Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Please Make Me Feel Better...

So I've been reading some blogs today that mention upgrades that the bloggers wish they would have gotten. I used to dwell on things we didn't get and even second-guess the things we did get. We got most of the upgrades we wanted and I can't even remember most of the ones we didn't get but wanted. They weren't anything major. I would still love to have that window in the laundry room though.... Anyways, our home is close to completion and I LOVE everything about it so far. It makes me forget about everything I didn't get or do. Except one thing. I only have one regret. We opted for carpet in our formal dining room. I wanted hardwood but my husband and my SR talked me out of it. We were originally planning on getting hardwood on the whole first floor. It cost WAY more than we thought it would. Close to $12,000 if I remember correctly. Instead, we opted for the hardwood in the foyer, powder room, kitchen, and morning room. I'm glad we ended up getting carpet in the study and in the family room but I'm still a little bummed about the formal dining room. Hardwood was super expensive for this room and my SR pointed out that I would spend over $1000 just to cover the hardwood up with a rug. This room also won't get used that much. We did get the tray ceiling, crown molding, and chair rail in there though so part of my still wishes that we would have sprung for the hardwood.

Did anyone else get carpet in their formal dining room? Does anyone think it's weird to have carpet in a formal dining room? It has to be pretty common for Ryan Homes to make it standard, right? Be brutally honest!

42 comments:

  1. Yes we did exactly the same has you. We originally wanted hardwood in the dining room. We had hardwood in the dining room of our old house but had that covered with a large area rug. Our SR gave us the same advice has yours and in fact the model in our community has carpet in the dining room. So we opted for hardwood in the foyer, kitchen, morning room, and powder room. We put carpet in our family room.

    My biggest regrets are not purchasing the three car garage, the direct set staircase and not getting a full brick front on our home. The way I looked at was what would I get more use from a brick front or a finished basement? So we chose a finished basement. I still do wish we could have done brick. I know I will love my home anyway just like you will love yours

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    1. You won't spend much time looking at the front of your house anyway! I've always dreamed of having a home that is completely brick. I never knew just how much that would cost! I also couldn't find a builder that even offered this option. It was super expensive to have the whole front done in brick. One of our incentives was a partial stone front. It was only $2000 or $3000 more for us to upgrade it to full brick instead. I'm sure we would have paid the full cost, about $15,000, for the full brick if it wasn't an incentive. I feel that passionately about it. But we would have had to give up a lot of other things. We just got lucky!

      I would have LOVED a 3-car garage too! I don't like sheds but it looks like we will need one for our lawn care equipment. Even though we have a 1/2 acre lot, we couldn't fit a 3-car garage on it. Our house is really wide. A lot of the smaller models in our neighborhood, some who have smaller lots than us, have the 3-car. Like I told me husband, I would rather have more house than more garage!

      My husband really wanted the direct set staircase too! Our dog has a hard time just walking on hardwoods. We have to put rugs everywhere for her. She would not be able to go up and down the stairs if they were just wood. She would slip and she's too heavy for us to carry her. We get to blame the lack of that upgrade on the dog! I think it was too expensive anyway...

      I do love my house and so will you! I just needed to hear from at least one other blogger that they got carpet in their formal dining room! You just cheered me up :)

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  2. I don't think it'll look weird, but I do think that it's horribly impractical. Thats one room in the house where you are pretty garunteed to have spills. I'd rather clean up spilled wine off of hard wood vs carpet. We considered 3 different builders before signing with Ryan and all of them offered carpet standard. I think that they do that because they know 90% of people will upgrade that so it's just more money in their pockets (just like plain oak cabinets are standard but almost everyone upgrades).
    I really think they should just make hardwood standard and up the base price... it seems less painful, to me at least, to just start at a higher price instead of opting to add that extra money on.
    I wanted hardwood on my entire first floor as well, but just like in your case it was way too expensive (our house is smaller than your model but it was still 9k). I hate carpet and my husband hates to spend money lol so we opted to compromise and go with laminate. We upgraded to the 3rd level of laminate to ensure it wouldn't look cheap but it was still almost 5k for the first floor.
    I think will all of the extra accents you added like the tray celing and chair rail it will still look super classy :o)

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    1. Part of me wishes we would have gotten laminate instead. I'm afraid my dog is going to scratch our hardwoods! I've seen bloggers with beautiful laminate and you can't even tell it's not hardwood! We have laminate in our current home and our dog has never left a scratch! Unfortunately, by the time I made the realization that laminate was a better choice for us, it was too late!

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    2. Yes, the dogs do scratch the hardwood, I can vouch for that..
      you can't see it when you are walking around but if you get on hands and knees, you see tons of scratches everywhere..
      No regrets though..

