NO TURNING BACK NOW...AND MET ANOTHER NEIGHBOR

Hooray, what a beautiful blue sky and day for ground breaking day.  We stopped by the lot this afternoon to catch a quick peek at the progress.  Also, we met another neighbor - this one will live next door to our house in the Esquire house.  She is already planning on adding a fence...to keep the deer out of her yard.  We can't wait to meet more of our neighbors.  So far everyone has been very nice an inviting.  It is so nice that we will all be moving in within weeks of one another. 

The following are a few pictures taken today.  We probably won't make it back to the property until Friday, which by then they plan to be done with all of the digging. 

our lot fenced in



approaching the lot



front yard

front yard

left-side of property

where the public sidewalk will go



start of the driveway

driveway



end of the turn table driveway

...and we have the start of a hole.
(middle of the house)

We have stakes and we met a neighbor.

We went out to the lot on Friday (05/27) to meet with the PM and to go over the layout of the house.  Overall we are very pleased with the layout, except we are a little concerned with loosing some of the backyard because the PM suggested to push the house back an additional 15 feet to decrease the slope in the front yard.  We hope that after we see the final product that we have no regrets.

We went back out to the lot on Saturday (05/28) to take another look and to make sure we are happy with the layout.  While we were there we met one of our neighbors that just put a down payment on a lot and plans to build the Ravenna.  We told him about the blogs and we hope he joins the RH blogging community.

The following are a few pictures of the lot and neighborhood. 

view of the front yard from the street
not sure what happened to the "SOLD" on the lot sign



closer view of the lot from the street

  

view of lot from property line
neighbor's house (Esquire) on the left

left-side of property
this is where the driveway will be located



view of front yard and down the street from where the driveway will be



view of the garage from the front yard



view of the lot looking at the front of the house from the front yard

closer view of where the porch will be from the front yard

view of the backyard from where the morning room will be

 

view of where the morning room will be from the back yard

view of the lot from the backyard

Our neighbor's a cross the street
the house on the left is a Jefferson and the house on the right is a Waverly

view of where the solarium will be
taken from front yard

another view of where the soloarium will be
taken from back/side yard

view from the lot looking down the street and at the model. 
There are 2 lots between our house and the model;
however, the lots are still available.

view of the front yard looking up the street




our daughter trying to find the right place to put the playround and sand box



We plan to post more pics on Wednesday (06/01) from the ground breaking.  We are sooo excited to get started into the next phase of the building process.

Sunday drive...

We took a drive today to show the property to some family members.  We were very surprised when we drove up on the lot to see that the builder started the process.  We lost several trees, but we get to keep the big Pine tree located on the right-side of the property....we can't wait to decorate it for Christmas.  Also, we plan to plant trees after the house is built.

Here are some pics...

WOW...so many decisions were made today

We had an amazing busy day; however, we got so much accomplished.  Please note: Pictures are located on the Picture page.

LOT MEETING
We started our day on the lot - we met our PM and Sales Rep. to discuss the location of the home site.  We agreed with the PM to push back the house an additional 12-15 feet, which will decrease the slope in the front yard.  It will take away from some of the back yard, but there is still enough space to add a patio and eventually an in ground pool.  However, we found out today that we have an easement that runs through the far back part of our back yard (close to the conservation area) to accommodate the sewer line.  We were a little disappointed to just find this out today and plan to do more research to make sure that this does not affect us with our plans to put in an in ground pool in the future. 

Also, today we found out that we are currently 7 weeks out before we break ground, which will be around May 22.  This makes us a little nervous because we already have plans to go on vacation on June 4th-12th.  We are afraid we are going to miss so much of the building process and to get pictures.  We are hoping to get a family member to take some pictures while we are out of town.

ADDITIONAL OPTIONS 
We met with our Sales Rep. and made the following selections.
Brick - Madrid
Vinyl siding - Heritage Grey
Trim - White
Shutters - Grey
Door - Plum Jam
Counters (Kitchen) - Red Montana (3470) Formica (we went with this option because we know that we can get granite counters a lot cheaper and we didn't really like any of the options; so we plan to replace the counters with granite shortly after we move in)
Cabinets (Kitchen and Bathrooms) - Wyoming Square Cherry Bordeaux Timberlake

ELECTRICAL
We ran out of time today and need to schedule an appointment with Sales Rep. to discuss the outlet and wiring option.

RUSMUR - This meeting was 2 hours long and very productive.  We are pretty confident that we will stick with our selections; however, we have until 04/28 to make any changes.

Hardwood - Manchester Plank 3 1/4 Cherry
Foyer, Living Room, Dining Room, Solarium, Kitchen, Morning Room, Powder Room, Study

Carpet - Collinsville 101 Sisal w/ 6 # pad
2nd floor hallway and all bed room (upgrade owner's suite 10 # pad)
Basement, except Powder Room (upgrade padding Karastep rubber 21 # pad)

Carpet - Top Talent 123 Straw w/ 6 # pad
Family Room

Tile - Salerno SL 83 Marrone Chiaro, installed on diagonal
Owner's Bath

Vinyl - Initiator 66177
Laundry Room

Vinyl - Initiator 66200
2nd floor Bathrooms #1/#2, Basement Powder Room

Stairs/Bannister - Direct Set White, Oak, Cherry Stain, No Carpet

GUARDIAN
This meeting was an hour long and very informative, but not as productive as we expected.  We discussed the security system, phone jacks, cable/network outlets, and audio speakers (inside/outside).  Once we receive the quote via email from the rep. regarding the selected options and pricing; we will schedule a follow-up meeting to finalize the selections.

PUSH BACK ...

We received a call from the Ryan Homes suggesting to push back the front of the home an additional 15-20 feet so they will be able to grade the front yard with less of a slope.  By doing so, we will be able to keep some of the existing trees in the front yard; however, we will loose some of the trees in the back yard and the back yard will be smaller than we originally expected.

Hmmmm...what should we do?

UPDATE posted on 04/06/2011: We are scheduled to meet with our sales rep and PM at the lot on Friday, April 8 to discuss our options.  I will let you know how it goes.