Jose at the site of our future house!
Looking out from our future front yard
Looking over our future back fence
So we drove over to admire our empty lot again last night.
Ok, so we did have a better reason than just to admire our patch of dirt, though that played a big part. In reality, we need to finalize our decision on an elevation as well as a brick/stone color/pattern by the beginning of next week, so we wanted to check out all the other houses in the neighborhood. There are three elevations we like.
First is Elevation B, which is one of the “free” elevations (meaning it’s already included in the price of the home):
It looks lovely and we of course will get to pick our own brick color and what type of stone we want (if we want stone at all). We like this elevation a lot, and I especially like that it means two windows in each bedroom, but we have one hesitation — there are at least 4 or 5 other houses within the neighborhood with the same elevation. See, the floor plan we picked used to be one of the model homes, so everyone saw it and therefore it was a very popular choice.
Then there’s Elevation X, which we also like quite a bit:
It has the advantage of a double-wide garage door, as opposed to the others, which separate the garage into two bays with a column. I hate the column. It’s pointless, and does nothing but make your garage less usable. However — there’s already an X just two houses down from where ours will be. So X is out, not even allowed by the builder in the interest of maintaining at least some distance from a truly cookie cutter neighborhood.
Then there’s Elevation D:
The big selling point of this one is that it comes with a true front porch, big enough for a couple rocking chairs or similar, instead of just a front stoop. Another advantage is that we have yet to actually spot one in the neighborhood, meaning it would help our house with the very common floor plan look a bit more unique from the street. The big downside? Yes, we’re back to a two-bay garage, but more than that, there’s a hefty price premium on this elevation.
Decisions, decisions…
Oh, i would give anything for the double wide garage door! the garages here are ridiculously small. the front porch is nice. two windows in the bedroom is nice, but its just more to board up if that’s what you decide to do for a hurricane. but the double garage door is USEFUL!
I like D, mostly for the front porch. 🙂 I really wish my house had a front porch now. Also, looks like you’ll need to bring in some topsoil for your yard. Do they do any basic landscaping for you?
Is the entire garage separated, or just the door? I don’t think I would care if my garage door was separated, but it would be really annoying if the whole thing was. If it’s only the door, I probably wouldn’t place that much weight on it.
I like the big windows in D, so that’s probably my favorite for that reason. I’m not sure having a porch is that useful. I think you’ll prefer to sit in your backyard, so it’d mostly be decorative. B looks very nice too. In my opinion, the windows are too small in X, unless you have some particular reason to want small windows.
I have large bushes in front of the windows in front of my house which I initially thought would be annoying, but I’ve found I really like the privacy. So maybe having a lot of windows at the front isn’t important. I love having windows at the back, though, and I think you’ve said you’re sheltered from neighbors at the back. If so, I’d pick something with lots of windows at the back.
I also like the stone with option B. If there’s a significant difference in cost, I’d probably go with B given your garage preferences.
Is there a room above the garage, or is that window purely decorative?
Come over to my house and attempt to pull your XTerra in and out of my garage a few times and you’ll see why it matters to have one big door. Cari’s and my rear view mirrors are completely scratched up by the doors. Anyway, that’s just my thought…
I don’t understand why everyone in Texas has huge cars and they have tiny garages. My dad’s two car garage is about twice as big as mine..
Jen, just the door is separated, not the whole garage. I should mention that any of the elevations can be made into a single-door garage — but for a price, of course.
My garage at my old apartment was tiny, and I had no problem fitting my Xterra in it and never once hit my mirror. I’m not concerned about driving into and out of it — it’s more of just a usability issue.
Katie, they do some basic landscaping and we get two trees in the front yard, but I don’t know specifically what they will and won’t do. Also, sod in the backyard is an “upgrade” which is totally stupid, but all the builders do it that way. (I mean, who DOESN’T want grass in their backyard??)
Exactly. I wouldn’t have a problem getting my car in and out if I didn’t have to maneuver around garbage cans, recycle bins, ladder, lawn mower, tool boxes, bicycles – that stuff gets hung off the wall or placed in the litte aisle between the two cars – you can still fit, but it would be much much better with a single wide door… you will have many things in your garage besides a car…
Is there a pole in the middle of your garage? Often if there is a room over the garage, there will be a pole in the center providing additional support. If there is a pole, then the two doors v. 1 doesn’t really matter. Having 9ft wide doors though is nice and worth paying for over the long run.
There isn’t a pole in the middle. There’s nothing above the garage — the windows on some of the elevations are just decorative.
you can get 3 pallets of sod for 200-300$ and a weekend day you can lay it down. That’s what the builders subcontract out to do. I took it one step further. I tore the sod into 2″ squares, used one pallet and planted them all 1 foot apart. by the end of summer I had a lush backyard, for 100$. Oh, and I second Becca, my house has a single garage door and it is worth the extra money to have it. I could put my jetskis or a boat in the garage for example. Plus the lesser expense of having one garage door opener. That offsets the extra expense.
Ooh, I forgot abotu the garage door opener. That’s probably included in your house. But my house didn’t come with one and I had to buy it. Each door was $250 for the cheap hardware. Then (I know Byron is cringing here) I had to pay $250 per door for installation.
Garage door openers are included.
Congratulations you guys!!! Your house floor plan and the lot both look awesome. My parents are moving out here this summer and Magnolia Creek was one of their favorite neighborhoods out here. You and Jose need to take up golf! We also loved the waterpark! (They ended up buying in The Park on Clear Creek because it has a private boat ramp with access for residents and my dad is thinking of getting a boat.) Anyway, let us know if you need anything. We know of a great mortgage lender and we’ve been really happy with our homeowner’s insurance agent…
I had pictures like that once. That is, just before the house that I live in now was bought as a spec home … 🙂