Fun (and some anxiety) OVERFLOWS - Making the Kitchen Plumbing Selections!

Plumbing selections include the faucets, sinks (in some cases), pot filler, toilets, shower faucets, and bathtubs.  Not selecting pipes materials (carbon steel, stainless, pvc?), like I assumed plumbing selections would be.  This process was exciting and overwhelming, but allow me to state some lessons learned in the process :)

Prep

As I discussed in this blog post, I wanted to know specific faucets that there in our base bid.  We elected for a fixed price contract, meaning that we did not know specifically what amounts the builder paid for the faucets.  However, it helped to write the list price for each model on a sheet of paper.  That way, I was able to know the difference in the price for overages.

Also, it was helpful for us to consider that not all faucet colors were priced the same.  Specifically, the least expensive is almost always chrome, followed by brushed nickel, followed by oil-rubbed bronze or other colors.  The base faucets were all selected as Delta models, which means that if we switched up to Moen or another brand, we would have to pay for an additional cost for installation for a converter.  Brizo faucets are affiliated with Delta, so no additional cost (beyond the faucet cost, itself).

Kitchen Faucets and Sinks

Okay, so two full kitchens, right?  Modern farmhouse, here we come!  Our kitchen sinks and faucets are located on our kitchen islands.  Therefore, we had to consider line-of-sight.  If the faucet had been placed against a window or wall, I may have picked a bulkier or taller faucet (but probably not!).  

Let's first look at what was in the base bid (which, because we selected J.S. Robinson, meant that even the base selections were pretty darn sweet!).

Delta Single Handle Essa Pull-Down Faucet

It is awesome!  My parents loved it, the style and in chrome, but wanted a touch faucet.  So their final selection was the same Delta Essa faucet but with Touch2O technology.  

Delta Essa Faucet in Touch

Mom and Dad decided against having a farmhouse apron sink.  They also have not been super happy with their current black granite sink.  It shows a lot of water marks and is difficult to clean.  Enter the Kohler Riverby under-mount sink:

Kohler Riverby

It is an enamel cast iron beauty (and the price comes with the cool grate).

As for Matt and my side of the fence, we wanted something a bit unique.  Maybe it was the mechanical engineers in us, but we liked the idea of something industrial.

Drum roll please....

Brizo Artesso Single Handle Articulating Faucet

Loving the look of this faucet.  It does not sit too high to block eye line but the spray-er (is that the term?) is easy to use.  Our last touch faucet had a spray-er that we always had to fish back into the faucet.  So excited!!!

We also decided to have a pot filler (for all those days that I cook...oh wait...).  Here is the pot filler:

Brizo traditional pot filler

Finally, the biggest choice for me was the sink.  I ended up talking myself out of a super expensive sink that I continue to drool over.  First, look at this gorgeous sink (I admit it, I never thought I would drool over a sink):

Native Trails Pinnacle Sink - Hammered Copper with Nickel Finish

Drool worthy.  However, the fact that it cost almost three times the second most expensive sink I looked at was a problem.  Also, since my sink is on the island, you really would not see this beauty unless you are standing behind the island.  But after this sink, the regular cast iron white farmhouse sinks looks so average.  Then I saw this Kohler sink with a unique-yet-simple twist:

Kohler Whitehaven Self-Trimming Cast Iron Sink

We chose a single bowl option with the cool horizontal grooves.  Hopefully I love it forever and do not spend my life cleaning those grooves :)

Next post about master bathroom selections!

Take a Tour - 3D Rendering of Matt/Lindsay's Side of the Fence

Love this!

Evolution of Design - How 3D Rendering Helps Improve an Already Baller Design :)

The cost of getting the 3D renderings was definitely something what we really thought about, but in the end, it was such a great purchase.  Originally, we only considered having the exterior modeled, but then I got hooked, and so we paid to have several rooms on the interior modeled.

So this blog post will focus on certain aspects of the design that we tweaked, with our architect's insights and brainstorming.

Tweak #1 - Fireplace

First, let's talk fireplace!  I fell in love with a fireplace setup online that looked like this:

We were completely sold on having our TV over the fireplace to allow for the wall-of-windows concept.  I think we slightly disappointed to have a TV over the fireplace, for several reasons: (1) head strain on watching a TV that was higher up than normal, (2) losing a mantel, (3) limiting the TV size based on the width of the fireplace.  But we thought that the setup in the picture above would help give us "mantels".  With that in mind, the 3D rendering showed up like this:

Gorgeous, right?  I really did not think we would change it at all.  However, Tom (our architect's) reaction was not as positive.  He was particularly bothered by the ceiling connection to the fireplace and that it was not symmetrical.  His brilliant mind began redesigning the space.  He called and asked what our thoughts were with having a fireplace that was off-center (and hanging the TV on the wall to the left).  My immediate reaction was ICK!!!  No way.  He said that he was going to send me proposed renderings to see what he was thinking (knowing that it had a 1% chance of making me happy).  Here is what he sent:

My mouth dropped open.  Seriously, how could I actually love this as much as I do?  I never would have guessed that I would like an assymetrical design.  Matt pointed out that the fireplace itself was centered in the main room/foyer, which is why your eye doesn't hate it as much as it normally would.  This design also now frees up the mantel, allows us to place a much larger TV in the main room, and allows for a symmetrical ceiling/fireplace meeting.  What do you think?  WAY TO GO, TOM!!!

