Flooring Meeting!

Today was an incredibly fun meeting. We drove to the flooring showroom with the two boys. It is by appointment only, which meant we had the whole place to ourselves. If you have young children you know that this is a wonderful thing!

The first thing we picked out was our granite counter tops. We were pleasantly surprised that, although we were choosing the Level 1 granite, there were several beautiful options. We placed the granite with the cherry cabinets we chose and found the best match. The salesman, Austin, was very helpful when making the choices and had great insight and recommendations.

From there, we looked at the hardwood floor options. With a Level 1 option, we only had a few choices, but were very happy with the wood we chose as it complimented the cabinets and granite beautifully!

Everything together

We then picked out tile for the Master bath and the second bathroom upstairs (the downstairs bathroom has hardwood in it). We added 2 ceramic corner shelves to the shower in the master bathroom, which will be very convenient! I didn't get a picture of our tile in the bathrooms, no idea why! They are a regular neutral color. We decided to upgrade the laundry room to ceramic tile, this is what we picked:

Next up, carpeting. We decided to go with base carpeting upstairs and in the basement, but opted to upgrade the padding to keep spills from seeping through. We did Level C carpeting for the family room and we are very pleased with our choice, which will go well with our gray couches. It is very plush and has flecks of color in it (black, grey, beige undertones).

Family room carpet

Although they look similar, one is for upstairs and one is for the basement (one is slightly darker)

This was definitely the most fun part and made building our house so much more real! Once we were done with the selection process (only took a little over an hour), we drove to our lot. Looks like they are prepping for the giant storm heading our way and put down some kind of hay mixture to protect the dirt. I am glad we are not building right now because I would be freaking out!

Looks like they will be releasing the cul de sac lots soon. We realized how big our lot is compared to the regular sized ones. This just further validated that we chose an awesome lot! Next up: scheduling the finalization meeting!!

Met with Guardian today

We had our electrical meeting with Guardian today.  I never knew there so were many ways to up-sell :-).  Actually, some of the options they offered were pretty neat.  Although, I didn't find their pricing to be competitive at all...$390 to install in-wall wiring for a tv?  I am no handyman but that takes me about ten minutes to do.  Plus, they don't actually hang the tv or even include a wall mount. I could have a handyman do that same thing for $100 or less.  Plus, I wouldn't be paying interest on the handyman's work.

We did add a couple extra tv cables in the kids' rooms.  I also signed us up for the security system.  I might change that tomorrow though, as I really don't need another $40+ monthly bill coming to  us, especially since we are already paying a premium to be in a safe neighborhood.

Other than that, it was a pretty standard meeting.  We got to see our floor plan, which is actually reversed from the normal.  I'm not sure I'm digging it yet.  I think I'm used to the orientation where the garage is on the right hand side.  Hmmm, I may have to sleep on that one...

Sold!

SOLD!

We went to our site today to see if any progress has been made.  Granted, corporate still hasn't even approved our paperwork due to an overseen, unsigned document, but it hasn't stopped the construction crews.  These guys move fast.  We noticed that a house had an entire second floor built by the time we came out of our brief meeting with the realtor.



 We got the chance to visit our site and take a picture with our sold sign.  The shared driveway is already in!

Our shared driveway leading to our lot!

Our street looking at the future cul-de-sac.

We are so happy with the lot.  While our neighbors across the street paid a premium to back up to woods that will never be built on, we too have woods right next to us that will never be built on because it is a forest preservation area and we didn't pay a premium.  My wife, who has never lived in a detached house, was taken aback from the silence. All she heard was the rustling leaves and birds in the woods.  We have a beautiful view and couldn't be happier.

Looking from our driveway towards what will be our house

This week we're meeting with the electrical folks at Guardian and next weekend is our meeting with the flooring folks.

Our silent woods

Meeting with the lender

We met with the lender today.  It's a scary proposition to promise and guarantee things and expect certain interest rates when you are talking about something that won't happen for another six months.  Nevertheless, the papers are signed.  Now we cross our fingers, hope that the timing works out in the process and that our house sells.  Eeeks!

If you're interested, a video tour of the model of our new home:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU0IxvUQhFs

And so it begins...

We just signed the papers yesterday and already we have our financing meeting tomorrow and Guardian just called this morning to set up the meeting for the electrical.  These people move!

Here are some pictures of our lot.  As you can see, the neighborhood, including our lot, is still pretty much just dirt.  As you can also see, we managed to get a very large lot, next to open green space WITHOUT paying a premium.  The boys are going to love it. We are so excited!

Our lot is just dirt...for now.

The lot layout.  Plenty of room for the kids to play.

Day 1 - The Dream Begins

It's official!  We signed the paperwork today to begin the process of building our dream home.  It's almost surreal. Our two year plan to eventually move, turned into a four week plan.  A combination of low interest rates, penetration pricing in a new development, and a rapidly rising valuation of our home pushed things faster than we expected, but we are excited!  Our lot is huge, our house is going to be beautiful and we'll be living in a resort community, which features lakes, pools, tennis courts and 30 miles of walking trails.

In two days we meet with the lender to review our financials and then we begin talking to the flooring and electrical contractors.  Stay tuned!