So Ryan Homes makes you go through a HUGE amount of choices in very, very little time. Within 14 days you have to submit all non-standard requests and sign off on them as well as choose your kitchen cabinets, kitchen countertop, bathroom vanities and tops as well as your exterior selections. Within 30 days you have to finalize your floors, low voltage wiring and pay the rest of the initial 5%. So come to the meetings ready to play.
We had a few NSR's - no surprise as we're both engineers and wanted the house to be a "just push play" style - i.e. no immediate projects. I got project-ed out in my current townhouse but that's another story for another lunch hour. I'd heard mixed reviews on Ryan's willingness to accept requests so I was excited that all 4 of ours came back as "yes!" That excitement was short-lived as I quickly realized some they REALLY didn't want to do, based on the insane price. Here are our NSR's & outcome:
1. Move egress window from back of morning room (but in basement) to the outer edge. J & I have a vision of a sweet bar with a stone feature wall with a tv, surrounded by bottles of bourbon from the KY Bourbon Trail. It's a great nod to his love of bourbon and my Kentucky-ness. We were stoked that this was accepted and even more so when it came back at no charge! This is going to be fabulous for parties. A real adult playground!
2. Add hose bib to exterior of garage. There's a hose bib in the garage, but on the back wall. I don't want to drag a hose 20' just to get to where the car is to wash it, nevermind running a sprinkler or something that'll be needed. That was $195 but I was more amazed that not one but BOTH of the community SRs got their home specs confused. They tried to tell me (initially) that I had poured concrete walls. Uh, no...Palermo garages are above grade but thanks for playing. Amateur Hour!
3. The Plumber's Box. I had no idea what this was called. Basically it's an access panel that hides the supply and drain connections for our future bar sink & potential dishwasher. This was pricey at $695 but easier (and cheaper) to do it now than have J fight with it later.
4. The Master Bath Fan. Clearly, Ryan doesn't want to do this. $695 for an extra fan in the middle of the master bath. By code, you have to have one in the enclosed toilet room but in our layout (alternate, c/w shower/seat & soaking tub) there's not a fan in the middle. Guess I'm risking fighting humidity with my hair for eternity because $695 is just extortion in my book.
Now for the Drama (cue the music)
When we originally signed/chose cabinets/granite/etc, we didn't choose the exterior. No worries - we were to choose at this meeting. We knew our neighbors had a Palermo but different elevation. Cool. We also knew that beige was still on the table. Cool. So J & I chose the Bucks County Stone (mimicking our fireplace surround) with Sandy Tan/Pebble Clay siding & black shutters w/ red door. Adorable! We loved it!
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| Our original picks - the red wasn't quite that bright but that's what you get with a phone camera. |
Then the hammer came down. We were debating on Sandy Tan/Pebble Clay vs Pebble Clay/Sandy Tan (yes...that was a real struggle...) when our SR told us we couldn't have our stone. Apparently it's a design sin of the highest magnitude to have the same stone as someone in line with you. I call BS based on what I noticed in the rest of the hood but whatever. So since they were there first, we had to change our stone. We have Dakota Ledgestone now with gray shutters & a gray door. We are going to put faith in the designers who chose the combinations for now but at least we can paint if we so choose. It was a crushing blow, but as the sun rose the next day apparently life will go on.
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| Our revised selections. The stone is more of a uniform color but it'll still look great |
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