Please show me your backsplash...

[kmarla]

I’ve been following this thread and all the beautiful remodelling projects, upgrades, new home purchases etc. Each and every one of you have done an amazing job and I love all your before and after pics. We are pretty excited here because if all goes well tomorrow, we will be purchasing a new home ourselves. It’s brand new, so right now there is nothing on the lot but the basic infrastructure and roads. Just a plot of dirt. We’re moving in a different direction from some of you, and we’re downsizing quite a bit. We love our current home, but find it way too big for just the two of us now. We’re empty nesters. We seriously thought about a condo type apartment, but I think that’s too drastic a change for us right now. The new house is a bungalow (one storey) with a full basement. We’ll have the builder finish part of the basement as well so we’ll still have lots of space to move around in.
Please keep your fingers crossed for us that all goes well. I’ll post pics of the floor plan later tonight when I have more time.

 

[Austina]

Hope it all goes smoothly for you @kmarla

 

[junebug17]

Very exciting @kmarla, wishing you all the best! Down-sizing sounds good to me, unfortunately dh isn't quite on board.

 

[kmarla]

Hope it all goes smoothly for you @kmarla

Thank you Austina!

 

[kmarla]

Very exciting @kmarla, wishing you all the best! Down-sizing sounds good to me, unfortunately dh isn't quite on board.

Thank you Junebug! We’ve been waffling about this decision for quite a while , but finally agreed now’s the time. The house won’t be ready for at least ten months so we have lots of time to adjust.

 

[kmarla]

So here’s the floor plan for the new house. We’ll have the basement finished as well so we should have enough room to spread out. The lot size is 35x100 ft, typical for a suburban lot in our city. This should give us enough room for a nice deck, some lawn, and some pretty landscaping.





This is the current facade immediately below, but we’re going for a more modern look. They’re still drawing the plan, but it will end up having more of a look of the bottom pic instead of the current craftsman look.


This will be a big change from our current house, but I’m really looking forward to this new adventure. The whole goal is low maintenance, turn-key living so we can be free to travel more and just relax.

 

[Austina]

Looks perfect @kmarla plenty of room for the 2 of you. I really like the facade you’ve chosen.

 

[kmarla]

We reserved the lot today and I was able to get a pic of what our front exterior will look like. I really like it!

 

[Austina]

Looks great @kmarla how long will it be before they start building?

 

[kmarla]

Looks great @kmarla how long will it be before they start building?

We have to go back Sunday to submit the offer and I should get more info then. I was only able to reserve the lot today. We’re hoping for a closing date middle to end of June so I imagine they might break ground around October. That’s just a guess though.
Right now I’m trying to figure out where I can steal a few extra feet to increase the kitchen size. I’d rather have an island instead of the peninsula in the current model. I could sacrifice the formal dining area (next to living room), but I kind of like having that space for special occasions. I’m going to have to let go of something. Bigger kitchen=losing formal dining room or keeping formal dining room=smaller kitchen. I’d love some suggestions/ideas as I’m stuck on this.

 

[BlingDreams]

I know how utterly gut wrenching this is @ILikeShiny , but I’ve always believed that if a house it meant to be, it happens.

We’ve been desperately disappointed in the past when we’ve got to the day of exchanging contracts, and the seller changed their mind. In the UK, we don’t have recourse to recover costs associated with the purchase, just have to suck it up.

Every single time we haven’t got the house we wanted, something better came along.

You’ve invested so much time, energy and expense in this project, but I think the only way to look at it is that you've gained lots of experience in dealing with contractors, know exactly what you want, and you can carry this forward.

FWIW I think you’re doing absolutely the right thing, there’s no way a contractor should be screwing you around like this. I’m so sorry this has happened, but you deserve to get the house of your dreams without all this aggravation.

Good luck with your search, and I hope you get your deposit back quickly.

I'm sorry Ilikeshiny. I think sometimes you need to follow your gut instincts, and if the people you are dealing with are not acting in good faith, it's better to end it than throw good money after bad.

As much as it sucks considering the work you put into all of that, its probably for the best. The amount of money you'd have to spend and still have would not be able to get everything you wanted...not because it was too pricey but because "they don't offer that" ...is mind blowing. And the dollar amounts were just going up and up and the choices were so few!

Crossing my fingers they don't try to hold on to your money.

@ILikeShiny well hell, that sucks. BUT down the road you will be relieved and happy, is this a toll bros house? God they are dips. I say to you young lady!!! the best and your dream house is awaiting and you will find it or design it! if nothing ILS you are ready with all your picks! my heart to yours so sorry , but builders are chumps most times.

Peace and love

Thanks so much for the words of comfort everyone. It still stings, and I hate when things remind me of what I'll no longer have. For example, I had to travel these past two days an the hotel I stayed at had the exact same gray-wood tile installed on their floor. And I LOVED how it looked . And then driving home I went under an overpass that had the same style iron fence that we were going to put up . So every time I see these things it stings a bit more...

