Features and "nickel and diming"

Recently, I went to a book party. The home it was in was a friend of a friends. Coincidentally, it was a Ryan home! I was very excited as I got to talk to real people about the building of their home. The husband said they had absolutely no issues with Ryan homes, YAY! Be prepared though, any time you tell someone you are building, all the building horror stories start coming out. Every builder has their horror stories. Period. It is not just Ryan homes.

Anyway, the conversation arose around the room about building. It seemed everyone in that room had built their home (not only Ryan homes). All except two people. All started with their stories. One person felt they were nickel an dimed to death, another felt they couldn't use their yard for a good three years, another felt building was the only way to go.  So I thought I would write about what to expect.

I don't want to come across as bragging. My husband and I went into the contract knowing there would be additional costs to "upgrade". We feel this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and know ourselves. We know we will not do upgrades after the fact. We are lucky if we ever get anything done around our house due to our on-the-go lifestyle. Thanks to Danielle, our sales rep. she was very informative, and very very happy we used her.  We knew basically everything came at an additional cost. I want to inform all of the readers about the additional costs of building. So here are the features we added and the cost. Of course this may be different for the area you live in. 

Features to our new home:

Elevation B: $3,495
Egress window in the basement: $1,495 (incented because of code)
Finished basement: $9,995
2 piece rough in (for a future powder room in basement...hopefully): $1,195
Morning room: $13,995 (incented)
Gourmet island in the kitchen: $2,195
Gas range: $275
Microwave/range: $325
Fireplace: $3,395
Upgraded owners suite bathroom (soaking tub, shower, ceramic tiles): $4,095
Double vanity in owners bathroom: $995
Pine stair with oak handrail with base plate balusters: $1,695
Central air installed: $3,595
Recessed lights in kitchen: $695
Laminate foyer and living room: $225 & 1,995
Laminate in hallway (we did not want carpet in the hallway): $900
Service door in the garage: $995
Recessed lighting in the finished basement: $995

We also upgraded at our flooring appointment:
Fairfield Square maple honey cabinets in kitchen: $895
Fairfield Square maple honey cabinets in owners bathroom: $125
Fairfield Square maple honey cabinets in second bathroom: $75
Upgrade to best carpet pad, basement: $595
Upgrade to best carpet pad stairs, and second floor: $995
Upgrade to best carpet pad family room: $275

This does not include the electrical upgrades we made. That was another appointment that cost us $2,000!
I don't have the specifics with me as I probably subconsciously wanted to forget it, but here are some of the prices:

Any additional cable jacks: $60 each
Future tube: $275
Ceiling fan: $400 (yes, I know, super expensive, but we upgraded the fan).
I can't remember all of the prices. We upgraded some of our light fixtures, added a recessed light in the kitchen, and upgraded some above lights in the second bedroom and the master suite which cost us some additional funds. I wanted to add the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, but couldn't bring myself to do it. I think it was like $300 to do that. Our electric company also offered a fire ladder that we could throw out the window in case of emergency but I figured I could buy and install one cheaper. It was about $475 for the electric company to do this.

The electric company reviews all of your options...remember, everything comes with its price such as flood lights, adding another carriage light on the garage, any extra outlets, etc. We figured we would add a bar to our finished basement in the future....yep, you guessed it. To put cable jacks and additional outlets equaled more $$$

By the way...if you change anything, you have to sign a change order. Be prepared to drive and sign anytime you change your mind about something. Some other things which I am irritated I did not know about until now, because I wish I could have upgraded:

Vaulted ceiling in the morning room
faucets throughout the house
door handles throughout the house
back splash in the kitchen
building a deck off the morning room
at your flooring appointment look at all the options. they can make any carpet into an area rug at a lower cost than a TJ Max


Other items I thought I would talk about but not items I wished for:
$200 to put knobs on your kitchen cabinets! Standard comes with nothing!
Increasing the size of the kitchen cabinets
Increasing ceiling height



And the fun part...here are our color selections from our flooring appointment!  We went back and forth between vinyl, laminate, and hardwood but decided with vinyl in the mudroom, morning room, and kitchen, carpet in the family room, and laminate in the front of the house. Ok, ok, here are the color combinations:

First is the master bath. Color choice: HL02 with mocha grout

Carpets will be the same throughout the house: baseline wool skin 143. Ignore the big yellow spot...flipping camera phone! :)

 Kitchen colors!! So exciting:
Cabinets: Fairfield square maple honey
counter top: Jamocha granite 773458
The vinyl below the cabinet sample is initiator 66205
the laminate next to that is for our guest bathroom upstairs, initiator 66202

 

Laminate choice. The big square below (the one with the flash spot): American cherry. The skinny piece on the American cherry is our handrail. That color is traditional cherry.

 All of our appointments are over. Now we play the waiting game. We break ground in about six weeks. We have been told from this point forward we just need to be patient and they haven't forgotten about us.