I was reading a Ryan building blog (no surprise there - it's my current addiction!) and someone was expressing some disappointment in how their neighborhood is turning out. I got the impression that they were one of the neighborhood pioneers, and got to watch as the neighborhood developed. But to their slight dismay, the street was beginning to look very cookie cutter - all the houses were looking extremely similar. And they were asking 'Doesn't Ryan try to avoid this?'
We all know about the rules...you can't choose the colors/elevations of your surrounding neighbors, and this is an effort to keep the neighborhoods from appearing too cookie cutter. But doesn't it seem like most neighborhoods have one really popular model, and everyone gets that one? Like in the post I'm referring to, I think everyone had this one model, and it was house after house after house of this one model!
So this made me wonder....what will my house be surrounded by? My house will be on a corner, with only one neighbor to my right, and a neighbor behind me (after you round the corner), and that 'behind' neighbor has one house next to it. And that's the end of the street. I asked my SR, 'What's the most popular model in the neighborhood?'. And I wasn't at all surprised when she said 'The Savoy.' Even though it's the smallest house in the neighborhood, it's the model home. The model home always makes an impression. After explaining my extreme nosiness, I asked her what models my neighbors have. Mind you, the neighbor to the right of me just went to settlement a couple of weeks ago, the neighbor behind me is in framing, and the neighbor next to him is at the POD stage (POD = patch of dirt), like me. Turns out my little corner is quite diverse. :-)
The folks on the right of me who just moved in - they have a Ravenna.
The folks behind me in framing - they have a Courtland; *not* a Courtland Gate. My SR says the Courtland Gate is the new Courtland - apparently Ryan has retired the Courtland in favor of the Courtland Gate. My SR says they are similar, but she likes the original. I'm curious to know the difference.
And the folks next to them - with the POD - have a Palermo.
For me, the diversity isn't a huge deal....I just find it interesting (probably because I'm nosey. lol)
How diverse is your Ryan community?
PS - I'm glad my tiny Savoy is in FRONT of the Courtland - otherwise, no one would ever see it. :-)
First I love your blog name...how creative...
ReplyDeleteNext, hey now, our houses aren't SMALL..LOL
Mine is almost 2700 sq feet, its already too much to clean for me...hahahaha!!
I hope you got every bump out that you could :)
We are few and far between, us SAVOY's here on the blog, so glad you joined, Ill love watching your progress.
Hi dwtimes2!! Thanks for reading and posting and liking my blog name. :-) You are right about the sparsity of the Savoy blogs!! I have stalked yours and the 'What's Buzzin' blog soooo much, I feel like we're all old friends. And yes, I realize this makes me weird. I'm surprisingly ok with that. LOL.
DeleteI love, love, love your house!! As well as the other Savoy on the 'What's Buzzin' blog. And I'm so happy that you guys are still here, although you're all moved in. It's great to see the decorating ideas, and know how things are going now that you're all settled in.
Ahhh cleaning. Not one of my favorite past times, but I'll be happy to be in my beautiful SAVOY!
Your NOT weird at all.......its what this blog was intended for :)
ReplyDeleteAnd did you get the bump outs?
YaY for normal-ness! :-)
DeleteYes, I think I managed to get all the bump outs. I got the morning room, the bump out in the family room, and the upgraded master, where you get the two walk-in closets. The only thing I didn't get was the 4' extension in the garage...which makes the master 4 feet bigger! The model home in my neighborhood is the Savoy, and it's got the larger garage, so the master is HUGE! I didn't get that, but I think the master will be fine without it. And at this juncture, I'm the only one parking in the garage...so I couldn't justify paying for bigger garage! (not really a cheap upgrade).
Do you have the same bumps? Am I looking at about 2700 sq ft too?
GREAT!
ReplyDeleteI got the garage extension, we have four cars...not that the extension even lets you fit two vehicles, but my master is very large...so your house may have a little less sq footage due to not have the larger garage and master....
