We met with Creative Floors on Thursday and the meeting was relatively painless. We're going to be doing the hardwood in the living & dining rooms as well as the tile in our kitchen & morning room after we move in, so we only had a couple selections to make.
I'm not super crazy about any of the laminate floor options, but hopefully we will only have to look at this floor for a year or two. We upgraded to 8-lb padding upstairs and in the family room. Since we will be replacing the living & dining room carpet with hardwood we kept the standard padding in those two rooms. We chose a neutral carpet that wasn't too dark but dark enough to not show all the dirt.
This is the laminate we chose for the foyer, kitchen, morning room, and laundry room as well as the carpet:
We decided to upgrade the tile surrounds in both bathrooms to level C. So the walls will match the floor and there will be a decorative trim. I love the tile we chose for both bathrooms. They are very similar, but the decorative trim is different.
Master Bathroom
Today we met with Guardian hoping it would go as smoothly as the Creative meeting...not so much. We want a security system installed and were happy to hear it would be free; however, to get an additional keypad as well fire monitoring you have to upgrade (or course). Additionally, we have to have Guardian monitor our house for 60 months at $39.99 a month. I questioned why this monthly fee was so high and the rep justified it by saying we got a
warranty as well as the VoiceLink technology. With Voicelink there are no phone calls when the alarm goes off, they just speak directly to you through a speaker located in your house. I still think $40 a month is too high, so we will be re-thinking the whole package. We have 3-days to cancel. In addition to the security system, we want to mount our TV above the fireplace and a TV in our master bedroom, so we would like to have a pre-wires for those as well as a pre-wire for a surround sound system. So, when all was said and done this is what we added:
- Security system with the value package that includes an additional keypad, a heat communicator, smoke communicator, wireless receiver and key fob: $565
- Digital pre-wire in family room: $440
- 5.1 pre-wire for surround sound: $565
- Digital pre-wire in master bedroom: $330 (I think we may take this out though)
In total we spent $1,900. Definitely was not expecting that and am annoyed that we're at the mercy of Guardian's pricing; however, I'm sure we'll be happy that we have the security system in place as well as the pre-wires.
After meeting with the Guardian rep we signed the change orders and verified our color selections:
- tan siding with Georgetown Green shutters and white trim
- Santa Cecilia granite counter top
- Absolute Black granite fireplace surround
- cherry stain for railings
We also looked at the lighting package we are going to be getting. Both of us do not like the dining room and foyer chandeliers. They are candelabras and just not our taste, but we like the rest of the light fixtures so don't want to upgrade (nor do we want to pay for any more upgrades). So we may have to live with the lights until we can get something else.
Next up, we meet with the PM on March 2nd and we are slated to break ground on March 16th...so exciting!
