Shingles and Tubes

We made our weekly trip to our home this weekend and saw a finished roof! That was pretty much the only new thing on the outside of the house. I can't wait for siding!!

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This past week they apprantely did plumbing and HVAC stuff. We got to see our AC unit, our secondary bath's tub, and our master shower's floor! We also saw our HVAC system and a bunch of other rough-ins. Kind of cool to see how they put everything in.

Secondary bath tub

Master shower floor

Fireplace!



HVAC

AC unit - it's a lot bigger than our neighbors - even the Rome's (bigger house than ours) but not sure why.

Wet Bar rough-in in basement

We also wrote some quotes on the beams. I originally got this idea from Pinterest, but I've seen a few other bloggers do it as well! We just wrote some feel good quotes that will give us some good ju-ju. It's also kind of cool to have our own little touch within the bones of the house.

By our future deck - "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" - Oscar Wilde

In the kitchen area - Something for myself and any future girls in our family to remember! "Be a girl with a mind, a woman with attitude, and a lady with class."

"You don't love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear." -Oscar Wilde

Man Cave - "The problem isn't the problem; the problem is your attitude about the problem." -Captain Jack Sparrow

By fireplace switch - "Happiness can be found in even the darkest of times, if one only remember to turn on the light." - Albus Dumbledore (I'll be Harry Potter nerd forever!)

DECKING
A quick conclusion on the decking situation. As many of you know, we were told we were getting a Trex® deck (in writing) and then found out that it was actually a GeoDeck material deck. We let them know that this isn't okay since they told us we were getting a name brand, more expensive deck than we really were. We gave them an option of giving us a Trex deck or making it up to us by giving us some free additions like pendant lighting, etc.

In the end they decided it was best to give us Trex®. They explained to us that customer service is very important to them and giving us little extra things, such as lighting, wouldn't resolve the problem. We are now getting Trex's Enhance decking. There are three levels of Trex (Select- good, Enhance - Better, Transcend- Best), so it's very nice they're giving us the middle of the line decking. It comes with a nice warrantly against wearing and fading. In the end, we're pleased with the way they handled it. Would we have gotten anything if we hadn't asked? Probably not, but I can't really fault them for that. You HAVE to ask if you want something. This also proves that it's very important to get everything in writing!

SHOPPING
We also did a little shopping yesterday. We didn't get any big appliances, because we're waiting to get those, but we got little things like curtain rods, storage containers, hand towels, etc. I saw that some of you got some awesome deals on appliances which is awesome! TIP: If you need curtain rods, and don't want to pay an arm and a leg for them, try Home Goods, TJ Maxx, or Marshalls. We got a 120" rod for $30 (covers all three morning room windows) and smaller ones (32-46") for $15 each. Not too bad. Originally, I was going to make our curtain rods from some pipes but this saved me a lot of time!

DIY
For awhile, I've been trying to think of what to put over our couch on the wall. I looked at Art shows and checked places like Marshalls/Home Goods countless times. I couldn't find anything I really liked. We finally toured the model in our community, since it just got fully finished a couple weeks ago, and I saw this really cool tree picture on the wall. It was simple and very pretty. I got inspired and decided to make my own version! We went to Michaels, and I got my canvas for 40% off, grabbed some paint and went to work! I'm very pleased with out it turned out!

Painting - It's pretty big (30" x 40")

 

I hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend!!

House Bones!

We went by the house on Friday evening after work to see the progress and they have most of the first floor already framed! Pretty exciting! They said they'll be working on framing for the next week to week and a half.

It's funny how small it looks right now. I know it's not small, but I was looking at the area that is going to be our Great Room and I was thinking "Crap ... Am I going to be able to fit all of my furniture in here???" I guess we'll see!

We were going to talk to our PM again about the deck and the Trex situation on Friay, but when my bf called him he was at a company picnic and he could hear his little girls trying to get him to come play with them. You don't mess with a dad and his daughters so he just told him he'd talk to him on Monday. Hopefully, it gets resolved soon because I'm tired of talking about it and thinking about it.

