jillivictorio@gmail.com /

We are finally in the home stretch of our build and all that remains are the interior finishes, appliances, and landscaping. August had the most progress in terms of the contractors staying on schedule and materials arriving and getting installed on time.

A recap of our build progress in August and September:

Exterior Paint

We started planning for our exterior paint earlier in June so we’d have enough time get paint samples, test paint swatches on the exterior, and finally choose the right color. In staying with the classic farmhouse exterior, I knew I wanted a white farmhouse, but choosing the right white was more complex than I thought. Who knew there were so many shades of white. Some were cooler whites, some were warmer whites, some pulled yellow, while some pulled blue, grey and others in between.

We narrowed it down to my top three favorite white exterior paints by Sherwin Williams. I also posted a poll on my Instagram stories.

We then tested the three colors on the actual exterior siding:

 

Based on the direction our home faces and how much sun it gets throughout the day, Alabaster ended up having the warm white I wanted to achieve.

Exterior paint started the first week of August and took only three days to complete!

 

 

I’m so happy with how this color turned out on our exterior!

 

Cabinets

Cabinets were also delivered and installed the first week of August. I’ve been anticipating this wood hood! Our previous home had a wood hood and I knew this home would absolutely have to have one.

 

I absolutely love built-ins and how they add so much character to a space, and provide functionality and value to a homeowner. These built-ins were custom designed to fit on each side of the fireplace.

 

The mudroom is a multi-functional room I am really excited for. I designed this space with kids, gardening, and pets in mind to be accessible from the back patio, and from the garage for our daily entrance and exit to and from school and sports. There is a sink in the utility next to the mudroom lockers for rinsing off cut flowers from the garden, doing a quick mask wash, hand rise, and for pet cleanups, without having to go through the main house/kitchen.

Trim Design and Installed

Trim work lasted a few weeks. It was important for me to meet with our builder to discuss our wants and needs on trim before the trim carpenter got to work. Our trim package included all the closets, utility room, pantry, and staircase.

Drawing out the pantry

 

 

Staircase Installation

The staircase design has come together. We originally intended to paint the risers white and leave the treads oak, but the installers accidentally installed the entire staircase with oak. It ended up being a good accident! The entire staircase will also be hand scraped and stained.

For the balusters we went with modern matte black steel and white oak on the railing. I love the warmth feel the wood adds to the modern steel.

 

 

Interior Paint and Stain

For our interior paint, we went with the same color but in different sheens. We painted our walls in a flat finish, our baseboards, trim and doors, in a satin finish, and our ceilings in a flat finish throughout.

 

We stained our kitchen island cabinet and a couple of other trim pieces for some touches of wood and warmth.

 

September – Floor and Wall Tile

We are halfway through September and are experiencing our first delays in our build – brick and countertops.

Without the countertops installed, the trim carpenter can’t finish the wall trim and the tile installers can’t install the kitchen backsplash.

On a positive note, our other floor and wall tile started this week! We chose natural stone for the mudroom, utility, and master bathroom, and ceramic tiles in penny rounds and mini hex for the other bathrooms.  Check out the progress so far on our mudroom and bathrooms…

jillivictorio@gmail.com /

I hope you all had a great 4th of July weekend! Ours was spent hanging out at the lakes and parks, with friends and neighbors, watching and lighting fireworks, and a quick stop to the house to see the latest build progress… sheetrock!  Also, our build page on IG hit 1000 followers over the weekend! Thanks for following along this crazy fun build journey.

Today, I’m sharing all of our selections we’ve chosen for our home since we are nearing the stage where all the fun interior design elements begin to come to life.

Selections… builder speak for choices a client makes to the way the home will look when it’s finished. This includes important decisions such as what kind of appliances, plumbing fixtures and flooring the home will have, the color of the paint, cabinets, countertops, light fixtures, doors, etc. The selections process has been fun as we’ve worked with different vendor partners who have helped through the process. Most of the design decisions are made during this process.

Here’s a timeline and a roundup of our selections process from start to finish:

 

Flooring and Tile Selections

Started: September 12, 2020
Finalized/Ordered: May 4, 2021

When it came to choosing the flooring for our new home, we were so excited to get the chance to use some of our favorite materials.  We worked with Oakline Floors in Fort Worth for our flooring and tile selections.

Left: White Oak Hardwood Floors throughout | Right: Bluestone Slate for the Master Bathroom Floor with Alabaster grout

 

Handscraped white oak hardwoods with water-based poly stain

 

Flooring and tile was a long process for me to finalize. Even after visiting the showroom, I took my time doing most of my own research, sourcing, viewing samples, and creating mood boards until I found the right materials as the showroom didn’t have certain flooring materials I was looking for. Ultimately, we carried our wood throughout the entire main floor and upper floor. The mudroom, laundry room, and master bathroom will have natural stone, and we’ll have tile in the kids, guest, and pool bathroom.

Left: Slate floors for the mudroom and laundry room with black shadow grout for less contrast | Right: White oak to the kitchen and main floor

For the mudroom and laundry room, we chose a herringbone pattern and I can’t wait to see it laid out!  I love the look of herringbone because it adds so much character and creates some varied texture.

