Tiles, Flooring and More...

Our tiling and flooring appointment at T.A.C. flooring in Manassas was less than 14 days after we signed on the dotted line.

This appointment was the one I was most looking forward to, but also the one that caused the most anxiety. I knew from online research and blogs what I generally wanted most of our selections to look like, but it was a little scary going in there without having a sense of what the upgrades would cost.

Luckily, we were able to splurge in some areas and save money in others.

For our selections, I leaned heavily on this inspiration photo. It was from a Ryan Homes model that I found online while doing some googling.

Kitchen Inspiration

For our kitchen, we wanted a clean and white crisp loom.  We opted to go with the Rushmore Painted Linen cabinets (Level 2 ) for the entire house.  I was a little torn between the Sonoma cabinet style used in the model and the Rushmore style, but ultimately picked Rushmore as I liked the extra detailing on the doors.

Our granite selection was a little trickier, I had a difficult time deciding between three different colors: Luna Pearl (Level 1), Bianco Diamante (Level 2) and Azul Platino (Level 2). Ultimately, we went with the Luna Pearl granite because it was lighter and brighter than the other two.

Azul Platino, Luna Pearl and Bianco Diamante

The kitchen backsplash was fairly easy. I loved the look of subway tile, but wanted something a little different.  We found a beautiful natural marble subway tile (Level 3) with hints of gray throughout. We thought it would look fantastic with the the white cabinets and Luna Pearl granite.

White Marble Kitchen Backsplash

Flooring was also simple . We knew we wanted dark hardwood floors throughout the main level of the house as well as the hallway of the upstairs. While the addition of hardwoods to the upstairs hallway was a pricier upgrade due to the fact that it is a red flag item (ie custom change) with Ryan Homes, we thought it would be worth it in the long run given the volume of traffic in the hallway and the fact that we have two dogs.

We ended up choosing Armstrong Engineered Wood 5”– Misty Gray flooring (Level 3) for the majority of the house. Since we plan on having gray tones throughout, we thought the unique coloring of the hardwood would accent some of other selections.  Here are all of our kitchen selections together:

Kitchen Cabinet, Granite, Backsplash and Floor

For our bathrooms, we went ahead and went with a clean and simple look with Rushmore Painted Linen Cabinets throughout. The differences between the three bathrooms in our house will mostly be in the flooring and tiling choices,all of which play on white and gray undertones.

The master bathroom was a bit of a splurge since we went with Level 3 selections. I couldn't help falling for the simplicity and modern look of the 3” x 6” White Brick-Joint Subway Tile with the 12x24 Gray Grigio Floor Tile so we bit the bullet and upgraded from the standard 4x4 white tile and floors that come standard with Ryan Homes.

Our Master Bathroom Floor and Shower Tile Choice with Grout Color

The guest bathroom will have the below Level 2 shower and floor tile. For the basement bathroom, we decided to save some money and only upgrade the floors to the below gray tiling.

Guest Bathroom and Basement Bathroom Tiling and Floors

For the bedroom and basement flooring, we had no problem going with the standard carpet that Ryan Homes included. I can't remember the color of the carpet, but it's in the below picture, along with the vinyl we picked for the laundry room. We did go ahead and upgrade the padding though since we have dogs and they have accidents from time to time.

Carpet and Vinyl Flooring

We also opted to go with the oil rubbed bronze finish for all of our interior finishes, which includes our front door handle/lock, kitchen and bathroom faucets, door handles, shower frame, and more.  This is a small change that will make a big impact in the overall look and feel of the house.

Oil-rubbed bronze kitchen and bathroom faucets.

That's it for all of our internal selections. We'll cover our external/structural and Guardian choices in our next post.  Happy building to all you Ryan Homes folks!

All of our Final Selections

Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock

So you just bought a house? Time to rest on your laurels for a bit right? Wrong!

The moment after you sign your contract on a Ryan Homes house, the clock officially starts ticking.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

You have two sets of dates when most of your major interior and exterior decisions must be completed by.

These decisions fall into two major buckets: 14-day and 30-day.

Your required 14-day order includes a lot of the big ticket item decisions you will need to make regarding structural additions or upgrades. Examples of these items are as follows:

• Elevation Upgrade
• Morning Room Add-On
• Fireplace 
• Finished Basement 
• Gourmet Kitchen Upgrade
• Master Bathroom Configuration
• Plumbing - Wet Bar or Basement Bathroom Rough-Ins
• Electrical - Ceiling Fan Rough-Ins and Recessed Lighting
• Deck  

Playing around with exterior color option ideas.

Your 30-day decisions are definitely more fun.  This is when you get the opportunity to make the house a little more your own, as opposed to the standard builder including options. By this date, you will have picked the below:

• Appliance Packages
• Exterior Colors
• Flooring (Hardwood, Carpet, Tile)
• Kitchen Cabinet Type and Color 
• Kitchen Granite
• Kitchen Backsplash (if you selected to do one)
• Bathroom Cabinet Type and Color
• Bathroom Countertops
• Bathroom Flooring and Tile
• Hardware Finish (Standard or Oil Rubbed Bronze)

I'm not sure if this is the case at all Ryan Homes communities, but at Potomac Shores there is a designated Customer Satisfaction Specialist who helps walk you through all of your structural and interior/exterior options.  It's definitely a lot easier making these decisions when you can see things in person, but it helps to have some idea of what your vision is for the house.

We had a few options we could pick from for our cabinet, granite and vanity top selections:

Standard (Level 00) and Upgraded Cabinet Options for Kitchen/Bathrooms

Level 1 Granite and Level 2 Granite Options for Kitchen/Bathrooms

Bathroom Vanity Top Options

For flooring and tiling, you will go to a designated design center.  I suggest booking that appointment as soon as you can as they tend to book up extremely fast.

Before your 30-days is up, you will also have a separate appointment with Guardian to go over your wiring and security needs. 

Your two-hour allotted windows for these selections go fast so I'd highly recommend taking a look at  the above options and doing some "Ryan Homes" online sleuthing to see what other buyers have done in their homes. Pinterest is great for this as well. 

If you are a Potomac Shores buyer like myself, there are a number of other great blogs out there that are extremely helpful on this front. I have a few highlighted on my reading list, but two of my favorites thus far are Potomac Shores Living and Living with an Elizabeth.

I will cover our experiences for those meetings in a future post, as well as all of our final selections. Till next time...