A Model Home

 

 

 

Granite Saga

Part of the reason I decided to build a home was so that I could have a say in all of the finishing touches. Where does a family spend most of their time? In the kitchen! So, with that in mind, I opted for the lower, extended flush countertop so that we could have ample space to do crafts and science experiments and baking and all of the kinds of things that we do as a family, in that kitchen.

Im building a home that I had hoped to create a place where my children and I could create wonderful new memories. We've been through a lot and the new space is a fresh start.  I had those thoughts in my head when I made my selections at the KB Home Studio. Afterall, this is Built-to-Order, not Built-to-Sell. I should get everything I ordered without question.

 

It's my sentiment that I should be gaga, head over heels, super pleased with all it. And if one supplier can't deliver, why aren't they using another? Why isn't Summit Stoneworks updating their samples? And why did they have me pick my choices 4 months before they even ordered it?? Maybe buyers need to be able to select their slabs instead of relying on a sample from who knows when. I do recall that Jennifer, my designer, had told me certain ones weren't available, and 1 or 2 had been marked as such, but the ones I was choosing from were available. They only thing I was told was that there could be variations in the veining of the stone. I understand that. But an entirely different product is not in that description.

Here is the image Summit Stoneworks shows as 'Delicatus' on their website:

 

 

That sure looks similar to the sample I saw at the studio. This is not what they installed in my home.

 

And this is a image of what Arctic Cream looks like, taken from another granite supplier's website:

 

 

See the creamy, beige background and the black veins? That is what I was given.

Here is a closeup of the granite that was installed in my home:

Compare this granite to my walls, which are not white but are actually Sherwin Williams' "Softer Tan". This granite is so dark it makes my walls look white!

This will not go with my white backsplash, that's for sure! There isn't any white in this stone at all!


Now this is Delicatus:

 

The Final Options

 

 

 

 



• Oak cabinets in Espresso (in kitchen, nook, baths and laundry)
• White Delicatus granite (in kitchen and nook)
• Pietra del Norte 'Maine' polished tile backsplash
• Shaw Landscapes 'Nightsong Hickory' laminate wood flooring (in entry, kitchen, nook, powder, pantry and laundry)
• Shaw carpeting 'Thistle' (in all living areas) with upgraded pad
• Emser 'Titan' tile (in upstairs bathrooms)
• white marble countertops (in all baths and in master tub & shower surround)
• Kids' bath will have porcelain tub with white tile surround.
• All faucets will be Eva Watersense in Chrome except for the kitchen which is nickel.
• All lighting fixtures will be nickel finish.
• Room conversion - living room to study
• One door and one extra window in lieu of the patio sliding door
• All railing will be wrought iron instead of paint grade wood
• Manchester walnut-stained 8-foot front door (and stunningly beautiful!)
• Interior paint is Softer Tan (by Sherwin Williams) with white gloss 5 1/4" baseboards.
• Exterior brick is Urbana Antique by Claymex. Paint will be Foothills and Well Bred Brown (both by Sherwin Williams).
• Back patio will be covered and have a ceiling fan, size 8' ×16' plus a little more and steps down
• upgraded the attic insulation
• insulated the garage (because it also insullates the kids floors as their rooms are over it).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 26: Final Selection Day

This is it! Final Selection Day!

Today Im letting go of all of my anxiety and Im going to enjoy this moment. Many people never get to experience this in their whole entire lives. Im going to enjoy this blessing that God has bestowed upon me and be thankful and joyous.

Chance told me at our last meeting that he expected construction to begin the first week of December. Changes will happen fast then. For today, Im going to relish the serenity of the moment because in a couple short weeks, changes will happen every day!

Watch for pictures of my selections today in a separate post to follow later today, and wish me luck!

Day 25: Urbana Antique

For the past week all I've thought about, in my free time, has been about the design and décor of my home. What do I want it to look like? How do I want it to function? What do I want my home to say to people who see it or who visit? What does it need to impress me, make me comfortable and make me happy?