 

In our kids’ bedrooms, we chose low-pile carpet from Anderson Tuftex in the style Dynasty and in the color “Marble Dust”. We love that it’s low-pile but still so soft!

Tile

I’ve always loved the look of penny rounds so I made sure to incorporate these in the kids bathroom and pool bath for a fun design element.

Penny rounds in the kids’ and pool bath

 

Mini hex tiles with capestone grout and white subway tile with bright white grout in the Guest Bathroom

 

Lastly for tile, I’m most excited about our zellige tile for the kitchen backsplash behind the gas range. I’ve always loved the natural, hand forged glazed, imperfect edges of zellige tile as no two tiles are the same. Our flooring rep was able to source the exact tile samples for me and I’m so happy they could order it for our build!  We went with the snow color for a brighter look. The natural color is beautiful too, but I definitely wanted to go with the brighter backsplash in the kitchen.

 

Zellige tile inspirations

 

Appliance Selections

Started: October 20, 2020
Finalized/Ordered: October 28, 2020

 

It took me only one week to choose our appliances. I think with appliances, it’s a little easier to make those selections as there aren’t as many options and little details involved. For example, there are only a few refrigerators within a price range that are panel-ready and a few commercial grade gas ranges and stoves within a certain price range, whereas with plumbing fixtures, paint, and hardware there are dozens of styles and finishes to choose from.  I knew before we even started our home building process that we would have panel ready appliances, specifically for the refrigerator and dishwasher. Our cabinet designer will be installing the custom panels when the cabinets go in and the hardware will be brass to match the rest of our kitchen hardware.

Our one splurge appliance for the kitchen that I am most excited about is the Ilve range. The range is a dream. I cannot wait to see it installed and to cook on it!  We love to cook at home, so a commercial grade gas stove has always been a priority in our homes.  I chose the Nostalgie series in the stainless steel finish with brass knobs which will match our brass hardware in the kitchen.

1 | 2| 3| 4| 5| 6 

 

Plumbing Selections

Started: October 23, 2020
Finalized/Ordered: December 31, 2020

The plumbing fixtures were among the earlier selections I needed to make since the rough-in plumbing and drain is installed at the very beginning of the build process, before the foundation is poured.

It took me two months and one week to decide on all the plumbing fixtures, and on New Years Eve, December 31, 2020 I emailed our pluming rep that we were ready to approve the quotes. I think plumbing selections may have been the most challenging for me as our plumbing allowance from our builder was limited, and I knew right away that many items I loved would exceed the plumbing allowance. We were prepared to pay cash for some out of pocket items that we knew we wanted to have in our home, so going back and forth with other options, pricing, and crunching numbers took some time.

Plumbing fixtures include important items such as sinks, faucets, bathtubs, toilets, basically anything that uses water is part of your plumbing.

Building Tip: research your own model numbers, finishes, sizes, and pricing, then submit that list to your plumbing rep for their builder pricing. This can save a lot of time and eliminate a lot of back and forth with the rep when making selections.

On our kitchen plumbing must have list were 1. a Shaws farmhouse sink for the kitchen and 2. a cast iron claw foot tub for the master bathroom. Those two items were non-negotiables, so I had to find other areas and items to save money on.

I debated long and hard on whether to add my dream faucet for the kitchen sink, and when I learned that prices would be increasing for all Waterstone fixtures as of January 1, 2021, I bit the bullet and had our plumbing rep order the faucet.

Here are our final kitchen plumbing selections and actual kitchen plumbing fixtures and finishes I chose, all unlacquered brass, with the exception of the pot filler in a polished nickel. I loved mixing this one up, and since polished nickel has warm tones, it works well with brass. Actual items are linked below!

1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6, 7

 

 

The secondary bathrooms’ main finish is matte black (Kids’ bath, guest bath, power room, laundry room).

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

 

For the Master Bathroom Plumbing Selections, I went with all polished nickel for the faucets and clawfoot tub feet.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

 

 

Hardware Selections

Started: December 16, 2020
Finalized: July 7, 2021

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

I wanted a mix of hardware throughout the kitchen, and I was excited to learn that our builder’s hardware partner is Rick’s Hardware in Granbury. I’ve worked with Rick’s hardware on our previous home and they have always provided great customer service and carry the best hard-to-find hardware styles in a variety of finishes. They carry Emtek which is a brand I love most for door hardware. They also carry Alno which has this beautiful unlacquered brass knob that is such a heavyweight, I just love it. So for our kitchen we did knobs, cup-holds, latches, and long appliance pulls on our integrated refrigerator and dishwasher.

 

Secondary Bathrooms (guest, kids, powder), Laundry and Mudroom

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 

For the laundry room, the kids bathroom, the guest bath, and the pool bath, we went with matte black hardware in a mix of cup-holds, knobs and pulls.

 

 

For the master bathroom, we went with polished nickel hardware in cabinet knobs, towel hooks and a shower handle to match the faucets.

I truly love cabinet and door hardware and consider it as jewelry and accessories for the home!

In the next blog post, I’ll be sharing our lighting selections.

 

What have been your favorite selections for your home? What selections did you struggle with? Tell me in the comments below!