Burnerblog

Sherry and I visited the design center to pick the options for the new house, and we made a lot of nice choices and very few compromises (fortunately). The only area in which we were both underwhelmed was the choice of faucets: two. Basic or “upgraded” for $2700 more. Umm, no thank you. The “upgraded” faucets are similar to what we currently have in our home, but a bit larger and more exaggerated (which means they are not nearly as attractive, in our opinion). The standard faucets are just fine and if they present any problems ergonomically or stylistically once we move in, I can replace them.

Otherwise, everything we picked is pretty darned nice, and we’re super-excited about going back tomorrow and making the decisions final. Tomorrow is the point of no return; the money that gets put down tomorrow is non-refundable. They start building the house next week (well, digging the hole for the slab, at least).

I didn’t take any photos during our first appointment, but I will take some photos tomorrow and post our choices. The railings are one of my favorite features and will remind me of my dad.

On a somewhat related note, I found out that I can get PVC ceiling tiles that look like stamped tin for a fraction of what the tin costs (and if you’re going to paint it anyway, why not save the money?). I’m going to do my office in the same color it is now (a sort of sage green) with the white ceiling tiles, wood floor, dark crown molding at the ceiling, and perhaps a light chair rail around the room. Of course, this won’t all hap

pen at once, but it’s the “plan” for the room. We may initially put in the wood/laminate floor in the family room prior to moving in, but we haven’t made a firm decision on that yet.

On the list for me after we close on the house (in December) is put up 18 sets of blinds and 4 ceiling fans. That alone will be a day’s worth of work. Then, there’s painting Brendon’s bedroom, Gelli’s bedroom, Jamie’s bedroom, the master bedroom, the master bath, and my office. We plan on doing all the painting prior to moving in so that we have as much room as possible to move around, etc. Also, we’re pretty efficient and fast at painting now, so it really should only take us a couple of days to get that all done.

Also related is that I found a decent set of plans to our new house that give me measurements for the rooms. This is useful because Sherry and I can start planning where furniture will go, etc. The rooms are all larger (some by quite a bit), so we’re having to try to decide where we will put things, and what areas will need to be filled in with future furniture, decorations, etc. While we like things to be a little spread out and sparse (something we couldn’t do in our current home), we need more sitting surfaces in the family room (for example).