With Mike gone now and life starting to settle back into a normal routine, the previous discussions of Brian and Angela selling their home, Connie selling her home and them purchasing or building a home together was starting to take shape.
We sat down and discussed what each of us wanted in a new home. After several discussions, talking to other people and researching websites and magazines we decided to look for a home that was termed as "an extended family home". We first started by looking in the newspaper ads to see if a home like this already existed in the area we wanted to live. We also contacted realtors for assistance in locating this type of home. A few homes like this were found. After touring these homes we found that they weren't quite what we had in mind. With our minds set that this would be the last home we would all probably ever have, we decided to start checking with various home builders to research our avenues in building the home we dreamed of having.
Over a period of several months, we visited several local area home builders with new developments under construction or about to be. We walked through so many model homes but none had the "extended family" aspects we were looking for. In talking to the model home representatives for the builders and expressing what we were looking for, we kept hearing the same thing over and over again, "we can move a wall here or there but we can't deviate that much from our model plans." The reason given to us was that with the house plans they have their production times are down to such a fine science that they can quote extremely accurate building times and costs. It was suggested to us that we try looking into custom home building or private builders. We researched for private builders in our area and found that prior to building we would have to hire an architect to design our home, get the plans approved and then go back to the builder for them to price out construction. The total cost for the architect and private builder was going to exceed the amount we knew we could afford. With our options becoming very limited we started to research the custom home builders in our area.
TalkTurns to Action
Decision to go with Meyer Douglas Homes
We had heard that there was an extended family model home in the Four Bridges community (located in Liberty Township) built by Meyer Douglas Homes. We went to the model home but there was no representative there. We found another Meyer Douglas Homes model in the same area and decided to stop to see if they could let us in the extended family model. This is where we met Kerry Seitel who is a Meyer Douglas Homes sales representative. Kerry was very nice, personable and interested in hearing what we were looking for in a home. After telling her our story, she immediately told us that is what Meyer Douglas Homes does. We design the home we want with their home designing staff and Meyer Douglas Homes builds it. She further explained that Douglas Homes is the part of their organization that builds homes from pre-existing floor plans and that Meyer Builders Custom Homes is the custom home building portion of the organization. If we decided to build with Meyer Douglas Homes that Meyer Builders Custom Homes would be who we would be working with. In talking to her more we found that the Four Bridges community would be out of the price range we had in mind for our new home. Kerry mentioned that there was a new development just starting in the Liberty Township area off of Kyles Station Road called Creekside Meadows. It was such a new development that she didn't know if there was a sign posted yet and stated that she would escort us to Creekside Meadows to look if we were interested. Of course we were interested because we were finally hearing what we had longed to hear…A custom builder in our area who had their own design team who would work with us to build the home of our dreams.
We followed Kerry in our car over to the Creekside Meadows development. Creekside Meadows was jointly being constructed by Meyer Douglas Homes and Buckhead Builders. Construction was already under way on a couple of homes in the subdivision. We stopped in front of the construction trailer and Kerry showed us a lot plan indicating which lots were owed by Meyer Douglas Homes. We drove around viewing the lots, questioning the detention pond and common areas. We were drawn to lot #15 for a variety of reasons (elevation, it was flat, there would be walk path behind us and a common area for our kids to play). Kerry gave us her card and told us to talk everything over and to give her a call if we have any questions. We drove away from Creekside Meadows with our heads spinning. We were excited and felt our search for a builder was finally over. We went home that night and talked about everything that had just happened. A short time later we called Kerry to find out what the steps were for getting things in motion. We had previously told Kerry that we have found some plans from some model homes we visited and liked but believed what we want for a home was a merging together of three different house plans. Kerry told us to give her copies of the house plans (two Drees Homes plans and one Meyer Douglas Homes plan) and she would run it past the Meyer Douglas Homes design team to give an estimate of the house size, cost and if it would fit on the lot we had selected. Kerry told us that we would need to pay $2,000.00 down to hold the lot and do the pre-design work. We would need to pay an additional $13,000.00 when the contract was signed. We met with Kerry and she gave us the Customer Worksheet dated September 1, 2003, stating the estimate given was based on a 3100 square feet house plan with all the items included in the base price provided and more pages of additional options we could purchase to "upgrade" our house plans. We again went home and talked over what would be included in the building price and which of the upgrade options we wanted to purchase to turn the house plans into our dream home plans.
