Cicero model home is Energy Star certified

Model homes appeal to our fantasies. They show us how we could be living and help us imagine what empty rooms and bare walls can become.

Marty Moore, sales and marketing manager of Ryan Homes Syracuse, recently led a tour of the company's freshly completed model home at 8681 Lavender Lane in Cicero's Wallington Meadows development. The four-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath model, called the Ravenna, is Energy Star certified, and the exterior has what they call a "cottage elevation," evocative of a bungalow or Arts and Crafts-style home but with vinyl siding and cultured stone.

The home is $264,990, which Moore said is a discounted price, considering the upgrades and extra features. The price includes all Energy Star-certified appliances, even a front-load washer and dryer in the second-floor laundry room with a sewer-connected safety pan beneath the washer.

The 2,688-square-foot home has upgraded wood molding and trim, and rubbed oil bronze hardware and fixtures throughout. There is a built-in sound system as well as a security system and hardwired smoke and carbon monoxide detectors with battery backup.

The property has an asphalt driveway, lawn irrigation system, landscaping and sump pump. The price includes all the shower curtains, window dressings, decorative pillows and comforters. If the buyer wants the home with all the furniture, art, accessories, area rugs, mattresses and box springs, the price would be $335,934.

Since Ryan Homes needs to use the model to market homes for the next two to three years, the buyer will be the company's landlord.

"We become renters here. They purchase the home, close on it, and then we'll pay them rent until we're done selling homes in this community," Moore said. "It's a good investment for them. We cover the mortgage, taxes and insurance, and they get a discounted price as well as tax write-offs each year."

The two-car garage has been temporarily converted to Ryan Homes' office space, but will be restored at no charge.

The open concept first floor includes a Berber-carpeted family room and the kitchen and morning room, which have oak floors. The family room has a stone front natural gas fireplace. The kitchen has cherry cabinets with crown molding, a stainless steel sink, a built-in microwave and electric range with convection oven. The island, the counters and the breakfast bar are all topped with an upgraded beveled-edge laminate.

The space, which has nine-foot-high ceilings, is flooded with natural light, and the windows all have low-E, argon gas-filled glass panes. A double French door in the morning room opens to the composite deck and backyard.

Between the kitchen and the garage is a powder room as well as a small room that could be a home office.

Flanking the main entrance is a formal living room with oak floors and a carpeted formal dining room with a chair rail. Both rooms have two windows overlooking the front yard.

To maximize usable space, designers eliminated the two-story foyer, so ubiquitous in home construction of late, freeing up more square footage for second-floor bedrooms and a significant buffer between the master suite and the rest of the rooms.

The bedrooms and second-floor hallways have textured wall-to-wall Berber carpet. There is a full bath, a bonus storage closet and a large linen closet in the hall near three of the bedrooms. One bedroom is decorated in a Cicero Falcons Pop Warner Football & Cheer motif.

The master bath has his and hers sinks set in granite atop a maple vanity, and the commode is hidden in its own room. The deep soaking tub and walk-in shower are surrounded by ceramic tile, accented with decorative strips of tiny stone and glass mosaic tiles.