Tweak #2 - Catwalk walls

In the original design, we had wing walls along the catwalk (which made the catwalk opening narrower:

When I looked at it, I thought "Man that looks great."  But again, here is why you hire professionals.  Tom looked at it and thought "That needs adjustment."  His modern farmhouse design dictated a more open design.  Thus, the wing walls got eliminated and oh man do I love it more:

Tweak 3 - Mudroom light

One of the primary design elements I wanted was a tucked-away yet sizable mudroom.  With that in mind, the original mudroom 3D design looked like this:

We had already chose to add the cutout above the lockers to bring in some natural light from the stair tower.  My initial impression of the look was "well...that looks a bit prison-y."  Tom had the same thought and wanted to propose a different design.  Hold on to your hats...

Are you loving the new design as much as me?  Just moving those railing spindles horizontally vs. vertically eliminates that jailhouse feel.  And wow, such a functional mudroom.  We definitely are people that come in through the garage and drop a lot of stuff...keys, wallets, purses, mail, ear plugs, crap.... and while I would love to change our habits, 12 years into a marriage, that has not changed.  So let's design a house around us :)

These were the big changes.  Want to see all of the 3D renderings???

Stay tuned!!!

PROGRESS PIC - The Big Dig

After waiting on permits, the day arrived.  It seemed surreal, to be honest.  We have been waiting on this day so long, planning, dreaming, worrying... it almost felt that the house was never going to be there.  And then suddenly, this:

My Matt and I seeing the field (well, him seeing after he opened his eyes, of course!).

In one quick day, the field went from wildflower and prairie grass to bulldozers, topsoil, and excavation happening.  In my mind, this process would take a week.  It was almost done in one short day!  

As I have mentioned several times, I have been super impressed with J.S. Robinson and our project manager super star, Mitch.  The beginning of the dig raised yet another opportunity to brag about them. 

I forgot that in our preconstruction meeting, we discussed adding an egress window to my parents' side of the basement.  Well, this is definitely something that would need to happen in this phase of the work.  When Matt and I walked the site, everything looked awesome but admittedly I was not even THINKING about that window.  Mitch called and asked if it was something we were still interested in.  Seriously, thank goodness!  Now we can just have it added while the dig is happening (at the lowest cost) rather than trying to add it later.

Seeing the change of the field, and the entire neighborhood street, definitely caught me off guard.  Last night, I couldn't help but think of our future neighbors and how this project might affect them.  After all, they have lived on this quiet cul-de-sac for over a decade without any construction.  This pretty field that they drove by each day is now torn up with bulldozers.  However, given the number of construction company owners and operators on our street, I hope that the sight of the heavy equipment makes them smile :)  We are just so excited to be a part of this community! 

More pictures of the Big Dig...thank you all again for your support and encouragement!

Driveway entrance

The temporary gravel driveway is coming together

Bulldozers!!!

More pics to follow!  Next steps will be for the framing and foundation crew to start getting those concrete walls and floors in the basement.  

3D images are getting closer...

In a short update, our 3D images are getting closer and closer!  Once the outside is finalized, the designer can put the image into photoshop and we can start tweaking the exterior paint.  Here we are:

Garage Doors - The Windows to my ... Cars?

Perhaps the beginning of the garage door decision began long ago, but admittedly I was not actually aware of it.  I personally did not have a preference between two single garage doors or two.  I just knew that I wanted a more over-sized garage.  But I had not idea what a 'typical' sized garage was or typical sized garage doors were.  Luckily, the right person knew these things...my architect, Tom McDonough.

In the house design process, the first drawings back from your architect are so overwhelming, interesting, and amazing...I  found myself focused on the parts of the house where I thought I had more experience and opinions--kitchen, bathrooms, etc.  My eyes and brain flew by the garage size or the door design.  

Size of the Garage and Garage Doors

Our architect designed the house with two separate garage spaces (one for us, one for my parents) and each garage space has two different garage doors (for you math buffs, that makes 4 garage doors, 4 openers).  So there are cost savings between having one double door vs. two single doors.  Also, if you have living space above a garage, like we do on one side, increasing or decreasing garage space can have a profound impact on cost.  Finished living space is very expensive, so a small garage width increase can add up quickly in the finished living space above the garage.

Second, and while this may sound obvious (okay, does sound obvious), garage size is measured both in terms of width and depth and  ceiling height.  It was very helpful to measure our current garage dimensions to see how the new design is going to ROCK OUR WORLD!   We are getting an extra four feet longer!