And yes, I got all the other bump outs, we wish we could have gotten the side entry garage, but our LOT would not allow for it :( One of the things we GAVE UP, you know ......that "give up" list!!
Our neighborhood is pretty diverse, but that could be because it has been "building" for a few years now. All the homes in the front section are completely different (they don't even LOOK like Ryan homes) then I think they have changed the models offered a couple of times. In my section in the back (started building end of 2011), there is a good mix. I'm surrounded by a Courtland on one side - no longer offered and a Victoria Falls on the other (just being built).
ReplyDeleteYou're not the only nosey one - every time I'm in my neighborhood I'm trying to figure out what the homes are. Just out of curiousity. Never thought I'd be interested in something like that, but I've embraced the new quirks in my personality :)
Hey C! Yeah, I ride through my neighborhood and try to figure it out too. But I'm really, REALLY bad at it. And sometimes, even though the models are different, the elevations look similar.
DeleteYou're not that far from me...I'll probably swing into your neighborhood one weekend soon, cuz I'm nosey. :-)
LoL :)
DeleteHave they given you an estimate for a start date yet?
Man C....I've got a LOOOONNNGGGG time. lol. Kinda my fault though, since I requested an August settlement date. I'm actually in a lease until November, so in order to not do a lot of double paying, August it is.
DeleteMy SR says they'll probably break ground late May, early June. Will you be all moved in by then??? What month are you hoping to settle?
Hopefully it will go by quick for you. Really good reason to request a later settlement (I've got to get a renter into my current house as soon as I move out or I'll be double paying). At least you got to take advantage of the prices now. In my neighborhood, the base prices have gone up in the last month...
DeleteMy SR told me today that they hope to start me within the next 2 weeks (almost a month later than I was first told, but that's another story). So that puts me at a mid-June settlement.
The older side of our neighborhood is very diverse. The new side, not so much. I will have a Verona next door and diaganol from me (am also building a Verona). Not sure what will go up across the street.
ReplyDeleteThe cul de sac that just went up has...4 (I think) Romes. Those are by far the most popular two houses in our neighborhood. I think certain model elevations look very different and you aren't able to tell (the Rome's look fairly different), but I also think that some of them look too similar. Someone wrote on my blog how they won't let the same model go up next to one another, but as you and I have both seen, other Ryan Home neighborhoods don't care if you have 15 of the same model in a row.
Personally I think it's important to have diversity in a neighborhood. To me there is no bigger turn off then seeing a neighborhood where it looks like the exact same house, one after another.
Hi tourqeyes! I do think diversity is good - it gives a neighborhood personality. Kinda like mature trees. :-)
DeleteI agree with you on the Rome's...I think they have so many outside options, between siding/brick/stone and different variations of porch options - it's easy to make them look completely different. For the Savoy, I had a choice of only 2 elevations, which look really similar. County code prohibits what would have been the third option. So, two elevations, brick or no brick. That was it. Does the Verona have lots of configurations like the Rome?
Seeing as how diversity is important for you, here's hoping that your neighboring Verona's will look much different!! We want you to love your surroundings.
Oh yeah, Stacey! The Rome has elevations running from A-N! They have included a huge selection of cottage style homes that are typically found in the southern region. I tried to get elevation E which comes with the front porch. In this community, they would not allow for any cottage style home. This meant, putting in a non-request for a front porch on Elevation C which was approved after 8 weeks. This delayed our settlement date but it was worth the WAIT! They liked the idea so much that they built a elevation c Rome with the front porch in our community. I basically started a trend in our community. This is offering new homeowners the option to choose Elevation C with or without a front porch.
DeleteThat's very cool, Nadase! Ryan ought to give you a cut for every person that chooses Elevation C with a porch - wouldn't THAT be something!
