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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Hearthstone Homes Question
I don't post very frequently but I do have a question for anyone who has purchased a Hearthstone Home before.
DH and I are seriously considering buying a home through them. We went to the choice studio today and priced our home along with the add ons that we wanted. of course this got me even more excited about the possibility but I am still hesitant
What did you like or not like about the buying process through them? Did you use their prefereed lender? What extras did you opt for that you later decided maybe you didn't need? Did you go with the vaulted ceiling or the 9-foot ceiling? Any other words of advice for using them are greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Re: Hearthstone Homes Question
We bought a spec home from Hearthstone, so we didn't go through the building process. We did not use their preferred lender. They were advertising that they covered closing costs, but when we spoke with our mortgage company, Wells Fargo, they said they could do that too. Because we used WF for our first house, we stuck with them for this one too.
Honestly, for the money, I really like our house. It is not our forever home, but we knew that going into the buying process. We have a lot of upgrades, and I don't think any of them are unnecessary. I'm not sure what every upgrade is though, since we didn't pick them out.
We have the 9 foot ceilings in our ranch because we have an upper loft. I would have gone without a vaulted ceiling anyway for two reasons: painting the walls is a lot easier with a standard ceiling, and I think the heating costs are less because you don't have all that 'empty' space.
After having lived here for 3 years, there are a couple of things I wish we could have upgraded.
1. Windows. I'm not sure what upgrade options are available, but our windows suck. This was before the whole Energy Star guarantee though, so they may be better now.
2. Carpet. We finished our basement ourselves, and the carpet down there is so much nicer than what is throughout the house.
3. Jacuzzi tub. DH hates that we don't have a Jacuzzi tub, but it doesn't bother me.
Here are some things we really like:
1. Separate toilet 'room' in the master bath. We thought this was weird to begin with, but love it now. I can shower and get ready, and DH can be in using the toilet in private, or vice versa. Sounds silly, but is a nice bonus!
2. Bathroom rough in in the basement. We finished the basement ourselves and were really glad the rough in was there. We didn't end up using the exact placement, but it was easier to move it than to put it in brand new. I'm glad the basement wasn't finished because I think we did it a lot cheaper than Hearthstone would have charged, and we got to make it the way we wanted.
3. I wish we had tiered ceilings in our master bedroom. Not a really big deal, but it would have been nice.
The last thing I can think of is paint. I'm not sure what their top quality of paint is, but I'm glad we didn't have to pay extra for paint, because we repainted almost everything anyway. The paint on the walls was a decent color, but it was cheap, flat paint, so it was not durable at all. We painted the main floor areas right away. We still haven't painted our bedroom or bathroom, but need to.
Oh, and we have a curb cut driveway. I'm not sure why that's not standard, but I would hate having a regular curb bump at the end of the driveway!
What about land fairies? Is that an add-on or do those come standard?
ETA: i wanted to read that crazy article again about the land fairies and the muscle testing so I googled it and stumbled upon this site. It may be helpful. HearthstoneHomeowners.com
We bought/built a Hearthstone 2 years ago. We love our house, but I also wish we had spent a little more time researching our choices (not a HS issue, but more of a DH issue!).
We liked the person at our development, and she was very easy to work with. I don't know where she is now b/c they've moved the sales office to a new property, and there's a new person selling our neighborhood. We really didn't have any problems dealing with HS on the buying end.
We did use their lender at our real estate's suggestion. She said that we stood to gain more by using their lender, and that their lender was very reputable. (Is it still Met Life? If so, we've had no problems at all!) Honestly, I was prepared for a lot of headaches through that process (mainly from stuff I had read on the "Buying a Home" board on here) and we never dealt with any of the crap that people mentioned. I was a bit anxious about the appraisal process b/c I felt like we were sitting pretty high, but even that wasn't an issue.
-We opted for textured walls for some dumb reason- and we recently talked with our neighbors and they said the same thing! Kind of wish we'd selected the smooth walls. We didn't have HS paint b/c I'd heard their paint was crap. (however, most of our rooms are still white 2 years later, but that's b/c we're indecisive)
-We went with the "solid surface" counters and I HATE them. We chose the dark black speckled color and it shows shadows (?) and such. If we move the coffee maker after a while, you can see an outline where it had been sitting before. Also, there are crazy scratches and marks. We pointed that out at our 1 year walk through and the guy said "Well, here's what I can do for you," and I got all excited thinking we would be able to get new counters, and he sent us a $10 bottle of cleaner-THANKS!
-I didn't really want a fireplace, but everyone thought that in a house at this pricepoint/size we'd have trouble selling w/o a fireplace. We put in the cheapest option they had. Now, 2 winters later, I wish we'd added the blower and done a few aesthetic options instead of just the plain surround.
