The first stop was the windows and doors vendor. We had a pretty good idea of what we wanted so there weren't too many decision to make. Here is a picture of a door that is similar to what we picked as option #1:
We haven't decided yet if we will paint it or stain the wood, so TBD on that one. Our option #2, which is actually what we would prefer if it is within budget, would be a custom made door- similar to this one but with no raised panels (like the adjacent door on the left but with the six windows on top like the one on the right).
Next it was on to interior doors. Here is the one we want:
Here is the one we can afford :(. We really don't want the raised panels, so we will have a big decision to make about this one once we tally up all of our selections.
Here are our fiberglass windows (we don't like the grid look so ours won't have that):
Here are the windows we would love to have. They have a thicker trim and the inside is wood. Very pretty:
Next it was on to the flooring vendor. I didn't take many pictures there because we didn't really make any decisions! I guess we just mostly narrowed things down. For the wood floors we are getting pricing on 3" red oak and also 3" hickory. I thought the hickory floors were gorgeous, but they are going to be more expensive so I'm guessing we'll probably stick with the oak. Stain color TBD once the floor is in later. We realized we don't like the look of engineered wood floors, so that was one concrete decision we made!
We picked the style of carpet we want (oh so luxurious after the builder grade stuff that is in our current house!) but are still unsure about the color.
We discussed tile for the bathrooms (white hexagonal tiles to match master bath) and very briefly looked at backsplash options for the kitchen. That one is going to take some more research- after, of course, we pick what countertops we want!
Next it was on to the plumbing fixture vendor. This was actually our most disappointing stop so far. 99% of their fixtures were out of our price range, so we ended up just picking something that was close to our target without regard for the style. I'm hoping to visit another vendor to check prices, so hopefully the bathroom fixtures will change. Here's the kitchen faucet, which we think is a decent option (ours will be satin nickel):
Here's the ridiculously expensive shower fixture we chose (the only one near our budget, and was still over!). It will be the water sprayers on the left with the lever on the right. All in satin nickel.
And here is the uber boring sink faucet. $110- just can't believe it! We have one from Costco that we love that was $40. Granted, it has plastic parts on the inside and this one is made with higher quality parts, but still.
We were warned beforehand that our plumbing allowance seemed low, which is fine. We don't mind going over the allowance as long as it is on awesome stuff! I hope the next vendor has some better options.
Next up we visited our friend who works at AG&M to look at marble and granite slabs. The truth is, Eric and I want carrera marble counters. There, I said it. We want them. We know they scratch, stain, chip and etch easily. But we want them! We have gone back and forth about them because we know they are risky- but we just keep coming back to it! We love the honed marble look that we have seen in Europe, and at the end of the day we are ok with our counters getting some character from the wear and tear. To be prudent, though, we figured we should see what else is out there to make sure we want to take on the risk of having marble counters. Here is a slap of gorgeous carrera:
We saw some beautiful slabs of granite, quartzite and marble- but there was a clear winner :) By the way- I think everyone should visit a slab yard at least once in their lives. To see all of that beauty that came straight out of the earth is amazing!
Anyway, after the yard we moved on to the counter fabricators office where we took a look at some engineered stone options. Here's a picture of the ones that most closely resembled the marble, which is the big one in the middle. On the upper left is a wild card we threw in there with speckled fragments just because we thought it was pretty. :)
It might not convey in this crummy photo- but none of the engineered options had the same life and brightness as the marble. I think we are finally ready to commit to it without reservations.
So, that was our day! There were some highs and some lows, but luckily no fights! :) We ended our day with a much needed drink at a bar near our house.
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