Helpful information for those getting a GeoDeck with Ryan:
We called the actual decking company on Friday and it looks like they're a really small company. So small that an actual person answers the phone when you call. They were helpful and very nice. We were told that Ryan used their second highest Tier of decking material. We told them we were having a hard time finding enough information about them to compare them to their competitors. She explained that they don't spend much on marketing so they can keep their costs down and focus on quality and costomer service. The main difference with their decking is that it is hollow composite material. Their competitors products are basically lumper covered in composite material (this is how she desribed it). GeoDeck materials are hollow so it cuts costs and they don't have to use any type of woof filler that often causes problems (this is what caused problems for Trex in their lawsuit a few years ago). She admitted that Trex is a stronger deck than GeoDeck, but it's strong enough to easily hold people because it's built and designed to disperse weight so it's evenly distributed across the deck. However, if you were to drop a dumbell off of your roof on to a GeoDeck (or a tree fell on your deck) it would go right through, while a Trex deck would stay put. In the end, we're okay with their product. Oh, and she said their product NEVER fades unlike competitors. She attributed this to the fact that they are hollow and completely composite. Our problem now is that Ryan Homes thinks they can get away quoting a more expensive product than they're actually giving you.

Interest Rate News:
My boyfriend was sent the "Cost Analysis Worksheet" from our rep at NVR. Interest rates are at 3.75% right now! We can't lock in our rate until 2 months away from Settlement (I think) so I hope they continue to stay that low! That would be awesome!!

In other news, I bought a few things over the last few weeks for the home. I got curtains for our bedroom, the great room, and the morning room (HomeGoods - If you've never been to one, find one, and go). I also got the fabric for the couch I'm reupholstering. I went to an art show this weekend too and got this super cute metal frog for the garden. Kind of a frivolous purchase but he was so cute and pretty cheap ($25) so I couldn't resist! Plus, he's handmade by the artist I met there and one of a kind!

Bedroom Curtains - I'm adding blackout material to these too

My frog for the garden! Love it!


Oh, and remember that Ethan Allen piece I posted a few weeks ago? Well it was really badly scratched and I kept hearing about this natural way of fixing scratches with Vinegar and Oil (3/4 oil, 1/4 vinegar combo). I was pretty skeptical but figured I'd try it because I know it wouldn't damage the piece at all. It works INCREDIBLY well. It was seriously amazing! I used it on my mom's desk that used to be my grandfather's (really scratched up over the years) and the diffence is like night and day. So, if you like to re-do furniture like me, or have an old piece that's kinda scratched up, try this! All you do is rub it in (don't have to use a ton of it) and then let it soak into the wood. I let mine soak into the wood for about 6 hours and then rubbed off most of the excess (I put a ton on it at first) and then just let it sit for awhile. I used Apple Cider Vinegar and Olive Oil but you can use whatever you have on hand (Canola oil and regular white vinegar is cheapest). You see the effects immediately though. It's magic. I don't know how it works, but it does. I'll try and post before and after pictures next week. The pieces are at my parent's house so I'll take pics next weekend when I'm there trying to tackle that ugly couch.

And here are pictures of our beautiful first floor all framed up!

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Back

Left side - Foyer, Bathroom, Dining Room / Right - Kitchen/Morning Room & Great Room

Left - Great Room / Right - Office

Basement!

Doors and windows! We're one of the only one's who have the little windows on the side of the door which I like! I need an easy way to look outside to make sure it's really the pizza guy at my door and not some creeper!

Side Note: When looking around we found some "Cerveza" cans on the ground. I'm really hoping they're waiting to drink a beer or two at the end of their day and I don't have a bunch of tipsy people working on our house! Kind of weird to find beer cans hanging around your house that's under construction. Thankfully we only saw 1 or 2 cans but still odd, and a little bit concerning. If you're gonna drink on the job at least get rid of the evidence! Rookies.

 

A Pile of Wood

We went by the house this past weekend and right now it doesn't look much different than last time, but everything done was very important.

This past week they water proofed the foundation. Pretty boring to look at but very very important. They also filled in our porch and our basement floor with concrete. This also means we passed our first two county inspections on schedule! Woo!
The most exciting thing we saw at our homesite was the giant pile of wood! Wood = Framing. This is when it starts to get exciting and look like a house! So pumped!

We also creeped in some of our neighbors yards that are mostly done. We noticed that they give us a lot of trees (unless our neighbors paid for some hefty lanscaping package). It's awesome that we get some trees, but the placement of the trees? That's a different story. They're planted in a perfectly straight line, all about 4 ft apart. It just looks unnatural to me. I know some people like lanscaping like that, but for me, I like trees to look like they naturally popped up where they are, AKA I like when nature looks natural. Hopefully, he'll let us choose where to put our trees because if not, I'll just be digging them up and moving them right after we move in.

