The Back Story

We've taken a while to post because the first post has so much information to cover that it might take a while....soooooo here's the back story.

We moved into our current home in Oct 2006.  It was just the two of us and even though we hoped to start a family soon it seemed like this house had plenty of room.  3 bedrooms, 1550 sq. feet, a cute neighborhood and lots of character-it even had the white picket fence and white birch tree out front that we had talked about always wanting.  The park just at the end of the street seemed perfect for walks with the babies to come.  We planned on being here about 5years and having maybe 2 kids while we were here. Well, just a month or so after moving in we became pregnant.  And 2 years after that baby #2 came.  And 1 1/2 yrs after that-baby #3.  So in that time our sweet little house with character has quickly become a sweet LITTLE over-crowded house with not much room to grow. The school system has went downhill and our plan to be here 5years is up....

In the past year friends of ours that lived nearby with 3 kids of the same ages as ours, and a house the same size as ours decided to build with Ryan homes.  We didn't know too much about Ryan homes or anything about the building process.  They moved into a beautiful Ravenna model that was about double the size or their old house.  We loved the model and thought "Wow wouldn't that be nice to have someday..." thinking someday way far off from now. 

Well time has moved a lot quicker than we thought.  In January, Dan decided to take a new job and it extends his drive time to work from what was about 15min to now 35min.  When we decided to for sure have him accept the position we realized that it would mean moving sooner knowing the time it takes to get to and from work and the gas milage, as well as just our outgrowing our house anyway.  We started looking online at Ryan homes and found them to be a lot more affordable than we originally expected.  Especially since we would be moving out of a county with high income,sales, and property tax into a county that was much more affordable.  So our next step was to check out the different communities available and see if any of them fit what we were looking for.

The first day we went looking at the different communities we printed off a map and had 3 different subdivisions to look at.  They were all within about 10-15min from each other and we noted price ranges for each community (since prices range quite a bit depending on which subdivision you choose).  Initially, I was thinking for sure to go with the cheapest subdivision.  Mainly because it would enable us to get one of the largest homes for the same cost as the smaller homes at the other subdivisions.  So the first subdivision we went to was the most expensive and we didn't like it at all.  Everything was nice but it was EXTREMELY close to the highway.  Like the backyard was the highway.  We knew that wouldn't work.  The next subdivision was the cheaper one but when we drove in we felt claustrophobic.  The houses were really close to the street and to each other and it felt so closed in.  So as we drove to the third subdivision, I wasn't very hopeful and was thinking Ryan homes might not work for us after all.  Dan secretly wanted the third subdivision all along though.  It was in an area he remembered from growing up and he thought it could be just what we were looking for (he didn't tell me this of course).

So on the way to the third subdivision, I started to get excited.  The drive there was beautiful and the area had a much more open, farm-like feel.  Just what we were hoping for.  We passed beautiful houses and three golf courses and big farms and I told Dan I thought this could be the one.  When we drove in- we both loved it.  It's open, farms are within view, it's on a golf course, and has a pool with waterslides for the kids, and a clubhouse.  It seemed like the exact place we had talked about someday "staying put" at and raising our family.  The taxes are the lowest at this subdivision and the school system is great.  So the next step would be figuring out if we could afford it and which model we would choose...