Color Selection Dilemmas

Its almost time for us to meet with ryan at their selection center.  Things are moving along nicely and we're feeling rushed with all these color decisions we need to make.   We'll need to decide the color for the following:

1. House color and trim color
2. Carpet color
3. Hardwood floor color
4. Cabinet colors
5. Tile colors

Donnas the decorator and shes been through more blogs than I can count looking for just the right color combinations.  We've also driven by more houses than I can count looking at the siding, trim and shutter color combinations.   Right now, and things could change any minute ;) , we're leaning towards the following:

1 Gray or tan house with black shutters.
2. Not sure for carpet...but probably a medium tan/brown
3. A Darker hardwood color saddle
4. The Wyoming Cherry Bordeaux cabinets
5. Not sure for tiling...but probably a lighter tan or beige with a darker listello (sp?) which is that trim that goes around near the top

Donnas main dilemma is the over all color combinations.... She wants to makes sure the flooring, tile, cabinetry and future granite, paint and furniture all wrap nicely together.   We're thinking we like the kitchen cabinets and floor a little darker overall, we'll paint the walls using lighter tans and yellows and the wood in the furniture will be a darker wood with cloth that matches the walls.  The thing is once we make our color choices at the selection center that its... and we're not allowed to make any changes...so this is a one shot deal we got get it right the first time....


Below is an kitchen or two we like.  These are from blogs we like or models we've seen.  We're heading out today to check out another model... we do like to see things in real life before going with it... hopefully we get it right...

Here's one with the lighter floor and cabinets....

Here's some bathroom pics from a blog we follow that had some model pictures.  we like the tile, hardware, cabinetry combinations...we may go with a slightly different tile and listello as well as a differant paint color... but the overall look we like.

Oh... why oh why does ryan have to put some sort of access panel on the front of the tub as you walk into the bathroom... we've seen this done a few times.... I wonder if they'll be doing it at our house... maybe we can grab the project managers and come up with a different location.

Ryan Does Custom... For a Price.

There where a few customer things we wanted Ryan to do that where not standard... we'd heard that ryan is cookie cutter and does'nt go off script... but we thought it wouldnt hurt to ask... we wanted ryan to do the following:

1) Move the light switch in the garage to the mud room

Ryans Response - This shouldnt be a problems - should be a cost either

2) We wanted to put the washer dryer on the wall opposite the laundry room door...  se we asked ryan to move the laundry hookup to that wall.

Ryans Response - This shouldnt be a problem... but they will have to build a double wall because the wall we want the laundry hookup on is a garage wall and needs extra insulation... there will be a cost for this but we havnt heard what it will be yet...

3) We want to eventually put in a stone fireplace... the standard fireplace that comes with the granite surround is right on the floor and doesnt allow space for a hearth to be put in... we asked ryan to move the fire place up 10 or 12 inches so we could later put in stone with a nice hearth.

Ryans Response - This is doable.  The extra trim and labor though will cost us $475... a little steep but we think its worth it...

 4) We dont think a living room is very usefull nowadays so we wanted to turn it into an office.  We discussed with ryan the possiblility of replacing the opening between the living room and dinning room with a solid wall and adding a set of double french doors to the opening between the living room and foyer....

Ryans Response - This is doable.  The wall is no problem at all, but the double french doors are a little more challenging.. the main problem being that the the current (cookie cutter) opening will not fit a standard double french door of either (68 inches or 72 inches).  Ryan agreed do this as part of our initial contract....but is now giving us a little push back...we'll see where it goes... but making the doors fit by adding or subtracting a couple inches from the doorway is really that bit of a deal....

Final Color Selections .... ???

We had our color selection earlier this week.... well it was supposed to be the final selection....but we've already changed our minds on a couple things....

Initial Selections:

1) House Color  - We started with stone mountain clay... we though it looked great on a few other houses in some local ryan developments. We also selected white trim, black shutters and a black door.  But now that we think about it is a brownish color right for us? Maybe the graphite gray is better...

2) Carpet - Its so hard to look at a little 2 inch by 2 inch square and to try and imagine what it would look like throughout the house.... So our first choice was Reed from the favorite choice collection... but maybes its too yellow...

3) Cabinets - We've always liked cherry bourdox (see above picture)

4) Hardwood - We liked the saddle

5) The Tile ad listello (sp?)  -  This is the listello.

6) Counter Tops - We didnt get granite :( its too expensive and all the other choices where kind of gross so there's no fixing this one :(

7) Fireplace Surround - Absolute Black



Ok... so here's what we want to change...

1) Carpet Color - Still not sure... but we want to move to a lighter color.... we think Reed is to dark... so we think maybe gallery or light aspiration would be a good idea.  These are all from shaws "favorite Choice" collection.  We're now having the carpet guy from Rochester come in next week with all his large samples so we can pick from something larger.

2) House Color - Well the stone mountain clay seems a little risky... so we think we're going to change this to graphite gray.. a safer color that looks pretty good on its own or can look really great with the right stone.

3) Listello - We found a house on line that had used our listello and we didnt really like it... so now we might change this too....

Does this all sound too crazy... are we over thinking this whole selection process... our start date can't be set until we figure this out... did any body else have such a hard time?

So This Is Elevation A (not our D) With Some Of Our Upgrades Shown In Blue.

The picture above is from the Ryan Website.  We created it when we where trying to determine what our Ryan home would look like.  A little while ago when we first started thinking about what kind of home we'd like to live in we immediately noticed the Victoria homes built in local developments around us.  We loves one elevation in particular... when we started to get serious about looking and maybe buying a Ryan home we looked but couldn't find the elevation we liked and had seen around us.  Well turns out that Ryan doesn't actually market or display all of their elevations.   Lesson learned... don't assume that what Ryan shows you in their pamphlets or on their website is all they have.  Their advertised elevations might be the most popular... but they have more.  Ask them for what you want! They may have it.

Below is a picture from another local development where we found an elevation D Victoria Falls.  We're not sure about the landscaping and color choices but the elevation is what we want. Sorry about the bad angels ... but its tough to get a drive by picture :)

Another with a more front on view....

This Is Our Lot!

We just selected our lot... actually we've walked by it and explored it and had our eye on it for awhile...but now we actually have it.   We think its just what we're looking for, open in the front and side and nicely wooded behind a medium sized back yard, yeah less mowing :).  A couple pictures and more info are below.

Above is our lot as seen in the tax map, it's circled in black. Its hard to see the dimensions but its about 90 feet wide at the front and 75 at the back.  Its overall depth is about 150.  Its located on Luchsinger Lane in Radisson.  This division is fairly new in Radisson, its about 6 years old and has space for 50 or so homes.  there are 5 lots left (if your interested better move quick).  There's three more next to us and one more on the other side of Luchsinger.  The Lots are typically 80 to 100  feet wide and about 150 feet deep plus a 15 foot easement from the road which makes them about 165 feet deep on average overall.  Below is a look at Luchsinger and our Lot from GoogleMaps or of what your favorite bird might see looking down during a fly by.

If your interested in learning more about our Community check out "Our Community" tab above or better yet check out the Radisson Community website : http://radissoncommunity.org


A few more... Below the two lot pics side by side...

Here's a mock up of what the house would look like on the lot.... Donna said don't post it but I spent like an hour making it so I got to post :)

Ok that's the lot.... They break ground in a couple weeks.  We'll post some lot clearing and foundation digging pics then.

There are lots of Ryan homes on our street so if your interested in checking out what some real life models look like check out the Our Commuity tab above we should have some photos posted soon.