Design Appointment

Today was our meeting with the design company to pick out our finishes and upgrades for the house. I was really excited to plan out everything- the countertops, the cabinets, the floors! As you could have guessed, Eric was not quite as excited as I was… but, after 3 ½ hours, I think we picked out nearly everything that we wanted and walked out on budget! (well, close to it at least :) haha)

The design center itself was smaller than I was imagining, but the options were plentiful- there were walls of tile choices, books of carpet samples, tons of countertop options- you name it, it was there. We were first presented with the standard choices for our house, like the standard tile, carpet, granite, and cabinetry. Some of the standard options were not that exciting in my opinion, so we chose to upgrade a few things here and there, providing the upgrade cost wasn’t ridiculous (such as, we learned that the cost of upgrading the fixtures in ONE bathroom was $2500!! And if we wanted all the interior walls painted, it would be upwards of $4k!! So obviously we passed on these options). We knew that many of the upgrades they quoted us for would be far less expensive if we did the work on our own or hired someone else to do the work. But, there were a few items that made sense to do now, as opposed to later. Plus, we had that incentive package from the builder to spend, so we had fun choosing a few (reasonably priced) upgrades!

So, in the end, we chose just a few upgrades, like espresso cabinetry, cream-colored granite with brown and black specs/swirls, surround sound wiring (Eric’s chioce), and a creamy-tan colored tile for the entry, bathrooms, laundry room, and kitchen/nook:

I was hoping to upgrade the appliance package and the carpet, but the costs were just astronomically overpriced. So, we’re going to stick with the standard carpet for a few years while we save up for some nice berber to replace it, and we’re going to buy our own stainless steel appliances and then hopefully sell the boring, standard white ones after we move in.