I had another walkthrough today, and I was just so overwhelmed by how drafty and unfinished the house feels, and it seems like a huge undertaking to make this empty house into a home. It doesn't help that I can't seem to make any firm decision on what I want, design wise.
Window treatments seem to be especially nerve wracking, and I'm seriously starting to question our sanity, and why we thought it would be okay to purchase an end unit. SO MANY WINDOWS! We had plantation shutters in our last home and I think that they were one of the smarter and better design choices that we made, but that home was 1700 sq ft and an interior unit with just eight windows. This house is 2900 sq ft with NINETEEN windows. I just don't know if the cost can be justified here.
Even still, I figure that it will probably cost anywhere from $100-$300 (on average) to properly dress a window. Of course the high end would be plantation shutters, which I think is a must in our bedroom, because they block out ALL of the sunlight. But maybe not so much in the rec room and the second floor living area, because I think I might prefer having nice drapes and decorative rods there. Blinds are not really our style, so we will skip them altogether, but I'm considering roman shades as well! Still expensive!
We will probably live in the house for a few weeks with some temporary paper shades until we can really decide on what we want, and how much we're willing to pay.
They are about $5 a pack, and you can find them at HD, Lowes, and Walmart as well:
We're also looking for light fixtures. My husband doesn't think we need ceiling fans at this time, so we're skipping them for now. His choice, I'm not a huge fan of them anyway, even though we did install them in our last house and he seemed to use them constantly. I figure if he changes his mind, he can always install them himself later on.
The light fixtures aren't such a huge expense though. I want nice ones, which are a lot pricier than the builder grade ones that my husband prefers. He prefers them because they are cheap, he is fooling no one. In the end, we compromised, and I will get nice fixtures in the areas where we entertain--living room, family room, and the kitchen pendant light--as well as our bedroom and in my closet. We will get the cheaper ones for the secondary bedrooms and the rec room. But even the nice ones aren't breaking the bank, so we finally get a cash reprieve there!
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| "Builder Grade" quality light fixtures. These are so hideous to me, and all I think of are the bugs that will probably be trapped inside. But at least they will be in rooms I won't have to spend much time in, so there's that. As long as they do their job, I'm good. |
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| These are a bit nicer and will probably go in the living and family rooms. Not sure about the bedroom yet, but they don't look as obviously cheap as the others. |
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| These are some of the pendent fixtures I'm considering for the kitchen, over the island. I'm not sold on any of them yet, but I think that they're very pretty and are contemporary for the space. |
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| My husband thinks I'm insane, but I love sparkly and gaudy. I will get my way, I'm sure of it, but just don't know if this belongs in the kitchen, in the bedroom, or in my closet. (My husband says closet) |
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| Another contemporary pendant light for the island. I'm really leaning towards this one, I think it will be perfect in the space! |
I've finally picked out my paint colors, after researching for HOURS upon HOURS on Pinterest, Houzz, and probably every House Hunters Renovation and Fixer Upper episode that I could find available on the HGTV mobile app. In the end, I love neutral gray, it's warm and inviting, yet cool and classy at the same time. I will unveil our paint choices in a future post, since this one is getting a bit longwinded.
And finally, closets! We (probably foolishly) amended our contract so that no wire shelving or rods would be placed in any of our closets. We had wire shelving in a brand new KB Homes rental that we lived in a few years back, and I swear I've never truly hated anything in my life until I had to deal with those things--breaking, bending, warping, cracking the drywall, and peeling all over the place. No, no, no, never again.
But that decision was made rather hastily, and if I'd known how exorbitantly priced custom closets were going to be, I probably would have chosen differently. Because we don't even have hanger rods, this is definitely something that we can't put off, and have to have installed immediately before moving in.
The rods of course we can install ourselves, and the same with the linen closet shelving. Cabinets for the laundry room (which my husband is insisting on, and quite frankly, is something we desperately need because NV gave us one tiny linen closet that can barely fit a broom inside, let alone all of our linen), and my closet will need to be left to professionals. We are toying with the idea of an Ikea Pax system, but honestly, we are not very handy and I'm husband is leery about paying so much for a closet that might be poorly put together because we are rather incompetent.
I also like the TCS closet system from The Container Store, but this is a brand new product and we don't really have a good grasp as to how much that will cost us.
We have two walk in closets in our master bedroom, and my husband doesn't want or need a system at all, so at least I can spend more money in my own closet if I need to. I would like to focus on an organization system for my shoes and handbags, so I mainly need a lot of shelves.
As always, I'm open to suggestions and stories of experiences with window treatments and closet systems.