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  3. My biggest regret is not getting the solid pine stairs...we opted to do the standard carpeted ones because my husband thought it was insane to pay an additonal $5k when both would "work the exact same". I agree to some extent but every time I'm in the model I pretty much drool over how gorgeous the stair case looks.

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    1. I think the wood stairs are dangerous! You have a better chance of slipping! This is even worse for children! Does that make you feel a little better about it? :)

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  4. We were in the exact same boat as you! I begged and begged for the hardwood to extend into the formal dining room, but it seemed too pricey. I had already won the full bath in the basement battle, so I had to concede. I reasoned that if we were to ever eat in there, the staining would certainly happen-but we are getting carpet. The wood floors we are getting are common, and I'm certain we can have the dining room replaced at a later time if we decide to.

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    1. Exactly! We are probably only going to use that room once or twice a year! If the carpet gets stained, we can just pay to have it professionally cleaned and it would still be cheaper than getting the hardwood! Our hardwood is common too. Home Depot carries the Bruce brand! I just really like when the floor doesn't have breaks in it though. I like when it continues from one room to the next. I can't have it all, I guess! I'm glad to hear from another blogger that they got carpet in the formal dining room! Especially from you because I totally have house-envy from your Highgrove!

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    2. I agree-can you imagine how many cleanings we would get out of the upgrade cost? I own a steam cleaner, so I would get most stains out myself, and for the rare times we use that room, I think we will be fine. Plus, hardwood can stain too-water stains, wine-etc. That's much harder and more expensive to replace! (You just have 9 foot ceiling envy-which I bet you won't notice soon enough-your house will be amazing, I love the Avalon and Yorkshire floorplans)

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    3. I have 9' ceilings on my first floor! I also have two-story great room envy, and master bath envy, and staircase envy. Your kitchen is pretty awesome too! I love mine but yours is a step above! Our houses do look very similar from the outside though!

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    4. They do look similar on the outside! Same with the Avalon! I still look at other homes thinking I wish I had this or that-I wish we could have gotten the 3 car garage, but it would have left us with NO backyard, our lot is quite small. I have a feelng those thoughts will always be in the back of our minds, but we will forget a lot when we see our gorgeous houses. :)

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  5. Don't worry, I've seen quite a few with carpet in the dining room and even the living room. Not only is it fine, but you could easily put in wood floors later. Especially in a room you won't use that often.

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  6. Tough call. The DR carpet decision was one of our last. We went with the hard woods in the DR -- but my wife had already upgraded the carpet (upstairs, Fam Room and Study) so there was less of a hit to switch the DR to wood. I like how it looks, and the balance of the house (1/2 carpet, 1/2 HWF) but it is 85% covered by a rug and we never use that room.

    My regrets are not converting living room to study (french doors) and not finishing the basement full bath (roughed in). At the time we were planning on 2 mortgages (which never happened, thank god we sold in time...) and butting up against an approval max. Flooring selections got a bit out of hand so the bath and LR/Study got cut back.

    The one upgrade I thought I wanted, but don't miss is the 4' extension on the family room. I am sure it is really nice, but the room size w/o it works fine for us.

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    1. Your house is one of the reasons I regret not getting HWF in th FDR because yours look so great! I would love to see some updated pictures of your house with your furniture all moved in!

      We mainly got the 4' extension because we wanted the basement to be bigger. It's not a huge difference but we didn't want to end up regretting it later since its not something we could add!

      As for the French doors on the study, I'm sure you can do it for a TON less than RH offers. I don't know why we never thought of doing it ourselves! Are those doors the only difference between the study and the living room option? If so, we totally got ripped off!

      We got the half bath in the basement. I kind of wish I wouldn't have let my husband talk me out of getting the shower. We didn't even get a rough-in so we can't add it later!

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  7. We opted for hardwood and ceramic tile on the entire first floor only because our lot was the lot of the month and it was free! It would have cost us $13,000. That is a lot of money and you can probably get it done a lot cheaper after settlement. We currently have carpet in our dining room and always said that we were going to change it out to hardwood, but nobody ever uses it, so it is in perfect condition! Keep your carpet in there until you wear it out! You can get hardwood anytime! Don't let that bother you. The structural options are a lot harder to change after the fact, not the cosmetic.

