Selection Saturday
As mentioned in a previous post, Leah and I recently signed a contract for a new construction home. Well, part of the rites of passage for going the new construction route is getting to make selections. I had done this before, with a little input from my mom, for the house that is now a part of the Eric and Leah entity, but this would be Leah's initiation into the whole homebuilding process (Leah and I were dating at the time, but I didn't really have any future plans or relationship direction at that point, plus I didn't wanna prematurely give her any crazy ideas about our future). : )
So anyway, we had decided that Saturday was as good a day as any . . . The contract actually specifies that we must make selections within 14 days, but in our case it wouldn't exactly hold things up because the streets haven't been put in, MLG&W hasn't assigned addresses, and it's just not time for the builder to get going with supplies yet. But it still makes it seem a lot like "ours" by showing up and saying, "By golly, we're here to select the paint color for the storage room door!". Leah later admitted that she was dreading it a little bit, perhaps because neither one of us are really from the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy interior design types. But all in all, it wasn't that bad.
Of course you have the basics: brick, paint color for siding, paint color for exterior trim (which will be garage door color), interior paint, counter tops, etc. But even though I had gone through this process once before, there were still some selections that caught me by surprise--i.e., that I didn't have to make last time. An example: shingles. Geez. I don't know. Aren't all shingles the same color? Nope? I guess I've never, ever driven down the street, looked at a roof, and said to myself, "You know, those shingles sure are a funny color--it just doesn't go well with the brick at all. What were they thinking?!?!" Let's see . . . What else was there? Door color (which is also the same color for the shutters)......tile or hardwood for the entryway, and then specific color/design for the choice. Linoleum.....Out of 3 linoleum surfaces (kitchen, master bath, guest bath), we get up to 2 pattern choices. Carpet. Fireplace accents (i.e., tile color and big tile vs small tile). Cabinets - oak finish, mahogany finish, or tea-stain finish. Hardware or no hardware. Oh yeah, and the standard cabinets used to have exposed hinges, but they just got an email and now all hinges are hidden, which used to be only an upgrade option (I don't know about you, but I know I'm sleeping better today knowing that my hinges won't be exposed). Marble color for the jacuzzi tub. A color choice for the stove (not really the entire stove, just parts of it). For interior paint colors (wall and trim), we have exactly 2 color choices. For 300 more dollars, we could've had 5 more choices, but the little agent-helper-chickee couldn't tell us if the paint was a better quality. Two hours later, we're outta there.
All in all, it wasn't that bad. For some of the choices, it really is hard to picture an entire wall or floor or room by using a small "swatch" of sorts. But we did our best, and even used some ideas from the model home (read: copied) since we know that professional decorators know much more than us when it comes to that stuff. We definitely left with more anticipation and excitement, and can hardly wait to see things starting to come together in the next several months.
UPDATE: We got a call today from one of the reps at the model home, and guess what's been discontinued? Our shingles!! The color/design that we picked out is now obsolete. Now we have to stress out over our replacement roof selection (I'm so kidding).
So anyway, we had decided that Saturday was as good a day as any . . . The contract actually specifies that we must make selections within 14 days, but in our case it wouldn't exactly hold things up because the streets haven't been put in, MLG&W hasn't assigned addresses, and it's just not time for the builder to get going with supplies yet. But it still makes it seem a lot like "ours" by showing up and saying, "By golly, we're here to select the paint color for the storage room door!". Leah later admitted that she was dreading it a little bit, perhaps because neither one of us are really from the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy interior design types. But all in all, it wasn't that bad.
Of course you have the basics: brick, paint color for siding, paint color for exterior trim (which will be garage door color), interior paint, counter tops, etc. But even though I had gone through this process once before, there were still some selections that caught me by surprise--i.e., that I didn't have to make last time. An example: shingles. Geez. I don't know. Aren't all shingles the same color? Nope? I guess I've never, ever driven down the street, looked at a roof, and said to myself, "You know, those shingles sure are a funny color--it just doesn't go well with the brick at all. What were they thinking?!?!" Let's see . . . What else was there? Door color (which is also the same color for the shutters)......tile or hardwood for the entryway, and then specific color/design for the choice. Linoleum.....Out of 3 linoleum surfaces (kitchen, master bath, guest bath), we get up to 2 pattern choices. Carpet. Fireplace accents (i.e., tile color and big tile vs small tile). Cabinets - oak finish, mahogany finish, or tea-stain finish. Hardware or no hardware. Oh yeah, and the standard cabinets used to have exposed hinges, but they just got an email and now all hinges are hidden, which used to be only an upgrade option (I don't know about you, but I know I'm sleeping better today knowing that my hinges won't be exposed). Marble color for the jacuzzi tub. A color choice for the stove (not really the entire stove, just parts of it). For interior paint colors (wall and trim), we have exactly 2 color choices. For 300 more dollars, we could've had 5 more choices, but the little agent-helper-chickee couldn't tell us if the paint was a better quality. Two hours later, we're outta there.
All in all, it wasn't that bad. For some of the choices, it really is hard to picture an entire wall or floor or room by using a small "swatch" of sorts. But we did our best, and even used some ideas from the model home (read: copied) since we know that professional decorators know much more than us when it comes to that stuff. We definitely left with more anticipation and excitement, and can hardly wait to see things starting to come together in the next several months.
UPDATE: We got a call today from one of the reps at the model home, and guess what's been discontinued? Our shingles!! The color/design that we picked out is now obsolete. Now we have to stress out over our replacement roof selection (I'm so kidding).
posted by Eric C at 1:50 PM
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