Tuesday, August 2, 2011

It is a never ending process

We had an appointment today to finalize all of our options. Since our first meeting 11 days ago we decided to change:
  • Crown molding on entire 1st floor and a chair rail in the office and dining room
  • Basement, 2nd floor and master bathroom vanity tops to Meteorite (pic below)
  • Door handles & hinges, light fixtures and cabinet hardware to oil rubbed bronze
  • Kitchen and bathroom faucets, shower heads and towel bars to brushed nickel
  • Upgraded the front door hardware so it isn't just a doorknob
  • Replace the tub/shower in the master bath with a 5' walk-in fiberglass shower
Here's a few pics of the new bathroom look except that our faucet will be brushed nickel.

We were ready to leave and Dan reminded me that I wanted to look at our siding color beside the Almond trim to make sure it pops and doesn't just blend in. We took the sample outside because they don't have actual trim samples in the model and of course, Sandy Tan is almost the exact same color as the Almond trim.

I didn't think I would change my mind about the trim color, but I realized the contrast is more important. We went back inside and started the process of choosing exterior colors again (the rep was very understanding even though Dan was ready to kill me at this point). We ended up changing everything!
  • Stone Mountain Clay siding replaced the Sandy Tan
  • Aspen stone replaced the Kentucky
  • Brown shutters replaced the Black
  • Black Bean front door (brown) replaced the Black
  • White trim and garage door replaced the Almond
I feel much better about this combo and I really like the darker siding. I'm still not 100% about the white trim, but we don't really have a choice so I just have to hope it looks good. Here are a few pics:
These samples show the difference between Sandy Tan and Stone Mountain Clay.
Here's everything all together. This pic isn't the greatest because I didn't have my camera so I had to use Dan's iPhone. The Aspen stone is much lighter and has less variation than the Kentucky.

Finally, this house is a completely different model, but the siding is almost identical to the Stone Mountain Clay. The shutters are also a similar color. I think the Aspen stone will help to brighten the house and the white trim and garage door will really pop.
We're not totally finished yet. We still have to meet to finalize the electrical stuff. We went through the model today to figure out where I need outlets for Christmas decorations. I know that may sound ridiculous, but if you know me, you know that Christmas decor is a priority.

I think we're going to go back to Rusmur to change the bathroom flooring (it needs to be more gray now that we changed the counter tops) and possibly the carpet. We're afraid that Branch might be too dark. We don't want anything to be too light and get dirty, but I also want to keep the carpet pretty neutral since I have no clue what colors we'll be painting and how we'll be decorating. The 3 frieze carpets we're considering are:
1) Branch (darkest)
2) Capri (medium)
3) Sandswept (lightest)





Thoughts on the carpet?

We got a date for the groundbreaking, October 5th. Dan has big plans; gold shovel, hard hats, big scissors, the works. I'm not totally on-board with this idea, but I'll give him this one.

7 comments:

  1. Well hello to the Ryan Home e-community. We came across your blog via a comment on another blog. The Milan is a very nice floor plan. We really like that you are putting a lot of thought into the options and selections. This was by far one of the most exciting part of the process for us. We also changed our minds and even though we are in our final month of the building process, we still find ourselves changing our minds...however, it is a little late for us to make changes.

    We like the lightest color carpet, sandswept.

    By the way, we are also building in the Pittsburgh area...we found a new development north of the 'burgh. Where is your development?

    The RH e-community is awesome...we learned so much from our fellow bloggers. We look forward to following you throughout your journey.

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  2. Thanks! Your blog is great, and your new home is gorgeous.

    I'm leaning towards sandswept or capri.

    We'll be in Oakdale. We have our current home on the market now (we're in the East End). Have you had any luck selling yours?

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  3. We are close to the West End. We had some walk-thrus when we first put it on the market (about 3 months ago), but nothing within the last 2 weeks. We don't know if it has to do with location or the state of the economy or a little of both. We were really hoping that it would sell before we close on the new house (scheduled for 09/06/2011), but the closer it gets the more unlikly that will happen. We wish we had better news to share and hope you house sells fast. Good luck!!!!

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  4. We actually have the sandswept carpet (last one) in our home. If you scroll through my blog (also a Milan) you can see how it looks. We liked that it wasn't very dark, but still had dark flecks in it. We have 3 kids and a dog. And I clean, but with that many kids (plus cousins and friends) we needed something that would wear well and disguise some of the trauma they will eventually do to it. SO far, we LOVE IT!

    I think you'd be good with any of of those options though. =)

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  5. Oh...we have the Kentucky stone on our Milan too! =)

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  6. I love your options and color selections. I totally understand about the Christmas decorations...my wife LOVES to decorate for Christmas and we added no less then 4 outlets(2 inside and 2 outside) just for Christmas decorations. On the topic of outlets, if you have a walkin closet you might want to add an outlet in there for ironing...just a thought.

    Oh my...Dan I feel your pain. We spent hours picking out the outside color schemes and I almost died when a week before we broke ground RH changed siding manufacturers and we had to re-select our siding color...as it turned out the selection was much better and we found what we really had been desiring in the first place...whewwwww.

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  7. We selected our siding about a week ago, and I think it is funny that most people have a hard time selecting that. My boyfriend and I found the siding choice the easiest to make, everything else we pondered and stressed over, and the siding choices were made in about 10 minutes, literally.

    As for the carpet, I like the capri better, I tend to like darker tones.

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