Design Ctr Guidelines
It has been a hectic week, we passed our 5 day cancel mark and approaching our 30 day mark. On Friday 6/23 we met with T.A.C Tile to pick our finishes. Our rep was really nice and we were allowed to bring our 16 month old daughter but we kept her in her stroller. Some design centers do not allow children so make sure you check before going. You have up to 2 hours in the design center but if you go with a vision, pics of your style and an idea board it goes faster because the rep is able to see what you are looking for, our appointment lasted 45 mins. Also prior to going to this appointment we went to 3 different models of the Carolina Place to see the different design options, I would recommend taking pictures both distance and detail pics. of things you like Also if you see something you like in the model don't be afraid to ask what it is. I asked for a list of all the finishes and paint color in a particular model and they supplied me with a print out of the info. Be aware that currently if the model is painted any other color aside from soft white you will have to outsource for that if you want it. I know some of the newer communities offer a City Gray standard but not for our community.
The current policy for Ryan homes is you may add up to $15,000 from the design center and it can be rolled into your financing, so if you go all $15k you are looking at about a $75-$100 increase in your monthly. They say it is hard to get to the $15k but trust me its not as you will see below. If you want your home to look like the model which most people do because the model is what sold you in the first place, be prepared to go over that 15k. Anything over $15k Ryan will ask for payment upfront before starting build. There is however an exception where if you go over the $15k they may still roll over the additional into your mortgage it just depends how much you are financing and if you are close to your max approval. In our case we are preparing to pay Ryan upfront for the overage but will not volunteer the money, we will wait for them to ask us for it. Ryan is streamlining their design process where you will pick design packages and there will not be much wiggle room if you do not like something. We are happy we are buying now while they still let us mix and match our styles.
Design Choices
We started the appointment by choosing our cabinets, we chose Linen and Stone in the Rushmore collection which has more detail to them, there is also a more streamlined cabinet style for a more modern look which I think is called Sonoma. The White and gray cabinets were an upgrade and cost us $4995 but we decided to go lighter since we knew we wanted darker floors.
We then chose the kitchen countertop which was such a hard decision because I always envisioned dark cabinets with white countertops. Quartz is not an option with our Ryan development so hence another reason why we went with the lighter cabinets, it made their busy granite choices seem not as busy. We settled on the Azul Platino which translates to Blue Platinum. The countertops are a make up of white, blue, gray and a few darker specs of brownish black. We liked the blue accents and thought it would pair well with the gray and white cabinets. Azul Platino is a level 2 granite so it was a $500 upgrade which is not bad when you think about how much countertop you will be getting. Be aware this is Indian granite not Italian granite so theoretically you "should" seal the granite at least once a year. There is no upgrade for Italian granite we would have to have the countertops replaced later if we wanted that or quartz.
Next we chose our flooring, we knew we wanted a darker floor and wide planks so that instantly bumped us up to a level 2 flooring. We also added wood floors in the great room which does not come standard and we opted for wood stairs going to the upper level as well. Overall this was an upgrade that cost us about $5,800. We chose Misty Gray which is an engineered hand scraped wood floor, again playing off the gray island cabinets and the blue-ish gray in the granite.
cabinets, floors and countertop
Countertop detail
After choosing the above our sales rep showed us the banister stain for the stairs and our carpet choices. We upgraded all of our carpet padding to 8lbs (the only upgrade option). This included the basement upstairs and bedrooms on main level this cost us about $2000. We kept the standard carpet that is included because the one we really wanted aka the carpet in the model home would have cost us about $10,000 more. Since I work in the home improvement industry I know the quality of the carpet makes a little difference but it is really the padding. Having good padding makes a basic carpet feel luxurious, padding is NOT an option I would skip. Make sure to place the carpet sample next to the floors it will be butting up next to and place both samples on the floor do not hold them up as they will look different on the floor. Also feel free to move the samples into different light and shadows to see how the carpet will look throughout the day. We chose a lighter but not white carpet, we are that family that takes shoes off at the door and require our guest to do the same so our carpets usually last without staining. Keep in mind your foot traffic when picking the color. We chose White Fox 100% Nylon.
