Josh Bought a Townhouse

I finally broke down and bought a townhouse in the Chicago suburbs in late 1997. It was new construction, built by Ryland Homes. It's a 1591 square feet townhome, with a base price of $133,990, and I upgraded the hell out of it. The features in the base unit include:

• 2 bedrooms plus loft (or 3 bedrooms)
• 2.5 baths
• 2-car attached (side-by-side) garage
• 2-story living room
• 9-foot ceilings on the first (ground) floor
• Gas appliances
• Name-brand materials
• Private entryway
• Swimming pool at the community-only athletic center
• Warranties for anywhere from 1 (material, workmanship) to 2 (mechanicals) to 10 (structural defects) years

Some of the upgrades I got include:

• Ceiling fan outlets
• Central air
• Extra telephone jacks
• Fireplace
• Hardwood flooring in kitchen, powder room, and garage entry
• Humidifier on the furnace
• Marble flooring in the foyer (white) and fireplace hearth (black)
• Network wiring (Category 5) inside the walls
• Oak railings on the stairwell and by the loft
• Single-bowl cast-iron kitchen sink
• Soaker tub in the master bathroom
• Stronger garbage disposal (0.5 horsepower instead of 0.33 horsepower)
• Upgrades for the:
  • Appliances (both capacity increases and white-on-white doors)
  • Cabinets in the kitchen and bath
  • Carpeting (to higher quality) and padding (to 0.5-inch)
  • Doors and trim (to contemporary oak)
• Vaulted ceiling in the master bedroom

Because of a special financing deal, Ryland included the base appliance cost for washer, dryer, dishwasher, and refrigerator, and paid 5 points on the mortgage.

Floor plans (for the first and second floors) are available; pictures of the unit and building are available as well (as of October 1998; the pictures from March 1998 are still online).

Back to my home page