at M&R Flooring on Friday at 9:00 a.m.  I was the only one in the showroom in the morning so I could really concentrate and pull together different combinations.  I ended up upgrading the tile in our master bathroom to a nice stone without a border.  This took us from Level C to Level D.  I just don't like the border pieces and I know a cleaner look will look more classic and make me happier.

To make sure costs stayed around the same, I downgraded my sons' bathroom from level C to level B.  So they will have white 6x6 tile on the wall around the bathtub and a 6x12 stone floor on the floor.  I actually like this better because the white tile will match the white standard bathtub and look more natural.  I also saved $600 doing this.

We are also getting a special order to tile the shower floor.  My husband really hates the standard fiberglass shower floor so I'm excited about being able to do a mosaic tile in the shower.

Finally I picked out a kitchen backsplash.  I am doing a simple bone colored stone in subway tile size.  I love the way it looks but it costs $1800 so I will see if I need to remove it to save costs before it is all said and done.

But at this point I am happy with our selections.

Decisions, Decisions and the Illusion of Choice

Today we met with our SR to make any final structural changes and to pick out our exterior colors.  We learned we had to change our original elevation B to elevation C because the family who bought the lot across the street from our lot picked elevation B first.  We were kind of bummed about this because elevation B adds two feet to your foyer and really creates a grand entrance.  But elevation C is very nice and will include a porch.  In addition to changing our elevation we added some additional ceiling rough-ins in the second, third and fourth bedroom and added recess lights to the study.  So at this point I think we are all set with lighting, but my husband has not met with Guardian yet so there may be some more electrical changes.

Next we met with our design consultant at M&R Flooring to pick out our tile, flooring and carpet.  So I know this experience is meant to be fun, but personally I found it kind of nerve-wracking.  First, our design consultant was very nice, but was definitely pushing us towards upgrading almost everything.  And while I know that's her job, I found that sort of annoying.  Because let's face it when everything is "just $400 more" or "just $1000 more" - the final tally is a lot, lot more.  Lol!  Second, and this may just be me I generally did not find that Ryan Homes offered very much variety in either their standard options or upgrade options.  On the one hand I guess that's a good thing because you really can not go wrong, everything seems to work well and the palate is very neutral.  They definitely have a "formula" in terms of what customers want and what is cost-effective for Ryan to offer.  But at the same time I would have liked some more choices.  Now I may feel this way because this is my third house and I have renovated a house in the past so I know what I like and I know what's out there at boutique kitchen design showrooms and even Home Depot.

But starting with the cabinets - the cabinets I have now in my renovated kitchen are solid wood maple, dovetail construction, and soft-close.  None of this is available in either the standard cabinets or the upgrade cabinets Ryan offers.  Why not?  Second, Ryan offers about 8 granite choices all of which I'm sure you have seen a million times in standard variations of gray, tan or black.  But quartz, Corian, marble, or other colors of granite can not be obtained as an upgrade or even as a "special custom" order - and yet you can walk into any Home Depot and find these other solid counter surfaces - so they are clearly things that can be mass produced.  So again, why not?  We picked out a very nice traditional Gunstock wood floor for our house, but it would have been nice to have the choice to pick out bamboo or more exotic wood floor choices.  But that did not seem to be an option - the floors were either a choice of 4 traditional hardwood floors or 7 or 8 "engineered" hardwood floors.  And while I believe it is best to keep hardwood floors simple, it would have been nice to be offered Brazilian Cherry or something more exotic.

The bathroom tile options were also fairly unimaginative - everything involved a 12in tile and decorative tile border or the standard 6 in. white tile.  We did find something we liked, but it was kind of hard.  We decided not to pick out a kitchen backsplash and do that after the house is built.  All in all I am happy with our choices and we didn't go to overboard with upgrades - the biggest upgrade for us is getting hardwood floors throughout the first floor.  This is costing us about $8,000 - but it really is a non-negotiable for me.  Sigh!  I guess I should be grateful for these "problems".

