SOLD!

Beauty and the Beast

A view of our lot from Google Earth

Where would we be without Google?

Across the street is a small pavilion.

We are one of the last open lots on this side of the development so all of the construction will be in phase 3 which is behind our house.  This is not a mega development - only about 80 or 90 homesites (assuming they don't start messing with protected wetlands).

2 more meetings before they start digging ...

We have already met with our sales rep to discuss options, cabinets, siding, etc and she has been great to work with.  If anyone is considering Natures Preserve, I think you will really like working with Erica.  She is very responsive and gets back to us with answers very quickly.

We also met wtih Rite Rug for our flooring options.  Rachel is the rep we worked with and she was patient, helpful, and very nice to work with.  Rite Rug has the cabinets that RH uses onsite, so she was able to help us pick floors that match.  

The next two meetings are with Guardian to discuss where we want our cable and phone hook-ups and hear their pitch on the other items they can install, e.g., security system, surround sound, central vacuum.  There is zero chance we are adding a central vac or a surround system.  We might have them do a security system, not sure yet.

The final meeting before they dig is the pre-construction meeting on 12/19.  I suppose this is where we go over the plans and options to make sure that we are all on the same page.  

If all goes as planned, they start digging the week of 12/22.  We are not in a rush, so if they wait, we won't mind.

The Master Selection Sheet - oh, you mean the house does not include all the fun stuff?

Here is what we picked:

Elevation K

Side entry garage (our development requires that most of the houses have this - we didn't have a choice)

Finished basement (this and/or the morning room is typically the incentive and we knew that if we didn't finish the basement before we moved in, we never would)

Interior single french basement door (glass panels) 

Basement bathroom

4' extension to the house

2 extra windows in the dining room and great room

Morning room - this room already has a wall of windows so we opted not to add the extra windows

Kitchen cabinet upgrade

Kitchen island and also the extended kitchen countertop

Kitchen (and owners bathroom) hardware - yep, if you want hardware on your cabinets, you will pay for that

This development includes granite in the kitchen

Hook for a gas stove

A slightly better stove, microwave, and dishwasher (the house doesn't come with a fridge)

Stone fireplace

Upgraded shower in the owners bath - ceramic surround

Upgraded cabinets and granite in the bathrooms (the cost to do this was pretty low)

The house will have oil rubbed bronze fixtures (chrome is standard)

Crown moulding in the foyer and dining room (they also put a chair rail with it)

We are having 2 ceiling fan rough-ins and we had them rough-in a few extra lights

Metal balusters

Hardwood stairs - there was some question as to whether or not they could do this, but it turns out they can (I guess it isn't possible on all of the homes they build)

The floors are listed in our other posts but we decided to pick the hardwood and ceramic we liked - odds are that we will be living with them for a very long time

The last thing we are trying to decide is - should we add a floor drain in the garage?  I've heard good and bad things about having a floor drain in the garage, so we are not sure what to do.  If anyone has any suggestions, we are all ears.

Floor plan

From the top down ...

Upstairs layout - not many sturctural choices for the upstairs.  Because we bumped the great room by 4', the master is also extended by 4'.  We also took out the tub in the master bathroom.

Here is the first floor.  We bumped the great room out 4 feet and added the morning room (does anyone build a R.H. without the morning room?).  Ours will have a front porch so it will look a little different.

Finally the basement.  Finished with a full bath.  I'm told, this is where I will be showering.

Rite Rug

We worked with a great sales rep who helped us pic our floors 

This is the tile that will be in all of the bathrooms (except the 1/2 bath on the first floor) and the wall tile on the master bath shower.  

Our carpet for the great room and the hardwood floors on the rest of the first floor.  The carpet was level c and the hardwood is level c as well.  We picked the hand-scraped brown bear hardwood

This is the basement carpet - level b

This is the carpet for the upstairs (level b) next to our tile

Here is our laundry room vinyl next to our upstairs carpet

Cabinets, countertops, and siding

Here are our cabinet, countertop, and siding choices

Sandy tan siding, pebble clay shaker, black shutters, wine colored door

Here is the brick for the exterior

This is the stone for the fireplace

Kitchen cabinets (maple hazelnut) and granite counter top

This is the cabient for all of our bathrooms and the granite countertop

Baluster choice

Dunkirk: Elevation K

Here is a pic of the Elevation we selected. Our home will have a side load garage, but you get the idea. 

Nature's Preserve Twinsburg Twp Ohio

We are building our new home in Twinsburg Twp, Ohio at the Ryan Homes development Natures Preserve.

We selected the Dunkirk model which is not showing on their website as an available model, but our sales rep thought it might work for us.

We are on lot 32 and across the street from us are protected wetlands - hopefully it will stay that way!