Originally Posted by Packer Fan (Post 1654395)

So I have some questions - how do you know what the house will cost when you buy the lot??

Originally Posted by Packer Fan (Post 1654395)

So I have some questions - how do you know what the house will cost when you buy the lot? How do you know if you can do the bumpouts you want? Do the prices come out similar to the pre-built homes that are for sale? It seems so backward - I would want to design my house completely, then wait for the right lot to come open. My concern would be that the house and lot together would turn out to be way over my budget, and you are already locked into the lot..... Comments?

Originally Posted by VApeople (Post 1654294)

We spent a very enjoyable day and a half.

Of course, we were very prepared. We drove around and looked at different houses, so when she asked what color we wanted for the house, trim, and roof, we just said the same as the house at a certain address.

We had spent hours walking around looking at the type of front lights, so we knew what we wanted.

We knew in advance that we did not want a roman shower, vertical blinds, an oven, or a refrigerator. We later got the refrigerator and oven much cheaper at Best Buy, and we got ADO-wraps instead of vertical blinds at another store that sells them.

Our house had some common options, like a golf cart garage and an expanded lanai, so we knew we wanted those.

We knew what type of cabinets we wanted by looking at model homes.

When it came to choosing carpet and tile colors, my mind went blank because they all looked the same. Fortunately, my wife came through and made some great choices.

We did not like granite for the countertops and thought we wanted Corian instead, but our designer Nicole said that a large sink would be more expensive with Corian. She pointed out that we could get beautiful porcelain counters with a large sink for just a few hundred dollars more than Corian, so we took it. We are thrilled with our choices.

Originally Posted by CFrance (Post 1654445)

What is a porcelain counter? Is that the same as marble?

Originally Posted by CFrance (Post 1654451)

Never mind! I just Googled porcelain countertops and am intrigued. Did you find a trusted installer?

Originally Posted by Packer Fan (Post 1654395)

So I have some questions - how do you know what the house will cost when you buy the lot?

Originally Posted by Dan9871 (Post 1654398)

When you purchase a lot you sign an agreement to build a house of a minimum value within a year. The minimum depends on lot/area etc... The Villages determines that. The actual cost of the house depends on what you choose to put into it and you will not know that until the design is done.

Originally Posted by VApeople (Post 1654549)

We had no idea what the house would cost when we put down a deposit to hold the lot.

When we first met with our realtor, he gave us a sheet that had the basic price for every style of house with no options.

After working with our designer, we added about $60K in options.

Originally Posted by Packer Fan (Post 1654712)

Any chance you could list the base prices? Or at least the base for an Iris, Lilly, Lantana, Jasmine, and Laurel Oak

Originally Posted by gomsiepop (Post 1654747)

We met with design on Wednesday and we signed the contract a week later on a Thursday. One day was spent designing our pool. We started out with a Laurel Oak and decided to go with a modified Ivy. The reason I say modified Ivy is because we utilized the size of the fourth bedroom and incorporated storage space with a half bath on the lanai, an enlarged master bedroom with an additional walk-in closet, a butler's pantry, a larger secondary bedroom and more. We wound up with a three-bedroom, 2 1/2 bath Ivy. The sky is the limit with the home we never dreamed we would one day own. We will close on our home in August and can't wait for that to happen. The process of design was exhausting for me and without the guidance of our design person our dream home would never have come to be. Traci was amazing!