Thank you David!

I was watching "Bang for your Buck" on HGTV yesterday and David Bromstad was the designer on the show. He is one of my favorite HGTV designers. The show looks at various room remodel jobs in the same city with the same budget. Each home is judged conjunctively by a local real estate expert and an interior designer. At the end, they tell you who got the most "bang for their buck" that is, who will see the biggest return on investment when going to sell.

One of the couples had linen tile as their bathroom flooring and David was saying how he loved the choice and how timeless and elegant it was. Whoo hoo, that is the exact kind of tile that is going in our fireplace surround. Although I don't know how he feels about its use in that circumstance, I was very happy to hear that. I don't think I knew anything about linen tile before I picked it out and I did so because I thought it looked clean and modern (not timeless and elegant) but coming from David, that says a lot. So yay for me! Easy I could be an interior designer, haha.

The Magic of a Window Seat

I love window seats. Growing up I always wanted one. There is something so romantic and cozy about a window seat that I have never gotten over. In the other house we had looked at by the same builder, there was a window seat built into the stairwell. I thought it was darling and a dream come true of sorts. Why I didn't see the potential for a window seat in this house is beyond me, but it is even better. Below is the south facing window in the master bedroom.

Do you see what I see? Not only is it the perfect place for a built in window seat, but it has the space for flanking bookshelves as well, the ultimate window seat. Now I just have to figure out a way to make it. Maybe I'll find a local carpenter, maybe just find the right pieces that will slide in nicely. We recently went to Ikea for ideas. I found almost the perfect set although I think it might be just like an inch over alloted space and a mile over any sort of budget I would set. Here are the pieces though.

We also have our current bookshelves that usually go in the living room and are staggered. They could work too maybe and they match our bedroom furniture as well. They don't sell that style at Ikea anymore though so we couldn't buy one more tall one if we wanted to, but maybe to hold me over for a while :)

Waiting

Still waiting on final loan approval. We had to move some things around in order to qualify, but our rate is locked in now so that is good. I went a few days not really thinking about it much since there isn't much we can do at this point and when I brought it back to the forefront of my mind, I started to get nervous all of the sudden. Not about the house. I don't know about what, maybe just the unsettled, nothing is final anxiousness. Its weird to buy a house and then just sit around waiting for it. I've worked out a lot of my ideas for decorating. Now I just want to submit our construction deposit and have them finish it lightning fast.

We have so much more motivation to save and be careful with our money now. We always tried to before, but now its vital. And its really good for us. I guess I'll do a window seat post now :)

living room design board

This is the design board I came up with for the living room. We already have the golden/wheat colored curtains, couch and chairs. We just need to paint the walls and maybe the fireplace mantle. The tile in the top right corner is the actual tile that is going around the fireplace inside the mantle

backsplash

One project I would love to do at some point is the kitchen backsplash. My friend Melissa did her own and it turned out amazing. I hear its one of the more doable home improvement projects. Here is what I am thinking for the kitchen at the moment: pale blue walls and a light backsplash to balance out some of the dark going on with the black appliances and countertops. Here are two samples of tile that I've found that are under $10 per 12"x12" sheet.

Waterfall $8.50 ea.

Ivory iridescent $4.99 ea.

The price alone on the second one is making it a strong contender.

Lets talk appliances.

We chose black appliances and will get the range, double ovens, microwave and dishwasher included with our home. The purchase of a the refrigerator however is on us. I figured we would just go with black to match everything else. What are your thoughts on mixing black with stainless though? When you look through the hall and enter into the kitchen you will mainly see the island and the refrigerator and maybe some microwave. We have a stainless faucet and I thought it might brighten it up a bit if we did a stainless steel fridge with some black accents, eg. the handles and/or ice dispenser.

Black will most likely be the cheapest option and the no-brainer option as well. But what do you think about mixing it up?

No going back now

I can't believe I picked everything out today. For the most part it was actually pretty simple, especially because I came in with some ideas beforehand. We had to make a few compromises, but it turned out almost better in my opinion. I'm really excited about the tile around the fireplace and our kitchen faucet, little details that I think will add a nice touch. For the most part everything is pretty similar to my design board. The darkest laminate counter top they had wasn't what I had envisioned and I'm still second guessing myself a little about my choice, so I hope it turns out good. There was a lighter one that I opted for in the bathrooms that I think will look great and hide water spots and such until I can get to them. One nice thing about the dark counter was that it had a tiny bit of sheen that none of the other options had. It has some brown veining in it, which I wasn't crazy about, but it will look nice with the oak cabinets. We ended up with the light laminate wood in the kitchen and dining room and carpet in the living room. This is a picture of the dark kitchen counter and the lighter bathroom counter tops.