Ceramic Woodgrain Tile

WE HAVE FLOORING!

For the study, kitchen, hallways, guest bathroom, dining room and living room, we chose a woodgrain floor tile by Marazzi. As much as we love the look and feel of hardwood, it is not practical for dog owners who work all day. The color we choose is Nutmeg and it is a show stopper. I can not wait to see it grouted.
The guest bathroom also received it's tile shower surround. We choose a dark grout for the tile, I can't wait to see what that looks like next weekend.

 
Lastly, the master bathroom was also tiled. The shower surround is the same tile as the guest bathroom. It is an Interceramic in the Bianco Veletta color. Here is an awesome shot of me checking out the master bath shower grout lines.

They also installed the flooring in the bathroom. However, it was not what we selected. They used the Bianco Velvetta instead of the grey tile. This is why we obsessively visit this house folks! Since we caught the flooring mistake before grouting and early on, we saved ourselves a couple of days.

Brass Cabinet Hardware for Shaker Cabinets

Shaker cabinets have been the “it” cabinets of Pinterest, Houzz and every show on TV that involves a modern kitchen remodel. They are clean, contemporary, and look good in many different kitchen styles.

The problem with shaker cabinets? Opening them without hardware can be a little bit if a pain. And, if cabinets are white or a pale color, grubby finger prints are going to be all over those cabinets all the time unless you have something to pull when opening them.

After viewing our almost completed kitchen cabinets, Andy immediately said, we have to get handles for these quick. Alright, done.

There are billions of knobs and pulls on the market. This article on Houzz walks you through some of the more popular styles of hardware for shaker cabinets. You can mix a combination of knobs and pulls or just choose one or the other, which is what we are planning to do since our cabinets are white and grey. This way, there is some cohesiveness between the island and wall cabinets.

The Delta Trinsic Faucet we purchased for the kitchen is the champagne bronze color and I want the pulls to match to tie it all together. After shopping online, I narrowed it down to three pulls, priced low to high.

Option A is the most affordable and the most modern. It is the Liberty 3 in. Champagne Bronze Bar Pull. Find them at Home Depot.

Option B is a wee bit more burnished in my opinion. It is the Atlas Hardware Successi 3 7/9" Center Bar Pull in Vintage Brass. You can find them from a couple of sites including Amazon and Build.com.

Option C is also modern and is the most expensive out of the three, but still under 10 bucks, making it a steal. It is the Atlas Homewares Successi Collection Champagne 4.68 inch Square Pull. I found them at Amazon for under $10, other places The Hardware Hut for $10 and more.

This weekend when we visit the house, I plan to make my final decision. Stay tuned!

Deciding on Upgrades

When building a new home, it is inevitable that you will go to the builder selection center. There you willl be bombarded with upgraded features for every square foot of your new property. It is easy to spend a fortune on upgrades. Knowing where to upgrade with the builder and where not to usually requires serious research and evaluation of the products available at the builder. For these reasons, here are three quick tips hit the builder selection center.

1. Opt for two appointments if possible,

2. Set the appointments at least a week apart so you can digest your selections,

3. Don't be afraid to visit the center again between appointments if you need to revisit selections.

We selected a ton of upgrades and then spent a week and a half mulling over the selections, checking prices, and even visiting the builder selection center on an off-day before returning to make our final selections.

In the end, we selected many upgrades. Three of the larger ones included upgrading the cabinets to shaker cabinets, upgrading the appliance suite, and countertops throughout the house. The cost of the cabinets were justified after we calculated the costs of upgrading cabinets. In addition, the cabinets are from a solid company. We upgraded the appliance suit since the upgrade price was significantly less the the same suite at Lowes. Lastly, It was a pain to upgrade the countertops in the last house, the cost to update the granite was minimal, but the cost of the Quartz was over the top. So, we updated the countertops to a granite color that would match cabinets.

Now where to save.

Lighting- just save your money and shop online.

Plumbing fixtures- see above.

Cabinet hardware- Also see above or visit a home improvement store.

One of the first upgrades we purchased was a Delta Trinsic Kitchen faucet. I wanted a satin brass color and I had a coupon. Actually, we visited a Ferguson showroom pricing items and fell in love the the champagne bronze color and faucet style. I've also ordered a few different cabinet pulls to compare their color and style to the cabinets and faucet. Overall. I am pretty excited about the choices we've made and it all coming together.

We Have Drywall and Cabinets

When building a new home it seems like during the first couple months, nothing is happening. For weeks we would just drive past an empty lot- waiting for the next thing to happen.

Then one day, it did. 

Before we knew it the slab was dried, the frame was up, there was a roof, and hardy plank.  Last weekend, the drywall was installed.

This week we discovered we had kitchen cabinets, bathroom cabinets, wall and ceiling texture. The trim and interior doors were in the garage awaiting installation.

Also we noticed the makeshift sidewalk leading to the front porch was gone- I hope to see concrete and brick next weekend.

August can not get here fast enough.

Getting Back in the Swing of Things

In December, I graduated college.

In June, we sold our house.

This August, we move into the new house we're building.

It's a David Weekly. I am super excited to start documenting the process.

This photo was from this past weekend.