Foundation/Plumbing

So I didn't realize how close the neighbors were going to be but it is what it is. The fence to the right is quite new. I was concerned about property lines but I guess I can't worry about that now. There is a drop-off  in the back of the house so we are considering getting a fence. However, we do not want to obstruct our view since we are getting the morning room. The sunset is beautiful.... My hubby also doesn't want blinds in the back but ummm... we'll see about that. Our lot is wide in the front and then it narrows towards the back but you can't tell that by the picture.

I need to post our choices for the inside. I didn't take any pictures though. Hopefully, I will do another post this weekend.

Naples First Floor

So pictured is the "new" first floor of the Naples floor plan. It is not the same as the model in our area. The refrigerator in the model is located on the same wall as the oven, but as you can see from the plan that is not the case now. We are a little disappointed with the new layout. We were told that previous owners complained about not having enough counter space so Ryan Homes reconfigured the kitchen layout and added more space. I think the new layout makes the kitchen feel small and tight. We did get the optional morning room and the gourmet island so hopefully, that will open up the area some. In the mean time, we'll try not to be too disappointed.

We did not get a fire place since we knew we would not use it (would have ended up being an expensive stocking holder used once a year).

Lot 83

The sunset is going to be AMAZING in the morning room. We will probably need to put up a fence since there is drop off and we have a little one. We did not realize that our neighbor has a dog. But we cannot do anything about it now. I just pray that he is well-behaved, trained, and does not bark excessively.

Mortgage Lender

Hopefully, I will have some pictures to post soon. We do have our lot picked out, but we have not taken any pictures yet. I am tempted to post some pictures of the model but we'll see. 

I did not have a great experience with NVR mortgage (our sales agent is/was great). My husband and I wanted to get a pre-approved with NVR before signing a contract with Ryan Homes. Remember, we were looking at several different builders. Well, I guess I was wasting the lenders time or that is how I felt when I spoke with her. She stated that she was working with people who have already signed contracts. I understood that but I was a potential client. Getting in touch with the rep/lender from NVR was quite difficult and someone had to call her to prompt her to call me (which I believe shouldn't have to happen). After signing the contract, it was hard to get NVR on the phone. And maybe I shouldn't say NVR because it was just one person who was hard to reach. I understand that she is probably bogged down with other people and appointments since she is the only one (at least I think that is the case) who works in my area. I did eventually speak with her on the phone and she said she would call me back to let me know all of the information I needed to send her (not just what is on the sheet they send)...that was on a Monday and by Friday I hadn't heard from her. So I called and she said she would send an email to me but that didn't happen. I finally heard from her on the next Wednesday (appointment was for Friday of that same week) but she got the appointment day wrong and she didn't include an attachment. She also forgot to let me know what extra documents I needed to send her. I figured if I was getting this type of service now then I could expect the same treatment down the road, and I definitely did not want that. So we decided to go with another lender. We still get our incentive since we wrote it in our contract. 

First Post!

So my husband and I (mostly me) did a lot of research before deciding on a Ryan Home. We looked at probably 4+ builders and toured many models. I searched high and low for reviews of each one. I found good ones, and I found tons of bad ones (even for Ryan Homes). The floor plan gives us what we (me) desire including four bedrooms and much needed storage space. I won't get into the other builders but there were at least two other real contenders, but they were lacking that awesome morning room (love) and the storage that the Naples floor plan provides. My husband is concerned about "wasted space" (the formal areas of the house) but I'd rather have too much house and grow into it than have to find a bigger home later. Since we don't want to clutter up the garage, not getting the optional attic space, and do not have a basement, we definitely needed options to store things.

I will try my best to keep this blog updated! I have not seen many new blogs about building a Ryan home so I hope to be a help to others. I need to do a few more posts since we have started the process with them.