Adventures in moving cross country- Volume 9 :Choices

With all the structural work being done, it has been exciting to see the house taking shape into our future home. However, in order to make sure that it's a home we are happy living in, just making choices about where the kitchen will be and what walls we don't like isn't enough. Now there are all sorts of other choices to make.

What kind of flooring do we want in the rooms where there isn't already hardwood?  What kind of bathtub in the master bath? Countertops? Kitchen color scheme? Vanities?  The list goes on and on.

I moved out of my parent's house at the sweet age of 17 and in all that time, as a renter, I've just lived with whatever was there. Even given the choice to paint before moving into our current house, I chose to just embrace the quirky wallpaper borders in each room. It's not that I haven't ever wished something was different, I've just never had a "dream house" image in my mind.

I guess Pee Wee's Playhouse seems pretty perfect.

I didn't have any doubt that we would end up having strong opinions though, once we were at the point of choosing specifics. However, now that the time has come to make these choices, it's kind of overwhelming.

John has been great at letting us know what kind of choices we need to make and what stores they have locally so we can peruse the right websites. As a very tactile person, this has proven to be quite the challenge. It's been extremely hard for me to piece together how everything I'm looking at would fit all together. Sure, that flooring looks good on it's own, but would it match the dark wood in that vanity?  Should the flooring be the same in all the bathrooms? Should there be some kind of continuity in style throughout the different floors?  What do I even like anymore?

I LIKE CATS!

When it came down to putting together some preferences, the approach we took was to give some ideas of spaces that we find kind of inspirational as to how they are laid out or or what kind of colors they are using. Instead of just saying, "We want this one."  We offered a few different ideas of what would work when it came to bathtubs or vanities, but made sure it was known that they weren't anything that we had our hearts set on.

Yes, these are very obviously screenshots from Pinterest, why do you ask?

I did find, however, that I had a few VERY strong opinions about some things.

Things that won't be in our house:

• "Farmhouse" decor. I would never willingly spell out inspirational phrases in rustic letters and I could never feel comfortable living with as much white linen as seems to be required to pull off the look.

• Tile. I do not have enough hours in my day to clean grout. NOBODY CAN MAKE ME! 

• Carpet. Gross and hard to clean. We may need to keep it in a few places at first, but it's days are numbered.

Things I'm very much excited about having in our house: 

• A kitchen island. Pull up a stool and chat with me while I use all this luxurious counter space! 

• Shelves instead of upper cabinets in the kitchen. Yeah, I know there's dust- but here we can also put plants, have more space for our noggins and create a more open, light filled area.

• Easy to clean flooring.  My next pet will be a Roomba! I promise to feed it and take care of it, always.

When we communicated our preferences, we made sure to let the renovating team know that we trusted their judgement. We had seen the houses they had worked on before and they looked great. If it came down to them really wanting us to choose a very specific, this one or that one, kind of thing- we're game, but ultimately they have the better perspective on how things will work overall.

We also made sure that they knew that we would be great with anything they could find salvaged at a Habitat for Humanity ReStore or other similar place. Brand new doesn't always mean better and in the long run, it would not just help our budget, but also the environment and community.

Overall, we're just keeping in mind that this is just the groundwork that we're providing for a future full of creating the mood and decor that we want to achieve. Centering back on that thought has helped make some of the decisions and the lack of opinions about somethings much easier.