Building Our Ryan Homes Dunkirk: The Road To Discovery...

My first blog ever!

My wife and I decided last year to buy a new home since we could not comfortably fit more than 3 people in our living room. Not that we are entertainers mind you it's just for the next 10 to 12 years or so we wanted to make holiday celebrations a little easier to manage. (I was tired of sitting on my cramped living room floor since I offered my elders the love seat.)

We searched and searched but never found a home we really liked. Eventually, we experienced our first love a few miles away from us in a nearby neighborhood. We oohed and ahh'ed the front porch, a living room multiple people could sit in, surround sound speakers, trey ceilings, cathedral ceilings, a bigger bedroom, formal dining room, a stand up shower, and a dedicated laundry room. All things non existent in the bi-level bought 12 years before when I made half as much income.

Who knew you could have a crowd in your living room?

Wow cool floor. Still kind of small though.

Love the formal dining room with trey ceiling.

The sellers asked $164k; me being the smug dummy I am countered with $145k. They declined. What can I say? The first and last time I ever bought a house I was still in my twenties. Prior to our arrival it had been for sale for 6 months. Next week I went back as it dawned on me how nice I thought the house was and came back to give a more sensible offer. Guess what? in the meantime they sold the house for asking price. Talk about heartsick.

I stalked the selling agent for over a month asking if she was sure the people were going to be able to pull it off? did their financing fall through? did the buyer lose his job? anything...No they knew what they were doing and the sale was a done deal. They finished the basement and got a loan to cover it all. Presumably they lived happily ever after.

A month or so later we found our second love, it was a clone of the first house but with better building materials and arguably a more exclusive neighborhood.

We made several offers and the seller only dropped his price by a few thousand dollars. He was looking for about $187k, despite his house being on the market for over 245 days at this point. He basically felt it was going to be impossible for us to sell our house since he was having so much trouble selling his.

We decided to get our house in shape to put on the market and go back to him with an offer not contingent on the sale of our house. Well one week of expected preparation turned in to 6 weeks.

On a whim one day I checked the multiple listing service for "2 story's" a house I always had contempt for. They were all the same with their long uninspired rectangular rooms. Besides my wife had trouble going up and down stairs due to a knee injury.

I present my 3rd love, ALLY. The only house worthy of a name to this point...

Ally (The street name) had things I had never seen before. For just $10k more than what the 2nd love was asking this house had "wow" factor. If you have ever watched Storage Wars then you know what I'm talking about.

This house had a huge living room and a dazzling kitchen.

Look at that ceiling and those huge windows!

As Crocodile Dundee would say..."Now that's a kitchen."


Look at those windows! I did not know what a morning room was back then.

After seeing the photos online I thought I have to see this baby! I was so excited. I showed it to my wife and she was like "ehh" not impressed. So with baited breath we go to the house the next evening. I will make her sorry that she did not see immediately that this was the greatest house ever! The house was a foreclosure and was not occupied.

Unbeknownst to me it had no power. So we arrive and the realtor hands me a flashlight smaller than a pack of bubble gum and encouraged me to look around. With the equivalent of a candle in my hand I stumble around the kitchen trying in vain to see the goods. Pompously and somewhat arrogantly I tell the agent "We will just need to come back tomorrow!" before sunset.

Despite this house also being for sale for six months. An offer was made and accepted by the bank the night I stormed out of my dimly lit dream house.

Woe is me. I cannot be consoled. I cannot sleep for a few nights. Everybody tells me to get back on the horse. Not happening. Several weeks of viewing lack luster non ALLY houses that cost more and offer less. I decide to investigate.

Who made that house? A records check online shows it was financed by "NVR" mortgage. Who the hell is that? I have never heard of them. A "NVR" Google search brings up an affiliation with Ryan Homes. But according to Ryan Homes website they do not build in my state.

So as I live and breath today and build in the French Quarter of Orleans in Union, Kentucky. Ryan Homes still denies we exist haha.

Knowing ALLY is lost forever I decide to see if I can figure out which model house of Ryan Home the ALLY house is. I send an email to Ryan Homes with a link to the mls asking if they can identify the home and whether or not they plan on coming back to KY.

I get a reply that they do in fact build in KY and that the house I am looking at is a Dunkirk. The nearest model is over a 100 miles north of my current location. I was given a local number to call and am put in touch with Mrs. Adkins. I asked her to price the house out as she see's in the mls listing but with a 3 car garage. For a mere $264k I could have the $195k 3 year old ALLY brand new. Sticker shock! Well Union traffic sucks and I don't want to spend that kind of money after all it is a hundred grand more than my first love.

The only other house we found that I like was made by Fisher Homes.

The main thing I liked about this house was the living room it was like ALLY's but on steroids.

Wow! a 30 foot ceiling!

That living room was the best I had ever seen. But really at the end of the day that was all this house had. Unfortunately, the view out of those gorgeous windows left a lot to be desired. Yep, this house suffered from round the clock housing (RTCH) what is that you ask? It's an industry term I am gonna trademark one of these days. Imagine a clock and on every point of the dial is a neighbors house...