Sunday, May 29, 2011

More tile

We had more tile-work done this weekend, including the kitchen backsplash and the fireplace surround.

It took us about one minute to decide on the kitchen backsplash.  Originally I had really wanted carrera marble subway tiles, but after we picked out our granite I didn't think it would go very well.  The granite resembles carrera marble too much that it might end up clashing with actual marble.  Instead, we went the cheaper route to try and make up for the over-budget countertops.  We picked a simple white porcelain subway tile backsplash.  It's classic and simple, and goes well with our countertops and cabinets.

(The wood on the left island is just a placeholder)




The fireplace tile was also installed.  This was a pretty easy decision as well - my sister actually originally saw these tiles at Lowes and told me we should use it as a backsplash long before we'd started to pick anything out.  I loved the tiles, but after we decided we wanted a fireplace tile surround, I thought they'd go better there. 



The plan is to get all of our final inspections done this week while they work on other finishing details.  We're still planning on moving in June 11 - less than 2 weeks away!

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Trying to get it sold....

It's been awhile since I've updated on how the house on the market has been going.

Turning our one bathroom into two bathrooms did pick up interest, but in the past week or so we've decided we really want to push it.  So on Sunday we dropped the price and had a carpenter build a cabinet for the washer and dryer.  I feel like we've done everything we can now and it's just a waiting game.  Luckily, we had 4 viewings this week - the most we've had during any one week!  I'm praying one of them wants to buy the house!

Here are some pictures of the new washer & dryer cabinet:



Thursday, May 26, 2011

Granite installed!

Our granite was finally installed!  I was very excited to see it and I LOVE what we picked out.





(The granite on the other island will be going in later)


Master Bath:



Fireplace Hearth:

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Lighting installed

While we were in Palm Beach all of our light fixtures were installed and appliances delivered, and some other things that I can't quite recall.

It's so nice to be able to go there after dark now and be able to see.  It's also great to be able to see downstairs, since it was always too dark down there to see anything.

Outside lights

Entry Light

Master Bath lights

Master bath toilet installed and mirror chosen

Master shower heads and glass door installed

Upstairs guest fan

Upstairs guest bath vanity

Upstairs guest bath light

Upstairs guest bath shower head

Upstairs guest bath toilet

Master fan (not sure if we're going to keep it)

You can finally see what the downstairs den looks like

Downstairs Hall

Downstairs Hall

Office light

Downstairs guest light

Downstairs bath light

Downstairs bath toilet

Downstairs bath shower head

Laundry room lights

Fridge

Oven

Dishwasher

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Granite!

To begin the post - here is what we picked for the kitchen:

Moon Night Granite
And for the master bath vanity:

Not sure of the name
(There's some dust on it but you can still see what it looks like)

Now, if you're curious, here's the story of how we got here.

Ever since we first started planning our house, I knew what I wanted our kitchen counters to look like.  I love the look of carrera marble, but I know it's not the most practical for a kitchen.  I also love the granite on my sister's kitchen island, which is pretty white with black and white specks and a lot of movement.  It looks great.

I told Arthur I was looking for a white granite similar to carrera marble.  The granite guy first dropped off three samples on Tuesday.  Of the three, I only really liked one of them.  Two of them had too much black, and I didn't like the movement in them.  One of them looked really nice but didn't have enough movement in it.  I decided to consider it for the master bathroom.  (Sorry, I don't have pictures or names).

On Thursday the granite guy dropped off another sample of Kashmir White granite.  I thought I might like it, but I really couldn't tell from the small sample.  It didn't tell me what the movement would look like and what the variations in color could be from the slab.  I explained my hesitation to Arthur regarding picking a granite from such a small sample, and Friday afternoon he sent me the addresses of stoneyards that had slabs I could go to.  This was at 4:00, and I knew that most of them weren't open on Saturday, but I noticed that several were only a few miles from my office.  I called the granite guy, he told me where the samples had come from, and then I called that stoneyard and found out they close at 4:30.  So I told them I'd be there in 8 minutes and to wait for me!

I got there just in time (4:20) and was able to look at several slabs.

First, we looked at the White Kashmir that my sample came from:



I liked it, and I liked the movement in it more than I did in the sample, but I still wanted to see a few more.  He showed me the rest of the slabs that fit in the "White" Granite category, several of which are definitely out of our budget.  Here are two of the ones I kind of liked, but we probably couldn't afford:

Not a fan of the movement in this one....

And this one was a little too creamy.

Then he said, oh, and we have this one that has a lot of gray:




I was very excited when I saw it.  It's pretty, has great movement, very similar to coloring of carrera marble, and should be a reasonable price.  I wasn't 100% sure I wanted this one over the Kashmir White, but my gut instinct was excitement.

We also stopped by the slab of the original sample I liked that I was considering for the master bathroom:



After getting an opinion from Amy, who told me to go with the one that my instinct was most excited about, I then discussed the options with Kyle.  He agreed with me, and liked the coloring of the Moon Night the most.  So we emailed Arthur our final decisions - Moon Night for the kitchen, and the sample for the master bathroom.

Done, right?  Not quite.  We went to the house this afternoon while the granite guy was measuring and creating templates for our counters, and he said we should pick another stone for the master bath.  The one we had picked only comes in full slabs, so we'd have to buy a whole slab for a small space.  And we don't like wasting money like that.  He said we should go by his office to pick out one of the remnant pieces he has that is large enough for our vanity sometime next week.  Unfortunately - we're going to be out of town all week next week.  And it needs to be installed next week.  So he was kind enough to let me meet him there this afternoon. 

It took me forever to find the place, but once I did it didn't take too long to pick out the stone.  I was wavering between two stones, but couldn't really tell which one I liked, because it was really hard to see since it was kind of stacked with and leaning against a bunch of other stones.


But then he showed it to me on the large stone saw he uses, since he had been working on it for someone else's counters.  And I loved it!


It's kind of hard to see in the picture, because there is some dust and stuff on it, but there's a really pretty flowing movement.  It's a tan/cream color, and should look good with the travertine in our bathroom.  

And those are our final granite decisions!