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  8. Hi CMM, this is a great post!! I agree with the majority regarding the dining room floors--you can easily do it later should you change your mind! As for me and my house, I am native new yorker and moved to maryland as a young twenty something year old and every apartment I lived in included carpet throughout which meant always having a carpeted dining room which I never liked from the beginning. I am sure it was cheaper for the builder to install--I just could not get with the concept. However, at the end of the day, I realize it is just a personal choice--to carpet or not!! When my husband and I purchased our first condo we had ceramic in both dining/kitchen, the second purchase was a townhouse with the same arrangement and for this purchase we decided to go with the hardwood on the entire main level. The children are grown, no worrying about red juice spilling on the carpet; however, we do have a dog to be concerned about--so Harley, our miniature pup just has to learn how to wear slippers. He has no clue I am about to start training him to wear doggie slippers. He is going to be pissed!! lol lol

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    1. PS Thank you for the advice you gave me earlier regarding the elevation. I am taking it to heart!!

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    2. Doggie slippers?!? I HAVE to see a picture of that! I also can't wait to hear how that goes! Ha ha!

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    3. HI CMM, every time I think about it, I burst into laughter! We were in New York visiting my mom and we saw this woman walking her dog with these slippers on and we could not stop laughing. We always keep a shoe free zone house, but never had to worry about wood and I don't want Harley messing up my beautiful floors, so the slippers came up as an option! Hysterical! I will definitely send a picture when I start training him, perhaps this weekend. lol lol

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  9. My wife fought and won for HW in the Dining Room. We will eventually get a carpet and nice table in there. I am happy now that we got the HW as it can be main walk-through from the front door in the Ravenna.

    As for the dogs, I found cutting and then rounding the edges with a dremel works like a charm. If you are not able to cut your dogs nails every two weeks and round with the dremel, then try these....
    http://www.softpaws.net/
    I have heard good things with these.

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    1. Thanks Sgt. Rich!! This is a wonderful option!!! I just looked online at the softpaws and they are absolutely perfect. I love that you get to pick the color. Too cute!! I also need to check with the grooming salon about the dremel work. Harley is a high maintenance dog and requires grooming at least once a month. I never bothered to ask how they trim his nails. It sounds like the softpaws with the combination of the dremel work would work best to reduce the frequent visits to the salon.

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    2. I used to use soft paws on my cats. I never thought to use them on the dog! She would probably just chew them off anyway. I'll just have to stop being lazy about taking her to get her nails trimmed on a more regular basis. Her nails are black and they are too thick for me to trim. I always end up making her bleed :(

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    3. Harley's nails are very thick too! I wouldn't know where to begin. Actually, I am too scared to do it because I don't want to hurt him and I am clueless on dog nail trimming. I have been taking him to the pet salon monthly since he was born and will continue. Did you like the soft paws on the cats?

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    4. My cats would chew them off and I was constantly having to replace them. After a while I quit using them because they are supposed to fall off when the nail grows out. Well they weren't falling off so my cat's nails kept getting longer and they curled under with the soft paw still attached. They were pushing up against the pad of her paws. It was really bad. I felt so horrible for causing it by making her wear the soft paws. I was literally crying as I was cutting them off. She had to be in pain. I don't see how they would work on my dog. If she can chew up a dog bone, then she could certainly chew up the soft paws.

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  10. I understand your regret for not having hardwood in the dinning room. If you remember, we added that to our house, only to have it taken away because it was too expensive. So, we have the foyer, kitchen, morning room, steps and powder room hardwood. The family room, dining room and living room will be carpeted for now. Maybe we'll change it later when it is time to replace carpet. But you have quite a few upgrades in your house AND you have the Yorkshire, that was the model I initially started off with and could not get because of price. I'm sure this is not your last house, so the next one you will be able to get all your upgrades. But int he meantime, enjoy your new home now!

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    1. This might actually be my last house! I love it so much and HW in the formal dining room or not, it is my dream home :) We upgraded just about everything. There is nothing we will have to change after we move in. Except for painting of course! We went with the base carpet so I told my husband that after we replace the carpet in a few years, after it wears out, we can put hardwoods in the formal dining room then! A lot of people have commented on this post about how they got carpet in the FDR too. I feel a lot better about it now!

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  11. We haven't had our flooring meeting yet, so I have no clue how much it's going to cost...I tried to estimate the price per sq footage using the floor plan and the estimate in our contract, and came up with about $8/sq ft. We were debating the living room being HW rather than the DR, because the DR was a non-discussion (two small kids who are the oldest of their generation, so even when they've grown up enough there will still be cousins to spill things), and it looks like it'll be about $3000 more than we budgeted. So I guess we'll see whether I estimated right or not!

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    1. We knew exactly how much it was going to be before our meeting. That helped because we had longer to think about how much we wanted to spend on the hardwoods. What we didn't take into consideration is the carpet padding. You WILL want to upgrade that and it will add up if you upgrade the padding throughout the whole house. We went with basic carpeting because I actually don't mind it. We also have some pets. We agreed that once our pets pass on and it's just the two of us, we will upgrade our carpet.