Finally, I guess I assumed that garages came in two sizes...single door and double door.  Like a queen and king size bed.  Again, WRONG.

While I am sure that there are many options, it was explained to me that there are two main options for garage door width - 8 feet and 9 feet.  Our architect picked 9 feet without our prompting or asking, and God Bless Him for doing it!  I didn't realize that it was an upgrade until we actually met with the garage door company to make selections.  Perk!

You can also pick out garage door height.  Again, something that I thought was standard but, now looking back, I realize that I have never really thought about it before.  I was told that garage doors in the new house are 8 feet tall, not the standard 7 feet.  Awesome!

Trim

As I mentioned before, we decided to not have windows in the garage doors because both garages already had two windows installed.  I emailed Max from J.S. Robinson to ask an embarrassing question...what sort of options are there for a garage door.  Basically, I wanting to be able to think about the options (translation, google and pinterest the options) before the meeting.  Max was ON IT and told me that the main thing we would pick out would be trim styles and then sent me a file with the potential trim styles.

We selected metal doors with trim to be applied to the outside. The options seemed endless for trim design...should they be a square, an X, a large X, two small X's, arched top...

Completely overwhelmed, I emailed our architect who got me on the right path.  He was sweet enough to narrow it down. Then we chose from there!  Who knew that would be so challenging! 

Color

Most people paint their garages, so I thought this would be an easy decision.  It generally was, but two things came up that I found helpful to know:

• If you know the color you are going to paint your doors, you may choose a steel color that is close to the painted color.  It will help hide any chipping in the future.  Clever!
• Wood garage doors are extremely expensive, warp over time, and are expensive (did I mention they are expensive)?  A lot of people choose to have their steel doors faux finished to look like wood.  They really look so good that it is hard to tell--basically, you get the benefits of steel with the look of wood.  However, most faux finish painters want the steel to be white and not wood-colored.

Muscle - Chain vs. Belt

What about the muscle to lift the doors?  It is a much bigger concern for us considering that we have a guest bedroom over one of the garages.  I did not even realize that there was a difference between belt and chain.  Check out this video to hear the noise difference between the two!  VIDEO

Hardware

I was not sure what type of hardware would even go on a garage door.  As expected, there are a TON of options!  The nice thing about the selection was that it did not have to happen now (phew!).  Our garage door company wisely suggested waiting until we picked out the exterior lighting and match the style/finish.

Insulation

Since garage doors have never been my focus, I just looked at them as metal things that went up and down.  I never went and inspected garage doors.  A co-worker of mine mentioned to me that she had to switch up to insulated garage doors because her master closet was over the garage and never stayed warm enough.  Given that we have our upstairs guest room over one of our garages, I was expecting to pay to upgrade the doors.  Luckily for us, J.S. Robinson included insulated doors in our base price, so no upgrade required.  I know I keep saying it, but man, it is really awesome to have a builder that does not select all low-end selections in the base price.  

Early decisions in the New Construction Process

Here I am, blissfully imagining that we have all this time to decide on things...WRONG!  Haha!  I apologize for the several-day absence, in blogging, but HOLY COW things have been busy.  

Update

We met with the fantastic Betsy Judd, interior designer extraordinaire and our design-this-house-awesomely sherpa.  She works with J.S. Robinson and provides such invaluable advice and support on color selections, material selection, lighting/cabinet...well, okay, everything.  We had our first meeting and were off to the races.  I was admittedly unprepared for some of the following, so let me fully detail all the ways that I wish I had better prepared :)

Roof selection

During our pre-construction meeting, our builder asked which of the roof colors we wanted to choose.  Um...no idea.  All of a sudden, that made us think that we should choose an exterior color (or at least close to it) so we could match the roof selection.  Luckily we had Betsy to rescue us and help us pick a roof color!

Plumbing

Here I thought we would be doing plumbing selections late into the year, maybe even next year...WRONG.  So apparently indoor sink/plumbing selections can often drive your cabinet design, so you have to make these choices early!  Another blog post on this topic to follow!

Garage doors

Our architect sent us our original plans with a garage door design already on them.  My thought was, "OMG, I love them!  Check, done with garage doors."  WRONG.

With both garages having several windows already, we were not wanting to have windows on the garage doors too (mainly for cost).   But there are even more decisions to make, like color, trim pattern, opener decisions, and hardware (next post will detail).

Plumbing fixtures

Plumbing fixtures include all faucets, sinks, showers, tubs, and toilets (I'm probably leaving something out, but that is the bulk of it).  Yes, I too imagined that these would be some of our last decisions.  Again (broken record), WRONG!!!

:)

But apparently, and cleverly, the plumbing fixtures often dictate cabinet design.  Therefore we had to pick those our first to be on track for cabinets.  (check out a future blog post for plumbing fixture details!)