D.O.R.M.E.R.S.

Would you look at that.

Issue Resolution

This afternoon Chad and I received a call from Sam with a resolution on our dormers issue. Ryan Homes will honor what they represented to us and we will be getting our cute dormers. Woohoo!

I must say that we are very satisfied with how they handled the issue. Yes, it was stressful and yes, we were upset, but RH, well-represented by Sam, took ownership of the mistake and gave us a resolution on our issue in one business day. We weren't looking for anything more than what was promised to us and we got it. So leaving this one behind and moving on with enjoying the exciting process that is building a new home. Oh, and Frank stated that the shingles will be removed so the dormers are installed properly and that we shouldn't see a delay because of this.

We will, of course, be there later his week to see any progress in person :)

Construction Update - Roof / Plumbing and a Bump in the Road

Hi ya'll,

We received an email from our PM this Friday letting us know that framing was complete, shingles were installed, and plumbing rough-ins were done. As soon as we saw the picture, we raised the concern that our dormers had not been installed and asked if they come after shingles. And that's when shit hit the fan.

Frank said that no, dormers are installed before shingles, but that double checking our selections he could see that dormers were not an option in our home. Say what?! That is not what the SR sold us and definitely not what was on the contract we signed.

He said it was possible that the dormers are not offered in the community. Say what (2)?! If dormers are not available, then why would it be in the picture above? I do understand that he only follows the selections sheet given to him, so I thanked him for his insight and turned my attention to the Sales team.

Immediately I sent Sam and Shannon an email asking for clarification on the issue and received a response back a few minutes later stating that they were "just realizing that the home does not have the dormers on certain elevations" and that they "have passed this on to management." 

Since we stop by the house every weekend to see progress, we decide to wait for Sam to discuss this on person. She did say that she was not aware that the community wouldn't have dormers and did admit that she represented this information to us. She also said she will fight to get us what we want, but that there is a possibility that the developers will not allow the dormers and if so, there would be nothing they can do about it. And that's the second time shit hit the fan. 

We responded that we did not agree with this "solution." We said we would rather have the dormers, but if that was not possible, then Ryan Homes better think of ways to make it up to us. I might have used the word bullshit, but hey, who wouldn't? Not sure if she was a little surprised by this, but despite of what she says, we are the ones who need to watch for our best interests.

I even told her we didn't want to point fingers or be dicks to her, but now it is a big disappointment. We've been proudly showing the house around to family, friends, and even strangers, and we will end up not getting what we were promised. Every time we look at our home, we will be upset we are not seeing what we really liked. And some may think it's stupid, but when you were spending this kind of money and signing your life away, you do NOT want to have this type of stress.

The quick meeting ended with her saying she would get back to us once she heard from management. She mentioned something about extra closing help to make it up to it, but nothing was promised yet. We look forward to see how attentive Ryan Homes' customer service is after they made a sale. I will update with a resolution once we have one.

On a side note, we grabbed a couple of hard hats and walked in the house. Here are some pics:

Loving the bay window

Can't wait to see the deck

HVAC and hot water systems

HVAC again

Main floor, measurements for our island and kitchen cabinets / appliances

Master bathroom tub :)

Update!

Hello Y'all!

We heard from one of our SRs that the guys were working hard on our place on Saturday, so we stopped by today to see if there was any progress made since Wednesday (the day we visited to see how Tuesday's snow impacted construction). We got an email from the PM on Friday saying that the snow did delay them a little bit, but that the roof and HVAC will be installed next week. As of now, pre-drywall should be on the second week of April, but nothing has been scheduled yet.

We have exterior doors, windows, and I'm assuming they are done with framing. We snuck inside the house and took some pictures. Enjoy!

We got windows and a door :)

View from front door - stairs

View from front door - access to garage

Basement

Stairs from first to second floor

Morning room - pantry to the right. A nice deck will be outside those doors

Living room - <3 bay window

Second / main floor from morning room. Kitchen will be to the left, dining area to the right

Stairs from second to third level

Laundry room on the left; hall bathroom to the right

Master bedroom with master bathroom on the right

Back of the house

A Roof Over Our Heads

Chad and I were a little concerned about the snow storm that is coming our way. We are expected to get about one-foot of snow on Tuesday here in MD. I know we are not first people to ever build a house in bad weather, but it makes us nervous. First-time buyers, ok? Give us a break :P 

We sent a note to our SR this afternoon to ask if they guys had been working this weekend. Last time we stopped by was on Friday evening, and we saw they had added trusses to the house. She responded saying they were working really hard through some nasty wind to get the roof in place in anticipation for the snow. Woohoo. It makes us feel a liiiiittle better, even though we know there are cracks and holes all over the house still. 

