To begin this entry, I wanted to share our selected elevation (the style of the house, primarily the front but can alter the floor plan slightly; ours is elevation K) and the floor plan for our house (edited by me to reflect our structural options).
Picking up where I left off, two days before we accepted the offer for the sale of our house, Chris and I returned to the model home at the Ryan Homes development to review information before signing the purchase agreement. I had requested a copy of the purchase agreement beforehand to review. I strongly recommend this. I highlighted, underlined, and annotated the entire contract to prepare for our meeting with our SR, Sherrie. Luckily, she is incredibly patient and took her time to answer my numerous questions and concerns. As always, Chris asked additional questions throughout the process that I did not.
We did not ask our realtor to attend this meeting, as it is pretty straightforward. I had researched others’ experiences for purchase agreements and learned of areas to pay close attention to (deadlines, addendum(s), default clauses, completion of construction, pretty much the entire thing). If I can provide one piece of advice to anyone looking into or in the process of building a house, it is READ EVERYTHING. Read every word, every page. It doesn’t matter if people are sitting there watching you read, waiting for you to finish reading, just do it.
A few highlights from the fine print: Ryan Homes requires all purchasers to make flooring changes, wiring changes, and non-structural changes within two weeks of signing the purchase agreement. Structural changes must be made within seven days of signing the purchase agreement. Oral statements or promises are not binding (get it in writing!), and Ryan Homes has up to two years to complete settlement on the home.
Side note: While the mass of paperwork may be confusing or cause concern, it is important to remember that everyone involved in the process of selecting, financing, and building the home is human. I have read horror stories of people losing it over small things and horror stories of people losing it over justified things. Please keep in mind that reviews online are usually shared because of great experiences or awful experiences, and everyone involved is doing their job. That being said, if we do everything on our side of the bargain and Ryan Homes does not deliver, then that will be handled accordingly.
Back to the topic at hand: Because our SR was willing to spend so much time working with us during our initial meeting (the 2.5 hours one), Chris and I pretty much knew what upgrades we wanted. With the help of the Google gods and previous builders, I learned that the materials used on the inside of the home, flooring, etc. aren’t the highest quality or the lowest, but they may only last several years. In short, when building a customized home, stick with structural upgrades if you’re handy enough to complete home upgrades yourself.
Chris and I stuck to the basics:
- Homesite premium (all the remaining lots had premiums, but we selected the last wider lot)
- Finished basement (promotional price at the time of our signing)
- Optional basement bedroom including bath (this was at the recommendation of our realtor and SR)
- Water softener rough-in
- Ceiling fan rough-ins in the 3 upstairs bedrooms
- Taller commodes in all 3 bathrooms
- Opaque glass for the shower in owner’s bathroom
- Cathedral ceiling (alternative to the 9-foot ceilings as advertised)
- Roman Shower w/upgraded tile
Included selections:
- Elevation K
- SOHO I interior package
- Exterior siding, trim, stone, and door colors
Included Items – no selections
- Garage door opener w/2 remotes
- Garage door upgrade 1
- Front light post
- Basic landscaping package
- Fully sodded yard, front, side, rear
- Mailbox
- Interior paint/trim
We were on the fence about the Roman shower. This upgrade includes a slightly larger walk-in with dual shower heads and a ledge. The slightly larger shower then reduces the bump out of the owner’s walk-in closet. This didn't bother Chris or me, but we didn’t know if it was worth the additional charge.
In addition to the roman shower decision, I really wanted to see the house. Our SR mentioned that there was another Pisa Torre in our development that was close to being complete in a week or two. Ryan Homes occasionally allows purchasers to visit homes under construction to view models they are interested in (the houses are the property of the company until settlement). We followed up with her right before our deadline to make structural changes, but her answer was simply “no, it’s not ready.”
Instead, Chris and I decided to travel an hour and a half away to visit the closest Pisa Torre model to us. This provided us with a closer idea of what we were building, but the model we visited was flipped, had an unfinished basement, a study instead of a third bedroom altering the floor plan of the front of the house, the 4-foot extensions in the dining room and owner’s bedroom that are no longer an option, the gourmet kitchen island, a second floor (not an option for our development), and it did not have a roman shower. Despite all of this, I was excited to see a closer idea of our house. Chris was disappointed that there were so many differences compared to ours resulting in a muddled view of what our house will be. Ultimately though, the trip helped us decide to splurge and get the upgraded shower.
Here’s a photo of someone’s house that has the same elevation as ours.
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