We met with Kerry again on September 4, 2003, to sign the building contracts and let her know what upgrades we wanted. Those present at the signing were Kerry, Connie, Brian, Angela and Hunter (2 years old). At no time did it cross our minds that we needed to get an attorney involved or present at the time we signed the contracts. At no time were we offered the contract to take home to be reviewed by us or an attorney prior to signing. Kerry told us in order to proceed that we had to sign their contracts. Kerry told us we didn't need to read the contract in its entirety because she would explain it as we went along, hitting the highlights of the contract that we needed to know. With the rapport that we had established with Kerry, we had no reason to doubt her. She reviewed the financial section of the contract on page 1, then we went to the attached addendums / exhibits and then to the customer option pages. During the signing / initialing of the contract pages, Kerry would engage in casual conversation unrelated to the page's subject. This took our minds and focuses off the purpose of the meeting. Our minds were racing with what we were being told and the excitement of a new chapter unfolding in our lives. Jokes and laughter surrounded the table. We were told that we would have just 14 days to make our selections (paint colors, cabinet colors, countertop, carpet, trim painted or wood, railings, etc.). When we left, we were exhausted feeling as if we had just been in a whirlwind and dropped to the ground.
This was the first home building experience for Brian and Angela. Connie had built a home with Mike back in the mid 1970's and the builder was her brother. Mike had a background involving construction, so Connie left the details and schedules for Mike to handle. Connie felt like this was her first hands-on construction project.
On September 13, 2003 we all met again at the Rosemont subdivision located off Butler - Warren Rd for the final selection meeting. Selections were made from the colors of paint to be used for each room, cabinet selections, brick, and many others. We did what was told of us. We kept our end of the deal. All the things were in place to start our new home.
Meyer Douglas Homes:
Meyer Builders
Douglas Homes
We followed Kerry in our car over to the Creekside Meadows development. Creekside Meadows was jointly being constructed by Meyer Douglas Homes and Buckhead Builders. Construction was already under way on a couple of homes in the subdivision. We stopped in front of the construction trailer and Kerry showed us a lot plan indicating which lots were owed by Meyer Douglas Homes. We drove around viewing the lots, questioning the detention pond and common areas. We were drawn to lot #15 for a variety of reasons (elevation, it was flat, there would be walk path behind us and a common area for our kids to play). Kerry gave us her card and told us to talk everything over and to give her a call if we have any questions. We drove away from Creekside Meadows with our heads spinning. We were excited and felt our search for a builder was finally over. We went home that night and talked about everything that had just happened. A short time later we called Kerry to find out what the steps were for getting things in motion. We had previously told Kerry that we have found some plans from some model homes we visited and liked but believed what we want for a home was a merging together of three different house plans. Kerry told us to give her copies of the house plans (two Drees Homes plans and one Meyer Douglas Homes plan) and she would run it past the Meyer Douglas Homes design team to give an estimate of the house size, cost and if it would fit on the lot we had selected. Kerry told us that we would need to pay $2,000.00 down to hold the lot and do the pre-design work. We would need to pay an additional $13,000.00 when the contract was signed. We met with Kerry and she gave us the Customer Worksheet dated September 1, 2003, stating the estimate given was based on a 3100 square feet house plan with all the items included in the base price provided and more pages of additional options we could purchase to "upgrade" our house plans. We again went home and talked over what would be included in the building price and which of the upgrade options we wanted to purchase to turn the house plans into our dream home plans.
We met with Kerry again on September 4, 2003, to sign the building contracts and let her know what upgrades we wanted. Those present at the signing were Kerry, Connie, Brian, Angela and Hunter (2 years old). At no time did it cross our minds that we needed to get an attorney involved or present at the time we signed the contracts. At no time were we offered the contract to take home to be reviewed by us or an attorney prior to signing. Kerry told us in order to proceed that we had to sign their contracts. Kerry told us we didn't need to read the contract in its entirety because she would explain it as we went along, hitting the highlights of the contract that we needed to know. With the rapport that we had established with Kerry, we had no reason to doubt her. She reviewed the financial section of the contract on page 1, then we went to the attached addendums / exhibits and then to the customer option pages. During the signing / initialing of the contract pages, Kerry would engage in casual conversation unrelated to the page's subject. This took our minds and focuses off the purpose of the meeting. Our minds were racing with what we were being told and the excitement of a new chapter unfolding in our lives. Jokes and laughter surrounded the table. We were told that we would have just 14 days to make our selections (paint colors, cabinet colors, countertop, carpet, trim painted or wood, railings, etc.). When we left, we were exhausted feeling as if we had just been in a whirlwind and dropped to the ground.
This was the first home building experience for Brian and Angela. Connie had built a home with Mike back in the mid 1970's and the builder was her brother. Mike had a background involving construction, so Connie left the details and schedules for Mike to handle. Connie felt like this was her first hands-on construction project.
On September 13, 2003 we all met again at the Rosemont subdivision located off Butler - Warren Rd for the final selection meeting. Selections were made from the colors of paint to be used for each room, cabinet selections, brick, and many others. We did what was told of us. We kept our end of the deal. All the things were in place to start our new home.
Meyer Douglas Homes:
Meyer Builders
Douglas Homes