The model in our community will also be done next week. I'm pretty curious to see what it looks like all finished so that will be cool. The sod at the model home is already dying though .. this scares me. Sod scares me. I'll probably be researching "how to keep sod alive" for hours, like a crazy person, closer to closing. If anyone has dealt with sod and has any tips I would love to hear from you! No one I know has ever had sod. All we heard is that it has to be watered non-stop, but also not too much or it will die. lol!

Our PM told us earlier last week that he would be off on Friday so we didn't get a call from him last week. I'm guessing he should be calling today on updates/schedules. My boyfriend will also be making his argument for pendant lighting or their need to commit to using Trex decking since that is what we have in writing. I'm hoping they're willing to just throw in some pendant lighting (I highly doubt they would pick using/paying for Trex, a brand name, before they would throw in some lights), but who knows. Most companies would do it no problem for customer service reasons, but Ryan Homes? Not always that easy to convince. I don't really understand their resistance to this type of customer service. If they had just said "We quoted you the wrong brand, and we really appologize. Can we throw in some extra outlets or lights to make up for our mistake?" we would be much happier and much more likely to recommend them as a builder to people we know. I guess they do fine without that word of mouth marketing, so it's not that important to them. As someone who works in marketing I find this odd, but whatever.

Anyways, here are some updated pictures!

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Basement & Pile of wood

Our Pile of Wood! AKA Our House's bones!

PAINTING

Quick question for everyone: Is anyone considering painting before their 10/12 month inspection? I know they recommend waiting a year until you paint because there will definitely be nail pops and repairs made to the wall over the first year. We were talking to family this weekend and they were just saying how much easier it is to paint before you have a bunch of stuff in the way and you're unpacked, so we were thinking maybe we should paint now and then just touch up the areas that are repaired? What are you guys planning to do?
 

Ohh Ryan Homes .. Why don't you double check things before you say them??

So yesterday, my boyfriend got an email from our SR with some "corrections" to things she has told us in the past. As many of you know, we have had this happen to us before with Ryan Homes. They told us one thing and then they were like whoops, we were wrong. The biggest one was when they told us our house would fit on our first choice lot but then, last minute, they discovered they were wrong. It caused a bunch of crap that was just annoying and frustrating and ended up delaying us for a month. In the end, we ended up switching lots and getting some stuff for free, so it worked out, and we moved on. So when my boyfriend told me he had some bad news about a couple of things I was like ugh .. here we go again.

They're not HUGE issues but still irritating.

One thing we negotiated for was our deck. They told us we could build a Trex material deck and that they would pay for half and we would pay for the other half. Well, our SR just told us, welllll we know we said it was Trex, but it's not. It's a generic composite material brand. I'm not against generic stuff, because in a lot in instances it is exactly the same, but there are a good amount of "cheap" composites out there that fade and age really poorly. We researched Trex before we agreed to their "deal" ... we know nothing about this generic brand. If it ends up looking like crap in 5 years then what? We either deal with it or tear it down and build something of quality. So stupid. We do have it IN WRITING that the deck is Trex so we'll be doing some negotiating.

The second thing we were told incorrectly was about fencing. As I have mentioned before, we really need a fence with our two dogs. We have huskies and they can pretty much jump anything under 6 feet tall. When we were told, by our SR, that the community was allowing 6 foot privacy fences we were officially sold on the community. Well, the HOA got back to us and apparently, until about a month ago, they weren't allowing fencing AT ALL. Apparently, one of my future neighbors found out about this and caused some serious havoc and eventually they caved (Thank you future neighbor, whoever you are!!!). They are now allowing privacy fencing BUT it can only be 4 ft high .. We were going to get a dog door so our dogs could go outside while we were at work, but now we can't because I won't feel comfortable about them being safe and not jumping over the fence while we're gone.

I don't understand why Ryan Homes just tells people things without double checking them. To say we're getting Trex when we aren't is just stupid. To tell us we can definitely have a 6 ft privacy fence when the community didn't even allow them previously is even more stupid!

In the end though, we think this should give us some negotiation power. I highly doubt they'll use Trex material for our deck but I think we can get a couple of things added for free to make up for the fact that we're paying for a lower quality deck than we were told. Pendant lighting and some crown molding??? We'll see!

