Hello World!

Hello World, this is our Blog's Debut!

We are going to try to document our home building experience here for others to use for their journeys and to serve as a time capsule for us.  We have chosen Ryan Homes, a fairly large builder in our area.  We have shopped for some time and decided on RH for the value we seemed to be getting for our money.  There were other contributing factors too.  Maybe we'll get to a few of these during our future posts.

Like many of you that may be looking at building a Ryan home, or those of you that already have, I'm sure you read and followed a few of these blogs.  We have benefited greatly from other's blogs and were able to make much more informed decisions by doing so.  We discovered many great ideas and several lessons learned.  Our hope is that anyone reading this will do the same and maybe we can return the favor to the next person looking to build their dream home.

On that note, we are building a Highgrove and so far we have only found one other blog on this home.  We have visited several Ryan Homes communities and there are only a handful of SR's that have even seen one.  Even Ryan doesn't have a great selection of pictures on this model.  The rumor is that the VP of the company owns one.  If it is good enough for him, then it is good enough for me.  At any rate, hopefully our experience will help others.

We have chosen the Highgrove floor plan due to the value it brings from a price per square foot perspective.  We looked at other models and found that once you add all the structural options you want, the other homes are more expensive than the list price of the Highgrove. 

For our family with 3 kids ranging from 4 to 15, this home gives everyone a generous and comfortable living space.  We are renting our current home and when the kids have friends over, there is nowhere to get away.  It's been especially challenging since they've gotten older.  We hope the Highgrove will help with this problem and make both the kids and more importantly, the parents happier.

Although I haven't actually been inside one, the pictures I've seen really tell the story.  I really enjoy the two story spaces (Foyer and Family Room) and all the light that comes into the main living areas from these rooms.  The 9' ceilings provide for great spaces that don't make you feel closed in (which is a staple for most Ryan Homes).  The basement includes 9' ceilings as well which really makes it a true living space.  I'm happy about that.

Probably like most people, we didn't create this blog until we were pretty far along in the process. Not including shopping around with other builder's and looking at resale homes... we have been working with Ryan for about 3 weeks already. We have already signed our purchase agreement, picked out all our options, colors and flooring and approved our Production Release (PR).  We are just waiting to be put on the production schedule.

Highgrove Elevation "C" w/Left Side Entry 3 Car Garage

The picture above is of a Model with the same Elevation we are getting.  This is Elevation "C" with a 3 Car Side Entry Garage.  The other thing I like about this image is that it shows the garage on the left, where ours will be.  We are not getting this color brick and it looks like their roof is lighter but it should be pretty close.  Also, notice the hipped roof.  I like this more traditional look.

Rendering of Highgrove Elevation "C" with Solarium and 2 Car Side Entry Garage

This is the rendering of the home from the front.  We are not getting the little addition on the left side.  That is a solarium, and for one, they don't offer them anymore due to Energy Star reasons, and they are a bit too swanky for me.  Besides I don't have a Baby Grand Piano to put inside it.

Well buckle up and enjoy the ride, here we go!