AAAAAAAAAAAAnd down the home stretch.......

SO...

with less than a week before closing, I couldn't wait until the PDI to see the house in all it's spectacular glory so I went by today.

There were so many new things, it made my heart sing.

First, I walked up to my wonderfully painted door. I won't sing 'Three's Company' again but you get the idea.

Then lo and behold, there were the new doors on my front hall closet, which were really nice to see as well. Not that I don't like the mirrored sliders, but I just didn't want anything taking away from my fantastic find of a mirror that I plan to put up in the foyer.

Closed Doors:

Opened Doors:

JUUUST enough space to fit all my coats and shoes so it'll do for sure! :D

Then I took a peek into my garage and noticed that the rails for the garage door had been delivered! My car, the SilvaDiva, will soon have a home as well!!

Then I turned towards the stairs and saw my carpets!!!!!!!

I must admit that they looked more brown than I anticipated, but I'm kind of warming up to them because they really pull in the warm look of the walls and the railings as well. Really happy I chose them. I was even happier when I took the first step onto them. OH SO SOFT!! You sink into it JUST a little bit and it's a great cushion on your feet. SO happy I did the upgraded underpadding!

So off I did mosey up the stairs to the main floor and saw HARDWOOD!!!

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been waiting for this day for so long and the colour and look did not disappoint!! Granted there were quite a few Mattamy boxes that shielded the floor just a bit BUT I'm glad that they're being protected, and not all scratched up. Look beyond the box, I said...lol...

Here are a few choice shots of the Great Room and Dining Room...

From the Kitchen:

From the Stairs:

From the corner near the Kitchen:

I went upstairs and checked out those rooms. Nothing seems to have really changed besides the lights and the carpets so I just enjoyed walking from room to room soaking it all in and wiggling my toes in the carpet to enjoy the feel. lol..

I'll be sure to post my pictures after the PDI is completed AND once I start actually putting my own spin on the house decorating. Should be good times...I hope! =S

Right now, I'm focused on packing, setting up all my accounts, arranging deliveries and installations and just generally putting everything together that needs doing. It's a little hectic but I know it'll all be worth it.  

So my journey is almost over. Tuesday afternoon, I will be receiving the keys to my very first home....what a RIDE it's been!!

And to think, it only took 19 months and 21 days to get here...but who's counting!?!? lol...

 

5 MORE DAYS!!!!!!!!!

Rails and Baths...

 Well today, I pestered my poor POOR customer care coordinator, who is fantastically patient I must say, this afternoon, and she told me that not only were my railings done, but the wall tiles in the bathrooms had been completed too!!!!!!! It was a lot harder to stay at work and focus after I got that message, but somehow I survived!!

So after waiting for my friends (who took an EXCRUCIATINGLY long time!!), I finally went over to the house site today to check out the progress!!

I walked into the house and saw the railings!! OMG! I am in LOVE!! The funny thing is when I first got the rails, while I liked them a lot, I thought 'Could I have spent that money somewhere else?' and actually contemplated cancelling that upgrade!

COULD YOU IMAGINE?!?!!?

Somehow, a little voice in me said 'No. You're really going to like them when they're all done' and I tried to picture what they would look like and they seemed like they would be really nice so I kept them.

Ladies and Gentlemen...little did I know how much of an UNDERSTATEMENT that would be!!

When I walked in today, they looked like a big,clear,bubble wrapped present and I must say it took A LOT of self-control not to rip off a piece of that bubble wrap and look at those rails in all their absolute glory! I took a lot of pictures from different angles in order to try to get a true feel for them! I am BEYOND ecstatic that I kept them because it feels like it gives my house just that special little 'oopmh!' and I think I tingled inside just a little bit when I saw them! Just goes to show...sometimes..you just gotta make you happy!!

I know I know...I'm obsessed...I accept this..lol!!

This is from the foyer to the 2nd floor

This is from the 2nd floor landing to the foyer...

