BillyandAshlee.com

We have been very busy with appointments, but are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel! Saturday we met our interior designer for carpet, tile, and interior/exterior paint. Then we went straight to our lighting appt (where we also picked out door handles and towel racks…random). Yesterday we had our plot plan meeting with our construction manager and we are just waiting for the city to approve our plans (they’ve had them for 1.5 weeks…could be any day to a few more weeks) and then we’ll have a hole!! Finally, today we had our faucets appointment. Whew. Here’s some pics of things we chose!

This will be our tile in our master bath (on the floor, tub step and surround, and walk-in shower). The small 2×2 tiles will be on the shower floor and then an accent in the shower and around the tub.

This will be the tile in our laundry room and our 3/4 bath on the main floor:

I think this may be the tile that will be in our kids bath and guest room en suite bath…but I could totally be wrong…all I remember is that it was lighter than the others and something that would work with whatever colors I paint those as I figured those baths (especially kids) would get repainted to something cute:

This is the tile that will be on the fireplace in the greatroom (you can also see the carpet we’ll have and a really old, beat-up sample of the cabinetry stain used throughout the house). Right now we’re negotiating as to whether we’re doing 2×2 tiles (my vote) or 6×6 tiles (Billy’s vote):

This is the tile we’ll use as the backsplash in the kitchen and butlers pantry…except in 6×6 tiles…1 row along the bottom and then laid diagonally above that, if that makes sense, I included a pic to show what I’m talking about. It’s a tumbled natural stone:

Here you can see the various colors that the tile will be:

And here’s a picture of a picture of a kitchen back splash done in this stone, but in the subway tile layout…but you can see the various shades of the colors:

Here’s our carpet that will be in the great room on the main level (rest will be hardwoods with the 3/4 bath tiled) and then on the bedroom level. Next to it is the designer carpet we’re doing on the stairs:

And here is a picture of a house that shows the exterior paint we are going with (and actually, is similar to what our house will look like, except that bottom right window is different). Billy wants the garage doors the shutter/door color as shown here, I think I like them to be the color of the body of the house…but honestly, I don’t really care. Anyone care to vote?

Here’s the kitchen faucet we chose (all in oil rubbed bronze):

faucet in the 3/4 bath:

shower in the 3/4 bath and master bath:

faucets in the master bath…likely these, but still debating:

master tub (whirlpool tub) faucets:

I just can’t decide if I like the “taller” arc ones better (Billy originally wanted the shorter ones like what we got, but now says he doesn’t care whereas I originally wanted the taller arc ones and now I’m not sure)…thoughts?

and the tub would be this:

The paint color throughout the house will be this (wall and trim):

Then the 3/4 bath and dining room will be this dark chocolate brown (floors aren’t done in this house, but you get the idea of the dining room:

Oh - and here’s an example of the style of tile I want around the fireplace (2×2), but we are doing different tile (I don’t have a pic of what Billy wants, 6×6). Honest opinions, what do you think??

Ok - that was probably more than anyone wanted to see! =)

We signed the contract 3.5 weeks ago and are in the “waiting phase”. The plans were finalized by the architect, signed off on by us, sent to the engineer and the surveyor has been out to stake the lot. Now we are waiting on something else on the lot (don’t remember what for sure) and then we should meet with our construction manager next week for our “plot plan meeting” which means we review where the house will sit, the angle of the driveway, etc. We have decided to go with the daylight basement instead of the walk-out as we are having the space under the garage also poured as basement space and that doesn’t allow us to float the garage floor up and down like you normally would, so our driveway on a walk-out would have been too steep. We’re ok with the decision as we weren’t sure how much we’d really use that door anyway, especially considering we won’t finish the basement for 5-10 years. And the good news is we actually got to put in a change order to take $4,000 out of our contract, I’m sure that will be the only time we’re signing a change order to reduce the price!lol

Other than that, we’ve had 3 of our design appointments to select appliances, cabinets, and our granite. We had a lot of extra cabinets added (such built-ins around the fire place for dvd player, Wii, dvd’s, pictures; cabinets above the desk in the pantry, pull down ironing board in the master closet, tower storage between the sinks in the master bath) and I’m pretty excited about them…it will be nice to have all the extra storage. For our granite that will be on the kitchen counters, island, butlers pantry, and master bath, we chose “Tropical Brown”, here’s a pic:

Saturday we have our appt with our interior decorator to choose tile (for the backsplashes in the kitchen and butlers pantry; main floor bathroom, kids bathroom, guest bathroom, and laundry room floors; and the master bath floors, shower, and tub surround), carpet (great room, stairs, and bedroom level), interior/exterior paint, and lighting. Then next week is plumbing fixtures. Still a few more after that, so it’s a lot of appointments, but fun to get to pick every detail of our new house!

Poor Lauren is pretty tired of walking through the models and spec homes though…we keep dragging her through to go back to look at this and that…we think she’ll be pretty excited when we finally move in!