We're retained an attorney to ensure the builder (@Tekate, it's K Hovnanian) doesn't try to keep any of our money. Thankfully he's very familiar with them and their General Counsel, and feels very confident with our case and our position. He's already gotten the ball rolling and last we heard the GC was talking to the builder's president about everything.

Thankfully I can return the three pendants I had purchased (they made an exception given the circumstances) and I'm working on being able to return the flooring; if we can't return it, we'll ask them to hang on to it for the next house. If they can't do that, I'm not sure what next steps would be.

DH and I have had the talk about "where do we go from here", and I'm sad to report that he's gun shy about trying to build again. He wants to wait until the new year and then look for an existing home that either we love or we can get for a decent price that leaves money to do all of the renovations I desire. I don't relish the thought of doing renovations and all of the headaches that can occur during them but it looks like that's the path we're on. Sigh

I'll keep poking my head in here though with hopes that all of your projects are going amazingly well!!!

 

[Austina]

Would it be possible to squeeze a foot each side from the breakfast area and the living/dining are to make your kitchen bigger @kmarla ? Wouldn’t make much difference to either of those rooms but an extra 2 feet on the kitchen would be quite significant.

Maybe given time, your DH might change his mind @ILikeShiny ? I looked at the builders website and it looks they don’t normally build homes of that size, which could be part of the problem. I can certainly understand your DH being gunshy now, but perhaps there are other builders in your area who have more experience in building substantial homes.

 

[kmarla]

It’s official. We’re canceling the contract. And now we need to fight for our 70k that they already have. Lawyers are being contacted tomorrow. For now, there’s wine and limoncello.......

((Sigh))

ILikeShiney, I’m so upset for you . What a terrible disappointment for this to happen after all the hard work and excitement you had about building your new home. ((Hugs)) to you and wishes for an even better home in the near future!!

 

[kmarla]

Would it be possible to squeeze a foot each side from the breakfast area and the living/dining are to make your kitchen bigger @kmarla ? Wouldn’t make much difference to either of those rooms but an extra 2 feet on the kitchen would be quite significant.

Austina, I like your idea. Our current home has the same formal living/dining room layout but on a much larger scale. We’re going to take some measurements this weekend and try rearranging furniture to see how much we can fit in an 11’ x 18’ space. If it looks decent and not too crowded, then we can add that extra 3’ to the kitchen. It would make a big difference and we could then have at least a 6’ island.

 

[Tekate]

OOH I like both elevations.. am looking forward to watching this come to life!!!

So here’s the floor plan for the new house. We’ll have the basement finished as well so we should have enough room to spread out. The lot size is 35x100 ft, typical for a suburban lot in our city. This should give us enough room for a nice deck, some lawn, and some pretty landscaping.





This is the current facade immediately below, but we’re going for a more modern look. They’re still drawing the plan, but it will end up having more of a look of the bottom pic instead of the current craftsman look.


This will be a big change from our current house, but I’m really looking forward to this new adventure. The whole goal is low maintenance, turn-key living so we can be free to travel more and just relax.

 

[elizabethess]

I've been away for a couple of weeks, just read your news @ILikeShiny ... I have to echo the others, so sorry for the disappointment and frustration of the cancelled contract, and I'm sending best wishes for you and husband to find a new, better situation with far less hassle and headache!

@kmarla excited to follow along with your new build

As for us, we're going slow and steady. Checking in with them today on anticipated timeline for finishing. Latest picture showing the trim and hardware installed and my favorite: new window in place (still needs to be finished).

For the doors, make them both white and keep the garage door steel. But why aren’t you painting the wood trim? That would help it bend so much better.

We had a lot of conversations about the trim when we first toured the house! The house has stained wood trim throughout, with lots of original stained wood windows and a stained wood sliding patio door. I started off on team 'paint-it-all' because I prefer the look of white trim, but the reality of painting all of the windows, the patio door, all the decorative trim, etc, became very, very daunting and we have SO many things that need changing around the house, so I've decided to embrace the wood for now. With the caveat that at some point down the road I may decide I have the energy to tackle it

 

[Austina]

It looks great @elizabethess and as you say, IF you decide you don’t want that I have wood, it could be painted in the future.

 

[elizabethess]

I still need to grout (and clean kitchen) but here is the backsplash! I like it. I think the only thing I would change, is to make the stove backsplash more horizontal the vertical. But, not going to change it at this point. There is one more days worth of cabinet stuff that needs to be done, and then whatever we decide to do with floor. I think I am going to scrub, sand the linoleum floor, clean and maybe patch a couple areas, and seal it. It's not the prettiest floor, but it's comfortable and may be able to refurbish it enough it doesn't bother me.

Almost missed this update! Great work @partgypsy! Those interspersed patterned tiles are quite charming

 

[kmarla]

@Elizabethness, I love the way your new kitchen is turning out. Lots of room and really bright with the large window letting lots of sunlight in. Have you decided on the finish for your countertops yet?

 

[mrs-b]

We're still waiting for my desk to arrive from Australia and a couple of chairs that go with i, but that aside, our basement and basement bathroom are basically finished. It's been a hellish job.

