First Selections!

Eric and I visited two vendors yesterday to make our first selections for the house. Tomorrow will be another big day- we will be picking the plumbing fixtures, flooring and countertops. It is going to be a busy day, but luckily we met with one of the bigger ones yesterday- lighting. Before spending 5 hours at the lighting store we first stopped by the hardware vendor and picked out our interior door handles, cabinet knobs/pulls and exterior door hardware. Right away we had to face our first budgetary compromise. Our allowance for interior door handles is $35 per door. Here are the ones I loved:

These are $60 per knob :( So, here are the ones we picked (the middle option) They were roughly $19 per knob:

Even though they aren't my first choice (I really like the ones with the rectangular rosette in the back) they will work. At the end of all our selections we will find out if we have money left over to apply to other areas. I think the knobs would look fabulous on our two panel white doors, so I'm guessing we might get them in the end if there is money to spend :) 

Next we picked our front door handle- allowance was $300, this one was $221. Woohooo- already saving money in the first two areas!

Next, it was into the cabinet pulls/knobs room. Our allowance was $5 per. We picked out these babies pretty quickly. Knobs and pulls will be satin nickel and they came in a little under budget at $3-$5, depending on size of the pull:

We finished up at the hardware store much faster than we planned with only the one little hiccup regarding the interior door handles. And hey- no fights! :)

Next up it was lighting. After 5 hours spent with an awesome sales person I can say that some decisions were really easy, like choosing this porch light (we need 4 of them):

Other easy decisions included flood lights for the exterior, closet lights, kid's bathroom lights, 7 fans (4 different styles depending on where they are located) hall lights and the 30+ can lights. We were under budget on all of those! Then, things got harder, and out came the books. 

Turns out the pendant lights that we like (we need 5 at an allowance of $150 each) are out of budget. The breakfast table light that we want (our allowance is $300) is right at our budget for something that seems simple. And the dining room lights that we like (our allowance is $500) is closer to $800. We looked and looked and looked through the books to try to find something to fit in budget and ended up picking selections that are close, but not quite what we want. 

Last night after we got home we did a little more research and came up with some other options. Here's what we picked at the lighting store (second one from left- $177 each):

 Here are two other options that we found online:

We'll find out Monday if either of these are within our budget. Next we'll have to ultimately decide if we like the solid metal one or the one with glass better. Wish us luck on that one!

Next, here's what we picked for the dining room: 

A pretty simple modern light fixture. Our dining table will be quite long- 90+ inches, so we need something that spans a good amount of that. In addition, we have low ceilings on the first floor- just 8'2"- so that limits our options as well as the budget. I think this light fixture was about $350, but we aren't 100% in love with it. After doing some research at home we found one we love at West Elm:

This one is great because 1) it is right at our budget amount 2) it spans 42 inches and 3) hangs from a single satin nickel frame so it will fit in perfectly with our other fixtures. 

We also found this drum chandelier that we love for the breakfast area: 

This one is pretty perfect for a meager $150 bucks compared to the $250 mediocre one we picked out from the vendor.  Our salesperson at the lighting store said drum lights like these are suddenly very popular, so the lighting manufacturers have raised the prices. Grrr no fair! 

The problem with the West Elm lights is that they aren't available from our lighting vendor. Stay tuned for how that turns out....

So that was our first day. So far I am happy to say we are under budget! Eric and I are a very good team and I feel like we knew when to split hairs where it counts (pendant lights in the kitchen) vs. make quick decisions (fans and closet lights etc.). 

Tomorrow will be another fun day! Hopefully we will be as efficient and decisive as we were yesterday.