 

We Have Chosen

Over the last couple of weeks we have gone over every option. Back and forth, back and forth. "Let's just move lots .. Wait .. Let's get a different model .. Wait .. Maybe we should look somewhere else .. No.. I like this community..." We repeated this train of thought about a thousand times.

Final Verdict : We're changing lots!

There are several things that led us to this decision.

1) We really do love the Palermo. We love our elevation, we were able to get the exact colors we liked at this new lot, the finished basement is HUGE with the morning room area finished, we like that there is line of site to both the great room and the dining room from the kitchen, and we love the big shower we can get with two shower heads.

2) We really are getting a good deal by moving to this lot. It may not be as pretty, but it is bigger. We have 2 dogs and we want a deck (which we are now building) so a bigger yard is nice. The lot is also layed out so it get's wider towards the back while our old lot got narrower towards the back. This also helps with increasing the back yard. This big lot usually has a premium ($2500) but they knocked that off because of the inconvenience. We also are saving money by not paying the much higher premium at our previous lot ($7500). So overall, the house will start off at $7500 less than what we were going to pay.

3) Saved money on the lot means we can get some other upgrades we had to take off our list early on. One of these is an upgraded carpet on the first floor. We're also getting ceramic in our first floor powder room now. We may also add on a couple more outlets or some crown molding on the cabinets.

4)We are now getting a composite material deck (14 ft x 22 ft). Ryan agreed to pay for half and we will pay for the other half. We asked some friends what they paid for their deck and the price per square foot was pretty competitive ($40/sq. ft - our friend payed $36/sq. ft for a wood deck). A deck will be awesome because a) we'll have somewhere extra to entertain or have a drink/dinner on nice days and b) we have direct access into our backyard for our dogs.

5) If we got the Milan on our previous lot it would end up costing more than we would like to spend. This was a big one, and really helped us make the final decision.

Overall, we feel good with the decision. I am a little sad we aren't getting as pretty of a lot, but we'll just plant some pine trees in the back of our property so we can't see the guy's yard behind us all year. Plus, it's not like his yard is directly behind us like we would have had on the other side of the street.

Here are some new upgrades we're doing.

Carpet (Upgrade C)

Ceramic Tile - Upgrade B - Mushroom

And, as promised, here is an updated picture of our puppy at 2 weeks old (we'll be picking him up in about 6 weeks). 

Ryan's Offer - Update

Around 5:00 last night we heard back from our SR about their final offer for building our Palermo on Lot 225.

1. We would not have to pay the $2500 lot premium - (It's a bigger lot than others in the community by like 0.03-0.05 acres so there's a "small" premium on the lot)

2. They will split the cost of a composite deck with us 50%-50%. (We asked for a 14x22 ft deck). This deck is around $12,500 so we would each pay around $6,250.

That's it. They said because we already got the discount of a finished basement (this was an incentive for using NVR for our mortgage), and because they already gave us about $10,000 off in the beginning that they think giving us the lot for free and paying for half a deck is enough.

I don't really think the incentive that was offered to everyone on our street should really count as a discount for us in this situation, but what are you gonna do? It really comes down to the fact that, as a business, they really don't need us. They are about 8 months ahead of schedule with sales because this community sold FAST. (Not the kind of fast that they always tell you about so you hurry and buy in panic .. I mean fast in that we looked in March and almost all lots were open and now its early June and all but 3 are sold.) They know they can easily sell these lots without us which gives us very little negotiation power.

So here are our options - I want to decide by tomorrow or Friday.

Option 1 - Move our Palermo to the other lot and have them pay for half of our deck.

Option 2 - Go with the Milan and see if they can get the price low enough that we can afford this option (since the Milan starts at a higher price).

My boyfriend is leaning towards Option 1 and I think I'm leaning towards Option 2. My thinking is, ask if we can get the Milan at a price we can afford. If we can't afford the price they offer then Option 1 becomes our only option. Done. My boyfriend just really likes the idea of a deck. I get that, but you can always build a deck .. you can't move your house. Too stressful. I think I'm losing my mind! Haha!

I know it will all work out in the end, but we both just wan't to make the best decision. I know I could live with the new lot .. I mean, I'm lucky enough to have the opportunity to build a home in the first place, and I can just plant trees to block off the guy's yard behind me .. but I also don't want to settle.

Ah! I need to develop powers to see the future! That would make things sooo much easier.

