Rite Rug Appointment

We had our Rite Rug appointment on June 14, 2014.  First off, let me say that Nicole was phenomenal!  She didn't push us into anything and was very helpful when we were having a hard time making decisions.  We didn't feel any any pressure at any point in time.  I know some people have had experiences where their Rite Rug employee was hard to get a hold of after the appointment, but Nicole has always responded very quickly to us.  This is service that we appreciate very much!  She was really great!

We were really excited going into this appointment since we knew we would get to pick out all of our finishes for the house.  We went in with a pretty clear idea of most of the things we wanted so I think that helped to make things go pretty quickly.  

We had picked out the kitchen finishes ahead of time and we agreed on the vinyl for the floor very quickly. We also decided to get vinyl flooring in the dining room (instead of carpet) for a small upgrade because we are going to eventually get hardwood installed everywhere there is vinyl so we want the flooring to be as level as possible where we will be putting the hardwood.

The items that took us longer to pick out was the tile for the bathrooms and also the carpet upgrades we should do.  In the end, we upgraded both the carpet and the pad in the great room and kept the upstairs carpeting as the standard.  Our thinking is that we aren't going to be upstairs all that often compared to downstairs so that carpet won't get as much wear as downstairs will.  

The item we were most worried about was the bathroom tile - we weren't sure they would have sometime to match our taste.  We just re-did all of the bathrooms in our house and were hoping to mimic that as closely as possible.  We didn't think it would be possible, but they actually did have options that were reasonably close to what we installed in our current home.  We had a small non-standard request that was granted for our tile - we wanted 6 rows of the listello instead of the standard 4.  This was granted for a nominal fee.  Another non-standard we added was a resin shelf for in the master bath shower.  

We left this appointment feeling very satisfied with our selections and we didn't have any buyer's remorse.

Kitchen selections
Vinyl floor: Initiator 66178
Cabinet: Scottsdale Maple Espresso
Countertop: Hi Def laminate 3460-46 Calacatta Marble

We picked the dark oak stain for our railings.

These are our master bath tile selections. Instead of 4 rows of the white listello, we requested (and were granted) 6 rows!
Wall tile: PK98 9"x12"
Listello: SF415
Floor tile: PK98 12"x12"
Grout: #335 Winter Gray

These are all of the selections for the master bathroom. Same cabinets that we will have in the kitchen and a white cultured marble counter top.

These are our choices for the 2nd floor hall bathroom. Same cabinets as the kitchen, white standard cultured marble countertop, and the floor tile is SW92 12"x12". Grout will be the winter gray.

This is our great room carpeting, Collinsville 00702 Mocha Froth. It was the first upgrade for the carpeting. We also upgraded the pad underneath to the highest upgrade available. We will be in this room all the time so it made sense to do the upgrades here.

This is our carpeting selection for the stairs and second floor, Baseline 00747 Thornwood. We kept everything standard for this carpeting.

These are our laundry room selections. Same cabinets as the kitchen, standard countertop Perlato Granite 3522-58 Formica, and the vinyl flooring is Initiator 66204. So excited to have a 2nd floor laundry room!

Guardian Appointment

Our Guardian appointment was the first unpleasant experience we have had. When we first called to set up the appointment, it was easy, no problems. But then about a week before it was scheduled, he called and asked if he could move it around because he had a golf outing that came up. Ok, no problem, we can be flexible. We proposed multiple days and times, including all but 1 hour on a work day and nothing was good for him - his son plays baseball and it's apparently not ok that he miss a game to do his job. Whatever... My husband kept telling me to keep calm because the guy was always super nice on the phone.

We finally agreed upon a time. We get there and everything is going great. No pressure, just telling us all the options. When we say no to things, he's fine with it. UNTIL we get to the security pitch...

He just would not let it go. We said that we didn't want it, so we were surprised when he showed us the pricing sheets and it was still on there. We told him again that we did not want it and he just kept telling us pretty much that we needed it. Finally, I asked if we could remove it if we went home and thought about it and decided against it. He said we could, but it "would just be more work for him to do, but he would do it since it's his job". So I just told him to keep it on and we would talk about it more at home.  I was sick of telling him one thing and him doing the opposite. Plus at that point, we had been there for 3 hours and needed to get home to our daughter.

We emailed him the next day asking him to remove it and he still hasn't gotten back to us with our revised pricing. I am getting concerned that he is going to stick us with getting stuff that we told him from the start that we did NOT want.

Anyways, we ended up getting the 6 pack of additional connections and also the 2 room set up for lyriq - the speaker system. We are going to put speakers between the great room/kitchen/morning room and also outdoor speakers where the back porch is going to be. We are excited with our picks but just wish the security portion wouldn't be so difficult to deal with/get rid of.

I understand that's their main business, but they have to listen to the customer when they say no. I hope it gets removed sooner than later.

UPDATE 6-24-14

We heard back from the Guardian guy on Friday and he said that he would remove the items that we wanted taken off and send us the updated paperwork.  As of right now, we still haven't received the updated paperwork, but at least he acknowledged the changes that we wanted to make.

Dunkirk Model Home

Welcome to our building with Ryan Homes blog!  We started the process about a month ago, so I have some catching up to do to get everything down.

We had been thinking about building for about 6 months, but hadn't found the right place or opportunity. My husband mentioned a new Ryan community that he had become aware of so we decided to stop by one day after a run. We toured the model and checked out the neighborhood and liked what we saw.

We went back about a week later to talk numbers and shockingly this neighborhood was offering a ton of incentives - morning room, finished basement, brick front, side entry garage, carriage style garage doors, just to name a few. Additionally, one of the best lots (on the cul-de-sac) was still available.  They had been using it as a top soil lot and they decided that they wouldn't charge us the premium for it. The icing on the cake was that the two lots on the one side of the site weren't large enough to build any of the approved models on it, so it's likely those will remain empty.

We said we would think about it, but we left feeling really good about everything we saw and heard.  I started to get really disappointed thinking about us not getting the lot in this community, so we decided to do it!   ...so begins our home building journey!!

Dunkirk Elevation K with Side Entry Garage

Model Home in Elevation K

Kitchen

Morning Room

Great Room

First Floor Floorplan

Second Floor Floorplan

Basement Floorplan