"So....what do you think?"

That seems to be the common question we are asked the last couple days since our siding went up.  All homes aren't without hick-ups along the way, ours just happens to be with the siding unfortunately.  We had originally picked Cobble stone wicker as our siding color, which is like a taupe color with a greyish or olive undertone. At the end of June we got a message saying Ryan had changed siding suppliers and we needed to come look at the new "comparable" color for our house. So we drove an hour to the model home and took a look at the "comparable" color, Autumn Beige.  I have to say inside it looked "comparable" it wasn't like it looked brown versus grey or extremely light versus dark or anything.  But lighting changes everything, so we took our keychain size siding sample outside to see what it would look like in the sun and noticed it did have a different tone to it.  We asked if we could pick out a different color and they said no pretty much we have to stay with the "comparable" color....so without being allowed another option we took the color.

Monday the siding arrived and unfortunately we happened to go out of town Monday to Wednesday.  Thursday was the first opportunity we had to see the house and what a shock!!  As I pulled up to the lot my heart sank and all I could think was......"oh no, I have a pink house!".  All our dreams of planning the perfect house had just shattered.......and we were devastated.

My neighbors came over and said...."so....what do you think?" and I said ..."well...I think it looks pink", and they laughed and said "we were just saying the same thing"........oh great, now I know I'm not the only one who sees it, so now I'm assuming the whole neighborhood will wonder why in the world would we pick this Pink color for our house.  Soon the neighbor from up the street walks by (who ironically lives in a house with the cobblestone wicker siding I was originally supposed to have), and says..."well.....what do you think?".......and I say, "well, I'm not sure yet......it looks pink to me".   Then I explained it was supposed to be the color of their house and they were shocked.....not even close....and they said theirs has a cooler feel to it and our siding has more of a "warmer....red undertone to it".......oh no!!!  My parents came by and were equally disappointed and shocked at the color, and also thought it looked faded pink...not at all what we all were expecting!!  

So naturally I contact our sales rep and explain our disappointment and ask for our options at this point.  They came back saying because the siding had been completed it would be way too costly and delay closing to replace it.......I'm now up in arms.....what do we do?  We were hoping by the grace of God maybe the color would grow on us, perhaps the light during that particular time of day made the color look pink, or perhaps when the shutters went up it would make it more tolerable.....but without luck it wasn't any of those things and it still looks pink!  UGH!

Yesterday the PM in charge while our usual PM is on vacation was to go review the color to ensure it was the correct "comparable" siding color, and our sales rep was also going to drive by and take a look herself as well....but basically we have been told the siding will have to stay unless its an order error, and what can Ryan do that would make us happy with the siding.......well if it can't be changed what options do I have is my question?  We hate the siding and its not the color we picked and its not even a "comparable" color.....

My husband and I spent weeks driving around Ryan home developments looking at houses that had siding colors we liked and that were available for us to select.  It was so hard for us to visualize a housing color from a keychain size swatch and an unrealistic computerized example of what the color may look like on a house.....we needed to see the real deal to determine if it was what we liked.  Even at one of our pricing meetings with the sales rep we took a drive in the middle of the meeting through the complex to determine which trim we liked better with the siding color we selected.  We really took our time to make sure it was what we wanted and we would be happy!  THEN they turn around and change things and there was nothing we could look at but the swatch and we didn't have any other options other than to take the new "comparable" color.....I feel so disappointed now that its up and we hate it and there's nothing that can be done to change it.......this is the first impression someone has of your home.....PINK is not the impression I want someone to have looking at our house.  When building a house you take your time to make sure it is all you dreamed of because you have the option and opportunity to make it what you want.  I feel that has been taken away from us a little bit and now we have to live with it for the next 30+ years or until we move (which we were hoping not to have to do until the kids are done with college) or change the siding ourselves which would be $$.......

So below are some pictures of the house....they truly don't give a good representation of the actual "pink" we see but I'll let you form your own opinions.......what do we do now is the answers hopefully we'll get soon!

Let me know what you think.....

On a good note, all our drywall is up and primed.  Our cabinets have arrived. And our PM gave us our tenative closing date of August 12th.......somehow before I was so much more excited about that date when my house wasn't pink, but it will all work out (I hope).  Its not life or death....its siding....its just such a disappointment when you had something you liked picked out and it was changed to something you hate but apparently will have to live with.