QA Backlog

We signed our purchase agreement with Ryan Homes on May 1 and per the contract we were required to apply for a mortgage loan within seven days.  We applied for a loan with NVR mortgage last week.  Before the appointment I sent over most of the required documents and after our appointment we had a few additional documents to send over.  Our LO (Loan Officer) asked us to send the documents over as soon as possible so that our file could go to the Quality Assurance department and then on to underwriting.  I sent over everything on Friday, but as of the close of business today our loan application has not gone to the Quality Assurance department.  Our LO says there is a backlog because of the number of loans going to underwriting right now.  Apparently the real estate market has really picked up in Maryland and lots of people are buying houses.  I guess that's a good thing, but I'm anxious to get the loan approval process started so that construction can start on our house in July as currently scheduled.  But for now we are waiting.

NVR Mortgage Approval and the Paper Trail

Today we met with our loan officer (LO) at NVR Mortgage.  To get the process rolling on buying a new house you need to get a loan approval - presumably from NVR Mortgage.  Of course when it gets closer to the time you actually close on the house you can try to obtain financing from another lender, but I think at this stage of the game it makes the most sense to go through NVR Mortgage.  Our new community is not offering much in the way of incentives, in fact Ryan Homes recently raised the prices of the homes.  But they are giving $10,000 towards closing costs if you close with NVR Mortgage so that is nice.

Before our appointment I e-mailed most of our documents to our LO in advance so that made our appointment go very smoothly.  I thought our LO did a good job explaining all of the documents and walking us through the process.

At this stage of the game the most nerve-wracking thing about buying this house with Ryan Homes is that they do not allow contingent contracts, but we have not sold our current house.  And we plan to use the proceeds from the sale to pay the down payment and closing costs.  But since Ryan Homes does not allow contingent contracts we need to show on paper at least that we can buy the new house even if our house does not sell.  A classic chicken and egg problem - I'm sure made more serious by the recent housing bust.  So to show you have enough money you basically need to agree to empty every savings account you've ever had and then some - but make sure you can track those funds.  Because while it would be great to get that money from a money tree - Ryan Homes won't accept it without a paper trail.  So not that much fun.  But we got through it.  So at this point I think I can safely say we are buying a new house.  Yeah us!

The Journey Begins - A Contract with Ryan Homes

Last Friday my husband and I took a leap of faith and signed a contract to buy a new home in Howard County.  I grew up in Columbia, Maryland and I loved it.  I always thought it was the prefect place to raise kids, but my career has always caused us to live in or near cities and that has been fun too.  But as my kids have gotten older, I have decided that I would like to move out of the city.

So we have decided to sell our house in the city and move to Howard County.  We have decided to build a new house because we have never done that before and my husband has always wanted to live a new house.  It sounds kind of corny (and is definitely expensive), but hey you only live once so you might as well do a few things that make you happy.

Once I decided that we wanted to build a new house I did some research on new home developments in Howard County with home prices in our price range.  There was not much.  Lol!  But that's ok - sometimes having a limited choice makes it easier to make a decision.

But a few observations about Howard County after being away from the area for almost 20 years.  Today if you want a single family house in Howard County you will need to look outside of Columbia.  The only new housing being built in Columbia are townhouses or condominiums.  I think townhouses are great, but at this stage of life for my family we need more space than that.  If you want a single family house then you are looking at Laurel, Clarksville, Mt. Airy, Elkridge, and maybe Ellicott City.  Also, get ready for some real sticker shock.  It is amazing how little house you get for half a million dollars these days.  And even $1 million does not buy anywhere near what you think it would buy.

So given all of that I was thrilled to find that Ryan Homes was building a small community of homes in Howard County close to shopping and 95 on decent sized lots and in our price range.  My husband and I have actually been looking at new houses for a long time - it has sort of been a hobby for us.  Over the last 10 or 15 years we have looked at Ryan Homes communities in Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, Montgomery County and Prince Georges County.  So we had a sense of their product.  My favorite Ryan Home model has always been the Avalon so I was thrilled that they were offering that model.  Now in the past I have always felt that Ryan Homes nickels and dimes its customers with a seemingly low initial price for a bare bones house that by the time you add necessary options the price is just as high as other developers.  I was pleasantly surprised that this development offered lots of nice standard options like stainless steel appliances, granite countertops in the kitchen and master bathroom, oak stair and metal balusters, and hardwood floors on most of the first floor.  We looked at the community one time and immediately asked to put down a deposit.  They made us wait until May 1 to put in a contract.  Our journey has started.