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    2. Tomorrow we meet with the SR to do the contract for our new neighborhood, so I'll get better numbers (instead of estimating), but in our original costing meeting we priced out level B carpet and 6 lb padding throughout. This time I think I'll do 8 lb in the family room and basement and see what the difference is. I'm just glad they include an estimate for you when they price it out, because otherwise we'd get in over our heads! I'm a little worried about our cable/data/security meeting (we don't have Guardian here, apparently), though, because there's no estimate in there.

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  12. I got hardwood in my dining area. I'm starting to second guess myself. I chose to do hw in the foyer powder room kitchen and dining. The rest of the house is carpet.

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    1. Hi Shane! Welcome to the Ryan Homes Blog Family!! I was trying to find your blog but could not find it! I would love to follow your journey--please include your access page for your RH blog. What home model are you building?

      I would love for you to follow our journey too: Please visit us at ricknadase.blogspot.com and be sure to click on the "join this site" button. Our family is building a Rome! The blog is extremely insightful and a wonderful way to track your progress with other home building bloggers. Happy Building, Nadase

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  13. We got carpet in the living room, formal dining room, family room and study. everywhere else we got laminate. i have hardwood in my current home and all the nooks and scratches that supposedly give the home "character" drives my OCD nuts :) but i'm happy with the choice. those other rooms will hardly get used and its something that we can do down the line...and we will. don't sweat it, u'll be in ur house for a very very long time!

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  14. I'm totally with you. We only got the standard flooring on our first floor (HW foyer, vinyl kitchen, MR and laundry and carpet everywhere else). I eventually want to get hardwood everywhere except the family room basically, but we opted to go standard for now and do it in a few years when we have a little more money to spare. It's easy to rip out carpet and install hardwood (I know, I helped do it at my parents' house when I was in high school). I probably still won't get my way on the WHOLE downstairs HW, but I definitely want my DR hardwood eventually. I think it's better to error on the cheaper side and do it down the road if you hate it. Because who knows, you may get in there and be fine with it and then you will have saved a couple grand that you can use on something else! I totally feel you though... I regret not upgrading our bathroom tile all the time. But oh well, it's too late now!

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    1. well colette that we DID do...upgraded the bathrooms. we had vinyl flooring in our current house when we moved in, i had remodeled last yr and put in ceramic. that is one project i did not want to do later.

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  15. We are getting carpet in the dining room (living room, family room and study too). We fell in love with some pricey off-the-plan mahogany flooring and had to keep the budget in line somehow (well, we blew the budget but still needed a few pennies for Ramen). I'm a little bummed about that, but know that we will almost never actually use the formal dining room.

    My old house had hardwood on the entire first floor. First thing my decorate said for that house was that I needed a throw-rug under the dining room table. $800 later, the room looked very nice. But still had the same stain issues as wall-to-wall carpet. Spot Shot works wonders.

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  16. I just want to thank ALL of my blogger friends! It seems that there are a lot of you guys that have carpet in your formal dining rooms! I officially feel better :)

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  17. I'm catching up on posts this week since we've been super busy lately..and yes, we have carpet in our formal dining as well! I'd love to do HW down the road :-) and yes, I will definitely add pictures once we're settled!

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  18. We got hardwood throughout the entire first floor except for our study. The hardwood floors were "bundled" with an incentive package, and we added hardwood in the dining room and LR to make it consistent. We had hardwood in our old house, and we love hardwood. Plus, my rationale was that if our 2 kids mess up an area rug with a spill, it is easier to replace than an entire wall of wall to all.

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  19. We have carpet on our dining room floor, and like most have said its probably the least used room in the house. You might want to consider upgraded padding upstairs, that upstairs is a little noisy. If you have children you really want that padding. One thing I wish we would have done was to sod the back yard, moving into a house with full grass front and back would have been nice that seed and straw takes work.

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    1. We upgraded the padding on all three floors of the house! I heard it's easier to get away with cheap carpeting as long as you have nice padding underneath! We don't have any children and we don't plan on having any either! Thankfully all of the lots in our community come with fully sodded lots. Our lot is 1/2 an acre....that would have been waaaay too expensive if we would have had to pay for it!

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  20. There were definitely more than a few upgrades we would've like to add to our Ryan home. We have a Courtland that we built two years ago in NJ.. If we had an unlimited budget, we would've added: a basement egress, a solarium, a 3 car garage... on and on. Oh well. When we built we were strategic with what we left out. We added hardwood ourselves in rooms that didn't have it and integrated to make it look like it was always there. You can almost always add a builder upgrade yourself if you're motivated enough.

    - John www.ourhomefromscratch.com

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