Saving Money on Technicality

I mentioned a Mysterious Credit in an earlier post.  As it turns out, the developer where we are building our Ryan Home (it's not a RH's development) requires a faux brick chimney for even gas fireplaces.  It serves no function and is merely cosmetic.  The price of the gas fireplace was already factored into the base price of the home.  First, I didn't know the fireplace was included and the Option price we added was for the faux chimney.  Second, I didn't know that to comply with the developers design requirements we would be losing the big beautiful arched window in the family room.  We didn't get the stone fireplace because it went all the way up the wall and would eliminate the window.

The SR already knew our concern about this and was working behind the scenes to get approval from the developer to not do a full faux chimney.  They approved it and we received a credit for the chimney.  It turned out to be a $3,600 difference.  Nice! Oh, but we got hit for a $275 charge to upgrade the vanity lights in the basement.  We didn't see the point in putting expensive fixtures in a basement bathroom but apparently you don't get a choice.  It's all or nothing with the lighting package.

In light of the credit (pardon the pun) we are asking to add the laundry room cabinets. It is still unclear to me if you get the laundry sink without this option but I am fairly certain you get the sink if you add the cabinets (UPDATE: A sink and cabinet was included in our community. Not sure if it is in others.).  We originally were not going to get these because our front load washer/dryer on the stands may be too tall to fit under the cabinets.  My wife saw a home with a counter top above the W/D and wants this in her life. Yes dear...so laundry cabinets and counter tops above the W/D it is.

Ours won't be this nice but this is the idea...