-DH wishes we had gone for a vaulted ceiling in the bedroom, at least. We did add a ceiling fan, and I wasn't sure how that would all work together. (Wish we'd added fans to all of the bedrooms, but I know that's not hard to change later)
-We didn't upgrade the bathrooms at all b/c they didn't offer what we wanted. Our apartment had an awesome deep garden tub and that's what we wanted in our master. The "upgraded" tub wasn't any larger than the standard tub and if we were going to have a jacuzzi tub, we wanted a BIG one. So, we went with the standard offering, and plan to upgrade down the road.
-We didn't have them install blinds. However, the first weekend DH & FIL tried to install the blinds I had purchased (and incorrectly measured
) and nearly ripped the drywall down to the studs. It was NOT pretty! I ran to Lowe's and begged them to help me figure out how to have blinds in my house by the end of the week. They came through, their installer was great, and they were probably half he price of the HS option, but it wasn't a fun part of the move-in process!
Two years later I'm still very pleased with our house. We love our neighborhood, but it's not a typical HS neighborhood. (We'll have less than 40 homes when it's completed)
You can just buy ours if you want
We are planning to put it on the market in a few months (we'll even do no realtor involved, worth your while!)
We have lived here for almost 7 years and our house was a spec home so there was a lot of upgrades already in it, ie. curb grind, tile, upgraded carpet, jacuzzi tub in master, ceiling fan in master, upgraded cabinets, fireplace, walkout basement, fixtures.....
We obviously since then have done a lot to our house that you can do once you move in. We have changed hardware in the kitchen, backsplash, plan to rip out the laminate floor we put in and put down bamboo, new rainshower shower head, curved shower rod, finished basement, changed out crappy light fixtures in kitchen for recessed lights and also changed the above sink and dining fixtures, added fans in kids' rooms, fan in main living room (is a remote and a dimmer too since there's no light in there- vaulted ceiling), painted every room except kids' bathroom, hung blinds in every room (my suggestion is to get them from Menards where they will cut them to the size you need!), Landscaping (I heard they will rob you for the price of a tree so do it yourself).
We used their lender and it has changed since then to MetLife. We refinanced though so don't have them anymore. The whole buying process was really easy but the one thing they didn't tell us was that we were an SID. That made a difference to us but oh well.
We bought one after the energy star upgrade - and actually we pay a lot less to heat and cool a two-story than the 700 sq ft tiny house in South O that we moved from. The buying process was incredibly easy, and everything went according to schedule. It was neat to be able to see the progress and be able to "visit" our home during the process.
We did use the preferred lender and I didn't have any issues until I tried to refinance last summer. They had been bugging me and bugging me about the lower rates but I was in the middle of the separation from DXH and I wasn't quite sure what was going to happen. Then they dragged out the refi process so long that by the time their underwriting completed everything and we were ready to close they said I no longer qualified for the new rate (due to the financial issues with the separation & impending divorce). (Seriously, there were three closing dates scheduled that they had to postpone because of some reason or another, and the communication from the lending rep was HORRIBLE!!!)
I can't think of anything we picked that we didn't need - the first floor had 8 or 9 foot ceilings as is. We upgraded the laminate in kitchen and it's starting to bubble (it's been almost 3 yrs) so I might need to have it replaced. We picked the vaulted ceiling in the bedroom and it looks pretty neat.
We have a Hearthstone as well, but ours was a home where someone had already picked out the finishes and then decided to go with a different model. Looking back, though, I'm actually glad we didn't have to make a lot of those decisions and we got a lot better deal than if we would have started from scratch. Also, I'm not sure if you have a certain neighborhood or area in mind, but I would look around at existing homes that are for sale in those areas because you might be able to get an even better deal on a two- or three-year old home. I look up homes in my neighborhood every once in a while and am always surprised at home low priced many of them are for a practically new house!
Things we like about our home (and this may depend of your model/layout)
*9-foot ceilings (vaulted in the living/dining/kitchen)
*rough-in for a bathroom in the laundry room in basement
*double vanity with one sink in master - love having the extra counter and storage space
*linen closet in master bathroom
*extra deep sink in kitchen
*full tub/shower in hall bathroom
*all rooms were already wired for cable/phone
The only real issue we had was that we had to have a portion of our driveway replace within the first year because of cracking. Even after replacing it, it is starting to crack again. I'm pretty sure we have the lowest grade of carpet, so I would probably upgrade that. Our home also didn't have a garage door opener or storm door, so those are a couple of things you might want to think about. We also didn't have any blinds, but got a great deal at Menards on the faux wood ones and had them cut to size (not sure what the company Hearthstone recommends charges). Our house also was not painted, but that's really not a big deal to do later. My husband also installed ceiling fans in all of the bedrooms, which, again, was pretty easy. Our exterior lights were the super cheap ones they have (the ones that kind of look like a glass jar), and my husband changed those out too.
We initially went with their preferred lender but I believe our mortgage was sold shortly after and we have since refinanced with yet another lender. I remember the process being very smooth, though.