Some Purchases
- Hardware for front door (which we're going to keep and refinish, saving us a couple Gs)
- Hardware/deadbolt for door to mudroom (which will be our sunroom/den) – Home Depot
- 5 ceiling fans with remote controls (Hunter 52” fan with brushed nickel - a total steal for $89 with remote control, regularly $159!); had to go to two separate Home Depots and, when I asked if the second Home Depot would honor a coupon I had used at the previous one, the woman was unfriendly and said “No, it's not my fault they ran out of fans.” When I told her that she was being unfriendly, she gave me $20 off!!! It pays to call people on their rudeness
- One piece fiberglass tub insert for guest bathroom upstairs with right drain (who knew there were left and right drains?) – got the last one at Builder Supply Warehouse in Peabody. Love that store - it's like the Building 19 for builders, as Kel said. I’ll spare you the photo of the tub. It's pretty basic, but fine for a guest bath. (We'll save the tiling for our 1920s master bath.)
- 10 lite solid wood interior French doors for office entryway – plan is to stain mahogany and hang with barn hardware (see previous post)
- Three 2’x2’ awning windows mulled together with interior grid/panes for back of mudroom (which will be our sunroom/den). Kind of like this but with white trim, normal 4 panes and square.
- 6’ sliding door – Silverline (made by Anderson) – with grid panes in between glass – makes it easier to clean – super steal at Builder Supply Warehouse in Peabody
Top Ten Decisions (much more exciting than the purchases)
- House color!!! We’re going with Pacific Blue, Certainteed vinyl siding – looks just like wood. My mom picked it out and we fell in love!
- Roof color/type: Timberline charcoal black architectural shingles
- Cabinets: We are refacing our current cabinets and chose a refacing company after getting quotes from 4 companies: Affordable Refacing – http://www.refacingdepot.com/! Sears was more than twice the price. Home Depot was also up there. This guy comes highly recommended, does great work and was very professional. He'll make a place for our counter-depth fridge (which will look built in) and our microwave (which will vent above the stove), will re-do the lazy susans, give us new soffits, crown molding. It'll be a great before and after photo! This won't happen for a couple of months but it's good to have a plan for the most important room of our house.
- Cabinet style and color: White (not off white cabinets); raised (not shaker style); painted wood (not thermafoil) (Note: these were three big decisions in and of themselves...pros and cons to all. I'll spare you.)
Countertop: We are going with a granite that actually looks like a Carrera marble but is not porous and doesn’t stain like a marble. Because it’s granite! We fell in love with it at Stone One in Methuen – awesome store with great selection of granite, quartz and tile/stoneware. - Kitchen tile: We thought we had decided on a cool slate-looking porcelain tile from Lowes. Until we went to Stone One in Methuen and saw this in a 12 x 24 shape:
- Backsplash: We liked the 2x4 marble mosaic tiles from Lowes but found very similar tiles in the 3x6 size at Home Depot for half as much. It pays to shop around!
- Tiles for mudroom (soon to be sunroom/den): We found AWESOME 3x12 porcelain tiles that are woodgrain – a super cool indoor/outdoor look that we’re very excited about. Regularly $8 per square foot. Got them on closeout at a place in Woburn for $2.99 per sq foot. It's a good deal...though doesn't seem like it when there's 250 sq ft to tile! Oh well. It will look nice.
- Gas fireplace: We’re going to put one in our living room, and we decided to have Kel build a “bump out” or “dog house” on the outside of our house so that we don’t need to frame the fireplace in the living room, which would take up space. Instead, the fireplace will sit flush on our living room wall. Now we’re looking for the right fireplace – and the right mantel piece. I’m delegating that project to Chris. Btw, we had no idea that gas fireplaces cost upwards of $2,500 – and that’s just for the unit itself! Oh and the whole venting to code crap? Totally complicated, but I feel like an expert now.
- Front door: We decided to save some money and just paint the front door that’s there. We’ll put it toward the countertop!
- Okay one more for good luck: Interior door type - ARLINGTON. It's only appropriate ;-) And we can get solid core Masonite, primed for $55 per door or $79 pre-hung at Builders Supply Warehouse! Sad how excited that gets me...
We also went back and paid Janice at Home Depot in Danvers a visit. She priced out some base cabinets for our kitchen island…which will likely be a dark almost black wood. (Great suggestion, Amanda!) More on that in another post…
might want to try re-glazing the bathroom tile instead of tub insert. It works well if the tiles and substructure are in good shape. The finish really pops and you can do the tub and the tiles together. Many subs will also give you a 3-year warranty, actually, I would let them complete the work without the guarantee.
ReplyDeleteHi, Rob! Thanks for the comment. Love the idea! The thing is: It's a brand new tub for a bathroom that doesn't yet exist. We need to purchase it now because, once we build the second level, it will be hard to get something so large up stairs (much easier to do when the roof is off). We thought, for the (brand new) guest bathroom, a single piece unit would be the easiest, cleanest, most cost effective option. We don't have kids yet but will some day, so this will be their bathroom, too.
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