We got to the house about 9:15 this morning and spent just a little bit of time there. Sure enough, all of the windows are in. It looks great. It is amazing to see the house full of windows. Even being in there on a cold day it is warmer without the wind whipping through. Sara got some great pictures of the house and windows as you can see here.
We left the house around 9:15 and drove around the neighborhood to look for (and look at) other homes that have front porches that are all composite (steps and all) as opposed to having cement steps with wood or composite porches next to the steps. Virtually every house in our immediate neighborhood have cement steps. A neighboring street (the one actually that has the home with the stone we like and ultimately found) has mostly homes with wood or composite front steps and porches.
So, we're still confounded.
After we left the neighborhood, we took mom and dad to condor to show them the board of the stone we selected, and show them the colors of the siding and shingles.
We met the other owner, and it turns out he has mutual friends with my parents. Small world.
Next, we headed over to Maple Grove where Village Floor gets their granite.
They have huge slabs of granite in their warehouse from all over the world. Some of it is on our "standard list" and other options would be upgrades. We learned that there is absolutely no certainty in pricing of granite, and that it all depends on the deals made between the fabricators and the builder and the other vendors between us and the place where they actually pull the rock from the ground.
We did find two slabs that are "standards" through Village that we really really like. One is more black, and the other has more browns and tans. We'd be very happy with either, but our choice will make the way we put together the rest of the kitchen and even living room dramatically different. We were able to get small samples of each, and sometime after the weekend we may make a decision on which stone we want on the counter tops.
Next, we went to Home Depot in St. Louis Park to look at lights, cabinet hardware and more plumbing. Home Depot lays their lights department out in a very user friendly way, with "families" of lights all grouped together. We found a couple of families of lights for over the breakfast bar, in the dining room and in the stairwell that we definitely like. We also found ceiling fans for our bedroom, the other two bedrooms on the second floor, and the living room. We didn't actually purchase any of them, but I think we found the ones we want. We did purchase some switches for dimming the ceiling fan lights, and changing the speed of the fans from the wall. We're going to bring those to the electrical walk through on Thursday to make sure we can use them (or something similar).
We took a detour after Home Depot and stopped by to see Jane at Continental Diamond so Sara and mom could get their rings cleaned. After that, we wend down to Edina to Cheesecake Factory for Bloody Mary's and a late lunch (this was about 3pm).
On the way back up to Blaine, we stopped by Menards. We didn't like their light selections, or the way they had them laid out on the floor. But they do have some great options for the vessel in the main floor bathroom. And the hardware they have for the cabinets is far more extensive and better laid out than at Home Depot. I'm pretty sure we'll get our handles and knobs there.
We talked with a sales representative for a while about soft close cabinet drawers and doors. If you haven't seen those, they are drawers and doors that don't slam, but stop short of closing and then softly close themselves. I think we are likely to go in that direction after we talk with the cabinet guy next Thursday.
We got home around 6:30 after a very long, but very productive day. Sara has been putting pen to paper and doing more research on our final plumbing selections. I've been trying to help while updating our blog. I'm going to spend a little more time looking at plumbing before bed while we watch the Olympics.
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