Our Floorpan and Options

We're still young and don't have kids yet, so we know that we don't need a big house right now.  But what we do know is that 1) the housing market is expected to improve by 2017 (meaning mortgage rates will be higher than they are right now), 2) if we buy a smaller house now, we'll be selling it in ~5 years and buying the same house we are building now, but spending a lot more money (because of reason 1), and 3) we have the means to do it now, so why wait?
We also know that this would be a long-term house (at least 10 years), if not a forever house.  In determining our floorplan and selecting options, we tried to keep in mind the things that we don't HAVE to have right now, the things we could do ourselves later or for cheaper (and not have to pay interest on for 30 years), and the structural/electrical/plumbing things that if we didn't do now, would cost a lot (either in money and/or headaches) later on.

In keeping all of that in mind, below are the options that (as of right now), we've decided on:

Floorpan: Landon with Elevation C (a full front porch)

• We chose to do a reverse plan (the garage will be on the left hand side if you're looking at the front of the house) because we're on a hill which declines on the right, so when we're sitting on the porch, we will be able to see across the city to the right.
• Siding only - we couldn't do the based elevation (A), because our next door neighbor had already chosen it.  We haven't decided on colors yet (the picture below is just an example of what Elevation C looks like), but I think we're leaning towards a light gray with white trim.  We wanted a front porch, so went with C, which is ~$12K, so we didn't want to spend anything additional on stone or brick.  Stone looks nice, but it doesn't really add any value to the house.  Plus, it's veneer, which we can always add it on later if we decide we want stone on the house.

First Floor:

• Morning Room: We added the morning room because I didn't want to use the "dining room" as a dining room.  I would prefer to treat it as a sitting room and potentially a music room (i.e. when we buy a piano).  I also thought it would be weird for people to enter through the front door and then see a dining set right there.  Without the morning room, we could have used the "dinette" for eating, but in looking at pictures and in doing a walk-through of a just-finished home, I didn't think there would be enough room.  Finally, everything I read online said "just do it".  People who got the morning room loved it, and people who didn't get the morning room wish that they had.  Plus the morning room has 3 big windows looking onto the backyard, which will let in tons of light and will be very picturesque with the woods in our backyard.
• Fireplace: We added the gas fireplace on the side wall.  We just did the least expensive version (slate non-raised hearth and white mantle) because I couldn't imaging spending $10,000 on stone going all the way up to the ceiling.  We can do this later if we decide we want to add more character.  We had thought about adding the fireplace on later ourselves, but after looking at the way we would have to do it (we'd have to cut through the siding and add the "gas box" on), it would be easier and less expensive to have RH do it).
• Granite countertops: This was actually the April incentive, so we got it for free! Our SR also told us that RH stopped using Formica, so it might just have been that granite was the only option RH offers now.  We'll be doing a lighter granite (white/bone with hints of brown and red) to match our cabinets.  
• Cabinet Upgrade 1: This was also an April incentive, which was cool because we were going to upgrade to the Cherry cabinets anyways, so we got this free as well!
• Carpet padding upgrade to 8 lb: My husband works for Hoover, so he has a lot of experience with different types of carpet.  The actual base carpet is fine (not high quality), but upgrading the carpet padding will make the feel of it much more luxurious.  
• 2 floor drains in the garage: the Landon actually comes with the 3 car garage which will be awesome.  But putting drains in the garage is extra
• A hot water bib in the garage - we'll wash our cars in the winter in the garage (hello floor drain!), so it will be nice to be able to use hot water.
• Gas line to the back of the house - we probably won't put a deck on for a year or 2, but when we do, we'll be able to have a gas grill without needing to go a fill up a propane tank.

Second Floor:

• The only upgrade we made on the second floor was upgrading the owners bath to a 6-ft tub and a shower.  We went back and forth on this a few times because we kept thinking, "how often do we take baths?" and that the hall bath does have a tub that we could use if we wanted to take a bath.  But having the 6-ft tub was very enticing, plus my husband likes to take baths after he comes home from work (he spends a lot of time on his feet in the test lab and likes to soak his knees).  Which will also allow us our own space when we have kids that will be using the hall bath.

And that's about it!  We're not doing a finished basement, and we will do the landscaping and deck ourselves (RH doesn't do these), so we won't really be thinking about that for a couple of months.  We're not planning on upgrading any of the flooring besides the carpet pad (we'll see what happens with the master bath because I'm not thrilled about having 4x4 tile) because the vinyl flooring is perfect as a base and we can put in hardwood floors later if we decide to.

We have our color selection meeting later this week and the Guardian and Flooring selection meetings in 2 weeks.  We'll see how much we end up changing.  The flooring should be pretty easy because I think we know what we like (except for the tile in the bathroom).  I've read that the Guardian meeting can be kind of like a used-car salesman presentation, so we'll see how that goes.