Update - Too Many Choices!

As many people have seen we are going through a crazy situation with our home not fitting on our lot. We went down to our community to meet with our Sales Rep on Saturday and went over our options and made a Plan A, B & C.

Plan A
Earlier last week our SR told us to write up a list of things we needed from Ryan Homes in order to get us to move to the other lot (that we don't like as much). We wrote up a pretty long list because we figured we might as well ask. All they can do is say no. This list contained having them build us a deck (to compenstate for us not getting a walk out basement and essentially having no direct access into the backyard) as well as many other options (upgraded carpet, ceramic tile in all bathrooms, crown molding on cabinets, double vanity is secondary bath, etc). It's a long list. This is what we would get if we lived in a perfect world. If they say yes to our long list of demands then we will move. Our SR said she's "Just being honest .. but that is not going to happen," which we already kind of knew.

Plan B
We see what Ryan Homes' counter offer is to our long list of requests. We're thinking they may offer to give us a deck and then offer to give us some options at cost. Once we get this offer, which should be tomorrow or Wednesday, we can make our decision if we think it's enough.

Plan C
We choose a different home model and stay with our better lot. As I mentioned before, only two homes our community offers will fit on our lot. These include the Venice and the Milan. We originally were going to go with the Venice, but then we got worried that it was too small. We didn't like the floor plan of the Milan because of where the morning room would be located (The morning room was more of an extension of the kitchen - less open concept). While looking at the big poster for the Milan at our community's office on Saturday we realized the Milan's floor plan looked different so we asked about it. They're actually changing the Milan's floor plan based on feedback from people who built the Milan previously. People said they wished the morning room opened up into the kitchen and great room, compared to just the kitchen. This was the only thing we didn't like about the Milan so now that it has changed it is back on the table. The only problem is that the Milan's base price is about $10k more than the Palermo in our community so I don't know if we'd have to make cuts or if they could maybe give us that home with the same options our Palermo had for the same price (kind of like giving us a 10k discount due to their mistake and us having to change models and go through all of this craziness). I don't think that is a far fetched request but my boyfriend doesn't think they'll let us do that .. Anyways, here are some pictures of the floor plans- Old floor plan vs new floor plan.

 

Old Milan Layout - 1st floor

 

New Milan Layout - 1st Floor

Some other things we had clarified at our visit:
 

1) We can pick two-toned siding.

 

2) Our current lot does NOT have a drain easement in the actual lot. It is in between our lot and the neighbors lot but it weirdly does not appear on the blue prints. Apparently, they asked if they could just allow our house to hang over our propety line in the back a little but the only reason they can't allow it is because it would creep into the drain easement territory, which is not on our property. I'm not sure why they didn't explain this before because I definitely would have been less mad lol.

 

3) They're changing a lot of stuff with these new homes. They limited their options lists by about half. It's crazy. We don't have to use this limited option list because we signed everything so long ago but the new people do. One change, for example, is they are only allowing people to add a full bath in the basement and not a powder room. Weird, right? They also don't show flooring options on the new list .. I guess you just figure out prices once you get to your flooring meeting? They're also including a lot more in the base price (which of course is higher). Some new "standard" options are double vanity in master, recessed lighting in basement, Elevation B (they got rid of Elevation A). They say it's to make the process easier for people.

4)Our building has definitely been delayed. We originally were going to have our pre-construction meeting on the 20th but that won't be happening now. We haven't rescheduled a meeting yet because the length of the delay depends on what we choose to do. 

 

Overall, this whole process sucks. On top of that I think my boyfriend and I are on different pages on which option we would prefer. I think he wants to just move lots while I would rather get the Milan and stay on our current lot .. so many choices!

 

I'll keep things updated on what we choose and what we're actually offered by Ryan Homes.

 

I'm sad, mad, dissapointed, confused, and frustrated (to name a few)

So as I mentioned in my last post, we were told that the Palermo is too wide to fit on the lot we chose. Just as a reminder, we were told it would fit on that lot, we signed contracts for that house and lot, and then while they were staking out our home on the lot they realized .. "Whoops .. this doesn't fit here."

Anyways, after speaking with our SR (aka, my boyfriend spoke to her, because I'm a lunatic) we found out a few things.

