The house

We were very blessed because so many things turned out for us. All the other spec homes of our floor plan were sold in the recent weeks. They held this last one for us with a deposit from our realtor. He was excellent. He did a lot of leg work and ruled out a lot of houses for us. He showed us about 6 homes before we saw the one we bought. When he previewed the one we bought he said he would have a hard time beating the quality of home and price. These were all good things. After the first 3 houses we started getting nervous. One home was so bad that the people were foreclosing and they took everything including the speakers out of the ceiling, the door pulls out of the cupboards, the appliances and even the stainless stove hood. Crazy! Greg of course compared every house to the Avalon even though we had never even see it. House #5 and 6 were both serious possibilites although 5 was a little smaller but a great deal and House 6 will definately sell quickly but it didn't have granite in the kitchen. It did have an incredible basement with a cold food storage area. It was certainly enticing to consider that house and all the room we would have but again...there is something about new and picking out your own finishes.
When we arrived at the model home we were able to see the selections for the house we were considering. We didn't like all of them and again we were lucky because they approved all the changes and additions we wanted to do. We got to pick out beautiful hand scraped floors, cabinets, carpet, granite, and tile. The funny thing was we were picking all of these details out before we had even seen the house. That was what we did next. We walked the model floor plan and then the superintendant builder walked us through the actual home pre-drywall. It is on a small cul du sac with an enormous backyard. It is like we have our own park in the backyard since it is joined with 4 other neighbors.

Here are pictures of the model..I hope you can get a feel for the openness of the house. The model is obviously decorated beautifully and I would even consider some of the wallpaper. Crazy I know but it was beautiful.
This is the front of a finished home that is the same elevation but slightly different colors.

This is the current office but we will use it as a music room/living room.

This is the dining room with a butler's pantry. It has all the beautiful modelings and a tray ceiling. The fixtures are also that wrought iron.

This is a view into the family room. Love the windows although I haven't figured out how to dress them yet because the window is bowed out like a bay window. Hmm.

This is a view into the kitchen. It has a gourmet stove top, the microwave is a convection oven also and the island is HUGE!

This is a view of the kitchen from the other side. There is also a desk on the right.

This is the guest room on the main floor but we will use it as an office.

This is the master bedroom on the second floor.

This is the view in the master from the opposite corner. It is huge. Greg teased that he could get a lazy boy and get used to just sitting there watching tv.

This is the master bathroom. Holy Wall of Mirrors! I am excstatic for all the drawers (maybe a little over kill but we could keep a toothbrush for each day of the week in its own drawer.) Notice the wallpaper... it is awesome!

This is probably Alex and Logan's room.

This is Brett's room. They share a jack n jill bathroom. Abby's room I didn't show but she has her own bathroom. Hopefully she won't use it for a while because honestly I don't want to clean it.

This is the second floor bonus room.

This is the private desk on the third floor.

This is the third floor retreat which we are going to use as a guest bedroom because it has a private bathroom. Sorry to all my guests who have to carry their luggage up three flights but it is worth it once you are there. It is huge! I will probably also have it be a craft/scrapbooking room.

This is the outside of our house currently. It is a little close to the street but can't do anything about it now. We met a neighbor and he seems really nice and we have seen a gazillion kids outside playing. We also found out that we have a school bus even though the school is at the entrance of our neighborhood. Funny huh?

Hope you have enjoyed the tour so far. We will post more as they continue building. We have lots of eyes looking out for us. We even timed things perfectly so we could go to the pre-drywall walk through and Greg will come back for the 1 week walk through and then go back again for closing.
We also spent our trip finding our local church, driving from Greg's work...a whopping 12 minute drive! We have looked at hospitals for me to work at and we know where the nearest grocery store, shopping, and restaraunts are. It is very rural but we are so close to many things. It makes me feel like we are driving in wooded canyons of home. I am going to miss all my friends and expect them to always keep in touch. Good thing we still have a few months to go.