Working it out

My dad came and watched our boys for us today so we could put in the official mortgage paperwork.  We've got great credit so our Loan Officer was confident that we'd get the lowest available rate when we get to the lock-in point, and maybe even a rebate if one's available!  Exciting news.

When the baby (err...16 month old...) went down for his nap, we trekked out to the Rome model in a nearby-ish neighborhood to check it out.  I love it!  Love love love.  I do wish there wasn't quite so much space allocated to the master bedroom, since we won't really spend much time in there, but my husband is sure I'll figure out something to do with all that room.  ;)  We did run into a bit of a snag because this layout isn't quite the same as what we're expecting, so there are a couple things we're still unsure about...but I've typed up a bunch of questions to email our SR so he's prepared for us on Saturday.

On our list:
light switches and outlets
extending the driveway
finishing a storage area of our basement
getting a single-piece bathtub/shower for the boys' bathroom (no grout to clean!!)
depth of the windowsills (never seen this on a blog...I like a sill deep enough for plants and kitties)
changing the location of sump pump etc in the basement
finding out whether our cul-de-sac will be paved (we're the last house on the street, but only our side is part of the neighborhood and the street goes past our lot, so it's not obvious what the plan is)  and whether there will be sidewalks

Our only two non-standard requests (so far!) are getting that wall oven in the kitchen SOMEWHERE (and thanks Nadase for your help with that!), and removing the closet in the mudroom so that we can put a bench and coat hooks down there (idea credit: built-in hall tree from WodyJ, here's a picture of what it will somewhat look like: closet mudroom).

Did we miss anything?  What things have you wished you did differently?  Feel free to just link to the appropriate post on your blog if you don't want to type it out!  :)

Back and forth

Well, the high of making the decision and signing the contract has worn off, and now we're starting to second-guess ourselves.  I wouldn't be surprised to hear that everyone goes through that, but strangely that doesn't help me any! The most recent downer for me is realizing that I can't get the wall ovens in the Rome, and that was something I really wanted my forever home to have. We have GOT to get over to the model and walk around in it...not having been inside a finished Rome is hurting my ability to make good decisions. The virtual tour makes it look like I could put cabinets against the wall of the powder room, but I can tell that those pictures are distorted and I might be getting the wrong impression of the space. So now I'm wondering if I picked the right model.  Does the Verona come with the "gourmet kitchen" upgrade? That's the only other model offered in our neighborhood that has the space we need. My husband is exasperated with me for being wishy-washy, but I've read about others having difficulty getting add-on cabinets that match if it wasn't done through Ryan.

On a related note, has anyone gotten Ryan to install cabinets in their laundry room? What about wooden shelves instead of wire? I hate those wire contraptions. Especially in the pantry. And do we get to customize the kitchen cabinets in any way (drawers instead of doors here, stand-mixer lift there, that sort of thing)? That hasn't come up with the SR and so far I haven't seen anyone talk about it on the blogs.

Oh, and my husband got freaked out by some of the horror stories you can find online.  How did you get past those?