First Floor

The first floor went in and everything is looking great so far. We were able to see the crew working on the house and we got the Amish crew doing the wood work.

 The Amish crew putting in the first floor.

First look at the first floor joists.

In this photo you can see the steel I-Beams that hold up the first floor

This photo gives a good look at the doubled up floor joists.

These are the doors and windows.  Low-e windows are now standard with ryan homes.

Lumber Delivery

The wood was delivered on 5/18/2012.  Nothing spectacular but that means that the framing will go up soon.  We also had additional floor joist delivered on our own.  When we talked to the sales representative I was really worried about the amount of vibration that we would feel in the floor.  The longest span in the Florence is just at the limit for a 2x10 so I wanted to beef that up.  We agreed that we could double up every other floor joist.  This was something that I really wanted to happen so when it was time for the lumber to be delivered we contacted a local lumber year and had them deliver extra lumber.  A little pricey but hopefully worth it in the end.

There's the wood, isn't it exciting.

Floor Plan and Options

Florence Model

This is the Ryan Home's model that we are building.  The few additions that we have are:

Second light on the garage: not even sure why they sell it with just one.
Morning Room: the neighborhood we are moving into had a square footage requirement so we needed to add a morning room.  I think we are the only Florence in the development.
Fourth Bedroom:  We had considered adding the fourth bedroom on our own.  After we thought about it we decided it would be easier for Ryan Homes to add the fourth bedroom as they can do the wiring etc.  We also moved the closet in this bedroom.  We didn't want the master closet to get any smaller so we have the closet moved inside the floorspace.  Since this is the biggest room next to the master bedroom it isn't that big of a deal.
Second sink in the master: not much explaining for that, just gotta have two.
Outdoor Flood Light:  Having an outdoor floodlight is really great for when the kids want to play outside.
20Amp dedicated garage circuit with 2 extra outlets:  We have spoken with the electrician about adding a separate circuit just for the garage outlets that is a 20amp circuit.  In addition we added 2 more outlets one on each side near the front on the garage.  This is important for using power tools as they draw a lot of current and can easily trip a 15 amp circuit with lights and other electrical equipment on them.  Since the garage only comes with 1 outlet standard this was a must have.
2 extra outdoor outlets:  Thought it would be nice to add 2 outlets, one in the front and one in the back for running Christmas lights.  With 4 total outdoor outlets we should be able to have everything covered.
Taller Cabinets:  With 9' ceilings it is necessary to have taller cabinets otherwise they will look goofy.
Gas Stove:  We just enjoy having a gas stove/range, and since it wasn't ridiculously expensive we went for it.
Fireplace:  I was told that you can't sell a home in Buffalo without a fireplace, so this was a must have.  That and fireplaces are fun.

I think that is everything for now.

Breaking Ground

So they break ground and poured the foundation the week of 5/13/2012.  This is very exciting for us and means the house will be going up quickly from here on out.  In the following pictures you will see that we added a morning room and an egress window.  By law it is necessary to have the egress window if you finish your basement.  We aren't having Ryan Home's finish the basement but we will be finishing it at some point and having it done now is much easier than doing it later.  We have been through that process before with the home of a family member and it is not an easy thing to do.  Since we know we want to finish the basement we are doing it now.  We also really like the placement of the egress window below the morning room.  It pulls the exit away from the profile of the side of the house and if we ever do a patio/deck we don't have to worry about covering it up.

 

View from the front of the house garage on the right

This is a view of the basement under the morning room

 Basement under the family and living room

View of the egress window

Why We Decided to go Ryan Homes

So if you are reading this blog you know that we have decided to build a Ryan Home.  So why did we do that?  To answer that question first you have to understand what we wanted in a home.  There were two big things that we really wanted out of our home, four bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths.  So we started our search in the Spring and started to look at used homes.  During this process we found out that we really wanted to have a home that was built after 1987, no reason to get a home with lead paint if we didn't have to.  That was good because it helped to narrow our search, so we kept looking.  Most of the older homes that we looked at were nice, but either had a shower that was too small or was in rough shape.  We had no desire to have a lot of work to do in our new house as we start a family.  So we started looking at homes that were built in the last 10 years, and it hit us.  Why should we buy a used home, when most of them were older Ryan Home's, when we could build a new one that was more efficient and didn't have as much work involved on our part.  So the decision was made.  We are going to build a new Ryan Home.

Why Blog?

I decided that it would be nice to chronicle the process of building our new home.  What better way than writing a blog.  In this blog I will be keeping everybody posted on the process, the decisions we have made and any issues/concerns that we've had.  Hopefully everybody that knows us will enjoy getting updates regularly, and to all the people considering buying a new home feel free to comment and ask questions.

Enjoy