A lot has happened since I last posted anything.
Last week (on Valentine's Day) Jay and I went to Color Tile to meet with our designer (provided by our builder) to pick things for our house. I learned a few things through this meeting. I learned that it isn't good to try to make decisions that are already stressful while in pain! By the end of the meeting I was in a bit of a haze. Thankfully Jay had it together and was awesome! He is so good to me! I also learned I like brown and gray a lot! And I know I will never try to pick an entire house design without having someone else to give their input! I just can't seem to decide on my own! I also learned to be open minded and patient. We had to go back a second time but were able to get things straightened out so that we are happy.
So this is my best description of what we picked. One of these days I might go back and get pictures of the things we picked but for now you will just have to trust that it is supposed to look good.
Kitchen -
We decided to upgrade our cabinets from birch to maple. First because we liked the look of the maple better, second and most importantly because we get the soft close drawers with it!! I am going to be glad we did that!!! The standard counter top offered by our builder is a granite tile but the 5 we had to choose from weren't appealing to us. It would have cost extra to choose a granite we liked but I have never really cared about granite. I know it is the trend and is supposed to be in all high end houses but I don't like the shine on it and I am just indifferent about it. Since the granite didn't matter we didn't want to spend extra so we downgraded to a porcelain tile. It is a light brown with hints of gray. I love it! We have a gray-ish back splash. We were trying to figure out what to do for the front facing of the counter top and the guy there suggested a bull nose. We weren't exactly sure what that was but it sounded like the most obvious thing to do the way he said it. We found out later that it would cost a lot of money to special order it from California and it isn't normal to do a bull nose. We changed our mind on that at our second meeting. Now it is a stone facing with similar colors to the counter top. Our builder is giving us stainless steel appliances. Again, like the granite, I have been indifferent to the stainless. In my opinion the appliance functions the same but costs more because it looks different and I wouldn't spend my own money on that, but they are giving it to us so I am taking it willingly. Besides the appliances they are giving us include a giant stand alone fridge and a giant stand alone freezer, which will go great with my giant pantry!!! We did opt to change our oven to a double oven! I can't wait for that! The bottom oven is also convection!! And I am getting gas! I think the food is just going to taste better in this kitchen!!
Floor - The floor was the other reason we had to go back a second time (along with the bull nose). We had 5 choices of vinyl, which was a "builder grade" and wasn't that great. We didn't like the look for the main part of the house and didn't want to have to replace it in the near future. We did use the standard vinyl for the upstairs bathrooms. We choose a brown/gray tiled look but the tiles are a smaller scale and it is a darker color than the other flooring. We figured this would work fine for the bathrooms since the main wear would happen downstairs. Plus if we want to change that later it would be easier and cheaper in a smaller area. We were looking at upgrading to a nicer vinyl for the main floor with a similar color palate as the other one. We realized later in doing that we would have carpet in part of the hallway, specifically in the path from the garage door to the kitchen. I didn't want the carpet wearing there faster than anywhere else so we decided to change the floor. The best way to do it was to actually upgrade to tile from the front door, down the hall, and into the kitchen and eating nook. We choose a lighter brown tile that works well with everything else. We also upgraded the carpet. It will now be a light to medium tan color with other colors mixed in. We figured the "speckled" look would be more forgiving in case we ever spill anything on it. (By the way, I am completely aware of the likelihood that it will be me, not the kids, that first spills something!)
We got to choose a tile for the fireplace. Usually people use the same tile that is in their entry but we didn't want everything to be tan. We will have beige walls (kilim beige) and the carpet and floor tile are similar in hue so we didn't want everything to just blend together. We decided on a darker tile (very similar to the back splash) for the fireplace.
Outside - At first we chose a greenish outside but after driving around and looking at other houses we decided we liked the gray/black one. I am very excited about my dark door!!! I really don't want a white or red door. (I like red doors but it feels trendy to me and I don't want to have to change it later).
Coming up next: Preconstruction meeting
