The Jones’ New Home Our homebuilding experience, from day one.

This house-building business is really tiresome! Fun but tiresome all at the same time. Every week it seems like there’s something that needs to be done. Like today, we went to pick out our lighting options. I don’t know what hubby thought, but I know I didn’t think this process would take more than 2 hours. Well, it did.

In the end of our appointment, we were able to finalize the lighting for our foyer and the ceiling fans for the Family Room and Master Bedroom. Still needing sale completion are lighting for Master Bath, Prince/Princess Suite Bath, Jack and Jill Suite Bath and Powder Room. The Dining Room chandelier will have to wait until Darling Hubby decide on a Dining Room set. Who would’ve thought so many options existed for lighting?

Boy, I’m exhausted!

Me in front of our new lot, Lot #72.

Me again in front of our new lot. Don’t let the sunshine fool y’all — it was cold as heck that day!

Darling Hubby in front of our lot.

More Darling Hubby profiling in front of our lot.

And even more Darling Hubby in front of our same ol’ lot.

Me right on Benson Lane, our future street

Just some of the homes in our future community.

We took this photo because we really liked the color of the house.

This is the corner of Benson Lane and Prescott Drive. Unfortunately, that ugly green box is a permanent fixture and even more unfortunate is that it’ll be situated on our driveway

The area surrounding our lot.

The same area surrounding our lot.

The area which will be our backyard. We were told that the trees will not be cut down — we sure are praying this promise is kept because we just love them.

Darling Hubby’s footsteps in the snow

Today, Greg Schmidt, the Sales Rep/Realtor for Toll Brothers, called to offer us Lot #72 ($40k) for the price that we had paid for Lot #71 ($30k). The reason? Well, it sure wasn’t because he was feeling extra generous. It was because after the architects assessed the lot, they’d discovered that the model we’ve chosen, The Elkins, was too big to fit on Lot #71. In terms of square footage, Lot #71 is actually larger than Lot #72, but since there is a Retention Basin located behind Lot #71, it could only accomodate a Columbia or smaller. I wasn’t too thrilled about all this because I’m suspicious by nature and I’m thinking that Toll Brothers is just trying to pull a fast one on us, but Darling Hubby was just too ecstatic! To him, he saw this as Toll Brothers essentially giving us a $10k gift.

After I thought about it, the offer is actually a great one. Lot #72 is the most expensive on that street, and for a very good reason. Behind the lot are a lot of trees which offer privacy, privacy and even more privacy. Also, from Lot #72, you can’t see the rear of the homes on Prescott Drive, the street that intersects with Benson Lane.

In the end, it was a no-brainer. Lot #72 is now our new lot

Today, we went to The Reserve to sign the Purchase Agreement contract. So, it’s official — Lot #71 is ours! Darling Hubby and I are going to be future residents at The Reserve at Eagle Village!

Also, today we had to finalize the following options because they were considered “structural” options:

*Walk-out Basement
*Expanded Basement
*Sliding patio doors in the breakfast area
*Double French doors in the Study
*Oak main stairs
*Plumbing rough-in in the Basement
*Additional Bath in the Jack and Jill Suite
*Ultra Shower in the Master Bath
*Stone face for the fireplace in the Family Room

We had briefly considered adding a Conservatory but Greg informed us that wasn’t an option for our lot anyway. Oh, well…

Darling Hubby and I putting our plastic house on our lot.

Hubby and I went to The Reserve at Eagle Village in Chester Springs, PA this afternoon to put a deposit down on Lot #71 (the premium on the lot is $30k). We gave them $1k, with $29k due in 10 days if we decide on the lot.

The lot that we’ve chosen is really nice. It’s close to a corner, but we don’t anticipate that being a problem because afterall, the only traffic that goes through there are the residents who live at The Reserve. Behind our lot are trees that we were told could never be cut down to build more homes because it is part of a reserve. So, we’re really happy about that. Because the model that we’re purchasing, The Elkins, has a wall full of windows in the Family Room, privacy is really of the utmost importance.

This is the model that we’ve chosen, The Elkins Provincial.

This is the first floor of The Elkins. The model that’s available for view at The Reserve at Eagle Village is actually a Columbia Lexington which in fact was the model that we originally were going to choose. But Greg and Tiffany talked us into getting an Elkins. The main difference between the two are:
*The Elkins comes standard with a Three-Car Garage - a huge selling point these days from what we’ve been advised.
*The Elkins has the two-story Family Room - an option that we were going to get anyways in the Columbia.
*The Elkins has a built-in desk in the Kitchen - just something that I’ve always wanted
*The Elkins has the Wall of Windows - something Darling Hubby was really impressed with.
*The Elkins is about 500 square feet larger than the Columbia.

The floorplan that you see of the second floor is actually slightly different from what Darling Hubby and I are probably going to decide. In the Jack and Jill Suite, we’re ordering an additional bath, which would bring our total bathrooms to 4 1/2. We’re planning ahead for when a baby or babies join us, and for when my mom stays with us (we’ve already decided she’ll be a live-in nanny for lil’ Blair Daniel and/or lil’ Alexis Nicole. The only thing left to do is to try to convince her of this *hee hee*)

This is what the two-story Family Room looks like, courtesy of Toll Brothers

This is what the foyer looks like, again courtesy of Toll Brothers

We went to Tina and Ed’s Housewarming Party today. Their house was nice I don’t think they’ve been in their new house for very long, but they’ve done a great job decorating in the little time they’ve had to do it. Here are some photos:

Tina and Ed
Originally uploaded by teyriffic.

SICU-P Gang
Originally uploaded by teyriffic.

Jackie and Moi
Originally uploaded by teyriffic.

Karen and Roman
Originally uploaded by teyriffic.

Rochelle and Hubby
Originally uploaded by teyriffic.

Afterwards, we went over Roman and Karen’s house. The first thing that I noticed was how wonderful their house smelled! Karen says she’s addicted to those Glade Plug-Ins. So am I, but I don’t think our house ever smelled as wonderfully as theirs! I think it’s more that the Brooks’ really keep a clean home.

When we got home is when Darling Hubby and I decided that we really needed to step up our game. Seeing Tina and her family and Roman and his family really had us thinking that it was about time that we started thinking about starting our own. Not just fantasizing about, but really planning for it. Tonight is when we decided we are truly ready to make that big step. But before the babies start coming, we must first get us into a bigger place. Thus our quest to build our dream home…. Thus the reason for this blog….