The Starter Home Part 1

“Begin at the beginning," the King said, very gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

The decision, the paperwork, the foundation and the headache.

 

In February we decided we had had enough of apartment living and stumbled upon a new construction neighborhood.  After one walkthrough of the model home we were sold! We decided we wanted the same home and that we wanted everything just like the model. 

This is the mock of the home we selected, the Elements 1870.  With 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, a three car garage and a mudroom it had everything on our wish list except an office... and formal dining room. Considering this is our starter home, it really had everything that mattered.

Step one:

Do we commit the next 8+ months of our lives to a building project?

We of course went home to 'think' about our decision, but with dreams of Ikea and backyard BBQ's we were pretty well decided already.  We came back the following day to sign papers and pay the $2,000 earnest money deposit. It was at this time that we locked in our lot and selected our basic upgrades; 3rd car garage, fully finished basement, full trim package, and no island in the kitchen.

This process was so much fun, it helped that our sales agent turned out to be a former Allen Edwin client and even lived in the neighborhood next too ours.

*Side note - Our sales agent called a few days later to tell us due to VA Loan issues we could not build in our chosen neighborhood, something about the neighborhood had to be at a 70 percent occupancy but ours was at a 40 percent.  So he gave us one of two options, "Tell our sales agent to go fly a kite" or change neighborhoods and actually be his neighbor as the lot available backed up to his backyard. We decided to stay and be neighbors. BUT, this change cost us about $11,000 extra because the value of the house in his neighborhood was higher. That meant less money to spend in the showroom, and no lady ever likes hearing she has less money to shop with.

Step two:

The Showroom!

 

So. Many. Options!

We had to go twice to the showroom to pick all our options for the house.  This included the outside, siding, windows, garage doors, ect and everything inside the house, bath tubs, kitchen, flooring.  There was so much that we never even thought of that has to go into a house.  Do you want one outlet or two?  Ice white cabinets, or antique white? We spent an hour along deciding what Garage doors we wanted!

The process was a lot of fun.  The first round our style coordinator(not her real job title) told us not to worry about our budget but to pick out what we liked and that the 2nd visit we will reevaluate.  Ya, not the best plan.  We thought we were being conservative and still ended up 'spending' $25,000 over our budget.   We have a lot of cuts to make. Thankfully, we were given a print off of all our selections with prices and the FULL book of all their options and prices.  This helped us make wise cuts over the next week.

 

Our second visit was about a week later and after many late nights and lots of scratch paper plans we were armed with our best plan.

Our 2nd Style coordinator  was even more helpful than our first.  She had a great eye and was able to pick up on our style (open, airy, shades of white) and see some of choices were things that we would not be happy with later when paired with other options.  We left feeling confident and only $1,000 over budget. I found a stunning solid wood door that was $1,000.  It will be worth it though... I know it! 

We cheated and choose a linoleum 'wood' floor, paired with white cabinets and a cream laminate counter.  The counter we didn't put too much thought into because we plan to change it out right away for a quarts counter.  They just wanted too much for it if they did it and I hate granite.

 

This was a random interest find and we both loved it.  So, it became our inspiration for the house. Of course, being huge Michigan State Fans (Go Green!) we always knew green would be on our house somewhere.   

 

We choose a sage green siding paired with a cream trim and dark gray shutters.

My door! Isn't she lovely!