Time To Second Guess!

We had our final design appointment on Monday. It went a lot better than we expected because we came in under budget. We decided to "shop" a little and got some different touches that we probably wouldn't have gone for if the cash wasn't free. Let's get down to it!

I'll start with the exterior. I liked the other elevation our model offered... but Ian won out. At the very last minute, Ian offered up a solution that made me love the elevation we picked. He had an idea to switch out the brick on the second story for siding and make the siding in the triangle "cedar-like" shakes. It's a perfect solution to make me happy. We changed the 2 aluminum posts on the porch to be 1 half round resin/half stone column. It should look really nice. With our extra dollars, we switched out the garage for a craftsmen garage. Think barn-ish type.

This is our exterior package... except different brick and stone. The roof will be the dark gray shingles and the doors are brown (we will probably paint them at some point).

This is the brick... the picture makes it look more beige-y yellow but it's really just gray tones.

The stone "skirt" for below the brick and around the bottom of the column.

The most dollars were spent in the kitchen. We upgraded to a wall oven/cooktop. Added granite... white shaker cabinets... and a pantry. We lost a window in the process but we have a huge slider right there. Plus the cabinets are white and should add to the lightness of the room. I was going for a clean simple look. I think we have achieved that but we'll see when it's built - 1 year. =P This is the designer's notes for all of our kitchen changes.

This picture was from our last design center visit. The granite on the left will be much darker. But the tile and the cabinet style are still the same.

The main bath. I think I took a bit of a gamble with it... mainly because of the brown tile. It's such a "bold" color to go with. It's not entirely visible in this picture... but it went nicely with the brown cabinets and bluey/beigey/browny countertop. Yes, those are words.

With the help of our designer, we came to an agreement to do a Caesarstone countertop in the Master Bathroom (NOT ENSUITE). So, light gray with flecks of dark gray tile, white shaker style cabinets, dark gray countertop. The color to tie it to the master bedroom will be blue. Yay.

Here is part of my second guessing. We have 3 different types of faucets going into the master bathroom. While they all have the same finish and roughly the same style... I'm worried they won't really go together.

Bathtub faucet with handheld diverter (I fell in love with this one because it has old fashion H and C on the taps).

Sink faucet - this will be in every bathroom in the house.

Shower fixture - taking a minor gamble with a giant showerhead.

The last big change (this post represents about 1/4 of all of our big changes...) is the built in entertainment center. Our designer totally got our vision for it. Something simple to cover the wall around the fireplace... The drawing is exactly what I wanted. A couple shelves and low-ish cabinets to hide electronics and for storage.

For those that don't know what beadboard is... it looks like this. I love it! I would have used this all over the house but our doors are going to be Cheyenne style (see below).

All in all, this is going to be a very nice house. Thank you to everyone who submitted an opinion on anything! (We ended up with an ogee edge for the granite... it came down to price and ogee was free!) Ian is a little sad that this process is over. I am Switzerland on it... completely neutral... We had many, many, many discussions because you can make this house as custom as you want. The amount of options combined with the cost is so overwhelming. Our appointments were a ton of fun though... I never thought that we would be going through something like this... or that we would be doing this the same year we got married. But it's kind of a payoff for all of the things we have had to go through to get to this point. Ian's long hours... my crazy ex-boss... all of the issues with transferring countries... It all works out in the end. For me, I still feel 15 years old inside. I feel like we are too young for this... or that it's too big of a deal to do this. In reality though, the timing is perfect.

As much as I want the house to be delayed to give more time for my permanent residency to come through... I am still excited and a bit emotional to hear that the digging has begun on our block. In 11 hours, we will be under the 300 mark for days until closing. Crazy! Last picture... latest shot of the dirt. (There is a change!!! That hydro pole at the back of the lot is new - temporary but still new!)