 

Cabinets.
Countertops.
Backsplash.
Fixtures.
Carpet.
Tile.
Wood/laminate.
Paint.
Trim.
Brick.
Insulation.

 

Just to name a few. My options packet is about 50 pages! When you daydream about building a house, it's a lot of overzealousness and the best of everything. When you actually do it, it's a bit more intense. By about a thousand. However, it's very exciting, too!

 

Most of the choices were easy to consider, visualize and make a selection on such as the gorgeous granite I treated myself to or the upgrade from pedestal sink to cabinet in the powder room. Other things were not as clear and required some thought (and even gazing at a zillion pictures online and on my phone) like flooring and fixture colors.

 

Then there were big things like brick. When you go into the design studio, they only have 4 rows of brick in these 12×24 frames. I don't know about you, but a house is huge! Visualizing a small swatch of brick on a big house is not easy, for me anyway. On top of that, try to picture what color paint and trim you want, too. Impossible!

 

I drove around and around, took pictures, talked to people, sent Jennifer a gazillion emails, and even dragged my kids and mom out to help. Brick looks different in the sun as opposed to in the shade. What looks red in the shade may look brown in the sun. It kept playing tricks on my mind.

 

I am drawn to neutral colors. I've found three brown bricks that I could settle with. Bricks with names like Mojave and Canyon Springs. Then there is this really interesting variety with a lot of color that I'm drawn to, Fall Creek. It is pretty, however, I'm not a flashy type of person. I just can't pull the trigger on a brick already overly popular in my neighborhood.

 

It took a lot of struggle, thought and frustration but I really didn't decide until yesterday (okay... today). I took one more trip around the neighborhood looking at my favorites. This time I was able to get out and go see it up close and in both, the sun and shade, at the same time. That's when I knew it was the one.

 

 

 

Urbana Antique. This is it!

 

Here's the variations in the coloring from sunlight to shade. Near where the fence meets the house, some sunlight is able to partly lighten the bricks there, leaving part in the shade. You can see how much the coloring changes. This is why I've struggled with picking brick this week. Houses all face different directions, when you see one in the shade and another in the sunlight, they look completely different even though they have the same brick. I urge you, if you're driving around looking at brick, too, to make sure you see the same house and same brick in sun as well as shade because one or the other just might change your mind. You have to live with your brick for a long time and be happy with it, be able to choose new paint colors (when the time comes) and landscape with it as a background.

I couldn't be more relieved and ready to move onto the next phase. Now, tomorrow, I can go to my Final Pick Day and select all of the things I've been visualizing all week. It will be nice to make it all official. That will be a huge relief! And, having this done, Thanksgiving will be much less stressful, much more peaceful.

 

Watch for pics coming tomorrow!

Day 24: By God, I Think She's Got It!

I think I've found the brick I like! I feel like shouting that from the hilltops! I've got the brick!

Here is a pic of a house in another KB  Home neighborhood with the brick Im favoring. The elevation of their home is very similar to how mine will be in that they have the covered porch area in the front with the half-brick pillars and they have some painted area above the garage. Mine will have both of those also.

I like how they paired a darker paint color with it instead of going with a paler color that would do nothing for this brick (like I see so many other people do). The builder doesn't give us many options, unfortunately, however, this paint-brick combination is attractive and tasteful, and just what Im looking for!

Day 22: Some Bumps in the Road

Welcome to Week #4!

After posting my plot plan, an old high school friend happened to see it and shared with me some helpful knowledge. Since he's an architect, I trust he knows what he's talking about and the next morning I immediately contacted Chance at KB about this. He's going to discuss it with the engineer and we'll go from there.

In the picture above, you can see how my lot begins to slope at the easement line. However, after driving around the neighborhood and looking at the houses over on Crested Butte that have similar slope, Im confident that my drive will be leveled in the same fashion.  See pic below.

