Saturday, June 8, 2013

More Basement Pics!

Framing is scheduled to start on Wednesday but my in-laws drove by the site today and took some more pictures for us. It's so cool to see the basement, which will be our children's finished playroom, and the little room down there that my husband will use to store his tools, hunting equipment, etc. it's very slowly coming to life!



Our front door? (my mother-in-law checking out the scene for us) :)
 Yay! Windows!
Our driveway to the side-entrance garage







Sunday, June 2, 2013

We have a Basement!

These were taken on Friday. So thankful for a PM that send us pics and for in-laws that stalk our site for us while we're out of state! I'm loving the progress :)









Thursday, May 23, 2013

Day 1: Pile of Dirt and an Egress!

We have a pile of dirt and an egress window! The very first object that will be built into our house! Our PM emailed us this morning with a picture of Day 1. Luckily, hubby was in town today and was able to get a few more pics. They cleared the trees (there were many) and began leveling. He said we'll have a basement next week!



Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Should we have received a detailed timeline?

We had our pre-construction meeting with our PM late last week and he did tell us that they would be knocking down trees early this week and digging and possibly pouring foundation by late this week. That's all the info we received regarding plans. I notice that many of the blogs I read have a detailed timeline of their building process. We're we supposed to get this info this early? If not, when do they usually inform us of what lies ahead? Unfortunately, we can't do frequent drive-bys since we live out of state :(

Friday, May 17, 2013

Pre-Construction Meeting!

Finally!!! I've been waiting to have this meeting for what seems like forever because now this means we're extremely close to starting the building process. We met our PM today and he seems very nice. He told us they are knocking down trees on our lot on Monday (sad the trees have to go) and they will be digging and pouring our basement late next week!

The meeting took about 1.5hrs and we thoroughly went over all of the options we chose, the plot plan and electrical placement. We added outlets in two of the kitchen cabinets (at the base), so that my husband can later install under-cabinet accent lights. We also added a phone line and a couple extra outlets in the unfinished room in the basement.

My favorite part of the meeting? Our PM ok'd our special request to expand our mudroom (or lack thereof), by eliminating the closet that is right beside it. This will allow us to have a larger mudroom with room to build an area to sit for our shoes and hooks to hang our coats!

Our SR said that they are going with another fireplace surround company and there were a few new granite choices. We switched from Venetian Gold to Wheatfield. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a pic of the new color but its lighter than the Venetian gold and doesn't have the black specs in it. It's almost a taupe color. Love it!!!

Overall, we're very pleased so far and extremely excited to see progress now :)

Friday, April 26, 2013

New Beginnings...

Three years ago, my husband, our son and I moved from western NY to Pennsylvania for my husband to attend pharmacy school. He's graduating in June and we're very ready to move back home! Being away from family is tough. We currently lease an old townhouse. It will be nice to have our own space to decorate and have more privacy. We've referred to many blogs from those who are building and have built a Ryan Home and they have been so beneficial during our selection process. I wanted to be able to help others in the same way.

We decided to build vs buy used because it was almost impossible to find something that had everything we were looking for. Our top priority was to be in an excellent school district. We wanted a colonial with a large updated kitchen with plenty of counter space, open floor plan, large yard, side entrance garage, dining rm, 4bdrms, at least 2 full baths, central AC, and the list goes on. We decided that building would be our best option and we are glad we chose to do it. We were able to get everything on our wish list and the way we want it, especially the great school district for our children.

Our loan was approved and we had our selection meeting. Our first PM meeting is scheduled for May 17th and the tentative date to break ground is 5/20!!! We chose "The Ravenna" because we loved the floor plan and the option for a colonial style. We chose elevation A with a side entrance garage. Here is our little man next to the sold sign on our lot!