Good times in Cincy & N Kentucky

Originally posted on MySpace on Feb 28, 2008

Current mood:excited

Can you believe it is harder to find a Starbucks in Northern Kentucky than it is in Utah?  How weird is that???  I finally found a nice size one off of Turkeyfoot Road (these are the names I am going to have to learn... no more Sitzmark or Quail Run roads ) and plugged in and settled down with my latte.
It's been snowing most of the time I have been here this visit, but nothing has really stuck other than where there is already snow. Seems much warmer than it did in January - thank God!
The visit to the design center was fun but almost a little disappointing.  I expected to be selecting a lot more things and was very disappointed to find that wall color, other than white, off white, off off white and really white white, were my only choices.  The model home has amazing color on the main floor and I totally wanted to copy it. I was told to expect at least 8 hours there and I was done in 4.  Mark works with a man whose wife spent three days there.  I can't even imagine, other than she must have upgraded totally EVERYTHING and had to go through a million times more options. I didn't pick out the exeterior brick yet and spent all of yesterday driving around the various communities and looking at what my options are. The design center brick samples were about 2x3 feet and Candice thought I would have an easier time looking at the full effect of the brick on a house. I have to say that was excellent advice.
Candice, the gal I worked with was wonderful.  She collected samples of all my choices as we went along and had them ready every step of the way to compare with the 'total package' so I could be sure I loved how it was all going together.  Again there were some items that we thought were included in the contract and some others that I didn't realize we had inadvertantly excluded.  The model has hardwood floors in the family room and we assumed (bad word!) that it was standard.  Nope, now we have an additional cost to upgrade there.  We opted for quartz countertops as they are basically maintanence free, but I was in love with the granite in the model.  We are staying with quartz in this case, but went totally opposite of the look I originally fell in love with.  But it's all good, I hope!
There are about six gray haired old men outside of this Starbucks all wearing black berets.  They look like an elderly old group of those guardian angel dudes who keep the streets safe for us simple folk....  Maybe they all retire to Northern Kentucky?
Anyway, a few of the photos I promised...

This is the model of the home we chose.  This is the elevation (front exterior) we want.  We had to chose another originally because of the homesite we chose, but with the move to a different homesite we are able to build this elevation (we love the porch area). I love the shingles below the eaves on the front of the home and how they add variety in color and texture. Our home will be the reverse of this one, with the garages on the left instead of the right.

This is the same home, reversed, with the other elevation so it looks a little different, but it has the garages on the left like ours will, and also has the carriage garage. So imagine this little side garage attached to ours as well.  There's actually a two car garage with side entry.  So the windows on the front here are the side wall of the two car garage and this carriage garage is set  back behind the two garage doors.  Does that make any sense, or do I have to take another photo?

This is just the entry into our community.  All those blurry spots are snowflakes.  Notice the lack of mountains and hills and evergreen trees?  I sure do!!!