After the initial shock of the flooring situation; if any serious upgrades were going to be done, it was definitely going to be for flooring since it spans the entire home design’s open floor plan and is present or visible from every room. And, although our final color choice is not as dark as I pictured us selecting, it is probably a wiser choice seeing that a lot of our furniture is in the deep brown color I planned on choosing for the floors. I think a little variation in color is going to look better in the end. Our initial flooring choice lacks contrast with our furnishings. With that important choice behind us, as you can imagine, the carpeting color selection was a breeze especially with my handy photos I took in the spec home.
Sticker Shock
Next we will select kitchen cabinets. We want crown molding on the top of our cabinets, and we want to upgrade to 42” cabinets as well to add additional storage space. Once again, the color choices for the standard cabinets in our style are a bit disappointing. The color choices aren’t a part of the dream kitchen floor plans in our minds. Everything we like for the interior of our new home is turning into major dollar signs! But, our interior designer is wonderful and really has us thinking outside the box. I feel like I have a pretty good eye for color and color schemes, but with our hearts set on one “look,” I am having a hard time wrapping my head around something different. The cabinet color is definitely a lighter brown than I like, but all homes need layers of color and our choice is a timeless one that looks great with the other color choices so far. We have to think with our head and not our hearts on every decision, or suddenly we’ll price ourselves right out of this house! Well, if a year or so from now we still want our darker cabinets, we can always stain or paint, but to end up with the dark brown color that was stuck in my head was just not worth the extra expense in the price of the house.
Move Items To Your “Wish List”
Next we chose oil rubbed bronze hardware throughout the house in everything from the lighting package and bath fixtures, right down to the very last doorknob. Then, granite countertops, and stainless steel appliances, which are upgrades. The paint color is an easy selection, but having white ceilings and trim were a must for us, so there is additional cost in having it finished that way. After seeing the additional costs from our flooring choice, hardware and lighting choices, a few items such as crown molding in the dining room are now on our “wish list,’ and we’ll add our wish list items down the road.
Our lesson when choosing the exterior and interior home finishes for our new home is that it may be wise when doing an initial contract for your home to make sure you fall about 10-15% under what you ultimately want to pay for the completed home. Then, when you start upgrading materials you won’t panic that you’re going over budget.
If you’re looking for more great ideas for your home check out House Plans and More on Pinterest for tons of inspiration!