Carpet with Banister
Bathrooms were the next options to choose, we chose Scottsdale Maple Espresso cabinets in all the bathrooms which was one of the standard options. We did upgrade the countertops in the owners bath which was $595 and to upgrade all the other bathrooms it was only $325. For the owners we chose Santa Cecilia Light and for the other bathrooms we chose a faux cararra marble look called Stone Cararra.
Owner bath countertop detail
Espresso cabinets (not black) and the countertops for the other 3 bathrooms
In the owners bath we also upgraded tile on the floor and shower we went with a level 2 so it cost $1800 and that does not include tile going all the way to the ceiling which is what the model had but it was $875 more so we opted not to extend the tile. We chose Castillian Gray tile with Crystal Shores accent strip, for the 2nd bathroom on the main floor we upgraded the tile to Skybridge Gray with Diamond Delta accent strip this cost us $725 again not going to the ceiling. We also added shelves in all the bathroom showers $65 ea. so $260 total.
Owner bath tile, accent strip & counter
2nd Bathroom on main level
We then chose the backsplash for the kitchen which was not standard, standard is just paint. We went up to level 2 and it was $2000 worth it in my opinion, we chose Silverstone.
Kitchen Backsplash
Lastly we chose to upgrade the floor in the laundry room. Vinyl is standard, but in our last home the washer was leaking for a while before we knew anything was wrong. When we went to replace it, there was black mold all over the floor and we had to have it professionally cleaned. Luckily we had tile otherwise they said it could have rotted to the subfloor and we would have had to replace it. We picked White Rock and it was an extra $375 once again an update I would not skip.
Laundry Room Tile
Overall we spent $12,070 at the design center not leaving much room in that $15k budget.
Wiring
On Saturday 6/24 we met with Guardian wiring the rep was really nice and professional. Our rep told us that Guardian had a $5000 limit and that it was hard to make it to the $5000 mark. Once again if you are into technology like my husband, it was not hard to make it to the $5000. I sort of blocked out most of this, as it was my husbands area so I will do my best to remember what all we got.
In the living room and owners bedroom we got our TV's mounted as well as paid the extra $800 per room ($1600) to hide all the wires so it will have a clean mount. All the wires will be placed in my husbands closet along with an additional cable plate for the router to attach to so we can put our wifi in the closet too. The basic package that comes with the home are for 5 hookups total through out the house. You can mix & match so for example 2 cable outlets, 1 telephone line and 2 ethernet/Cat5 hookups. Well my husband added cable to all the bedrooms, the media room, great room & rec room (8x$145=$1600-the 5 included $725=$875). Then he added Cat6 to all the bedrooms, media room, rec room & family room (8x$175ea = $1400) and we added outlets to mount all the TV's. We added the Silver package for the media room can't remember how much that cost but we got 5 surround sound built in speakers and a subwoofer.
Security was also apart of this meeting. We added extra motion detectors and my husband added some other stuff that I wasn't paying attention to but overall our home will look like this
Overall I think we were at $9000 with wiring and security, yeah so much for it being difficult to make it to $15k in upgrades. With wiring, security and home finishes we are at $21,070. If Ryan ask for it we will have to pay $6070 before they even start building.
On Sunday 6/25 we met with our Ryan Sales rep to finalize our structure choices. We originally had a fireplace but after doing more research it takes about a foot and a half from the great room and a foot and a half from the deck. We also decided we wanted the see-thru fireplace but it was $20k and with all the upgrades we made the prior day we decided to just nix it all together saving us about $8K. However My husband wanted to upgrade the sink to a single basin $500 and my cabinet upgrades were $4995 and we upgraded to oil rubbed bronze fixtures $1195. We also added 2 flood lights for $500, so overall we spent almost all that $8000 back lol.
Because we purchased when the community was almost sold out we were limited with our exterior choices. We could only choose the full brick option we originally wanted stone. The brick we chose was La Cava and the siding we chose was Wedgewood which is a blue color. I do not think they did a good job pairing the accent colors for the shutters and door but maybe once we see it all together I will like it. The shutters are Pebblestone clay and the door was either Taupe or Marooned we chose Marooned because we felt there was a lot of tan going on with the tan brick and tan shutters.
La Cava brick with Wedgewood siding
La Cava brick with shutter and door color
Overall it was a positive experience and I can not wait to see everything put together.
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