This is from the 2nd floor landing to have a look at the actual rail itself...

This is from the great room to the railings that go up to the third floor...

This is from the computer nook on the third floor going down to the dining room...

I finally realised that I hadn't taken a close up shot of the rails so this is that...lol...

LOVE THEM!!

But then I finally got upstairs to the bathrooms and saw the main bathroom tile!! WHOO HOO!!! It's pretty much exactly how I had imagined it and I'm so happy with this choice too because the overall atmosphere that I was gong for I think was achieved AND it was VERY well done from what I saw. I was really impressed with the handwork!!

I was even happy with the inlaid listello border which added a little bit of detail that I thought was cool.

Here's a close up shot...

Of course, right after this I scurried (Yes..I really mean scurried!!) over to the master ensuite because I had really been looking forwards to seeing what the tile would look like in this room...

I was NOT disappointed!!

The listello border in this one is a really nice funky contrast!! Like jewelery for the house, as my sister would put it!! I REALLY REALLY liked the outcome of this one as well!!

Here's the close up shot for this bathroom...

So in general, I am really really happy with the progress and finishes that Mattamy has done thus far. Now that the finesse part of the process is coming to life, I am getting more and more excited about the finished product.

Of course, as always, I will keep you all posted!!

Only 32 more days left!! AH!!!!! =D

What You See is What I Get..

So I got a great call from my CCC yesterday who told me the outside colours of my house!! Granted these are the preliminary colours but I hope that they don't change because I really quite enjoy them!

I know my roof is black, which I think is cool because I was expecting a brown roof.

The front door paint is 'Country Home' and the garage door will be painted 'Pumice Stone'.  I'm still trying to find examples of those two from Para Paints. I'll post them if I do.

I did manage to find examples of the other items though.

This is supposed to be my Brick Colour. I like how it looks like a classic red home with darker undertones to it. It's very Manhattan brownstone-ish...like I'm a Cosby!! lol...

This is supposed to be my siding color. I like that it's a grey tone since I was hoping for nice and cool colours for consistency inside and outside my home. As a side note- who NAMES these colours???  I think the person who named this paint colour was sick that day in kindergarten when the teacher  reviewed colours  because I find it ineresting that a GREY colour has the name 'BROWNstone'... Or maybe they're colour blind...or maybe they just have a REALLY great sense of humour.. Either way, I do think it's entirely evident that I have now had far too much time on my hands for I to be considering this issue at all so I digress. Here is the paint colour! LOL..=D

This is supposed to be my cedar shingles that will be on part of the front of the home. The picture is a litle blurry but sadly, it's the best I can do. When I did the virtual picture, it looked really nice so I'm quite happy! (And for those wondering, no..I don't have a problem with the name of this colour! lol!!)

So far I am a happy person with these choices (can you tell cause I've only said it like 20 times in the last post! lol!), so here's hoping they don't change anything by the time is comes to finalize everything.

3 MONTHS AND COUNTING!!

My kitchen

This is an idea of what my kitchen cabinets will look like. This is actually a picture of the Brentland model in Kanata, and then after I chose my cabinets, I realized they were the same ones. I guess the gentle powers of model home persuasion are stronger than I thought!! In any case, I think it looks very nice and I'm even happier seeing it on a grand scale now.

No turning back...

I finalized my design centre choices today and handed over a large sum of money. My choices are now set in stone, I'm still ok with them so I think that's an awesome sign! Now I have to play the waiting game until I actually move in. I've been crunching numbers and every once in a while, I get this mini-panic attack of 'OMG!! Can I actually DO this?!' and then I do my trusty math again and I feel better. lol... I expect the cycle to continue until I get into the house. I just hate the unexpected, especially when there's a lot on the line like this. I need a lot of concrete numbers so I can plan accordingly. It's the unknown factor that's driving me nuts. Alas, I have about 7 months to wait until this whole process is over, which in house years, is not a lot of time. SO CLOSE YET SO FAR!! lol...

