Building a Ryan Homes Mozart (Detached Garage)
Friday, October 30, 2015
So Many Projects So Little Time
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Air Force Reserves Keeping My Husband Out of Work
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Backyard Renovation
So my husband and I (mostly my husband) worked very hard over the past couple of months to add a couple of patios to our backyard. Our yard wasn't that big and we are right next to a huge green space next to the community center so we thought to maximize the entertainment potential for the yard. That meant less green space but we were fine with that.
Most of these materials came from Lowes. Some of the pavers came from Home Depot. Furniture came from Target. The pergola was from Lowes.
I cant say it was easy but the process of doing the patios was not difficult just time consuming. Same with the flower gardens. We are very happy with how it turned out and I think we saved a lot of money by doing the labor ourselves.
Some before and afters below. : )
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Kitchen Remodel
We finished the kitchen. Pictures below. All together we
-bought new stainless steel appliances
-painted cabinets white
-added hardware to the cabinets
-put in new countertops
-put in new undermining sink and goose neck faucet
-added backsplash
It looks like a totally different kitchen lol. We love it. Places where we saved some money were in painting the cabinets. All we had to pay for was sanders, paint, and foam brushes (already had the rollers). Prolly cost total of $150 at most.
Also I put in the backsplash my self with SimpleMat. Great product. Very easy to use. I did the whole thing in one night. The tiles where the mesh back kind and we used the hand held tile cutters. Whole thing was about $500 tiles and tools included.
Thursday, March 6, 2014
More Updates : )
Sunday, January 19, 2014
FLORENCE Progress...
So here is our progress so far compared to the house when we got it...still work to do but I'm happy about where we are
Monday, December 23, 2013
Surprise Ending
So a lot has happened since my last angry post. As I mentioned before we live out of state so without a place to live in Md my husband could not start his new job that started in December. This info was communicated to my new SR who said Ryan could put us up in an apartment in Md during the delay for FREE since the inconvenience was due to their construction delays. Although not desirable, it was a workable solution so we agreed. However in November when it came time to make moving plans, Ryan could no longer do it for free. They could only do one month free and our house wasn't going to be done for another 4 months if weather was good thru the winter. We would have to pay for all other months we had to stay. This didn't work for us since our rent for a townhouse in AL was half of the rent the apartment we would be and we would have to also pay for a storage bin. Not to mention the fact that we are a 4 person family and they were trying to put us in a 2 bedroom apartment. Obviously we were upset at this last minute change and so we were offered a different option....
To purchase a spec home ready for immediate delivery in a different community in southern md. We were in AL so we had no way of physically seeing the house but we sent some family over to check it out. It was a bigger home with significantly more space. More like a sf attached unit and the price was only $5k higher. We were told we had to act quickly so we sent a note saying we wanted to purchase right away. We were told paperwork was being overnighted and house was ours. Then that same night I recieve an email saying the original owner of the house all of a sudden got an approval and so we could no longer purchase the house. So Ryan sold us a house that wasn't for sale.....
The good news is this story still has a happy ending. When the first spec house fell thru our SR told us about another spec house that was actually a true sf on a corner lot in our original neighborhood. Because of a special loan program NVR was doing for specs our monthly payments would be about equal to what they would have been for our th despite the $25k jump in sales price and our closing costs would be covered. We closed on this house last Thursday and we love it!!!!!
So I guess it was all woth it. Pictures of the new home to come soon. Its a Florence but right now its just a mess so I will upload some pics once we've gotten things put away.
Happy holidays everyone and good luck with your builds!!!!