Decision Day - Chpt #8

Just to catch you up on a few things.

We were approved for the final home loan and signed over 1000 pieces of paper that told us that once again our lives were owned my financial institutions and that they could sell our lives to any other financial institutions at any time on their whim.

Upon that little agreement Kevin of Ambiance Homes was informed that we were good to go and he went about doing all of HIS paper work in preparation for the January 31st excavation (also called The Hole) of which our little house would go into.

As luck would have it, freakishly cold temperatures hit our land and everything is pushed back a week until the temps get closer to the "non-death to construction workers" area. Which is now Feb 7th or 8th!

SO - with our "problems" with Drexel getting our bathroom remodeled (should it REALLY take over a month?) and with their additional overcharge rates which seem ludicrous (more on this in the next paragraph) we were waiting for "Decision day".

OK - a quick word on Drexel and flooring. We decided to take the current tile out of our bathroom ourselves to save money. It is the last of the MAJOR things we need to get done before we can put the house on the market.

We went to Drexel in Madison to see how much it would cost for simple vinyl installation and to fix some problems with the bottom tile around the floor.

The quote was $300 PLUS another $160 because the total price was under $500. Shocked I was a little pissy for a few nights but upon looking at other forums this small project additional overcharge is pretty standard.

FINE - So I called them and said THEY could take out the floor since we were being charged ANYWAY. I said it more kindly then I typed it just now!

NO - taking OUT would be an extra $150 that could not be included in the installation. it was two seperate things. Yea, well it seems EVERYTHING is seperate at that place. I will not deal with Drexel again!

SO - Kevin from Ambiance (the good witch as opposed to Drexil, the bad witch) gets a hold of us to see if we can hammer down a few decisions on color and style, inside and outside the house. Of course we say, it will be good to get THAT off our plate and we could relax and perhaps DJs head will stop spinning as she gets dizzy with so many things to choose from.

Little did we know that we would have in the upper 50s decisions to make!!

OH, we were prepared for house color and cabinet decisions and knew there would be more but - YIKES!

Here is the list! And we still have lighting,fireplace and flooring decisions to make.

Vinyl siding color
Vinyl Siding Style
Vinyl Corner trim color
Soffit/Fascia color
Gutter/Downspout color
Shutter color
Vinyl Wrap color
Shingle Color
Exterior of Front Door
Front Door hardware/color
Overhead Door(s) color
Garage Service Door color
Brick color
Porch Railing color
Decorative Louver color
Window color
Kitchen Cabinet Style
Kitchen Cabinet color
Crown molding style/color
Kitchen Countertop color
Kitchen Sink Style/color
Kitchen sink faucet Style/color
Master Bath
Cabinet Style
Cabinet color
Cabinet Height
Countertop Color
Fixture color
Faucet Style/color
Main Bath
Cabinet Style
Cabinet color
Cabinet Height
Countertop Color
Fixture color
Faucet Style/color
Interior Door Style
Interior Door color
Door Hardware Style
Door Hardware color
Base trim Size/style
Base trim color
Casing trim Size/Style
Casing Trim color
Window Returns (Wood or Drywall)
Interior wall paint color
Interior of Exterior door color
Newel Post style
Baluster Style

WHEW! I will tell you right now Kevin was outstanding.

Most places in our area are going with the earth tones, brown, green, gray and many shades of those. They feel like they will "blend" into the country side. LOL - RIGHT - like camouflage. Can't even see them. HEY, where did all those house go! They were there a second ago!

Many look nice but there are some that just look dull and brown/gray/dark green and glum, gloomy and low spirited. Nothing wrong with the colors if done correctly but there needs to be an intervention on earth tones!

We wanted something happy. Something that when people drove past there would be a little ray of sunlight BUT, without that ray being blinding.

THUS - we decided on Heritage Cream siding with Colonial White trim, Bordeaux Shutters and front door. It will not STAND OUT but it will give a little zip to the area! Like the house on the right - that is basically OUR color.

When we were driving around looking at houses we always noticed that we really liked the lighter color. THUS!! We got our wish!

My suggestion is to drive around and look at houses, take photos to remind yourself. Just be observant.

In fact, observe everything in your life. Can you see in your minds eye what your doorknobs look like? What about the front exterior doorknob. How about your base trim, can you picture the details? What color are your gutters? What about the crown molding style in your kitchen cabinets.

Details, details, details, who knew!!

Next week - pictures of The Hole and we STILL have flooring decisions to make next week. In fact $5,500 worth of flooring to be decided on!

Cheers
Rod and DJ.