House update and checklist-

I can't believe we only have 3 months left! We first spoke with our builder last summer, and after a myriad of meetings, paper-signings, and appraisals, we broke ground on October 20, 2007. Our target move-in date is May 3, 2008, and I am seriously counting down. Drywall is going up as we speak, and I am frantically trying to get everything chosen within the next few weeks. It's funny--even though it takes 6 months to build, most of the decision making is done within a short 6-8 week period of time. I did have a good idea of what I wanted, and I love decorating, but when it really comes down to making a set-in-stone decision, it can be stressful. Add two toddlers to the mix, and whoa! I took them with me to one of the places I'm looking at counter tops, and out of the 1 1/2 hours I was there, I think I really only looked at the sample for about 15 minutes!

I have a timeline I'm working on, and this Friday is the deadline for granite and cabinets. Next Friday I need to be sure on tile, hardwood, and carpet, followed by paint and lighting. It can become overwhelming, but I started out with an initial color scheme and style and have been working around that. It has made it much easier to choose not only the bigger things, but smaller things like hinges, doorknobs, light switches that I never even thought of! I like clean, simple lines, and that's one of the main reasons I decided on a Shaker style throughout the house. The basic color palette will be reds, browns, creams, with accents of black, with the trim work white. Here are the things I know for sure:

Faucets: I decided on an oil-rubbed bronze for all the faucet fixtures, plus doorknobs and hinges. I really like this particular style, and I think it will go well in the kitchen and baths.

Cabinets: I chose a Maple cabinet, with a slightly darker finish. I really loved some other woods, like cherry, hickory, and alder, but the budget wouldn't quite make it! I'm really happy with these though, and I love the Shaker style doors. I couldn't get a good picture to show here, but here is a link so you can see them. It's the Sundance color, Concord style. We initially went over on our budget (it's so easy to do, especially with cabinets!), so we needed to start trimming costs. I wanted to leave the kitchen and master bath, so we made some changes to the upstairs bath and laundry, and went to white cabinets, but same style doors. Since the half bath will have a pedestal sink, we didn't have to make any changes there at all.

Appliances: We totally lucked out on appliances! Home Depot ended up having a pretty big sale a few weekends ago, and even though it was a little early to order them, they said they could delay shipping until we needed them. We had decided on stainless steel, but wasn't sure of the brand, and we wanted to stay within a certain budget. We ended up choosing LG, and I love the industrial, professional look of them. Rick really wanted the French door style refrigerator, and although I had initially wanted a ice/water combo in the door, I ended up liking the one we chose better. And just think--I won't have to be as worried about having kids in the water on my wood floors!

My next big decision is the granite for the counter tops, and this is seriously the hardest decision I've had to make yet. I have a vision for the kitchen, but I'm just not finding something I really love. I'm heading down the the warehouse this week to look at slabs, and hopefully that will help. It's so fun though--I can't complain.

I will be so happy to finally be in a house! :) We have waited such a long time, and we are really ready. We were in school for 7 years (married very young! :)), then we moved to our current town. We thought we would only be here for a year, maybe two, and since we only had one child, we thought we would rent. Well, we ended up being here longer, and once we decided to buy, I got pregnant with the girls. We decided to wait until after they were born to go forward, and I'm glad we did. I ended up on bed rest for weeks, and there is no way we could have managed it, at least not very well. Once they turned 1, we started making serious efforts towards looking for a home, and finally decided to build. It's been a long road, but really, I can't imagine it any other way. This is the right time for us. YAY!