Can't wait until the house is all wrapped so they can start working inside :)

Construction Update - Week 8 - Framing (pictures)

Hello!

Chad and I stopped by to see in person the progress that Sam sent us in the video. According to the PM, the first floor is finished and the fire wall (the purple board you see) has been installed. They will be working on the second and third floors in the next couple of weeks.

We're excited to see a pile of dirt and wood start looking like a house :)

The only thing we are a little concerned is with the slope in the backyard. Apparently, our backyard will be sloped due to water run-off. We asked the PM if it will be graded a little more so the slope is not as steep. I'll let you all know when the PM answers our questions. Enjoy the pics!

Front of the house. You can see the bump out above the garage

Apparently, we will have a very long front yard. I wonder how long the driveway will be

Row of houses. Our is the only one without the second level frame, grrr (haha)

Fire wall can be seen on the side of the house. This is the back of the house, the walkout basement

You can see the backyard slope

Construction Update and Pictures - Week 6

Hi all :)

In addition to Sam's video on Wednesday, Frank (PM) updated us on what's been done and what's coming next. Here's where we are as of Friday 2/17:

We've completed the foundation and begun tying in the water and sewer and doing the groundwork plumbing. If weather cooperates next week I'm hoping to have the slab poured so we can start framing a week from Monday.

Oh yea, Frank. Weather will be just fine :D

Chad and I stopped by on Saturday and took some pictures. Funny how during the foundation step of the process, the house looks so tiny!

Panoramic of our row. There will be 5 houses. We have the second from the right to the left.

Our one-car garage at the front of the house. The front door will be to the left of the garage. 

Picture of the back of the house. Our garage to the left. The neighbor's front door and ours will be side to side.

Another picture of the back of the house. It shows the foundation wall a little better.

Construction Update - Footers

Hello!


Sam, our SR, just sent us a video showing the progress in our house. It looks like they are pouring footers for our home today! I plan on driving by the house this weekend and see how that's going. I'll get some pictures to upload here later.


Also, I added a link to a website with an explanation on what footers are and their purpose on my Helpful Links in the Menu to the right --->


Here is the link for the video Sam sent us.

First Visit to the Community and Making the Decision

Chad and I weren't particularly shopping for a house. We visited Ryan Homes communities and registered for news and updates in the past, but we had never filled out applications. Chad received an email about this community sometime in late December and we went check it out.

On our first visit, the sales rep (Sam) at the community was very nice to us. Well, I wouldn't expect anything different from someone who is trying to sell me something, but I had a good vibe about her. We took a tour of the model, I stole some candies from the goodies bowl on the kitchen counter (hey, don't judge), and we sat down with Sam to talk estimates. After adding and subtracting and more adding and more subtracting options to the house, pretty much everything we need / want in a house was in the final quote and the numbers were not bad. I mean, enough to make the stingy side of me cringe at the thought of paying for it for 30 years, but not bad, nonetheless.

We went back home and really analyzed our savings and expenses. The one thing we were very concerned about was with being house poor. What is the point of buying a home if we can't take care of it, right? Another decision we had to make was whether or not it was worth it to put paying off our debt in the back burner for a year or so. We had made the commitment a few months prior to start dumping every extra penny we had into our student loans in order to become debt free. Although that is also very important to us, we realized that we can resume doing that once we are settled and used to our monthly bills. As I mentioned in my previous post, it really made sense for us to take this step and we are glad we did. You know you made a good decision when the thought of it makes you feel more excitement than anxiety.

On January 2, we went back to the community and told Sam the good news. We signed our purchase agreement, I stole more candies from the goodies bowl, and we paid the required fee to hold the lot and take it off the market ($5,000). Then, it was real. Yay!

Of course we had to take the obligatory photo: