Our dig date was moved up to September 11th, which made us happy for many reasons....mostly being it was earlier, but also because it was my husband's grandpa's birthday. We like to think he had something to do with it. :) We are so thankful to be able to embark on this journey together. It has been a dream of our to build a home in the country since we started dating "a few" years ago (cough...cough...in 1999). It is so humbling to look back at all we have been through to bring us where we are today.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
A welcomed surprise from Wayne Homes!
Our dig date was moved up to September 11th, which made us happy for many reasons....mostly being it was earlier, but also because it was my husband's grandpa's birthday. We like to think he had something to do with it. :) We are so thankful to be able to embark on this journey together. It has been a dream of our to build a home in the country since we started dating "a few" years ago (cough...cough...in 1999). It is so humbling to look back at all we have been through to bring us where we are today.
Friday, August 9, 2013
Wayne Homes Pre-Construction Meeting #2
Besides a lot of yawning, we plowed through the details and finished this meeting with a strong desire to down a bottle of wine. It was a smooth meeting, but we were ready to be done and get this show on the road. I'm sure Wayne Homes was tired of our emails, calls, and visits too.... but hey, customers keep them in business and here we are giving them mad props. Our original dig date was set for September 23, 2013.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Wayne Homes Pre-Construction Meeting #1
We honestly did not stress much before this meeting because we felt comfortable with our choices at this point. Our field manager met us out at our lot bright and early in the morning and we baked together in the sun for a few hours. It seemed like a simple process because we are in the country and do not have many lot regulations or issues. He was very easy to deal with, realistic, and down-to-earth which made for a good first impression. We were excited after our lot meeting on our way up to the Cygnet office.
Our PC meeting did not move very fast, and this could be for many reasons - some of which are our fault, and some of which we will not fault anyone. The typical woman in charge was pregnant and training a temporary replacement. We swallowed our pride (it was diguised in multiple caffeinated K-Cups and some delicious Otis Spunkmeyer cookies) and put our patience pants on. Our questions took a very long time to get answered (like, "Do we have room for a shelf on the end of the kitchen cabinet? Is our furnace big enough?") but we all survived. We also stayed until 5:00 and had to schedule another meeting to finish the details.
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Our Finishes / Choices from the Wayne Homes Showroom
For the exterior, we chose earth tones because we have an existing building on our property. Since we chose the craftsman elevation, we got to pick stone for a wainscot....I'd say that's one of the things we are most excited about!
We chose dark brown shingles. This was one of the choices that worried me for some reason, but I think it will look just fine.
We picked Spring Valley Maple Chiffon cabinets and smoked habanero "wood look" level 4 vinyl for our kitchen flooring. We also used the vinyl in our sunroom, laundry room, dining room and main bath. We contemplated putting in a wood floor ourselves because we have done several, but went with this after much research and discussion. With two young and active boys, I do not think we will be disappointed. We upgraded to an 8 lb pad and a level 2 carpet for minimal cost.
I don't remember the name of our counter top, but it is a high definition laminate. The upgrade was cheap and will look nice. We have put in two laminate counter tops ourselves and have been very happy with their look, wear and tear. We didn't see the need for stone.
In our master bath, we opted for a totally different look.
Wayne Homes Color Selection Meeting
Color Selection Meeting
The week before this meeting, my husband and I were literally crazy. We looked at every paint sample we could find to match with our flooring, fireplace stone, and cabinets. We turned on the lights, we turned off the lights, we looked at them at the end of the hallway, we looked at them outside, we drove to the restaurant that featured our chosen stone facade on a much grander scale, we sent pictures from our phone to relatives, and we doubted ourselves. We researched. We. were. bonkers. We are both thankful that this meeting is over.
The week before this meeting, my husband and I were literally crazy. We looked at every paint sample we could find to match with our flooring, fireplace stone, and cabinets. We turned on the lights, we turned off the lights, we looked at them at the end of the hallway, we looked at them outside, we drove to the restaurant that featured our chosen stone facade on a much grander scale, we sent pictures from our phone to relatives, and we doubted ourselves. We researched. We. were. bonkers. We are both thankful that this meeting is over.
Friday, June 21, 2013
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.... Our Journey with Wayne Homes
Our History
I'm L, my husband is M, and we started this process in 2009 when we purchased our land in the country. We spent time with Wayne Homes, K. Hovnanian Homes, and Schumacher homes getting quotes. Initially, we preferred Schumacher Homes because at that time they included many things as "standard" - like wood trim and even a fireplace. We got two very thourough quotes from them for the Olivia plan (now renamed) and its smaller version, the Pearson (also now renamed). Both plans were two-story homes with the master bedroom downstairs. At the time of our quote, we didn't feel comfortable with the cost and didn't want to sacrifice our wants and needs, so we decided to wait.
Fast forward to mid 2012 when mortgage rates were rediculously low, and we found ourselves investigating nearly every builder in our area, even pre-fab home builders. We were preparing to build in 2013 or early 2014. Each builder had a different quality that we liked, but we kept coming back to Wayne Homes. We tried to go back to Schumacher, but our original Home Consultant there wasn't interested in giving us a quote if we weren't interested in building right away, so we asked for a new one. Even though he was a lot of help, we had already invested a great deal of time with Wayne Homes and had built a solid rapport with our New Home Consultant. We also broke down the differences between the two builders and found we got more for our money with Wayne.
Decision Making, more decision making, and changing those decisions....
One of the biggest blessings and curses of this process was having the time to change our minds. When we started looking at homes, we investigated the Camden Craftsman. We thought that was enough square footage for us. When we visited a few homes of comparable size, we started wondering if it was too cramped. In February of 2013, our WH Home Consultant, Kristi, thought we should give the McCallister a try. This stuck for a little while, but both the hubby and myself kept going back to the Montgomery. This, I'm sure, was no fun for our home consultant who received many emails full of questions. Regardless, Kristi was always prompt and considerate and never made us feel like we were a pain to deal with....which was quite the blessing when we were making the biggest purchase in our entire lives.
Open Houses
Our first open house was quite an emotional roller coaster. I had been following blogs (Thanks OhioMags and Brent & Kristy!) and my husband and I were pretty positive the Montgomery was our floor plan...that is, until we walked into our first open house. There we were about two hours away, with our parents, brother, and two children.....completely underwhelmed. We didn't like the changes the homeowners had made to the plan. We felt like the dining room space wasn't defined enough and that the living area was cramped. We left and we were a complete mess because we didn't think this was a house for us, but we had already invested so much time.
Time was on our side when we got home, however. When we moved to the country in 2010, we watched the people down the road build a Wayne Home. We didn't know the plan, nor did we go to the open house because we weren't interested in building with Wayne Homes at the time. After investigating the Montgomery plan and elevations, we realized the house down the road was a Montgomery. Fearing that all of our time would be wasted if we had to start over again, hubby and I discussed stopping by and introducing ourselves in hopes that the people that lived there wouldn't think we were the creepiest people ever. Luckily, they were awesome and invited us in to show us around. Their plan was exactly what we were looking for. They had great things to say about WH. Given that we would probably have many of the same crews, this reassured the hubby and I and brought us off the edge of jumping and starting over.
Can you say referral credit? Because they saved our deal with WH. We signed contigent in April, but didn't stop doing our homework.
Over the next four months, we visted five open houses at various stages of construction. We took notes, we made changes, and we kept another builder in our back pocket in case this deal went bad. Needless to say, we stayed with Wayne Homes.
I'm L, my husband is M, and we started this process in 2009 when we purchased our land in the country. We spent time with Wayne Homes, K. Hovnanian Homes, and Schumacher homes getting quotes. Initially, we preferred Schumacher Homes because at that time they included many things as "standard" - like wood trim and even a fireplace. We got two very thourough quotes from them for the Olivia plan (now renamed) and its smaller version, the Pearson (also now renamed). Both plans were two-story homes with the master bedroom downstairs. At the time of our quote, we didn't feel comfortable with the cost and didn't want to sacrifice our wants and needs, so we decided to wait.
Fast forward to mid 2012 when mortgage rates were rediculously low, and we found ourselves investigating nearly every builder in our area, even pre-fab home builders. We were preparing to build in 2013 or early 2014. Each builder had a different quality that we liked, but we kept coming back to Wayne Homes. We tried to go back to Schumacher, but our original Home Consultant there wasn't interested in giving us a quote if we weren't interested in building right away, so we asked for a new one. Even though he was a lot of help, we had already invested a great deal of time with Wayne Homes and had built a solid rapport with our New Home Consultant. We also broke down the differences between the two builders and found we got more for our money with Wayne.
Decision Making, more decision making, and changing those decisions....
One of the biggest blessings and curses of this process was having the time to change our minds. When we started looking at homes, we investigated the Camden Craftsman. We thought that was enough square footage for us. When we visited a few homes of comparable size, we started wondering if it was too cramped. In February of 2013, our WH Home Consultant, Kristi, thought we should give the McCallister a try. This stuck for a little while, but both the hubby and myself kept going back to the Montgomery. This, I'm sure, was no fun for our home consultant who received many emails full of questions. Regardless, Kristi was always prompt and considerate and never made us feel like we were a pain to deal with....which was quite the blessing when we were making the biggest purchase in our entire lives.
Open Houses
Our first open house was quite an emotional roller coaster. I had been following blogs (Thanks OhioMags and Brent & Kristy!) and my husband and I were pretty positive the Montgomery was our floor plan...that is, until we walked into our first open house. There we were about two hours away, with our parents, brother, and two children.....completely underwhelmed. We didn't like the changes the homeowners had made to the plan. We felt like the dining room space wasn't defined enough and that the living area was cramped. We left and we were a complete mess because we didn't think this was a house for us, but we had already invested so much time.
Time was on our side when we got home, however. When we moved to the country in 2010, we watched the people down the road build a Wayne Home. We didn't know the plan, nor did we go to the open house because we weren't interested in building with Wayne Homes at the time. After investigating the Montgomery plan and elevations, we realized the house down the road was a Montgomery. Fearing that all of our time would be wasted if we had to start over again, hubby and I discussed stopping by and introducing ourselves in hopes that the people that lived there wouldn't think we were the creepiest people ever. Luckily, they were awesome and invited us in to show us around. Their plan was exactly what we were looking for. They had great things to say about WH. Given that we would probably have many of the same crews, this reassured the hubby and I and brought us off the edge of jumping and starting over.
Can you say referral credit? Because they saved our deal with WH. We signed contigent in April, but didn't stop doing our homework.
Over the next four months, we visted five open houses at various stages of construction. We took notes, we made changes, and we kept another builder in our back pocket in case this deal went bad. Needless to say, we stayed with Wayne Homes.
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