Customization Meeting with the Design Center

We had our second meeting with the Design Center this week and it went great! They have Interior Designers on staff so they were able to give us some great recommendations without forcing their opinions on us. We had a pretty firm idea of what we wanted, but it was wonderful having an expert opinion to reassure us that everything would look good.

90% of our selections were pre-priced items so we have a pretty good estimate of what upgrades we will have to pay--but we will have to wait 2-3 weeks for our exact quotes from the team so we can make our final selections.

They are still aticipating that our close date will be December 15th, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that we will get to spend Christmas in the new house!

This is our brick, gutter/trim colors, and the blue is our front door color. 

This is what our bathroom counters will look like (except our countertop will be solid white).

This is the color of our cabinets (ebony), but the photo doesn't do it justice. 

I think we are going to upgrade to shaker cabinets but we aren't 100% sure yet. 

This is our tile that will be in the kitchen, dining, laundry room, mudroom, entry, and front bath next to our quartz countertop and cabinets. 

Our backsplash. 

Our master bath floor/shower tile & trim.

This tile matches the rest of our house, but is more of a brown base than a gray base (we were having the hardest time matching our shower trim and shower caddy to the gray tile, so we switched it up a bit). 

Our wall color.

 And our carpet.

Now we just wait to hear back from them on the final pricing and schedule our appointment to go back in for final selections! 

Have I mentioned I'm not very patient...?

Initial Meeting with the Design Center

As I mentioned last week, we finally had our initial meeting with the Design Center for our home construction. I won't lie, it was a bit overwhelming to hear them talk about all of the options and what is/isn't included but it was so exciting to get the process started!

They sent us home with a cost sheet for all of the standard upgrades so we can begin deciding what we might want before our next meeting (on May 27th). Of course, being the Type A personality that I am, I went through that list with a highlighter and figured out, to a penny, how much everything we wanted would cost us. After realizing just how expensive that list was, we started narrowing down the list to our "non-negotiables." We had to remind ourselves that we can't change the footprint or location of a house, but we CAN change the interior at a later date (especially if we can get the items at a more reasonable price on our own). I feel like we now have a pretty good idea of what we can afford want moving forward and I think we are prepared for our next meeting!

I have been pinning like crazy and even created a few polyvore boards for inspiration:

Since this entire process is so overwhelming, any tips/advice that you have would be greatly appreciated! 

Donuts, Gas Monkey, Kenny Chesney & IKEA

After such a horrible week, a fun & relaxing weekend was what I needed and that's what I got! Saturday morning, we went to Krispy Kreme and got some donuts for our drive to Dallas. As always, they were delicious!!

Jacob has always wanted to go to Gas Monkey Bar & Grill so we met our friends Cassie and Bryce there for lunch. Cassie and I went to college together (we lived right next door to each other) and I only get to see her every now and then, so it's always a treat when we get together!

I had the brisket grilled cheese for lunch and it was pretty good, but I wasn't super impressed. I would definitely say the hype is more for the environment than the food. 

We finished lunch just in time to go check into our hotel, book our shuttle to the concert (which ended up being a party bus fully equipped with a stripper pole), and take a quick catnap before the Kenny Chesney/Jason Aldean concert.  I might have a slight obsession with Kenny...this was actually my fifth time to see him...

The concert started at 4:30 and ended around 11:00 so it was a long day! We got to see Old Dominion, Cole Swindel, Brantley Gilbert, Jason Aldean, and of course, Kenny. The good thing about AT&T Stadium is there really isn't a bad seat in the entire venue because of their massive screens! There are quite a few standing bars around the arena, so we actually ended up standing for about 3/4 of the concert. We made friends with a couple of Long Island transplants and we all had fun watching a few drunk cougars try to dance (they may have passed out a few times before the night was over). Oddly enough, the guy that we met is actually a recruiter for the Greenbay Packers--call me a skeptic, but I didn't believe him until I got home and verified it online! Small world!! 

To finish off our amazing weekend, we stopped by IKEA on our way home (by "stopped by" I mean, we spent 3 hours there) and enjoyed lunch at the food court. We found an amazing $10 cutting board that I can't wait to use! 

And for those of you wondering, I will post all about our meeting with the Design Center and what's next with the home building process soon!

Linking up here.