In the Beginning...

Hi! Welcome to yet another Ryan Homes blog! I'm pretty mystified by the blog-thing, but figured I would give it the "old college try" since I've found everyone else's blogs so helpful.

Introductions:
Hubs - The hubs is the manager of a service station/car wash/auto repair joint that's open 24x7x365. He works 7 crazy days a week there, and has been there 20+ years. His commute is 40 miles each way from the new house...so there's that level of nuts.
Munchie - Our daughter just turned 3, and is the light of our lives. Seriously. She's awesome, and hysterical. And obviously smarter than both of us.
Me - I'm sort-of a corporate trainer for an energy company. The long description would leave you snoring, so I'll just leave it at that. My commute is 11 miles, but on a bad day it can take 45+ minutes.

Current situation - we own a 3-story, 1600 sq. ft. townhouse/condo in Philly's western suburbs, and have lived there for 12+ years. It was all well and good until Munchie came along and space was at a premium. We're thinking of adding another baby Fab soon, so it was time.

How/why the Rome?
Good friends of ours who were house-hunting reported back that they had found their dream home locally, and were ready to sign a contract. We we not quite financially ready to pull the trigger on our own house-hunt, but were excited for them and decided to go take a look. The friends came back with further reconnaissance: the December promotion included a finished basement, morning room, AND gourmet kitchen upgrade for free. We were of course, further intrigued. Dammit!

How did this madness begin?
We wandered like happy clueless puppies, into the model home in the development, and (spoiler alert), fell in love. Sonofa...

Signed the contract same day - 12.26.15. Proceeded freaking out about how we would come up with all the benjamins to make this happen. More freaking. More freaking. Then freaking about location choice. We had planned to help both of our commutes out with our move - and this house helps no one. More freaking. Dislike the immediate vicinity of the neighborhood and the view of the local nuclear power plant towers. More freaking. Ultimately decided that we would go for it with these reasons:

1. LOVE the house. Best thing I've seen in my 5+ years of online/in-person Everyhome.com stalking.
2. Love the neighborhood itself. 38 homes in a loop off a quiet road.
3. Good school district
4. We already have friends, stores, daycare, etc. etc. in town
5. We've both done the commute for 12+ years already and survived, so why not keep up the fun?
6. Good price for what we're getting (this is BEFORE the selection appointments, lol).
7. The good friends were also moving in!

I hope my ramblings about our journey to build our Rome is at least mildly entertaining, and marginally helpful to you! Thanks for joining me here.