options for new construction homes

[foofighter74]

If i'm not mistaken, Autumn is looking to build in Buffalo, NY. 

[Autumnslight]

That's correct, we're building a single family house in the Buffalo, NY area. My husband wishes we lived in MD though, because he's fixated on a Ryan model called the Agatha Christie, which is only available in MD, LOL!

[foofighter74]

What model did you pick?

I just looked at the Agatha Christie...I like the one with the four pillars and covered entrance.

[Autumnslight]

We're building a Palermo. I would've loved a Verona, but my budget didn't agree with me.

[foofighter74]

When we picked our model, the Ravenna and Palermo were not available in our community.  Within the last month, they've become available again. The Ravenna was what we wanted.  We saw it when the community was first getting built...by the time we went to look, it was no longer available. Now it's available again. lol.  Our daycare provider has the Rome, and we didn't really like it.  We were going back and forth between the Florence and the Venice...decided that the Venice with the morning room and other upgrades would push our budget too much, and decided on the Florence.  We love it, but a month after we signed our contract, my wife got a $15,000 a year raise. lol

[Autumnslight]

The pricing in our community is very similar to yours, but the largest model available is the Ravenna. There are some other nearby communities with the Verona, Victoria Falls, and Courtland Gate available, but they're a lot more expensive. We went back and forth, considering the Florence, Savoy, Venice, and Palermo. I really wanted the Palermo, but the others were less expensive. I had narrowed it down to the Florence or Savoy over the Venice myself, but we were able to stretch and  negotiate enough to make the Palermo work. It's fun to check out all the floor plans and try to imagine living in them!

[foofighter74]

I was obsessed with the Venice forever. But we are thrilled that the Florence has the room we need, and it's still extremely affordable.  It allowed us to upgrade some things that we really wanted, though compared to some, we didn't upgrade much. lol

[Autumnslight]

I know, I keep feeling like our house will be the "ugliest" one in the development, LOL. We're getting all base flooring, base countertops, base appliances, base light fixtures, base elevation, etc.

We upgraded the master bathroom layout, but with all base tile. We also upgraded the kitchen cabinets to one of the middle options, got recessed lighting in the kitchen, and upgraded the bathroom vanities to double bowels and the first level of cabinet upgrades. For cosmetic upgrades, that's it!

We went for structural/mechanical upgrades. Bonus room, morning room, central air, "comfort height" toilets, egress window and 3 piece plumbing rough-in in the basement, and a service door on the garage. I'm still deciding if I want to change the egress window to a walkout basement for about $2k more. I really, really want the basement finished NOW, but I dont know if I can pull off the extra cost. The price Ryan is charging to finish it is actually a really good deal, but its still a ton of money.

[foofighter74]

We have a morning room, a basic kitchen island, a one level up kitchen cabinet upgrade, we extended the flooring from the kitched into the dinette area, got the recessed lights in the kitchen, and I think we're going to have 3 ceiling fan rough-ins added when we visit with the electrician. That's it. lol.

We figured we would be the only one in the development with the base elevation, but there is another Florence on a cross street near our lot that has the base elevation as well.  The first phase of the development construction is all $300,000 + homes and the property taxes in this area as you know are high, so I drive through that area imagining what some of those mortgage payments must be. lol

We were honestly more interested in the location of the development itself. We want a nice house, but the location is exactly what we were looking for.  Out of the village/city, but still close enough to everything.   Plus, i told the kids - the more expensive the houses are in the area, the better candy you get on Halloween. lol.

[Autumnslight]

Nice! We'll end up being pretty in line with the average sales price for our development. The other houses have less square footage though, so they must have gone with some more "cosmetic" upgrades.

We ended up compromising on location to get the nicer, bigger, brand new house we wanted. It's a good location, nice, safe, good schools, lots of kids, etc., just in a very different area than we were initially looking. The area we initially wanted has older, smaller, not as nice houses in the same price range. So, we ended up going for a location a little further away, and getting the house we really wanted.