More selections

We are waiting on permits now - so nothing new to report on the new home front. But I found some pictures of our flooring selection meeting - not the greatest pictures in the world, but we did the best we could with a 1 and 2 year old in tow.


Here is our cabinet (andover maple), laminate wood floor for kitchen/foyer/morning room, countertop (Formica called labrador granite), and carpet (a level II frieze-type) for the rest of the house. On the right side, you can kind of see the side of the cabinet in our master bathroom, and the vinyl we picked to go with it.
















Here's a picture of the vinyl we picked for the other bathrooms/laundry room (a standard vinyl), and the carpet next to it is standard carpet for the basement.


















We are looking at a mid-to-late October ground-breaking date, and a mid/late January or early February close. They said early February at first, but now may be talking about pushing us up (I'd like to get my hopes up but probably not a good idea!)

Contingency released!

We have went over the timeline, talked to our realtor and decided to pull our contingency with Ryan and start building. If we start now, estimated completion is beginning of February. We have several very interested buyers for our current house, but nothing is a done deal yet. We had already gotten approved with NVR for both the new mortgage and our old mortgage (just in case), so we have to sign a couple papers, deliver a check, and we are off!

Our main concern was getting the basement foundation poured before winter. Given the current timeline, ground-breaking will be 2nd week of October - which is better than December/January in the Midwest.

We are very excited! Will post ground-breaking pics once we have them...

Big decisions made

We are building a Victoria Falls with Ryan Homes - we are on contingent contract right now - its been about 30 days, and we are just waiting on some action on our current home before lifting the contingency and starting to build.

We live in a 3 br/2 ba ranch right now - its been on the market a month - the first two weeks were DEAD, then action has picked up substantially and we have great feedback. After another good showing today, I decided to start this blog to document our progress.

We had done a lot of work on our current home - built in 1988 - and we ultimately decided that we wanted to start fresh with a new house for our next house - where we plan to live for a long time. In the past 5 years, we have replaced roof, siding, gutters, HVAC, water heater, garbage disposal, all light fixtures, flooring, faucets, solid surface countertops. Some upgrades were our choice, some were regular home wear/tear type stuff (HVAC). Nonetheless, we did not want to go into another 10-20 year old house and have to pay all that stuff again in 5 years.

We found a good neighborhood with a location we like - and picked a tree-lined lot with a decent backyard. The sales rep has been very helpful so far.

We are building:
Victoria Falls - Elevation C - Sandstone brick with dark tan siding and almond trim/garage
3 car garage (front load)
Full finished basement with full bathroom and media room
Morning room
42 inch maple cabinets (andover maple spice)
Gourmet Island
Labrador Formica (we'll do granite later - the cost with Ryan was too high/inflated)
Home office option
4' extension to family room
Light package B
Master bedroom tray ceiling
Laminate woods in main living area on 1st floor
Level 2 carpet and 6 or 8 lb padding (except standard in basement)

We are very excited to eventually watch it being built. There is a Victoria Falls elevation C going up across the neighborhood from us, so its awesome to see what it will look like.

Some pics:

Our lot-

What our backyard will look like - the part within the plastic/staking but back to the trees (we are on the far side of the house in the picture - a Bainbridge):

Another Victoria Falls - Elevation C - going up in our community: