Yesterday was our very long day of meetings.
Jace (name changed) met us at our lot at 8am to plot out the house and give us any further instructions to prep the land before they come out again. He said our land looks good and everything should work out very well, even though the land is sloped. That will actually work out perfectly because we have a lower level basement entrance and need the land to be sloped anyways! We did figure out that the big tree in the front of the property will have to be taken out, which is really disappointing to me, but we can always plant a nicer tree in a better spot. I would still love a governor's driveway around a tree in the future. One thing at a time, though!!
After that, we drove up to the offices and talked with Jace some more about the final numbers for the land. He figured that we would need more block for the lower exposed side, which would add about $2,000 to our final quote, but is necessary for the construction. I get it, but it's just so frustrating how the price ALWAYS goes up, and never goes down. Ugh. Everything came out smoothly, but there might be a problem with our sunroom, which is discouraging because that is my favorite part of the house. After the put everything into the CAD system, the sunroom came out with only a three foot walk-through, which is way too freaking small. He said there might be a problem opening it up to 6+ feet, which is what we would need to have people move through comfortably while others are sitting at the counter area. Crap. He, along with the women there, think we can make the adjustments, but if we can't we have to figure something else out.
We spent the rest of the afternoon finalizing our colors and fixtures and signing off on all of those. We actually did not sign the final line because we wanted to be sure about the sunroom before we push forward, but everything else looks great and we are so ready to go. Obviously, I would love to upgrade all of the little things, but man if it doesn't add up VERY quickly. In time. In time.
We didn't get home until after 6pm (Pittsburgh traffic... yikes), but it was a productive day and it looks like we will be building in January. Our luck that it's the worst time of the year, but I just want this started. Becky and I are extremely excited to put our personal touches into the home once it's done and make it a truly unique place. We will finally have a large canvas for our geek life and I can assure you it will come out in spades.
Get ready.
Friday, October 19, 2012
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Decisions, Decisions, and More Decisions.
Hi guys! Becky here.
So we had our Color Selection meeting yesterday. JJ and I both asked his parents to accompany us up again. We figured a few more sets of eyes (and probably more questions/details we wouldn't have thought of, asked via JJ's dad) couldn't hurt!
We got to our meeting and met with a very nice and helpful woman, Avacyn, (name's changed because I'm not sure if she wants to be mentioned or not) who gave everything to us straight. She explained she didn't work off of commission and wouldn't pressure us into buying stuff we wouldn't need nor want. She also explained that she'd tell us what she had seen end up working and looking nice, and what did not. We greatly appreciated that!
We first went over the house plans one more time. There were a few things messed up on the plans, but nothing too crazy or major...unless you count the sunroom being turned wrong? So that had to be turned, and our half wall by the sink needed to be taken out again. JJ and I also decided up upgrade to 9ft ceilings from 8ft. We agreed that 8ft seemed kinda cramped to us, and it isn't something we can change later on down the road! We went on to make sure all walls, drains, and previous adjustments were in place, then moved forward.
Avacyn started us out with picking the colors for our siding and shakes. She had us take a lot of samples outside in the natural light, just to confirm what the colors would look like. It was hard for us, to paint a whole picture with such small samples, but we made our decisions. For our siding, we upgraded to Harbor Blue, and for the shakes we chose Slate Gray. For our shutters, we left them white. There were only two sets, so we weren't really too concerned. For our shingles, we picked straight black. There were some of black with blue tints, but we figured that'd be too much/too overwhelming.
After that, Avacyn had us look through a binder of fixtures. She went over the light fixtures with us first. They all seemed to be nice looking, so JJ and I didn't have much to say about it. We did, however, have them remove the light fixture from the dinette area and set up wiring in the sunroom in case we wanted a fan in there later on. As for the plumbing fixtures, we chose the most basic they could offer us, and figured we'd replace them later on. I believe we had them just remove the fixture for our kitchen sink and said we'd put that in ourselves? We also went on to talk about handles for our doors. We picked basic Brushed Nickel knobs. Those would be all over the house. It would've cost too much to upgrade, anyway. Almost 600 dollars for a long handle? Cut us some slack...
We moved on to cabinets. For our Master Bathroom, I picked us out a nice maple wood, Kona color. It's a very deep and sharp brown, but almost looks black. The light reflects off it beautifully, and we agreed on a white countertop, Carrara Santorini.
.JPG)
As for the bathroom on our second floor, we initially chose that icky looking medium oak pictured above with a white countertop as well....
But....towards the end of the meeting, and knowing that he and I would collectively hate the oak even more than we did the instant Avacyn pulled it off the wall, I went back over to the options they had hanging up. I picked out a pure white cabinet, with a black countertop that had a marble appearance, Canyon Black.
.JPG)
JJ mocked me for making that bathroom better than our Master ;) But i just couldn't stand to see them put in that disgusting oak cabinetry!!
Our master bathroom is going to be teal (and white/silver I believe?) so I figured the deep brownish black and the white countertop would really go well with that! The bathroom on the second floor, we have the idea of painting it Maroon. I know for a fact that's going to look beautiful with the addition of the white cabinets and black countertop.
Sorry J! :)
After we discussed the cabinets for our bathrooms, we went on to talk about flooring. We decided on the lightest color (closest to white) they had. That'll go in the Sun Room, Family Room, and our Geek Room. As for the stairs, and second floor hallway, we chose gray (it's hiding underneath the first floor carpet below).
That'll also go in all of the rooms upstairs. For the first floor wet areas, we chose a simple, whiteish vinyl flooring. I didn't manage to get a photo of our first floor vinyl. For the second floor wet areas, we chose to upgrade to a grayish/whiteish vinyl:
.JPG)
After flooring, we discussed wall colors. We decided to go with the absolute lightest color they had, as close to white we could get. White on white. Sadly they had a bunch of different shades of beige, and upgrading didn't really pose any better options. So yeah, white on white, and when the time comes we'll work with the painter to get what we want done!
Andddd that was basically our color selection meeting! Took a little over two hours, but we're satisfied with what we chose. I think we're going back on the 18th for our next meeting: our lot inspection and our construction meeting!
BRING IT ONNN!!
:)
So we had our Color Selection meeting yesterday. JJ and I both asked his parents to accompany us up again. We figured a few more sets of eyes (and probably more questions/details we wouldn't have thought of, asked via JJ's dad) couldn't hurt!
We got to our meeting and met with a very nice and helpful woman, Avacyn, (name's changed because I'm not sure if she wants to be mentioned or not) who gave everything to us straight. She explained she didn't work off of commission and wouldn't pressure us into buying stuff we wouldn't need nor want. She also explained that she'd tell us what she had seen end up working and looking nice, and what did not. We greatly appreciated that!
We first went over the house plans one more time. There were a few things messed up on the plans, but nothing too crazy or major...unless you count the sunroom being turned wrong? So that had to be turned, and our half wall by the sink needed to be taken out again. JJ and I also decided up upgrade to 9ft ceilings from 8ft. We agreed that 8ft seemed kinda cramped to us, and it isn't something we can change later on down the road! We went on to make sure all walls, drains, and previous adjustments were in place, then moved forward.
Avacyn started us out with picking the colors for our siding and shakes. She had us take a lot of samples outside in the natural light, just to confirm what the colors would look like. It was hard for us, to paint a whole picture with such small samples, but we made our decisions. For our siding, we upgraded to Harbor Blue, and for the shakes we chose Slate Gray. For our shutters, we left them white. There were only two sets, so we weren't really too concerned. For our shingles, we picked straight black. There were some of black with blue tints, but we figured that'd be too much/too overwhelming.
After that, Avacyn had us look through a binder of fixtures. She went over the light fixtures with us first. They all seemed to be nice looking, so JJ and I didn't have much to say about it. We did, however, have them remove the light fixture from the dinette area and set up wiring in the sunroom in case we wanted a fan in there later on. As for the plumbing fixtures, we chose the most basic they could offer us, and figured we'd replace them later on. I believe we had them just remove the fixture for our kitchen sink and said we'd put that in ourselves? We also went on to talk about handles for our doors. We picked basic Brushed Nickel knobs. Those would be all over the house. It would've cost too much to upgrade, anyway. Almost 600 dollars for a long handle? Cut us some slack...
We moved on to cabinets. For our Master Bathroom, I picked us out a nice maple wood, Kona color. It's a very deep and sharp brown, but almost looks black. The light reflects off it beautifully, and we agreed on a white countertop, Carrara Santorini.
.JPG)
As for the bathroom on our second floor, we initially chose that icky looking medium oak pictured above with a white countertop as well....
But....towards the end of the meeting, and knowing that he and I would collectively hate the oak even more than we did the instant Avacyn pulled it off the wall, I went back over to the options they had hanging up. I picked out a pure white cabinet, with a black countertop that had a marble appearance, Canyon Black.
.JPG)
JJ mocked me for making that bathroom better than our Master ;) But i just couldn't stand to see them put in that disgusting oak cabinetry!!
Our master bathroom is going to be teal (and white/silver I believe?) so I figured the deep brownish black and the white countertop would really go well with that! The bathroom on the second floor, we have the idea of painting it Maroon. I know for a fact that's going to look beautiful with the addition of the white cabinets and black countertop.
Sorry J! :)
After we discussed the cabinets for our bathrooms, we went on to talk about flooring. We decided on the lightest color (closest to white) they had. That'll go in the Sun Room, Family Room, and our Geek Room. As for the stairs, and second floor hallway, we chose gray (it's hiding underneath the first floor carpet below).
That'll also go in all of the rooms upstairs. For the first floor wet areas, we chose a simple, whiteish vinyl flooring. I didn't manage to get a photo of our first floor vinyl. For the second floor wet areas, we chose to upgrade to a grayish/whiteish vinyl:
.JPG)
After flooring, we discussed wall colors. We decided to go with the absolute lightest color they had, as close to white we could get. White on white. Sadly they had a bunch of different shades of beige, and upgrading didn't really pose any better options. So yeah, white on white, and when the time comes we'll work with the painter to get what we want done!
Andddd that was basically our color selection meeting! Took a little over two hours, but we're satisfied with what we chose. I think we're going back on the 18th for our next meeting: our lot inspection and our construction meeting!
BRING IT ONNN!!
:)
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