DeleteI love a porch. I'm from DC, but I have roots in the south. Nothing like sitting on the porch in the spring and summer with some sweet tea, waving at all the neighbors :-)
Okay, Ms. Stacey M! Let me tell you...I watched this entire South Side of The Chapel at Fairwood built over the past year! We had not one home built in our cul-de-sac when we signed our purchase agreement. Imagine that! Plus we were the last house to be built in our cul-de-sac! It was a loooong WAIT! ANYWAY, I drove by the neighborhood relentlessly and know the model and elevation of nearly every home! LOL A sistah could not help herself! For some reason, it became extremely intriguing. I was also praying we would not end up with the same models and elevations in our cup-de-sac because the cul-de-sac next door to us has one Belford, one Avalon, one Naples, two Milans, and three Rome's (not to mention that each of the Rome's have the same brick color, but two have the same elevation A and the other elevation is B which gives a very very very small distinction since the colors are the same). I mentioned this to our SR and she said she made a mistake and may get in trouble for it. Because we had to wait so long, I had plenty of time to change the exterior because it wasn't meeting my satisfaction. I found out too late that we could not get the Stone Mountain Clay siding even though we were the first to pick colors, but once I started working with the exterior it was too late. So my quest was to make sure our house would be different. We lucked up in our cup-de-sac because every house looks different. We have one Victoria Falls (with combo brick and stone--gorgeous), one Oberlin, two milans (one pink and one deep red brick), one elevation A Rome (with brick) , one elevation C (with stone) and our elevation C with front porch. I only wish I would have gone with the lighter brick but could not choose the black shutters/door which was more important to me so I went with the traditional deep red brick, black shutters/door and Island Pearl siding. I have to admit the front porch creates the huge distinction for us. YES!
ReplyDeleteBTW--I did read about and saw the blog you are referring too. It looks like a Nightmare on Elm Street!! Sorry folks couldn't help it! The problem is they can't stop people from picking the model and lot choice; however, they can do a better job with making sure the elevations and color schemes vary.
Sounds like your neighborhood has some diversity, but I know over there at Fairwood, the ROME seems to be super popular. But with so many elevations, that's not really a bad thing at all! I don't think I've ever even heard of an Oberlin. I'll have to check that out.
DeleteYEEEAAAHHHH! You saw that blog post!! The pic of that street was a bit.....scary. lol So many of the same homes the same color. Seems like that should not have happened to THAT degree.
Oh, and your house is gorgeous! I think you made great choices.
PS Part of my obsession is learning and researching about the different design styles. I am a Interior Designer in Training and love allow those creative juices flow. I will definitely visiting your area to check out the Savoy! We do offer the Verona and Ravenna in our area but no one is building those houses. But I do see more mention of the Savoy so I am interested and will also be checking out the new RH home in Beechtree that they just built and released a month or so ago
ReplyDeleteDo you guys do the SAVOY in Fairwood? Just curious...
DeleteOur neighborhood just got approved to build the ROME! My SR was telling me that it's been such a popular model, that she asked for it in our neighborhood, and it was approved.
I actually was interested in moving to Beachtree, but Upper Marlboro is a pricier address than Clinton. That helped make the decision easier. :-) For the price of my SAVOY in Clinton, I could have gotten a townhouse in Beachtree.
We have a run of the same smaller houses up the street, but when you get back here to the larger ones there is only one other Ravenna in this whole neighborhood. My cousin built an Avalon, which wasn't even officially offered in this community. When they wanted to build but didn't love any of the available floorplans they were told Ryan would build them anything they offer in the region. So one Avalon, two Ravennas, another unique three story house near them, built by someone who works for NVR. Our neighborhood was being built by a builder who went belly up. They left a lot of neighbors in a lurch. So Ryan did not build the first half? Little more than half? Of the neighborhood. Plus, our development is on the small side, I think. We are completed and there are around 160 houses.
ReplyDeleteHi Tammigirl! Your neighborhood sounds quite diverse. Plus if you have more/different builders, that probably helps. My neighborhood is about the same size as yours - it's not one of those 'mega' communities, with tons of stuff, i.e. no pool, no clubhouse....but I'm okay with that.
ReplyDeleteEven though my neighborhood is all Ryan, I think they've kept up enough diversity. They also just started offering the Rome, which is a new model for my community. All in all, I'm pretty satisfied.