Making our Minds...

This week (Wednesday), we are meeting with our builder at the Design Center to make the selections on our new house. I am beyond excited. In fact, it makes me feel a little like I need to throw up - with how excited I am. There's a lot to do, and I know there is a lot of additional stuff that keeps coming up daily, that we want to add.... which I'm sure is going to get expensive and I'm sure that's why all the nervous-ness...

Anyhow, here's a rundown of what we're making selections on, and some of the stuff we'll be selecting:

Exterior: we made a deal with them, that we get to choose the exterior. AS this is a duplex, typically this is not allowed, but since we are one of the first buyers, they are going to use us as a starting point, as design the rest of the area around us. While we don't have carte blanche to choose whatever colors we want, they will have a selection of pre-selected combinations that we will have our pick from. I will be avoiding anything with red, and most-likely green. I am hoping something with cream and slate, or cream and blue... or something similar.

Doors: we have already made a change order to change the door from an almost entirely glass front door, to one with just a glass portion at the top, similar to a transom window. We will most likely be sticking with the sliding glass doors from the dining room to the deck and keeping the french doors from the walk-out to the basement.

Floors: Ideallly, we're going to go with a combination of tile and hardwood (or laminate). We have already written in a flooring allowance in our mortgage to allow this as it was one of my MUST HAVE upgrades. We know we want a very dark espresso walnut looking flooring through the main floor. We'd like to have tile in the front entrance and washrooms. A nice slate grey is always my first choice, but I am thinking a lighter creamy-color would look better with the dark wood.

Cabinets: We're going with a very dark chocolate, almost black color. While we need to see the options, we're pretty sure we're gonna go with a shaker-style door, or some other type of panelling, with chrome hardware as well. Something sleek, but not too contemporary.

Counters: We opted not to write in an allowance as we have selected to forgo granite. :( Sadness, I know. However, we don't want the expense on a house that will not be ours forever. However, if we have credit from any of our other upgrades, I'd like to look into a solid-surface material in a cream or white. I'd even be open to something that looks like granite with a speckled texture.

Backsplash: I have no idea what is available there. We did not like the mily-glass mosaic tile they had in the showhome.... so it's up in the air. Cory suggested something along the lines of white sub-way tile. I'm not against this... we'll see.

Wall Color: this is the one area I am not sure of what I want. Initially, I was thinking of something in a silvery-blue-grey tone, as it's my favorite color of all time. Cory wanted something similar to our current color, which initially I nixed. However, in looking at our current place... I'm re-thinking it, as all our furniture and artwork especially, look fantastic against the color on the wall. So we're leaning towards a the creamy beigey brown color we have now. However, since the rest of the selections seem to be in the "cool" color range... this will be dependant on seeing everything together.

Audio: We are opting to wire the house for sound. We'll most likely go with 2 speakers on the main floor. One in the masterbedroom, one outside on the deck, and either one ot two in the basement... (if one, the other will go either in the garage or outisde but downstairs by the patio from the walkout.

We've already had them move the location of our fireplace, as well as add stairs down from the main deck, and a concrete pad poured under the deck, where the patio will be from the walk-out basement.
Since we are finishing the basement ourselves, down the road, I gave them the floorplan of what we would like the basement to be used for, so that they can place the rough-ins and laundry areas in the correct locations. As well, we've raised the island eating bar, to accomodate our brand new barstools.

I'll be adding: a nicer dining room light fixture ( I don't do ugly ceiling fans) and adding cable and telephone outlets to the 2 spare bedrooms, as well as the basment. The only other thing I can see us changing at this point are our lighting options,when I see what's available....

Moving (eventually) forward

Since I've been talking alot about us buying a new place, I figured I'd share with you, some pics that we took of it, this past weekend. We've decided to go with a duplex, as it offers everything we are looking for, in our price range, while still allowing us to spring for upgrades, as well, as indulge with a walk-out basement!!!!!

The neighbourhood is brand new, and very up-and-coming. It's also in a rather prestigious area of town. RITZY!!

So without further ado - here are the showhome pics of the place we're looking at (please excuse the decor - the Marilyn Monroe theme is obviously NOT MY PICK!!

Here's what the house looks like front the exterior. Yes, we've gone with a single garage again. I'm fine with it for now, as I typically get the garage anyhow :)

The front entrance is nice and long, with a closet right there, which is great. I've always been used to having stairs right near the door (great for sitting on, and putting on shoes). So I will have to invest in a couple of little leather ottomans for the front entrance, as well as some great accent pieces for that pretty little art niche!

Plus, that little door is the (fairly large) powder room, with great front door/garage access.

This is the STANDARD KITCHEN. We are not getting this kitchen - we are upgrading to this:

We prefer the dark, upgraded cabinets, and stainless steel. We will however, be switching to a raised eating bar by the sink.

We love the layout of the open kitchen!

The kitchen also features some great details, like these little built-in wine glass and coffee mug holders! The only thing in this kitchen that we do not like is the tile, and the white (very expensive sink).

As well, the bane of our home-buying existence is the fact that in lieu of a walk-in pantry, we will have to make do with this, corner pantry :(

The dining nook is the same size-ish as what we have now, so that will work fine.

The only difference, is that we'll soon be looking out onto our deck, and fairly large yard...

The open-floorplan also includes a great room - we're currently in negotiations about moving the location of the fireplace to the big wall where the sofa is. This will provide us more furniture arrangement options.

We really like the treatment they've used on the fireplace, but are skipping the option at this point, and will probably do something similar, as a DIY, down the road!

A very large, bright stairwell with a HUGE window leads the way upstairs!

The Master Bedroom is also pretty bright, with three nice big windows, a walk-in closet with window, and a pretty Master bath with tub/shower.

There is a 3 piece main bath, whose picture seems to have been erased (Cory....).



The two additional bedrooms, will be used as a guest room (eventual nursery).

In Office/Craft room... this room also has a nice walk-in closet perfect for storing my craft stuff!

The basement in this show home was NOT finished, so I didn't take photos. However, down the road it will be finished quite nicely as a large FAMILY ROOM, complete with walk-out to backyard. There will also be a nice 3 piece bath and a pretty little laundry room, as well as a lot of storage!!! I'm very excited!