 

 

Next, the brick. Kennewick isn't available. I'm not sure why since it's being used in the neighborhood down the road from me. I'm terribly upset about this. I've spent the last 24+ hours hunting for a brick I like. Ive found a couple that I can settle for, yet when I consider how much Im spending on this house, I dont feel like I should settle. I'm not happy. And at this point I'm willing to pay extra to get what I want.

 

I pray to God that something good comes from all of this stress.

 

In the course of my hunt, I did find a rather unusual plant that caught my eye in one of the neighborhoods. It's actually a sumac plant, non-poisonous and the berries are actually edible. Edible sumac red berries are from the Sumac bush whereas Poison Sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) has white berries. NEVER eat them!

 

 

 

Around this time of year, Sumac bushes have whitish berries that turn a deep rusty red. The berry clusters appear like flames from the green bushes, just beautiful! Its what caught my eye! Not only are they edible, sumac berries are medicinal.

 

Here is an excerpt from Mother Earth Living that I found interesting:

 

Sumac leaves and berries are classified as astringent and cooling. Certain Native American and Canadian Indian tribes used sumac to treat bladder, digestive, reproductive, and respiratory ailments; infections; injuries; stomachaches; arrow wounds; and more. The Chippewa Indians of North America made a decoction of sumac flowers to treat gas, indigestion, and other digestive upsets. The Iroquois used sumac as a laxative, diuretic, expectorant, liver aid, and in countless other applications. The powdered bark and dried berries were allegedly combined with tobacco and smoked during peace pipe ceremonies. The inner bark was also used to treat hemorrhoids.

 

Early pioneers used the berries to reduce fevers, and they steeped and strained the berries and thickened the mixture with honey to yield a soothing cough syrup. Some transformed the berries into wine. Others used the root to produce an emetic tea (to induce vomiting), the bark to make dye, and the leaves to relieve symptoms of asthma.

 

Sumac berries contain malic acid, which possess antifungal properties and putative anti-fibromyalgic activity; tannic acid, which is present in tea and wine and is known for its astringent activity; and gallic acid, a white crystalline compound used in dyes, in photography, and in ink and paper manufacture.

 

Fascinating, no?

 

Preliminary Plot Plan

 

 

 

While I was at lunch today, Chance called. He asked if I could come in and take a peek at the engineer's plan for my lot. It's to show me where my house will be situated, how much sideyard there will be, what direction water runoff will drain to and so forth.

 

He also said that next Wednesday will be my final selection day and then about a week later construction will begin on my house!

 

***BIG SMILE***

 

WOW!!! This is fast!! I am super excited! When I look at the timeline he gave me, this will put me about 4 weeks ahead of schedule. All of that hard work that Jaime and I did leading up to this is paying off. Who knows, we might be able to move in in March of 2014! Just in time for my birthday!

 

Day 20: Kennewick

Isnt this brick gorgeous?! I first fell in love with this brick when I fell in love with the house over on Waizel Way (in another KB Home neighborhood). I came really close to buying that house, however underwriting made me wait. Luckily for me, too, because now Im building my own and getting to experience all that goes along with it. Im designing my own home from the ground up.

 

After picking out my preliminary selections yesterday and going over budget, I went home and slept on it. I talked to friends and family and thought some more. Then I made a list. I crossed out the things I knew I could add on later with the help of a handyman, or as a DIY type thing, and I then settled upon the flooring. It seemed a bit steep so I checked with Fabulous Jennifer, my designer at the KB Home Studio, and we discussed adding in some laminate flooring in lieu of some of the tile. When she sent me back a new quote, I was over the moon happy. This was the fix I needed to be able to keep all of the other goodies I have planned.

 

Then came the brick. As I said before, I wasn't gaga over the one I chose, even though I love looking at it in the neighborhood. One woman I spoke with while driving around looking at brick told me that her neighbor has it and two others down her street. Yeah, no thanks. I dont want to be a cookie cutter. And, since my house is on the corner, it needs to wow people, right?

