Let's Go

Hi everyone (or anyone???).

My names is J.J. and I am in the early stages of building my own home.  I've never been a fan of old construction and I always felt I would be way more satisfied if I was able to build a home to my liking and also so I would know exactly where everything is and how it all got there.  When doing a little research online, I felt that it was worth giving Wayne Homes a shot, despite some negative comments on various message boards.  I know it can be questionable working with a big name builder, but I feel that if their work can be monitored along the way by people who know construction, then there shouldn't be many problems or surprises.  My mom and dad built their own home themselves 30 years ago, so they have a good idea how the process should go.  Along with them, I have numerous relatives who know electric and plumbing and whatnot.

Knowing all of these people may make it seem like I am primed to build myself, but we still feel more comfortable having a figurehead (Wayne Homes) in charge so that the process would go smoother than if we tried to set up each contractor ourselves.  My dad is retired, so he would be on site every day monitoring and I would be there every single day after work, making sure everything is to code and to our standards.  While I do not have a lot of money to spend, I still feel we don't have to pay out of our butts for a quality home.

When looking through various floor plans, we actually liked a model by Ryan Homes called the "Milan".  It was a huge home, but the layout was exactly what we wanted. (I say we, because my girlfriend, Becky, will eventually be moving in with me.  She will also be posting here from time to time.)  We were basically looking for a kitchen/family room that is open, a sunroom/dining area off the kitchen, a room on the first floor that will be closed off and used as a media room (actually, it's our geek room with video games, an eventual home theater and walls covered in posters, Legos, storage for my Magic: The Gathering cards and old toys), a garage on the first floor, laundry room upstairs and a good sized master bedroom with walk-in-closets through the master bathroom.

Jamestown model PDF

The Jamestown model through Wayne Homes allowed for all of this, so we contacted them and had a meeting a few weeks ago.  We drove out to their Greensburg site, where we were able to see a few models and spoke to a lovely woman, who would be our guide along the way.  I don't know if she wants her name to be used here, so I'll call her Liliana (it makes sense if you play Magic).  My parents, Becky and I went out and talked to her for quite a while about what we wanted in our home.  My dad had a million questions, but she answered them all and gave us some piece of mind that she had a firm understanding as to what went into the homes.  We gave her all of our little ideas and she said she would send us a quote within a week.

Some of the things we wanted changed from the basic Jamestown model:
- Craftsman elevation
- Removing the front bathroom and closet, to expand the side room into a larger media room
- No fireplace
- Make sunroom run long ways from the back door (now open) to the end of the kitchen on the right
- Remove the upper cabinet and window in the kitchen on the left to open up into the sunroom
- Put the first floor bathroom behind the kitchen where the laundry room is
- Close off a wall on the second floor open area to create a large laundry room
- Use more of the open space to create a second walk-in-closet in the master bedroom
- Luxury bathroom with larger tub and shower
- Man door leading outside from the garage
- Double man door leading from the basement outside

There were some other minor things and things along the way that I am sure we will want changed.  We also wanted a credit for doing the floors and painting ourselves.

She came back a week later in an e-mail with a quote.  She also said we could get $5,400 in incentives that would go towards the upgraded banister and luxury master bathroom.  Cool.  Her quote came in at $192,000.  Yikes.  I expected it to be that much, but it's still a shock.  The one thing in the quote we were confused about was the PPIs and how much we would actual spend from that.  It was listed at $25,000, but she said most people do not use all of that (for things like excavating) and any we don't use would be credited back to us.  I was a little bummed out from the price, because I firmly believe no one should spend so much money without seriously being able to pay it off reasonably.

Over the next week or so, Becky and I went to Home Depot and Lowes and looked at various flooring and paint.  The credit for the flooring was for the entire house, but only $3,800.  We wanted laminate flooring in the kitchen, sunroom and family room, with tile in the back bathroom/mudroom and the main foyer.  Carpet will be in the media room for now.  This credit seemed OK, but the price of labor and crappy carpeting upstairs would be way more than the $3,800 credit we got.  We are still bouncing back-and-forth between letting them install stuff that we like, letting them install junk and we rip it out, or just doing it all ourselves.  Same goes with painting.

This last week, we've been really bouncing between thoughts of Wayne doing it and getting our own contractor.  We have an estimate being made by a friend of my dads, but until that comes back, we still are leaning towards Wayne.  We have a ton more questions for Liliana, specifically about the foundation and any problems that might occur down the line.  We really want to see a home that is 5-7 years old and see any problems it might have.

That's all for now!  I hope you will enjoy reading this blog and that maybe it'll help others like the few I read helped me.  There will be a buttload of pictures along the way, once we get going.  ANY help or feedback would be massively appreciated.  I wanted to start the blog today because we got the call from the bank that we were approved for a construction loan.  We own our own property, so the price of that will go towards the down payment of the loan.  Also, it should be noted our property needs major tree removal and is also slightly on a slope (thus the basement doors being feasible).

So, again, Becky and I will keep this updated for paint/floor samples and anything else along the way.  I AM SO FREAKING EXCITED FOR MY GEEK ROOM.


-J.J.