The last time we left off I had talked about why Mr. Thrifty (he, he: always makes me giggle because that is sarcasm to call my hubby that) and I chose what we did during the building part of our new home. Read Part 1 here.
To recap, keep in mind that we chose what we did based on the fact that I
Our trip to the design center was a difficult and frustrating trip. I had been there (you have to make an appointment) for 1 hour to check out what the choices were so that the day of our 'real' appointment we could be better informed. The day of our appointment, my husband and I were there for 4 1/2 hours, and could have been there much, much longer. Our consultant was wonderful with helping to assist us. The limitations with this kind of building is that you only have options that they have to offer. Even if they have three, four or five levels of upgrades; if they don't have what you love, you can't get it. That realization also steered our decision making in some areas. For example, the kitchen hardware was bland and boring. So we chose what came with our upgraded cabinets but I have no intention of using it for long (if at all).
What we chose at the design center (and why):
FLOORING: I love wood floors because it is nice to your back and joints (not like tile) and it makes everything look better! We do not like wide planks (5") or the hand scraped look. That is just our personal preference. We are more traditional with our wood flooring preference, which was perfect because that was not an upgrade within the wood choices. The other looks must be more popular because they were more money!!! We chose to do most the first floor in wood. The entry, dining room, 1/2 bath, butlers pantry, kitchen and eating area in kitchen will all be wood. The front room (will be an office/reading area) and the family room will remain carpet. By keeping these two areas carpet we saved $5,000. Our plan is to eventually change the carpet for wood in these two spaces.
Our new floors are similar to our old ones in width and color, but they have more wood grain. Sorry, this was all I could find for a floor shot from our last home...
CABINETS: I went to the design center with every intention of getting basic wooden cabinets and painting them, adding personality and crown myself (like I did in our last home)........we ended up with Level 5 cabinets! What I did not realize and was educated on, was the construction of the cabinets is completely different from Level 1 to Level 6. This is probably not a surprise to most, but it was to me. I thought the doors and trim etc. made it more expensive, and never thought about the construction. Anyways, I wanted white cabinets. If we were going to upgrade to get better construction (dove tail joints, full extension drawers where you can't see the glides) I was NOT going to paint them. So that is what helped to narrow it down. We ended up choosing a white for the kitchen upper and lowers, and a brown color for the island base. I was amazed at all the other add-on's available. We swapped doors for drawers on the island base. We had the fridge area built up and out (so it will look like a built in). I HATE microwaves over the stove, but there were not many options that I liked that did not blow our budget, so it will be there for now. We did vent to the outside, so I can change to a real vent in the future. What we did NOT do was add crown molding. I plan to add that, taking a drawer with me to the paint store so they can color match it. I can't remember actual numbers, but after adding all the other things, I thought the price was ridiculous. Hopefully I made the right choice. I will let everyone know when we attempt to add the crown ourselves! The nice thing is since we upgraded to Level 5 cabinets, we have that level in the kitchen, butler's pantry and both bathrooms, but you can change what type of Level 5 cabinet you want. These photos shows the color choice for the cabinets.
***how long before you think I paint that island?***
COUNTERTOPS: Our kitchen came with granite. Of course the base had only 3 options and they were all hideous. I am not a huge fan of granite and did not want to spend a ton on upgrades if I might not love it, so we went with one level up with the granite you see in the picture above. Seeing this photo now I am worried it is too yellow. Hopefully that is only how it is showing up in the camera's light...
I think granite is very pretty, but I worry about the hardness of it. I am sure that many plates and glasses will get broken or cracked just by setting them down too hard -- remember I have two young boys, and one older boy!
We had granite in our last bathroom and I loved it, but that is different and gets different use than in the kitchen.
Again, I hope I made the right choice.
BACKSPLASH: surprise, surprise we did NOT do this. They had NO selection and I want to get my choice and do it myself. So there....
I actually have a bunch of left over subway tile from our master bath redo in our last house (you can see tile in picture below) and I plan to use this as a backsplash in the laundry room. I am so excited that I found the tile when we were moving.
This is a picture of our old shower. I also have some of that stone tile left. Not sure what to do with that.....
HARDWARE/ FIXTURES:
This was so overwhelming to us because it includes so many options. So I will break it down.
Lighting:
We did not upgrade much for lighting. The lighting offered is all so generic looking and soooo builders grade. I will most likely sell it at a yard sale, or on craigslist, and get something more to our taste. Switching our lighting is no biggie to us, we have done it many times.
Door Hardware:
We upgraded all door hardware to Oil Rubbed Bronze because it was not much cost considering how many doors we have, and that it also includes all the hinges (four hinges on the tall downstairs doors) and kick plates and of course doorknobs themselves. With the cost of doorknobs, even if I got a deal, changing out over 12 doors of all those things would not be worth it.
Bathroom Hardware: Master bath hardware was a lot of money for oil rubbed bronze. We have changed many sets of faucets and I did not care for all their choices anyways, so we did not upgrade those in the master or in the guest bath.
WALL PAINT:
Thankfully they use a good quality Sherwin Williams paint. The negative is that if you upgrade and choose your paint color, you get ONE choice. Yes, so you choose ONE upgraded color for the entire home. Hmmmm? That is completely crazy. We chose a neutral from the base colors and that will be our base coat. We will get our own paint and paint our own rooms, all different colors! The boys room will not be the same color as my craft room, for example. Good thing I like to paint.
HOUSE COLOR:
We were, of course, limited by our choices. The thing I really, really disliked was that the colors were in a package. The choices were inclusive of main body, accent color, trim, shutters, front door, garage door, stone, and shingles. So if I liked a color for the main body I got what else came with it for all the above. We chose a red color after driving about an hour away to another community to see the red on a home. None of the homes in our neighborhood were red, which is part of the reason we liked it. I really do not love the garage door color but I can always submit to the ARC if I want to change it. Maybe it will grow on me...... Here is a picture of the color choice and of the red on another home.
For our home.
1. House Color of all hardi board (horizontal siding)
2. Accent house color of all shingles
3. Front door and garage door
4. Trim color
Not Shown on board - stone color and roof color
This photo is a more accurate representation of the shingle color. It is definitely more tan and not gold like in the photo above.
There were many, many more small details, but I feel like these are the big details and choices that we hopefully made correctly! When we move in to our new home, I will update and post on many of these and on the areas I need to work on (like DIYing a backsplash), so check back. Or use the subscribe area on the right sidebar to become an email subscriber.
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Enjoy your weekend and Go Patriots!!!!