On a good note, I found out that my next door neighbour is also a single girl and there's another older single lady down the row as well (ALL MA SINGLE LADIES!! PUT YO' HANDS UP!!) so that brings the count up to 4 in my row alone. Also, it still seems that Mattamy is about 6 weeks ahead so it's an even better chance that I'll actually move into the house on time. YIPPEE!!

Small Changes..

Well the only small changes I ended up making were to delete the mirrors in all the bathrooms and change the style of my berber carpet. Not too much, but it serves to make my house that much more perfect!

Design Centre Choices

Hello All,

Here we are...this is the moment that we have all been waiting for!

*Drum roll please*

MY DESIGN CHOICES!!!

Granted there may be some changes right now but not any major ones so these are my general colours...

Now the whole house is going to be painted the 'Sandringham' colour. I didn't take a picture of it because you can't get the true colour of it from a picture and a small sample, but it's like a tan/beige colour. Almost like the tone of this blog backgroun actually. Very neutral, with just a hint of colour. As for the vinyl floors, I seem to have forgotten the names of all of them, I only have codes..lol. However, I used the same vinyl, a grey and browny combination, for everywhere but the kitchen which has a deeper grey tone to it.

And by the way, sorry about some of the spaces..I can't seem to get my pictures to behave.

Well let's get the plain stuff out of the way...

This is the standard showerhead for the bathrooms.

















This is the standard faucet for the master bathroom and the powder room.

This is the standard faucet for the main bathroom.

Now onto more of the FUN STUFF....!! These were some of my easy choices...


.















Railings
These are the railings that I upgraded to. I didn't want the rounded colonial style (?) railings that were standard. I find that this one is just sleek and contemporary. I love them! They will be stained to match my hardwood floors.

Flooring
This is the flooring that I chose for the main sections of the house.

- Hardwood: I chose maple 'Vienna' floors in 2 1/4 width, in the living room, dining room and 2nd floor hallway, all placed on a diagonal lay.

- Carpet: I chose the 'Sweet Talk' colour of berber carpet for both the staircases and entire 3rd floor with upgraded underpad. I liked the colour, and then the name just kinda sealed the deal. LOL!



















Handles
The first picture is the inside front door handles and the second picture is the ouside front door handle. Kind of antiquey but I can handle it.

(I guess this wasn't really a choice but still.. =) )



















Kitchen

(Sorry, I couldn't get the picture to turn for some reason.)

I had an inspiration kitchen of dark cabinets with gray counters, glass backsplash and tile floors. So far I have half of that, so I chose:

- Cabinets: Salem Birch in Cocoa Control

- Counters: Suede Ash Fiesta

- and the Floors...a vinyl that I currently can't remember the actual name of, are a bit of a gray tone to pick up on the gray in the counter. I'll prob be changing them to tile soon enough but in the meantime, I'm happy. =)

Guest Bath Choices:

I had wanted a warm brown colour for this bathroom. I chose:

- 'Rocky Road' laminate for the counter,

- 'Chocolate Pear' for the cabinets,

- the bathtub tile is 'Olympia Imperial Noce Brown' with the listello border (I didn't take the tile with the insert; it'll just be a solid tile),

and the floor is a brown and gray vinyl that I forgot the name of. :)

Master Bath Choices:

I was looking for a gray, cool, spa like feeling for my ensuite so I chose:

-Olympia Keliker Bronze tile with Listello Border for my bathtub wall tile,

- 'Chocolate pear' Cabinets

- Tatami Matte Countertop

and again, I forgot the name of the vinyl in the bathroom..lol.

Well that's everything so far. I can't believe I made it out of the design centre in one piece! I actually came in UNDER budget by a couple thousand dollars! Of course, I think I over prepared for the worst case scenario, just in case I had to upgrade everything, but the fact that I didn't upgrade so much actually made me really happy!

Anyways, I'll be looking for furniture and such next so I'll keep everyone posted when I find something I actually like. =)