 

So, I keep going back to the Waizel Way house. I loved that brick! It isn't one of the "included" options with KB, however Im having Fabulous Jennifer quote me on it. Keep your fingers crossed that the tile-laminate swap will be able to fund the brick. Then we're all set!

 

Here are a few more pictures of Kennewick brick from the house over on Waizel Way:

 



Day 19: Preliminary Pick Day



Today was my Preliminary Pick Day, as Im fondly calling it. This is the day when I had to actually make choices and about the items that will be installed in my home such as bathtubs and cabinets, flooring and paint, and about a zillion other things it seems.

When you go in, they give you a huge packet of all of the options. It's sectioned out but some parts can get tedious reading and navigating though. Luckily they don't even give you the carpet choices or it would be even bigger! I started on the packet two days before, when I came in to browse. Most of what I wanted I knew. However, I knew Id be adding on much more today.

I had the nicest sales rep, Jennifer, who graciously jumped in and started early with me when she found me browsing the kitchen area before my appointment. She helped me make choices, offered advice, let me take as much time as I needed and, since she had just built a home herself, she knew what I was feeling through all of this. Above are my preliminary choices.

I started in the cabinets and countertops section of the design studio as this is the first room you get to when you begin this process. The granite and cabinets came together really quick, thankfully. I love the granite! It's a snow white with chocolate and black. The cabinets I choice are an espresso color (not black, sorry if the picture doesn't show off its beautiful true coloring).

Then we sat down for a bit and she went over all of the interior structural options such as room conversions, upgrades to the countertop heights and prewiring for ceiling fans, adding on a patio cover, and stuff like that.

Next we picked out all of the faucets and upgraded the kids' bathtub to porcelain with tile surround. I picked the marble tub for the master with separate shower and marble surrounds in both of those. I love how clean and smooth they are! I know Im going to love sinking into that tub at the end of a long day (like today, wah!).

Next we moved onto picking the exterior 8' door and the interior doors. We picked out lighting, upgraded the railings to black wrought iron spindles, and talked about paint. Im opting to not have the house painted a special color inside for two reasons. One, they pretty much only offer shades of white; I don't want to pay for something Im going to turn around and paint over. And two, I have something else in mind for that money. :)

Brick, exterior paint and roofing came next. This part is hard! It's very difficult to visualize what a small sample of brick will look like on a big house. I drove around my neighborhood beforehand, but to be honest, Im still undecided. I made a pick, however it is subject to change before my final appointment next week. One good thing I learned though was that since Im on a corner, that side that faces the street will be solid brick. That's an add-on I don't have to pay for! Sweet deal!

Flooring and tile was pretty much the last step of the process. I was a little disappointed in their selection of backsplashes. They offered nothing by way of tiny pieces except for the glass mosaic, which Im not a fan of. I wanted something more along the lines of a pretty white but had to settle for a 12" tile. Thankfully its silky smooth like stone and not like floor tile. It'll work for now until I decide to rip it out down the road. I did pick out carpeting fairly quick, however I realize now I need to confirm with Jennifer which areas are having tile and which are having carpet.

So, the process seems short, however you're making a thousand decisions within a few hours and by the end, I was starting to get a headache. Im eager to see it all installed in my new home. I just know it will be beautiful!

Day 18: Sinking or Swimming?

 

 

Today is one of those days when you have so much on your mind and you just feeling like your mind is swimming. So, I drove by the lot this evening on my way home. The sun is starting to set (behind me) and its still casting nice colors in the sky. It felt good to come by today.

 

After browsing through the studio yesterday and seeing all of my choices, Im torn. Mostly its the theme of the home. Im unsure of the brick color, although I know which ones I like when I drive by them in the neighborhood. Picking them out in tiny swatches is like finding a needle in a haystack. I had no idea there were so many colors in a brick pattern.

