DESIGN OVERLOAD
February 20, 2020Those who have built their own homes warned us that selecting the finishes for our new home would be overwhelming. In an attempt to better prepare myself for the hard design decisions I visited the design center prior to our appointments (sans Brandon.) Our home builder's design center used to be open to the public every Thursday evening.
While there I fell in love with finishes that, as Marie Kondo puts it "sparked joy." Like this beautiful gray hex tile and Carrara marble surround. In some ways my initial visit proved to be problematic, because I fell in love with finishes that I didn't know the price of. So I remain undecided if my attempt to prepare myself was indeed helpful. Those who know me well, know that I have expensive taste. And unfortunately, I have also have a slim wallet to go along with it. (It turns out that beautiful gray hex tile would cost an additional $1200 to install in the main bath, master bath, and laundry.) |
March 16, 2020Despite doing our best to heed the warnings of others no amount of preparation could have prepared us for making our design selections during the rise of the global pandemic - COVID 19*. Maybe you've heard of it? Our first appointments occurred prior to the Utah Stay at Home Directive. Social distancing had become a reality. We were invited to the design center to select our finishes, but to contain the spread of the virus we were not allowed to touch anything. This made the selection process even more overwhelming! Any item I desired to look at needed to be communicated with our design specialist, as she was the only person approved for handling the finishes. Selecting our finishes this way was difficult. It felt like we were at a petting zoo, but couldn't pet any of the animals. Pictured are our finish selections after appointment #1.
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*Disclaimer: The experience expressed is not intended to be insensitive to the trials we are all facing due to the pandemic.
March 30, 2020 Aside from not being able to touch anything the biggest issue we faced during design was price. Per policy our home builder would only discuss price during the design appointments. Our first design specialist neglected to give us all the prices for our initial selections. And I vaguely recall discussing prices, probably because I was overwhelmed. Thankfully, after our first appointment we were sent home with a packet of all the items we needed to select. I spent the two weeks between appointments familiarizing myself with that packet. I identified our wants and our needs, determined what items I needed to ask the price of, and organized and reorganized. Because of this our second design appointment went more smoothly than the first. That said making design decisions about our kitchen was difficult. Sometimes I feel pangs of regret for not spending $600 so all the upper cabinets are aligned.
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April 17, 2020Our final appointment was held virtually. During this appointment the specialist held up each of our design selections so we could see them through the webcam so we could approve of and sign off on them. Families who signed up to build their homes after us would be experiencing all three of their design appointments virtually. Despite the difficulty of not being able to touch anything, we had a silver lining experience of getting to see everything outside of a computer screen. That said, we did end up selecting our countertop virtually. For me the countertop was the most difficult finish to select, mostly due to the cost to upgrade to quartz and the offerings of included granite. Brandon and I worked together in selecting all of our design finishes. Most items were more to my liking than his, but we never disagreed on anything. Ultimately, it was Brandon who selected our countertop, a gorgeous gray quartz. And I couldn't be more thrilled! As you look through the images of our finishes selections you may notice my struggle of countertop selection, like this image with multiple samples.
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See our final interior finish selections below.
Exterior Finishes
April 17, 202Being an architectural design professional I am constantly thinking about my dream house. Since the start of mine and Brandon's relationship I have always told him that I want to live in a blue house. But when it came to actually selecting a color I had the most difficult time. Like a more difficult time than choosing countertops. I gathered countless paint chips, drove around numerous neighborhoods, and scoured the internet for inspiration. I think the hardest thing was I could find the right shade of blue. So during our second design appointment we selected a safe gray color. During the two week hiatus between design appointments I felt uneasy about that selection. So during our last appointment we switched to a blue we chose from a paint chip. After presenting the color to our design specialist she helped us realize this blue color had some serious purple undertones! (Yuck!) Then she helped us choose a similar shade. Now we get to tell people our home is our favorite jeans.
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Appliances
May 22, 2020New homes typically come with an included appliance package comprised of a range, dish washer, and microwave. A refrigerator is an upgrade. You would not believe the prices our builder quoted us for a fridge, so I'll show you:
If you're unfamiliar with appliance prices like I once was, the prices pictured above are extremely inflated. So we've been on the look out for a new refrigerator. Whilst visiting a local appliance store we stumbled upon this beautiful orange range. I've been trying to convince Brandon we need it, even though we didn't even put in a gas line. Anyway, one thing we didn't foresee was how our countertop would look with dark slate appliances. Which finish appliance color would you select? Keep in mind the lighting is poor.
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