1. Our current lot has a "drain easement" in it. This is something we were NEVER told about even after voicing concern about all of their draining systems for the community (our community is right by a Canal). This drain easement makes our building restrictions line a lot narrower so only two of the homes they offer will fit on it (The Milan and the Venice). This drain easement, that they conveniently didn't tell us about, can also cause really bad flooding if it breaks or something goes wrong with it (Cool, right?!). We also would not be able to build anything over it so we couldn't put our fence over it so essentially it would make our yard a lot smaller. Also, if something were to go wrong with it they can come in and dig up our yard to access it and fix it. Sounds great ...

2. One option we have is moving our home to a new lot. Only two lots will fit our Palermo. One of them is on the other side of the street so it will back up to other homes in the development .. Basically, this is not an option. We don't want to go from our gorgeous lot backed up to protected preserves to a lot backed up to someone else's house. The other option is a lot that is on the same side of the road as our current lot but it's right by the road and it doesn't back up to the preserves (it backs up to some bushes and the backyard of a house that isn't in our community).

3. A second option we have is to pick a new home model that will fit on our lot (we don't even know if we want our lot anymore since it has that drain easement) or another lot near our current lot (not as nice as our lot but better than the other two). Since, all of their lots are too small for most of the houses they offer they are going to add some options to the list (duh!), so they're going to let us know what those are soon. The one good thing is that our SR asked if we had any models in mind .. we asked her to look into the Naples and the Shakespeare .. we'll see if they fit on the lot or if she thinks they "fit" in the community.

4. Ryan Homes really does not seem to care that they made a mistake and really inconvenienced us. The first time we spoke to our SR about being compensated somehow for this huge inconvenience (and crushed dream) they offered to generously (*sarcasm*) give us back our money for the premium price of our lot ("thanks for giving us money back for something we're not getting .. I guess."), not charge us the premium on the new lot (Wow .. $2500 .. thanks) and give us a discount for walkout stairs from our basement. They normally charge over $6000 but they are willing to only charge us $4000 ... out of the goodness of their heart .... We don't even want a giant staircase in the back (Our current lot comes with a walk-out basement but the new lot they want us to take does not. I guess this is their way to compensate for that ..).

5. We were told we could not get a two-toned siding(Shake siding and regular siding are different colors). We have been getting up at 5:00AM, before work, the last couple days to go check out all these lots they want us to take. On these trips we saw that the model home (a Rome) now has it's siding up .. and guess what? That house has two different color siding ... They could have just made a mistake (and I understand that people make mistakes) but it's just the cherry on top of everything else.

I don't really want to settle for a lot or a house I don't like. I'm kind of hoping that they offer a new home that we like but the downside of that is that we have to COMPLETELY start over and everything will probably be delayed to the end of the year .. Plus, my boyfriend just doesn't want to go through all of those choices and upgrade lists all over again, and I can't blame him for that.

We really don't know what to do. Are we making a huge mistake with building with Ryan Homes? They're now only offering us a few thousand dollars as compensation which in my opinion is a joke. If they want us to settle for a lot we don't really like, they will need to make up for this mistake big time .. Decisions. Decisions .. I can't handle it!

Soooo .. Our home is too big for our lot now???

We got some pretty bad news last night on the home front.

Our SR emailed my boyfriend about our home telling us that our Palermo is too wide to fit on the lot we chose .. Apparently, the Egineers measured wrong on the blueprints or something so they thought it would fit, but it can't. Nice, right? You would think they would have double checked before they had us sign a bunch of contracts, but I guess that's too much to ask ....

Their solution was for us to take one of our neighbors lots (they're on a contingency contract) and then they would have to move lots. Awesome. "You can just take their lot .. no big deal." So we went to the community and looked at the lots. We still really like our lot a lot more than the other one they want us to take from our neighbor.

Basically, we came to the conclusion that this doesn't fly. We need to be compensated for this mistake. It's not a small mistake .. at all. It's funny because they're acting like it's not a big deal and "it happens from time to time." I understand some homes don't fit on certain lots, but shouldn't you know that before you have someone sign a contract?

**As I was writing this post our SR emailed my boyfriend again and told him that, oh wait .. the lot that we want you to take from your neighbor is also too small! Whoops! The only lots that will fit our home are not even comparable to the lot we picked out... I'm beyond annoyed right now and truthfully we don't know what to do. The only thing I am really willing to accept at this point is them letting us pick one of the other (more expensive) models and letting us build that at no extra charge (with the same options we currently have).

I'll keep things updated .. Hopefully this all works out.