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NBR: Ryan Homes or building a home
Comments good/bad? Also, if you've built a house anything you wish you did differently? Added? Not added? Thanks ladies-this is a BIG investement and I want to make sure I;ve done my research (which involves asking my ladies on here;)
I think we might look into doing geothermal with the build
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Re: NBR: Ryan Homes or building a home
We didn't build with Ryan, but they are building in our neighborhood now and they put houses FAST. I can't believe how many houses they finished in just a short time. I'm thinking about what extras we added and what we wished we did. I'll get back to you . . .
I built with Ryan Homes 9 years ago and I would go with them again in a heartbeat. You will always have a few glitches but overall I've found the quality of my house to be high. It's a starter home, too, not a mansion. At the time I had it built, they were putting up houses like CRAZY so I think it would've been easy for them to do it on the cheap. If they had, I'm pretty sure I'd know about it by now.
I was a road warrior at the time and never around so my parents checked at least twice a week. For some reason I think that helped keep the builder a little more honest than they normally would be. So that would be one bit of advice: when they're building, go often and get to know the project supervisor.
If I could do it over again, I'd get a basement. I never had one growing up so it wasn't a big deal. Plus, I was single and there was only so much money to spend and a basement didn't seem worth it. My husband moved into my house 4 years ago and that's the one thing he wishes this house had.
One option I got was to have a covered front patio/porch. It didn't come standard with the Ryan models in my price range but it was soooo worth it. Now a person standing at the door doesn't get wet, packages stay dry, etc.
I also paid to add a few extra windows to the morning room and laundry room. Well worth the money.
Good luck!
How exciting! What subdivision/area are you thinking about? What model(s) are you considering?
We built with Ryan Homes a little over a year ago; and we couldn't be happier! My parents STILL live in the Ryan Home that they built 33 years ago. I actually expected to have to deal with some BS during the build; but the entire process was smooth sailing, and they took care of any concerns that we had immediately and without issue (not that there were many). I think that had a lot to do with the fact that both our sales rep and GC were AMAZING and so easy to work with.
As far as upgrades go, we tried to focus on the types of things that couldn't easily be upgraded later (if that makes any sense). That being said, we have a basement with a 3-piece bathroom rough-in, we added the morning room off the kitchen, we bumped out our garage to add space. We also added overhead lighting/ceiling fan switches in every room. My absolute most FAVORITE upgrade that we decided to go with is the 4 "room" in-ceiling entertainment speaker option, which allows you to listen to your radio/tv/iPod/etc. while in another "room." We added the speakers in our family room, kitchen, back patio, and our master bathroom. Yes, you *heard* me correctly - our master bathroom (the Guardian sales rep made me repeat myself 3 times when I said that - HA!). Anyway, I LOVE being able to listen to the news, etc. while I'm taking a shower and getting ready for work in the morning. It's also nice to have the speakers in the other room for entertaining purposes. Again, we just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our home!
Best of luck to you, and HAVE FUN with it! Let me know if you have any questions at all. BTW - Who is your sales rep?
OMG, coming from someone who lives in a (drees) home that someone else built - absolutely get overhead lighting in every room. None of our bedrooms have overhead lighting and it drives me insane. We're going to have to hire an electrician to fix this eventually and I'm sure it's not going to be cheap.
Yep - most of our neighbors didn't *splurge* on the overhead lighting upgrade; and they are already KICKING themselves for it!
What irks me is that the people who built our house paid extra for brick wrap, 4' bump out of family room, 3 piece basement rough-in, hardwood in foyer and dining room, and other things, but didn't do the overhead lighting. I can't believe that overhead lighting is not standard.
Some people just don't think things through. "Ummm...yes, we'd like to have gleaming hardwood floors; but we don't enjoy reading, so we'll pass on the lights."
It does seem silly that it isn't a standard feature, though.
You ladies are cracking me up! We went through some of the upgrades with the sales rep (Marcie Newill-who I already love!) to get a rough price. We did a finished basement with half bath, a study instead of a living room, cherry cabinets, stainless appliances, the lighting/ceiling fan wiring, the bathroom upgrade. We skipped the morning room, fire place, deck, and double sinks in the bathroom.
We figured that we can do granite counters and a deck later at a lower cost. We are also debating on whether to do a 4th bedroom or a loft. I am heading towards the 4th bedroom. We might also skip the finished basement for now too. SO many decisions!
So, on my post on the nest Ryan homes got a BAD review..whats up with that?
We closed on our Ryan home this past August & have had a very positive experience. My father is a subcontractor who has worked for Ryan and he suggested them (which meant a lot).
About upgrades - we too looked for things that we're cheaper at the time of building than to come back and do it on our own. My suggestion is to price out ALL upgrades you are considering. Then you can go back and take away to fit your budget. Some upgrades we did: hardwood on the first floor, upgraded appliances, basement, bath rough in in the basement, gas furnace, gas water heater, sink in the laundry room, overhead lighting/ceiling fans in bedrooms, morning room, can lights in kitchen, carpet padding.
Some things we intentionally did not upgrade - kitchen island, deck, over head lighting in living room or morning room (wish i had put it in the morning room), carpet, paint colors, phone cable outlets, security system. My husband is fairly handy though so he is able to do a lot of these upgrades on his own.
Feel free to ask any questions. This was all a very recent process for us.
I forgot about these upgrades! We also upgraded to the 42" maple cabinets with brushed nickel pulls.
We built with Ryan Homes about 3.5 years ago. We were not as happy as some of the pp, but it was because the site manager working on our house was sloppy and never paid attention to detail. Our house was the last house he built, then he was fired. So I think our experience was colored by that. DH had to be out there almost every day checking on things and they had to come back and fix some major things after we had moved in.
But that being said
... I agree with some of the upgrades mentioned - we upgraded to the 42" cabinets, bumped out the great room 4 feet, both of which we're very happy about. We changed around some stuff in our master bath too - the toilet was basically in a closet, so we did away with some walls. I added outlets on the front porch for Xmas lights and extra outlets on my kitchen island for food prep.
We did not have them do our deck or granite countertops - it was cheaper for us to hire that out on our own. One thing I would do if I could was bump out the garage and the laundry room - they are both a bit smaller than I would like. If you have room on your lot, I'd pay attention to those size specs and see if you'd want to bump them.
Other than that, good luck and have fun!