Well, the big pre construction meeting was this afternoon - very informative, very thorough. Our pm knows his stuff - I feel like we're in good hands! Went over the "blueprints" with a fine toothed comb and gave us a tentative closing date of 9/24. But the best part about the meeting....finding out they're breaking ground tomorrow!!!! Holy crap! And, since there's only 27 homes going up in our community, they expect it to be complete in a year. Wow! We went over to the lot (no model home in our comm, meeting is at a nearby model home) after the meeting to get a better feel for how the house will sit, and our pm explained to me how the stakes were layed out. I was confused before. Doesn't take much.
We were a little disappointed to learn that there are no sidewalks in the cul-de-sac or on our side of the street like we were originally told, but no biggie. There's a 10ft easement at the front of the property should they decide to put them in someday. Also a bummer? Apparently the HOA has final say about fences and sheds - all have to be submitted for approval - and it's pretty much a given that any sheds will be denied no matter what. Fences have to meet certain criteria, which - of course. I expect that. But no sheds? At all?! Yikes. I guess the original developer wants to preserve the aesthetic integrity of the community. I'm hoping as time goes on they'll do away with that by-law, because otherwise one of us is going to be parking in the driveway so our garage can hold all our lawn stuff!
See, the story with our community is that it was originally intended for high, high end homes. Well, about 10 homes were sold and built and then the housing market fell out. Fast forward a few years, original developer can't move anymore homes and RH steps in with a more affordable product - with stipulations upheld by the original developer and homeowners. Only certain models and elevations were made available, brick front standard, hardy plank siding standard, among other things. I AM happy to be on the receiving end of those standards - but no sheds at all?! Really?!
So I'll be driving by the lot tomorrow after work. Stay tuned for pics of a giant hole....
No sheds is ridiculous. How much land do you have? I would guess if you went to the HOA with plans and photos of the shed, they would okay it. Wouldnt they rather see that than your car or, all of your stuff laying around?
ReplyDeleteI'm still not sure what our HOA is supposed to do for us. They don't have a say in anything, apparently, we just pay money to take care of part of the common property.
Right?! I thought it was a little crazy, too. The thing is, the whole community - the bigger homes & the Ryan homes - are all kind of an appendage on an already existing community of older homes - built late 60's/early 70's - all very nice, big homes as well, and many of those have sheds. Its just the newer ones that can't because of the HOA they formed.
DeleteOur HOA fees are very, very minimal - I think mostly just to take care of the sign at the entrance.
And to answer your question our lot size is .414 acre. So its not like a shed would be monopolizing all the space in the back yard.
DeleteYeah, ridiculous. Even in our townhouse, we could all have sheds!
DeleteDon't they make invisible sheds? I will be checking the site tomorrow with my Steeler hard hat on:)
ReplyDeleteLet me know what you find out about that invisible shed:)
DeleteThat sounds like what happened with our community. It was started by another builder like 5 -7 years ago and there's about 5 close-to-million dollar houses there. Then Ryan came along and is finishing the development. Our community is small too... only 22 lots. Our next door neighbor's house is a mansion. I was worried about our house looking to small next to it, but my husband kindly reminded me that we shouldn't compare ourselves to others :). That's so awesome that you get brick standard!
ReplyDeleteActually I should have specified - "partial" brick front is standard:) But still nice not to have to pay for that upgrade...OR elongated toilets! Woo-hoo! We're movin' on up now! But yes, when you pull into our development, the first few houses are like, "whoa. did they win the lottery?!". Not so much:) When Ryan first started advertising, the sign out front said "houses starting in the $170's!". Well I guess the "high-end" builders just about fainted since they probably paid upwards of 3-400K. But as we all know, that $170K is not at all what you wind up paying, lol.
DeleteI hate the look of sheds but I know we HAVE to get one to store our lawn equipment. Our HOA requires prior approval. All I know is that they have to match our house. That should be easy.....not!
ReplyDelete