Also, the counters and cabinets and flooring. Oh my! I really thought this was going to be easier. Ive ruled out a couple of colors I don't like, but there are still too many that I do. Luckily my budget is helping me to narrow that down.

For today, Im not picking. Im just letting it sink in.

Day 17: Peek Day

Today is Peek Day! Hooray! This will be my first look at picking out all of the things that will turn my house into my home. This is huge! I don't have to make a decision today, luckily. Instead, I plan on jotting down the items I like in each category by first, second and third. Then I'll be able to go home and think about my choices and decide where I want to spend my money. Right now I predict the hardest part will be choosing the brick and the exterior color scheme. We'll see!

Update: Today was hard. There were so many choices, colors and themes. Once I thought I had made up my mind, then on the way out I changed it. What I thought I didnt want, I did!  Oh! How am I going to do this? 

I go back in 2 days and have to narrow it down. 

Day 16: This Section Is Filling Up

It's a super beautiful day today. The sky is so blue. It's breezy yet not too chilly. It's a perfect day to be outside.

There are currently 8 homes with sold signs, including mine, and the two houses being built. This section is quickly filling up as the pool and 8 surrounding homes are on hold for Model homes. There aren't too many left in this section. It'll be interesting to see which direction the neighborhood expands into next.

Ive been going over the options list that my salesman sent over. Just trying to wrap my head around the things I know I want and, at the same time, sort of making a mental list of things I know my handyman can take care of for me a little at a time down the road.

Remember when I said I felt like a kid at Christmas? Christmas is here! It's going to last for about 10 days, too! Today is Peek Day. Wednesday is Preliminary Appointment Day then a week later will be Final Appointment Day. Watch for pictures to come!

Day 15: Made an Appointment With the Design Studio

Welcome to the beginning of Week #3!

This morning I received a call from the KB Home Design Studio. They scheduled my first appointment for this Wednesday.  I'm going to pop in and browse on Monday to get my feet wet. I cant wait to see all of my options for flooring, brick, paint and more!

In neighborhood news, the two houses being built just off to the back are having their brick put on.  The kids and I walked through one of the houses (the one with the similar floorplan as ours). They have some cabinets and have been painted, but otherwise nothing has been done inside. It's exciting to see though. The kids say they cant wait to get to see our house inside. :) 

Day 12: Inside Preview

Its getting harder and harder to wait for that final call from underwriting saying we can go ahead with picking out all of the wonderful details that make a house a home. I feel like a kid at Christmas, counting the days down, waiting for that wonderful day to finally be here and getting everything your heart dreams of. I know it will happen, it's just a matter of having patience and enjoying this joyful time in the meantime.

It's rainy today and pictures are all looking the same, so I thought I would share with you a few bits of the inside of the house. This obviously isn't my house, it's the model, but its the house I fell in love with. Im going to be choosing a few different design features but overall you can get the idea of what most of our home will look like.

This is the entry:

Here is looking from the entry towards the back:

Looking back thru the dining to the office and entry:

Family room, dining and office again:

Kitchen and breakfast:

Upstairs, great room:

Master:

Master sitting:

Back of the house:

Elevation

This is the elevation of the home Im going to build, exactly. Im unsure of which brick and paint color Im going to choose. There is plenty of time to pick those. I love the double garage door -- I can park in the middle if I want. I also love the columns and porch.

The Chosen Floorplan

The house Ive been dreaming about and am finally building is Plan A-2755 (with Elevation B). It features 2,755 sq. feet with 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, all bedrooms upstairs along with a large gameroom. The master also features a private sitting area. Downstairs I am opting for the additional study to use as my office space. Other features include rounded corners and archways, 9' ceilings, an 8' front door and a covered patio on both front and back.

This is the designers drawing:

 

 

First floor (although this doesn't show the extended front porch):

 

 

 

Second Floor (doesn't show extra window in the gameroom or bumped out part of front bedroom):