We've turned it into an office / cello room / exercise / private space for me, and the rest is guest accommodation. We have a lot of visitors from Australia and we like to give them their own space, as they often come for protracted periods of time ( - we had guests who left on Thursday after being here 7 weeks - and that's not unusual) so we put in a new bathroom and wired the whole basement for ethernet, surround sound, and so on. We're really pleased with it.

Apart from the internal access, there's also a bulkhead exit, which I hate. Next spring we'll have that demolished and a large, open stone staircase put in, and we'll replace the door with a glass one, so it can function as one more large window. I love a lot of natural light, and that takes a fair bit of jigging around with a basement. As well as everything else, we put in 3 new windows, and doubled the size of a fourth, so we've gone from dead dark, to dim-ish during the morning and direct sunlight in the afternoon.

When we started, we had 1960's veneer walls - dark brown, no bathroom, very dark, very few electric lights, and not much else down there. Now, we have this....

A room of her own (NB only one lounge chair for the tv? I really don't want to share!):

 

[mrs-b]

Our guest accommodation:

 

[mrs-b]

And lastly - one shot of the bathroom, and one photo looking for the guest accom. back to my office.

ETA The bathroom is actually light blue, but the flash, which I can't seem to turn off on my phone, sucks all the color out of it in the photo.

 

[kmarla]

We received the modified plan for the main floor this morning. We stole a bit of room from the living/dining room in order to have a bigger kitchen. We can now fit a 6’ island. I’m going to be doing some tweaking with the kitchen layout at the design centre but overall I like the new plan. The dishwasher is going to move out of the island though and be along the fridge wall nearer the sink instead. The ceilings are 9’, so the upper cabinets will be at least 36” high. The breakfast area and family room have cathedral ceilings.

We took out the large tub from the master ensuite because this allowed us to have a larger shower as well as a 92” dual sink vanity with lots of extra storage. I agonized over this decision since I love a good soak, but we have two other soaker tubs in the house. A bonus is that we were able to capture extra space and add another 6’ closet in the master. We played around with trying to do a walk-in closet in the master, but we would have ended up with the door to the master in the middle of the family room wall. I didn’t like that since it really messes with furniture placement.

The builder will start digging the foundation early October and we plan on moving in middle of June next year. The builder hasn’t scheduled the appt yet at the design centre to choose all the finishing materials, but the main floor will be all hardwood except the front foyer and bathrooms which will be tile. Basement will be either engineered hardwood over drycore subfloor or laminate flooring.

 

[elizabethess]

@Elizabethness, I love the way your new kitchen is turning out. Lots of room and really bright with the large window letting lots of sunlight in. Have you decided on the finish for your countertops yet?

Thank you!
We went with engineered quartz. Originally selected Caesarstone Calacatta Nuvo which is white with grey veining, but swapped it for ColorQuartz Bianco Gioia--also white with grey veins but they are more delicate and 'splotchy'--for budget reasons.

 

[kmarla]

Thank you!
We went with engineered quartz. Originally selected Caesarstone Calacatta Nuvo which is white with grey veining, but swapped it for ColorQuartz Bianco Gioia--also white with grey veins but they are more delicate and 'splotchy'--for budget reasons.

It’s going to be beautiful! Hope it will be installed for you soon.

 

[kmarla]

@mrs-b, your remodelled basement is a dramatic change from the before to after. It’s gorgeous! Your guests will be very lucky to be able to spend time there...lots of room to spread out and be comfortable! By the way, did you ever sort out the colours for the exterior of your house? Any pics to share?

 

[missy]

Oh I have a lot of catching up to do but wow love all the remodels so far.

@elizabethess, @mrs-b, beautiful!

@kmarla love the plans.

@ILikeShiny (((HUGS))). Your dream home will happen but I am so sorry you are going through this atm. Sending you good thoughts and gentle hugs.

 

[mrs-b]

Thanks @kmarla and @missy

kmarla - here are 2 photos showing my new stone/brick/granite stairs, which also include the color palette for walls (yellow - which I love!) and doors (somewhere between purple, raspberry and a deep chocolate brown). The shutters still have as yet to go up, but they're going to be a deep-ish greige. Just to add - it isn't a flat roofed house. I'm standing quite close to it looking up, so the pitch on the roof isn't showing in the photos. I'll try to get a full length shot of the house shortly so you get a better idea.

We did all 3 sets of stairs but are putting off tearing out the bulkhead and re-doing it in a matching style till next spring. It's quite a slow job and we've done so much lately that we'd just like our house to ourselves for a bit.

ETA As you can see, the balustrading is still to go up on the back stairs (the ones with the chicken). The front stairs will remain as is.

 

[mrs-b]

Here's a couple of the house. It's very washed out, tho. But perhaps it will be enough to give you some idea. The last one is kinda random, taken at a weird angle - but I've included it because it gives the best color of the house - tho still somewhat more faded than it is in real life. It's not a lemony or greenish yellow - more a custard, creamy yellow, but paler.

 

[mrs-b]

And here are some roses I picked last night - apropos of nothing, but nice.