A Place to Check Your Makeup

In addition to being informative, I'm going to try and use this blog to keep track of my 'decisions' (in quotes because even when I'm absolutely certain, they have a way of changing!) If it gets to be too much minutiae to be entertaining, please let me know. I'm also adding some surveys to the neglected right side of the page. Don't worry, I think they are anonymous, but feel free to leave more detailed thoughts in the comments section. Thanks for your input!

There's not much happening in the hole this week. I think the cement foundation is curing but that doesn't make for much of a show. However, now that there IS a foundation the house is starting to feel real which means all my magazine flipping and idle musings about 'wouldn't it be nice' now need to be turned into actual choices of what is going into our house. Yikes. So yesterday I spent 2 1/2 hours looking at faucets and bathroom fixtures and today it was 3 hours at the cabinet and granite fabricators. At least when we did the kitchen it was just one room. Now it's one kitchen, one laundry room and 4 bathrooms...didn't I say we were building a small cozy house????

But all meetings were productive and we've at least narrowed the choices down dramatically even if the final, final decision (not to be confused with the "yes this is it" statement that is followed by the late night email saying "oh, wait on that!") has yet to be made. Two bathrooms down and 2 to go! I picked out a pedestal sink and matching toilet for the main level bath. I wouldn't call it any particular style but something about it is suggestive of 'old' so it seemed to fit the house when I saw it. We'll probably stick with white. It meets Brian's two favorite criteria -- classic and timeless (he usually throws in "like my wife" but that's just sucking up!). The set is Bancroft by Kohler and we're getting the matching faucet as well because I really liked the flat handles. Now I only need floor tile and a wall color and this room is done -- ok, except for towels and something on the walls....(it never ends!) I'm going to look at tile tomorrow and I confess that it scares me more than cabinets or fixtures.

For the basement bath I decided to go with more of a furniture look for the vanity rather than a built in and after many hours late into the night on the internet I found two that will work so I felt confident deleting it from the cabinet listing at Modern Kitchens. While I was looking for something else, I came across this picture which was my inspiration. I love the wainscoting and the floor! This particular cabinet is a little overpriced but I found two others (with more storage drawers) that will fit the space perfectly. Both of them come with either a white or black marble granite top (see survey). The toilet will be white and the shower is a white 36x36 fiberglass model. I also saw a really cute toile fabric with Da Vinci-like flying machine sketches in white on black for the shower curtain but who knows if I can find the actual fabric. Lots of black and white choices out there though and THAT decision can wait a good long while!
Makes me wonder how anyone ever built a house without access to the internet. I guess you only bought what was for sale in your local store or the Sears catalog and there's actually something very sane about that approach but I'm enjoying the process so far. By June I may have had enough, but I keep telling myself that too much choice is a good kind of problem to have!

I think we have the kitchen floor plan all worked out -- we fixed my issues with the island having a big enough eating area while not looking like a big box and moved a few cabinets around so the design is good to go. I still haven't settled on a cabinet style or color. I think I'll have to drag Brian over there to help with that. Same is true for the upstairs master and hall bath. We're adding a tower on top of the vanity in the master and Conor's is pretty straight forward but I can't decide on the color until I pick out floor tile (did I mention that tile scares me?). It will undoubtedly all come together.