Friday, June 1, 2012

Friday at the Savoy

Like many of you, my husband and I started house hunting a few months ago. We have been married for close to two years and have rented a beautiful apartment in Verona, NJ.  We love living in Verona and really enjoy the proximity to New York City.  However, when it was time to look for a house, I was clear that we couldn't find a property that would be a good investment  and fit within our budget.
  
North Jersey is a great place to live, but when it comes to real estate--ouch!  What we could afford would give us a home that was 60 plus years old. Now, don't get me wrong, I think old homes have a lot of charm, but with that charm and yesteryear character comes a lot of maintenance and let alone high costs associated with heating and cooling an old house.  So, we had a problem--hubs wanted to stay up north (where he was born and raised) and I wanted "the house" (location was not as important) but something new was VERY important; I wanted a clean palate. Also, this would be my second time of purchasing a house; I was clear, I wanted to build.
   
After visiting a few houses in the area, my husband started to understand why I wanted new construction, and agreed that moving further down the state would be the best investment for us. Therefore, my Mets loving husband decided that it was ok to enter Phillies territory and look for a house in South Jersey!  With that being said, I found a community months ago via the web. And was excited to learn that Ryan Homes (my first house was built by Ryan)  planned to open a community in the spring of 2012.  We took a ride to the purposed community and immediately knew this was a great place for us.  Granted, I am moving home--born in Philly and raised in South Jersey (exit 5; yeah Jersey folks really do identify their towns by exits off the NJ turnpike), however, I have not lived in South Jersey since 1996 (came back to Jersey in 2010 but spent 14 years living in DC metro).  So, this will be an adjustment for both of us. But Greenbriar Estates has a lot of what we wanted--it's close to a major city (10 miles from Philly), tons of shopping, good schools (for our future kids), accessible to major arteries (yup, you guessed it, the NJ Turnpike), and is close to a really cute quaint, Main Street (it literally is Main Street in Moorestown, NJ). 


After reviewing plans, taking virtual tours, and finally traveling to Maryland to visit two model homes, Patrick and I were ready to commit to building a house.  On May 13, 2012, we gave our good faith deposit, selected our upgrades and now we're waiting for our approval from NVR mortgage.  At first I planned to start a blog after we received our mortgage approval, but for months I have been reading blogs written by buyers of Ryan Homes.  These blogs have chronicled experiences and provided a ton of info about their homes, cost of upgrades and even how to negotiate. I have enjoyed looking at the pictures of many lots going from dirt to final walk thrus. I have picked up tips on what upgrades are worth it and even feel ready to conduct my meetings with the flooring company and Guardian for wiring. 


After reading what seemed like at least 10 blogs a day, and conducted countless google searches to find information on the Savoy, I was saddened to see that many did not focus on the Savoy. So, I figured that was my cue to start my own blog, and show a Savoy!  Not all my posts will be this long, but I do hope to share our experience and seek to help others like the other blogs have done for me.  Finally, I have entitled the blog "What's Buzzin?" only because this was slang used in the 1940's, the time period when the jazz club, The Savoy was the place to be in Harlem, USA.  I know it may be a little corny, but I love history and jazz so it works…here's to building a Savoy!  


Catch you cats later, 
D
Elevation B, side entry garage, Savoy Model Home.




10 comments:

  1. Welcome to the Ryan Home blogging community! Please feel free to stop by too :-)

    http://ravennaspeed.blogspot.com/

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  2. Welcome Welcome Welcome, Danielle!!! I am happy to have found a place to blog about our home and I see you are digging the experience as well. By all means, do check out Thomas blog page, he has some awesome information to contribute. Our blog is called, "the rome is our new home." Happy Building!!

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  3. Rick, thanks for the warm welcome. I look forward to checking out your blog too! And Thomas definitely does have a wealth of info. I have already called my SR and requested changes based on Thomas' knowledge.

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  4. Welcome to blogger! I have started following your blog and I look forward to reading about your progress!

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  5. CMM…thanks for following my blog! I look forward to reading more about you too. What an exciting time for us all.

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  6. Welcome, your house is going to be beautiful. It's good to see a fellow Jersey Girl (also named Danielle lol I am Dannielle 2n's the second one always seems to throw ppl off lol) . I am originally from Montclair (so I know what you mean about North Jersey Real Estate... the property Taxes are ridiculous!). I live right outside of Philly now, but we are moving to DE once our house is done.

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    1. Hello, Dannielle and thanks for the warm greetings. I think people just have issues with our name in general. People call me Daniel---I'm like duh, I'm a woman, the name Danielle is pretty common:-) Anyway, it's great to meet you and we're almost neighbors (being in the Delaware Valley). I currently live in Verona, so Montclair is just up the road (literally). Looking forward to following your journey too.

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  7. Yayyy... welcome back to south jersey! Philly sports are better than NY anyway ;). I'm also a south jersey girl... tpk exit 2. Looking forward to following your progress!

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    1. Hey Colette! My parents live off of exit 2, in Mullica Hill! I am happy that I will once again be back in South Jersey…North Jersey is nice but the cost of living here is crazy! I look forward to following your blog too.

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  8. Congrats and welcome! I absolutely ADORE the Savoy model <3
    When we first started our journey with Ryan Homes I spent hours online looking at the different models and fell in love with the Savoy. It has such a functional layout and is so traditional and classy. Unfortunately it wasn't offered in the community we wanted to build in and the closest community that did offer it was way out of our budget as far as taxes.
    I love our Ferncliff but when we build our forever house in 5-10 years I hope it's a Savoy!
    Can't wait to see your progress!

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